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IWDM Study Library
A View of the Past, A Look at the Future
California

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

We are people who are responsible for the conduct of our life. We are responsible for implementing the Islamic teachings, the instructions and carrying those instructions out in our life. We are responsible for a planned life. We just cannot have a haphazard life. That will not be accepted. We have to have a planned life, and the plan for our life is already given. We are not to invent a plan that would be unIslamic. We are to go to the Quraan and go to the Sunnah and get the information for our life and then apply it. And if we apply it and live by it, we are living a planned Muslim life. That is the important word, a planned Muslim life.
The most profound change that was made was the change in the belief that Gd is black or manifest in black flesh, and that the devil is white or manifest in Caucasian flesh. This was, I believe, the most disturbing change, if I could put it that way, the most disturbing change that have taken place, but it has been in accord with the direction if not with the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. That change was in accord with the direction of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, because he partly gradually influenced the thinking of the membership in that direction.
And it is definitely, as all of you will recognize, it is definitely in accord with the Quraan, the book that Honorable Elijah Muhammad established in the Nation of Islam as the supreme guide, the supreme guide for the organization.
Well, I evaluated as an experience and also a situation experience that allowed us to prove ourselves. We proved ourselves. Under the Honorable Elijah Muhammed, we said that we were a people of good intent, that we intended good that we meant well, and that we were sincere in our beliefs. When the right knowledge came and most of us put aside that that was not right and in conflict with what is true Islam, or true religion, I think we proved something. We proved something importantly to ourselves.
Speaker 6: Takbeer.
Audience: Allaahu Akbar.
Speaker Takbeer.
Audience: Allaahu Akbar.
Thank you, as salaamu alaykum. Peace be on you ash-hadu al-laaa Ilaaha Illa-llaahu wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan abduhoo wa rasooluhu,; salla Allahu alahi was salaam wa alahi was sabahi ajmain, amma baad We witnessed that there is but one Gd, the Lord creator of all the worlds. We do not associate with him any as Gd or as a deity and we witnessed that Muhammad, the last prophet, is Gds messenger and servant, the peace and the blessings, the prayers and the peace be on him and all of what follows of that excellent salute to Muhammad the messenger of Gd; Ameen. Now, my talk will be within the theme, the conference theme, The Quraan as the foundation for society. You see? The Quraan is the foundation for society; for Muslim society, first of all.
Whatever, we know that the hope of Muslims is to see what Allah has revealed becomes the way, the accepted way for all people. Muslims hope is the same as humanitys hope. That is my statement. That is my opening statement. Muslims hope is the same as humanitys hope. Now, I want to read from this book. Let us see if I can. I have got some glasses too and I need them. I want to read this little small portion of this book As the Light Shineth it is titled, Human Nature is Black.
Now, let me explain---though it is going to be explained in the reading, let me explain before we begin reading, that we do not mean black in actual color. We do not mean black in actual color. Now let me begin reading. It is very important for us to understand the idea of man being black before he was any other color. It does not mean physical blackness. It is talking about human nature. It is talking about the intelligence potential. The intelligence potential is in darkness, it is born out of darkness. Just by its own potential, it is able to produce light.
The intelligence of the human being in darkness without any knowledge by efforts in itself, or by itself, is able to bring about light or whiteness. Now, here we are using the color term again; a term for color again: whiteness. I must explain right here, or emphasize, because it is explained within this piece of reading, I believe, that by white we do not mean actual color white. Whiteness means light. Not physical light, but light of knowledge. Where did Dr. Fard get this concept? Now, who are we talking about Dr. Fard? We are talking about the teacher of the late leader of the Nation of Islam, or the Lost Found Nation of Islam, or the Black Muslims, Elijah Muhammad---Elijah Muhammads teacher who is called Fard. It is spelled F-A-R-D, but it is pronounced F-A-R-A-D, Fard. Where did Dr. Fard-- and he is called Professor Fard, he is called Dr. Fard, and he is called something that is forbidden---Gd in the person of the man or Gd in the flesh---and he is called by me the satirist in the wilderness or in the forest. Where did Dr. Fard get this concept? Out of Genesis; Genesis says that there was darkness upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of Gd moved upon the face of the water and Gd said, "Let there be light. And there was light" so, white came out of blackness, according to Genesis. Prophet Muhammad, the prayers and the peace be on him, speaking to his companions pointed to Bilal. Now, who is Bilal? Bilal is the first muezzin. Muezzin that term is an Arabic term---it is actually an Islamic term. See, I want the Imams to start explaining more to our audience, when we say an Arabic term, if it is Islamic language, if it was not used before Islam though it is Arabic, it is more correctly Islamic. 
Do you not call your names Christian names? And what were they not English names? Once, they become part of your religion, the language of your religion then those are Christian names. Let us not give the Arabic language or the Arab race, or Arab people more than they are due. They did not have these terms before Islam. Before Al Islam, that is what we have to understand. Let me repeat that. This is Prophet Muhammad, the prayers and the peace be on him, speaking to his companions pointed to Bilal---this is from a tradition---and said to them, "We all are Bilal." What did he mean by that: we all are Bilal?
Black never in the history of the human, rise in civilization was intended to mean skin blackness as a sign of inferiority. It was always intended to mean the blackness of human nature. Human nature is a dark form, but out of that form, comes the light of intelligence and knowledge; the science and everything that lights the world. Where did it come from? It comes out of the dark matter of human nature. The Holy Quraan says that Gd make His man of---and this is translation hamain masnoon and this is translated black stinky mud fashioned into shape. Then gave him refinement, high principles, high human dignity, and then He - meaning Gd - gives him - meaning the man - something - and also the woman - something of His own inspiration, we call or we may call divine inspiration. And he told the dry rational minded people who think that nothing can be or exist unless discovered with dry rational tools, or empirical instruments, that inspiration cannot come to man. Gd tell the dry brained rational so-called scientists in the Holy Quraan, our Gd says, "Nevertheless, when I have breathed into him of My Spirit, fall you down and submit to Him." What does this idea give us in the Quraan?
That man is made from black stinky mud. It means that certainly, the human being has flesh odor. This physical flesh of ours, it will have an odor. It will have odor. If the earth is rich, does not it smell too? Now, you people from the south who farm, had gardens and worked in the farm, you know exactly the picture is very clear and vivid for you. If the earth is dead like sand, does it smell? No. If the earth is alive, it has---it is called humus and does it not have a smell? Yes, it does. The more smell it has, does it not do more work to grow more life? Yes.---I'm adding these yeses and nos you see--- but yes it does. The smell is the sign of life. It means something is alive there; an angel has no smell. We call it stinky, but in the nostrils of Gd---if we can think of Gd having nostrils---it is not stinky. It is a matter for aiding the growth of life. Do you think your sex stinks in the nostrils of Gd? It stinks only when you abuse it. Only when you degrade it, abuse it. Have sex out of lawful marriage. Disappoint your mate, your good husband or your good wife that is when sex stinks.
And your body, do you think that when you sweat, the sweat bothers Gd? Do you think the musk that comes from your body when you are working hard bothers Gd? No. Gd have made it to bother you so you would do some washing.
The Holy Quraan frees our minds from those old dark primitive savage kinds of concepts. It dignifies us and makes it possible for us to even live comfortable life in our own individual world. It unifies the man's physical life with his spiritual aspiration. It makes it possible for them ----meaning the man---to shake hands with natural life and say, "Brother, I'm glad to know that you are my Siamese twin. That we are one flesh," to a natural man, natural life. Yes, this is the religion. All praises are due to Gd, to Allah that is.
Dear beloved people let us wake up. There is too much to be said, to say it today. We'll continue at a future time and I hope we'll continue where we are leaving off today. Go home, do work that you have to do in your home, feed your children, get ready for your tomorrow, but never put down the work of advancing this message. When I say, your brothers and sisters---I'm using your language---your brother and your sister is any human man, woman, or child on the face of this earth. We are talking in the context of what is human; what is truly human.
Allah says, and I repeat, that He made us tribes and families that we should recognize or acknowledge each other and not to despise each other. This is the word of Gd in the Quraan. And Gd have said in the Quraan that He has made all men, all people. He Himself is the creator of every man, of all life, of everything. He says that He has created the man in the best form, in the best mold, in the best design. And He says, again, that He has dignified all people on this earth.
You do not need anybody to give you a false dignity. Know your original nature and come into the guidance of Gd, and you will find that your dignity is a permanent, innate, inborn, and original dignity. Nobody has to give you a false artificial dignity. Now, I wanted to read that as an introduction to this talk or this presentation today. Now, I want to go back with that statement that I made about our hope being the same hope that we identify as the hope of humanity.
And we identify this hope in the progression of scripture; not just scripture to Muhammad, but as Allah says in the Quraan, scriptures also before Muhammad. That we believe in the scripture revealed to Muhammad, and also that that was revealed before him. Now, let me make this very clear, which I believe most of us know, but some of us I do not think we have registered it. it is not only talking about the Bible that came before the Quraan. It did not say the Torah or the Old Testament and the Injeel, the Gospel. It did not say that, it says, "Believe in that that was revealed before you," meaning Muhammad the Prophet, or before your time.
It means all scripture going back to Adam. If Adam received the Word, it includes that. Whatever Gd have revealed to human beings in the whole time of the life of man in society on this earth, we have to acknowledge it and say, "We believe in that too." Though we do not even have it anymore, we cannot go and find it and read it, but we must believe in it. When we believe like that, what does it do for us? It puts our soul, our spirit and our mind in good situation.
When we have a big dark area hanging behind us, it burdens the spirit, it burdens us, and we are not even aware of it. The Quraan frees us in many ways that most of us will never know. Let me continue now, the hope of humanity. I have here also, I said, human creations tradition of excellence is man's hope. That is his hope. There is a traditional excellence that we see evolving from the most primitive, or the most backward days of man to the most modern, or to the most advanced, days of man.
We see a tradition of excellence; excellent behavior on the part of the family, the children and everybody; excellent behavior on the part of the professional people, the builders, the grocery people, the commercial people, an excellence on the part of government. This is the excellence that we hope for, it is evolving. It gets better and better all the time. Though we now perhaps are burdened more than human beings have been burdened any other time, but our burden now is more the burden of stress. We are living a stressful life perhaps more so than the human beings have ever lived on the whole any other time in the life of man.
But that does not mean that our conditions are worse, our conditions are better now than at any other time than we can read of or imagine. Yes. That does not mean we do not have problems, we have plenty, and especially we. Now, a term in scripture: light it is found in Genesis and also in the Quraan. I am going to go to Genesis and see can we interpret this term, light. Genesis says Darkness was covering everything. There was only darkness. The earth was void, without form, and darkness. Everything was dark. Gd said, "And there was darkness upon the waters." The waters were dark. And Gd said, Let there be light," and there was light.
Where did the light appear? In the water, it says, "The spirit moved along the face of the waters and Gd said, 'Let there be light' and there was light."
The Quraan mentions the water and darkness also. It gives a parable in a sense the likeness of the darkness is as the water. Darkness upon darkness, levels of darkness. Now, those who have stood by deep water, a lake, even a pond sometimes or a lake at night when it is very dark and you look at the water, you can see that on the top of the water it is lighter and the darkness is more it is depth. The deeper you go the dark it is to your eyes.
I guess it is very dark down the depths of the dark. It says, "The spirit moved on the face of the water." I'm doing an interpretation here. You can accept it or reject it that is not what I am working for. I did not come here to work for you to accept or reject me. Now, it says, "Moved upon the face of water." Let us see face of water now as the part having the most light. Gd said, "Let there be light," and there was light and everything became light. Everything became light. Say he rose up the light for the day and he set in the heavens the light for the night. Now, we know that to be the Sun and the Moon.
Now here we must understand then also that the Sun and the Moon in Scripture are not really that sun out there and that Moon we may see tonight. It is talking about another Sun and Moon. Though Gd we did make that physical Sun that we see in the day when the clouds permit us, or not, they permit us to see, and that Moon at night. We know Gd made that, but what do we need a prophet to come tell us that for? Primitive man running around in the cave, and he had a name for Gd, "Gd, Gd, Oh Gd." If it was too hot for him, "Oh Gd, cool it. Cool it."
So we did not need any great prophet or great mind or super intelligence to come and tell us Gd made the Sun and Gd that He made all of this. Men know that by nature. His nature tells him there is something did all of this that is bigger than I am that must be Gd. He called it something by some name and when we interpret that name, we find he means Gd. Now, I'm coming to another term, Kingdom. People have hoped for a kingdom, a righteous and just kingdom to come. In both scriptures, this hope is addressed. In the Bible, a prayer is given, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
How does the Quraan address this kingdom? As the throne and it was recited today by Imam at the beginning of the meeting. It is addressed as the throne. The Quraan says of the throne that his throne, meaning Allah's throne or Gd's throne, extends over the heavens and the earth, Wasiaa kursiyyuhu assamaawaati wa-alarda that his throne extends over the heavens, the skies---samaawaa does not mean heavens. Heavens is English, samaawaa means the skies.
Literally translated, correctly translated, his heaven expands the skies, His throne, pardon me, and expands the skies and the earth wa-alarda and the earth. There is more there to that but that is outside of this subject which I would like to talk about, because we need it bad in this world, but I'm not going to burden you with more time to burden your time or give you too much outside of it. I'm trying to stay within the limits of this talk.
Now, so kingdom, what is man's hope for a kingdom? We are talking about man's hope. The traditional hope of the human excellence of man, that tradition of human excellence, it also is the hope of man. I'm saying again, that a kingdom, a certain kingdom, is the hope of man---all of these are the same. When we hope for that traditional excellence to become better and better, and be fulfilled for us on earth. I am saying it is when it is expressed is same, or interpreted, is the same as the hope for a kingdom, that special kingdom to come on earth.
Also, it is the same as that hope for light. Now, the Genesis does not say man was hoping for light, but Gd saw his condition and said, Gd said, "Let there be light, and there was light. It is the same as the hope for light. All this is the same. Now, I want to come to something else, it is destiny, also called Divine Destiny. I'm saying that this is another term, or another expression, for that same hope. In the tradition of classical civilization which is nothing but another language of classical scripture. I do not have the Quraan. I was going to raise the Quraan up, this is not the Quraan. It is supposed to be put down and the Quraan is raised up.
Now, let me continue. Now, the destiny, what is the destiny? Do we have a term for this destiny? Yes, here is the Quraan. So, it is the same. The Quraan and the scripture will have one language and civilization has another, but it is the same. This destiny in Islamic term, or in Quraanic term, is called al-akhira, al-akhira, al-akhira. What is al-akhira? It is translated by translators as the hereafter. It is translated also as the latter. A more direct translation is given as the latter. The former will be al-awwal in Arabic, and the latter will be al-akhira---the latter. So, it is translated like that.
Hereafter is not Quraanic; hereafter is not Arabic, hereafter is English. Understand that. There is nothing in this word that says hereafter. This word says latter, the end. The latter what is coming later. That is all it says, what is coming later---the former and what is latter or the former and the latter. What is the latter, or the end, or what is coming or is yet to come, what is that for us in another expression? The future that is what it means the future. We should believe in the future. But not just any future, it is the future that Gd intend for us.
We should have faith in the future that Gd intends for us. So, this word al-akhira---if I was going to translate the Quraan, and I do plan to do that, and I am doing it piece by piece, or bit by bit as I can find time and as Gd Bless me to do it---I would translate this term not hereafter, I would say, "Those who believe in the future." In my commentary, I will say the future designed for man by Gd.
Allahu Akbar. That means Allah is greater. I'm saying that to the wise and to the fools, that means Allah is greater.
The people who have the biggest idea of their own wisdom are the biggest fools you can find. Now, I'm going back to the Bible, to the New Testament again, speaking of that kingdom, the promise of a kingdom to come. I want you to quickly look at the expressions of that in the prophets John and Jesus, peace be upon John and Jesus Christ. John came alarming the people, did he not according to the New Testament? This is not Islam, this is not the Quraan we know the Quraan presents it differently; John came alarming the people, "Repent."
Why did he want them to repent and in a hurry? Because the Kingdom of Gd is coming. See, we forget some time that it was not Jesus who announced the kingdom of Gd, it was John who announced the kingdom of Gd and then Jesus came as a sign. The prophet Jesus Christ, he demonstrated in his own action, he demonstrated what should be the spirit of that kingdom of Gd. He start bringing to the conscience of people, even his own people - the Jews - who thought of themselves as the favorite people---and I'm using the common language we do not say Jesus was a Jew. Technically speaking, no Prophet of Gd was a Jew, technically speaking.
No Prophet of Gd, and I'm technically speaking, I'm speaking as a Muslim now. Now, you all will allow me to speak as a Muslim too, right?
Audience: Yes, sir.
Okay. Technically speaking, no prophet was a Christian. Technically speaking, every prophet was no more than what we are, a Muslim. And what is a Muslim? We introduced the Muslim in the very beginning of this talk when we introduced him as the tradition of human excellence that is the Muslim. Just the human excellence of man, that is Muslim. Gd asked nobody do anything for him unless they were first in that human excellence.
Before going on from here, I want to make it clear again that by future and hereafter and destiny, we are talking about the hope for the traditional excellence of humanity of man to be fulfilled on this earth. Now, I come to another expression, face. Face, F-A-C-E, we read in Scripture where the hope of man is also---when we say man we mean woman and man---a society, that is what we mean when we say man. We mean society, which is woman and man. Is that not wonderful?
Yes, I see you. You picked it up right quick, I see that. I got his vibes from behind me there. That is not spooky, that is real. That is human too. We look in scripture, I mean scriptures before Quraan, scriptures before the Gospel, before the New Testament, and we read where the hope of the oppressed people was to see the face of their Lord, the face of Gd. What does face mean to them? You think they were asking to see the face of a white man?
No, that is not what they were hoping for. They were talking about the face of Gd; they were talking about just what you say to each other when you're speaking of somebody that you miss or somebody that you wish was still living or somebody that you wish was near you in your town, that is in down south somewhere to help you in your moments of great need. You say, "If I could only see her face." You do not mean her physical face, you mean her presence. And you want her presence because she has something that you need in her makeup to comfort you or in her treatment that you need. 
So that is why, when people said they wanted to see the face of Gd, they wanted to see Gd's presence. His presence was just not for his presence per se. No, they wanted his presence because his presence provided what they need. They felt that his presence would fulfill their needs. They were talking about what? Kingdom what is kingdom? It is Rule, R-U-L-E. When they said they wanted to see the face of Gd, they meant, "We want to see the rule of Gd on earth. We are sick and tired of this oppressive rule, we want to see Gd's rule on is this earth. We see your face, O King, and we do not like it."
See, face mirrors the person's makeup to you and tells you what you can expect from that person. When you go to a person and you need something, first thing you want to do is to see his face, you say, "Hey man, turn around. Man, look at me, man. Talk to me, baby, then look at me, do not turn your head." You want to read that face. So I am saying that face is just another symbolic term representing the just order, the just rule, the just government, that the people hope for on this earth.
Now, is that not a great disservice to that powerful message to show the people a white man and say that is what they were hoping for? Now, I am not prejudice against the white man, you know that. I risked your love and your allegiance to tell you that that is wrong. Now, just so we know what time of day it is, I am going to kind of change-- go off from the subject. What do they called it? Digress a bit, yes? Yes, digress. Sometime you have to walk away from it and take up something, and then bring what you saw over there you need back to the path of direction and keep going.
Now, just to show you what time of day it is, while the white European-American, and every time I use white and black, please see quotation marks. Because white in the dictionary means pure, it means light, it means a whole lot of things that most white people are not. And black in the dictionary means ignorant, void, and empty, death, dull, sinful, and much more that I cannot quote for you, that just cannot apply to most black people. To some, yes, but not to the many.
Now, while we are celebrating almost---now, I know most of our political leaders they are not celebrating, the Black Caucus they are not celebrating this. The Black Caucus members they are not celebrating it. Most of our popular preachers in the churches, they are not celebrating it. Some of our present Imams, they are not celebrating, but I know I am, and a group that is with me, we celebrate a change for the better in America. We recognize that we are living in a better situation today than we were living in 30 years ago. We are not going to close our eyes to that reality.
But while we differ maybe in a way that we respond to change for the better on the part of the behavior of "whites" in quotation always, we do share the burden of a continuation of that old misrepresentation and mistreatment of us. The Japanese and I will not explain for them why they do this, but we know the Japanese have been guilty of reawakening some racist ideas about us, or giving support to some of the die-hard racists with the language they use, and the face expressions they make. We read where they have Sambo dolls, popular Sambo dolls, being sold in Japan.
We just cannot say that this problem is over, it is not over. We celebrate change for the better, but we realize there is still work to do. Not on them, that is the mistake that most of our leaders make. Time is out for asking for more change in them---it is on us.
Now, we should realize also that--- and by the way, I try to catch Tony Brown's journal as often as I can. That is where I got this information about the Japanese selling dolls, the Sambo dolls. Tony Brown, my little short brother that is awfully tall, little Tony Brown. That man is so short he makes me feel like stooping a little bit when I talk to him and you know I'm short. Now, this is important too, that we realized this, that there have always been good Caucasian-European American white people in this part of the world, in the new world. They did not just come here, they always have been here. They were oppressed too when a majority of them did the evils and were successful in establishing the order of white supremacy that they were successful. Their own people were oppressed too, they never liked it. Many of them have died from the start of that evil to the finish of that evil. Many of them died. John Brown is one of them. They called him a madman, but he died because he was fed up with that evil and he wanted to make a physical demonstration, sacrifice himself and whoever would help him fight it, for the sake of demonstrating his rage at something even existing like that in the country.
Now, not only that, but these people that we call white, they did not just start accepting us. Look, when we were free, according to history, the first church headed by one of our people was established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by Richard Allen, and it is called the first Black, or African, People's Church in America. He established it, and from the moment he established---he began preaching, his congregation was not just black, or just recently liberated people from slavery. No, he attracted also Whites. They describe his congregation as being a congregation that had an appreciable mix of both Blacks and Whites. That tells you a lot.
How many of us would have the courage, if we were White, to go and join a congregation of a Black man who had just been liberated from slavery that most of the Whites thought was a monkey and should still be in chains? How many of us, if we were White, would have the courage to go and listen to that man preach? What I'm saying to you? It is that we need to give intelligent study to the behavior of White people. Not just bad Whites, but good Whites.
It is more important now for us to make a study of the behavior of good White people in the history, because we know all about the bad, and there are people they do not do nothing but talk about the bad. We do not have to do that. We need to focus on the thing that they are not focusing on ---the good people in our history, and especially the good Whites that died, many of them, because they wanted to demonstrate their moral rage. 
We are getting there. I do not have to catch a plane today. So, you know. If I'm rushing today it is for your sake, not mine.
I'll leave that be. I went over there and I got what was over there on the side of the road. And I picked up what I thought to be needed for this direction, and now we are back on course. OK, now, within the theme, the Quraan as the foundation of society, or for society let me continue. 
The Quraan speaks of the face of Gd, the throne of Gd, but also of the face of Gd. Then in the Quraan, which is the word of Gd, unchanged perfect, Gd also speaks of his face. He says that there is come the time when nothing shall exist, everything is going to perish, and vanish, but the face of Gd the most high.
All right, let us move on. Now, we gave Genesis, right? We gave some reference from Genesis. Now, let me give something that I think is a kind of Genesis language, if not Genesis, so we have nothing to call Genesis. For us, the Genesis is Quraan. That is the Genesis. The whole Quraan for us is Genesis. And a Genesis that represents the second birth, the life that will remain it is not going away. Man is born he dies, but if he lives again he lives without dying. We believe that once we live in Islam, obeying the Quraan, following the example in the Sunnah of Muhammad the prophet that we have the life that will not perish and will not die.
We command only as Allah instructs us to command. So, we hope for a day when the whole society of man will respect Gd's intent and Gd's instructions to us in all of his professions or in both sides of his world---the secular side and the spiritual side or the religious side; we hope for a day when both sides of the world will respect that. Now, we do not want a religious order or government headed by religious people like we have had in the past. Those people made the mistake of following Egypt, Pharaoh's orders, copying his ideas that man he becomes Gd on earth.
Pharaoh claimed he was Gd. He had a great civilization. Right today, western science and western civilization pays respect and almost homage to the accomplishments of that ancient civilization called Egypt. But no matter how great it was we do not want to see an Egyptian order, an ancient Egyptian order on America, do we? No. We call the Pharaohs idol worshipers, heathens, right? Though they had great science, great material science, we do not look for an order like that order to come. Though the pyramid is on the dollar and the focus of light is there over the pyramid, but we do not hope for an order like that.
We hope that America's excellent tradition of freedom, justice, equality, progress, will continue, and that this democracy we have and have survived in for 200 years will continue to fulfill its promises and become even better, until we all are satisfied and not burdened and not punished as citizens in this country. That is what we hope for. We are not looking for that ancient order of Egyptians, no. We certainly are not looking for the old Church of Rome to come back into power. We are not looking for that, because they persecuted the common people. They persecuted the women. They oppressed women and they oppressed the common masses.
And what brought about that great ignorance and that great injustice? The belief that man is born to inherit divinity, to be a Gd on earth. That is what messed them up. So, their king was also called the divine. This is history. He was called the divine; the divine king; His Holiness, thou holiness, your holiness, not only the Pope, their great king when the church was ruling the land. So we do not want that. We do want the promise of Gd, the kingdom that he intended for men on this earth.
For that to come, we must say as those who made the mistake said, but we say it and do right. We say it and have the right vision, the right perception. We say it too, that the command must be Gd. Does not make us Gd, no, we are men. We are just common men, making mistakes, repenting for our sins, but we have the word of Gd, the rules of Gd, and this order is the order approved by, designed by, intended for us by Gd.
So, in a sense, we do hope for a divine order on earth; a divine kingdom on earth, a divine rule on earth. We do hope for it, for the rule is always Gd's, according to the Muslims. The rule is Gd, and the command is His. So, what does that mean? How do we apply that brother down here in our little small business? We too must apply that principle in our life in the home. Sister, you should want the order of Gd in your house. You should want to run your family according to the word of Gd. You should want to raise your children to hope for wives, to hope for husbands, who will hope for homes run according to the order of Gd.
When you have that, you have a unit; a unit model of the kingdom to come. You have a proof of what Gd promised in your house. Brothers, when we are teaching in our schools, and sisters, when you're teaching in the school, the school teachers and principals, you should be trying to run that school under the command of Gd, so that school becomes a model, a unit, in that great order that Gd intends for us on this earth.
And that apply to all of our aspirations, to all of our investments, to all of our involvements, to all of our concerns, to all of our business. It applies to science and everything else. Though we are medical doctors, we should try to run our medical order so that it will be a small unit of that government, that divine government that is coming. Say, "Hey, what kind of administration do you have here?" "One approved by Gd's word, the Quraan, and the Sunnah of the Prophet."
Then it will be halal and tayyiba It'll be that and tayyiba. Then it will be a reflection of that paradise that Gd want us to have. See, Muslims must understand that Gd, he does not want to shock the ignorant believers and burden them too much. They are not intellectual yet. So he says a lot of things to us that the ignorance must grow into wisdom to start to understand and appreciate.
But I think civilization, just the fact---if you haven't been doing nothing but riding on the bus of civilization, or the truck or the free train of civilization,---we have made so much progress now, I do not think we should have to be hesitant to tell you that Gd want us to have paradise now and after. Here and hereafter; now and later. I am telling you that it is real. Gd's promise is real, and the Quraan makes it possible and practical. Prophet Muhammad shows us the steps plainly for all of us to see and follow; so, dear brothers and sisters that is the meaning of Quraan, as a foundation of society. 
We pray Gd forgive us all our sins and guide us always, grant us peace and prosperous families and happy families. Ameen. As salaamu alaykum.

