04-01-2007
IWDM Study Library
IWDM First Sunday Lecture
Pt 4

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

00:02 Imam W Deen Mohammed: But the proof of a sincere person is that he stay available if you need him. And that's my friend Rafa, he stay available. And John was the same way now, he stay available. John stayed available. If I needed him, he was available. Yeah. But I know John had a private secret mission, and I just wanted to interrupt it, interrupt the communication and the records, just put him out for awhile. And it helped him a little bit, but he came right back in with the same agenda.

[laughter]

00:43 IWDM: Okay with me, long as you don't hurt us. Come on in, I welcome you. That's one thing that the government know, they know that I do not fear government members being in this movement and in this congregation, in this organization, as long as they're in here for good purposes. If they're in here for good purposes, they will help us. They will help find my enemy and protect me. Yes, I know they will. So I don't fear their infiltration, that's their business. I welcome them, if they want to come in, I welcome them. You're welcome here. But, I can't authorize an organization of the government operating under the cover of this community under my leadership. I will never accept that. It's against the separation of church and state, and it's also against my principle as a devout follower of the Qur'an, and the tradition of our Prophet. It's strongly against my principle, we can't have that. So understand that, that no organization is authorized to operate under the cover of this community. You can only operate openly. If you're operating secretly, you're condemned by the separation of church and state, and you're condemned by the leadership of Imam W. Deen Mohammed. Thank you very much.

[background conversation]

02:21 IWDM: Well stopped right on the minute.

[laughter]

02:27 IWDM: So Inshallah, next month we will open up the second hour after announcements then we'll be open to participation, participation from you, from the gathering. So you can come up and ask questions, come up and make comments. Oh, by the way, I wish the Muslim Journal success, it has many beautiful features, it have added many beautiful features. But sister Aisha, I saw you here, I'm going to send you a letter in print that if you publish anything by me, without me editing it or seeing it first, and if you publish it with one mistake... In fact, you can't publish it. I won't even allow you to publish anything from me anymore because you are one of the persons that was with Hafiz, not in trying to undermine me, she was with Hafiz trying to get him in position, authorize him so he would be a board member or head of the board for that organization that we had at that time. And he was young and I saw problems in him, I didn't want him to be there, so I said 40 years. He had to be 40 years old. And they wanted to say that youth, a person can identify with a youth, but be 40 years old, and still say he's a youth. Now, I don't care whether it's English or Arabic...

[laughter]

04:18 IWDM: A youth in English, look it up in the dictionary. Gullem, youth, gullem, Arabic, look it up in a dictionary. Not 40 years old.

04:31 S?: No.

04:32 IWDM: So you're saying that the Prophet was a youth when he was called by G-d. He was 40 years old.

04:39 S?: That's right.

04:39 Speaker 2: Was he a youth? 

04:40 S?: No.

04:41 S2: Or was he a grown man? 

04:43 S?: A grown man.

04:44 S2: Peace to you. Good G-d all mighty.

[applause]

[background conversation]

05:12 S2: As-salaam alaikum, brothers and sisters, before you leave we just want to remind you, we'd like to encourage you to support all of the vendors. The ones that are inside here and then also we have some at the pool section over there. The CPC, the Muslim Journal, WDM Publication, the Mosque Air publication, WDM and Guest CD and DVD, and the Imam Warith Deen Mohammed Community Center. And to all the vendors in the back area also, we encourage you to support them. I think we want to close out where we started. We close out with a prayer.

[background conversation]

06:36 S2: I would like to remind you that this particular address will be available for sale after. I think you'll find that in the corner over there.

[background conversation]

08:08 IWDM: May I have your attention for just a minute, please? One of our sisters would like to declare herself a Muslim with witnesses. She wants to give her testimony, Shahada testimony. Do you know how to give it? Let me quickly tell you.

08:31 Speaker 3: I think I know how to say most of it.

08:33 IWDM: Yeah, you say, "I witness that there is no G-d but one, and I witness that Muhammad is his servant and messenger."

08:42 S3: Okay, I witness that there is no G-d but one, and Muhammad is his servant and messenger.

08:46 IWDM: Excellent, excellent.

08:49 S3: As-salaam alaikum.

08:50 S?: wa alaikum as salaam.

08:52 S3: I would like to say, I bear witness that there is no G-d but one, and Prophet Muhammad is his messenger and servant.

[applause]

09:01 IWDM: Congratulations.

09:03 S3: Thank you.

09:05 IWDM: Allah be with you and keep you.

09:06 S3: Thank you, you too.

[background conversation]

09:14 IWDM: I understand that there are no more announcements, so we going to close out with a Dua, that is with a short prayer.

[Bismi llahir Rahmanir Rahim

09:26 IWDM: With Allah's name the merciful benefactor, the merciful redeemer.

[al hamdu lillahir Rabbi aalimeen

09:35 IWDM: Praise be to G-d, the Lord of all the worlds.

[as salaatu as salaamu alaa rasulihi kareem Mhammad wa mabad..

09:44 IWDM: And the prayers and the peace be upon his noble and generous messenger Muhammad.

[foreign language]

09:56 IWDM: Just one moment, just one moment, I invited Sister Aisha, the editor of the Muslim Journal to come to the mic if she wanted to make a statement or comment or whatever, or give explanation, whatever. And so hold your places while she comes to the mic right now. Thank you.

[foreign language]

10:30 Aisha: As-salaam alaikum.

[Bismi llahir rahmanir rahim

10:30 Aisha: I wanna say emphatically that I've never been in cahoots with anyone to undermine Imam W. Deen Mohammed. During the era of Edmund Hafiz, I have brought to the Imam's attention on several occasions Edmund's, what I thought was, uncanny behaviour, even when he was over the board at Iraqman, and I was on that same board. I brought it to the Imam's attention that Edmund had set up that board where he could sign independently to do as he chose with properties. And when I refused to go along with that, a few months later, I found out that I had been removed from the board that Edmund Hafiz was over. Just recently in his testimony to it, it was brought to my attention that there was a film about to be played on PBS, and it had Edmund Hafiz featured in it and presented himself as the person who came to this community to try to warn us of Wahhabism. The sister who called me was Sister Amina MacLeod at DePaul. I went to her house and looked at the film and told her how inaccurate that was, that Edmund Hafiz was an opportunist, and when he left this community, he left working under the administration of Khalil al-Khalil, who was with the Saudi embassy.

12:03 Aisha: With my appeal to her and her contact with PBS, the people from PBS called me, which is on record, asking me how did I know that Edmund Hafiz was not stating the truth in that film. One, they had him standing out in front of the Ar-Rahman now with a cross on the front, and I'm saying that's not even a mosque anymore. They had Edmund Hafiz out front of a bulldozers as if some projects were going on, and they're no projects anymore. They had Imam W. Deen Mohammed and Edmund Hafiz's pictures taken in front of the mosque in Culver City, California, as if that was Imam W. Deen Mohammed's mosque, and I have told them emphatically, all that the Imam participated in that day was receiving a plaque. We had nothing to do with that mosque, that was Saudi money, and we had nothing to do with the Saudis. And I hold to that. And whatever the fate is of my community, so be it, but I just want to say emphatically, I'm here to serve the community in whatever capacity I can. And just as Rafa and anybody else, I'm here to serve whenever the Imam needs me. As-salaam alaikum.

[applause]

13:34 IWDM: Okay. I want to make one thing clear. Hafiz attempted to show power, to make a show of power when I invited him to go overseas with me to Saudi Arabia. And obviously, he was causing problems and confusion because he was sitting in the car with me before I welcomed him, sitting in the same government car they provided for me. And he walked up from another car that they had put him in at another stop we made, they had put him in another car, not the car that I was in. And he walked up to get... When we started to pull off from that point, he walked up to get in the car with me, and the security, Saudi security, stopped him. They told him to sit in the back, in the back car. Now, he didn't like that at all, but that told me that the Saudi government was not supporting him in what he was trying to do. And I know the Saudi government respects me, loves me, they love this community, and they're with us.

14:54 S2: So much with us that they told me, on the Prince car... No, he was not the prince, he was the king at that time. Under his majesty, Khalid, who was the king at that time. He himself spoke on behalf of his government, and he said, "Imam Mohammed, go back to America and lead all Muslims in America. We are with you. We are with you." That's what he said to me. Alright. So, and no one from the Saudi government has told me that has been changed, so that still stands. I believe that I'm the number one person in America that they prefer to be leader for Muslims in the United States.

[applause]

[Takbir - Allahu akbar - G-d is Greater.

[background conversation]

15:56 S2: As-salaam alaikum. Two short announcements. One, if you have an envelope and you had an opportunity to put something there, please see the brothers that have the boxes on your way out. And also those individual who have an prior appointment with Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, you will be meeting him up...

16:13 S2: Right, I got that. Right, you will be meeting with the Imam upstairs in his room. Also we asking for you to hold your seat until Imam Mohammed had an opportunity to leave out the building. Yes, sir? 

[background conversation]

16:26 S2: My brother wants me to remind you that the vendors are in here and there are some outside. Please shop before you leave. Thank you. As-salaam alaikum.

[background conversation]
