02/22/2004
IWDM Study Library
IWDM on Separating Myth from Reality 
Pt.1
By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

00:02 Speaker 1: Peace to you as we greet. As-Salaam-Alaikum.

[background conversation]

00:09 S1: We certainly appreciate the presence of our Mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, here of the great city of Detroit that I have come to love and appreciate in my monthly visits now for four years. We stand here on this day, February 22nd, in Cobo Hall, because of the labor, hard work of the believers here in the city of Detroit, who have unified, cooperated with each other, sacrificed, invested in the vision and leadership of the son of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Imam W. Deen Mohammed. This day and this gathering would not be possible without their strong faith, and we applaud them, and we thank them very much.

[applause]

01:27 S1: I'm not going to make a long speech in the introduction of our leader. His works, his achievements, on behalf of his religious community, are well known. He is a native son of Detroit, Michigan, born in 1933, in Hamtramck. His interest for building true human life and existence for all people, blacks, whites, all people, all religions, his contribution for the progress of Islam seen as one of the great religions among the other great religions in this land, United States of America, there is no one comparable to him in his work to represent the true image and the correct image of Islam and Muslims. We thank God for him. We thank God for this time that we live in and opportunities that we have to establish our life in this world, and we thank God for Imam W. Deen Mohammed's care, his careful consideration of our needs and his strength of faith. And I introduce to you now the son of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, a native son of Detroit, Michigan, and our leader, always, Imam W. Deen Mohammed.

[applause]

03:30 Imam W. Deen Mohammed: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Our greeting is peace be unto to you and I'll be saying our Islamic, our religious language. As-salaamu Alaykum.

[background conversation]

03:54 IWDM: We praise God and we thank Him for our life, for our being, for our presence here today, and for the good, beautiful reception that we have been given by the Mayor of this city and you, who are attending this affair today. We salute the servants of God from Adam till today. We give the last Prophet Muhammad the salutation or the salute, sallallahu alaihi wasallam. Prayers and the Peace be upon him. Ameen.

IWDM: I want to begin this address by saying, all people are equal in origin, in that original nature according to revelation given to prophets before Muhammad, and the same was given to Muhammad, the Prophet of Arabia about 14 centuries and so ago. All people come from one origin, one origin, one and the same origin. And we're deceived by the enemy of mankind, that is Satan, and our religion Satan is called the enemy of mankind, aduwan-Nas the enemy of all people, Satan, Shaitan in the Quranic Arabic language, Shaitan. The Bible talks about inheritance, the Quran talks about inheritance. And if we understand it, our idea, our political idea for this great country, United States of America, is also established upon a belief in inherent rights. Our inheritance, inheritance.

06:31 IWDM: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain ineligible rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And it goes on to say that no government can take these rights away. They are rights that we are born with. So these are rights that the government didn't give us, these are rights that our Creator gave us. And by the way, as the constitution didn't say Jesus Christ, it didn't say Allah. In fact the first five lines, our first five sentences, called Ayaat to Muhammad, the Prophet came to him, and the word 'Allah' is not in any of those five sentences. So Muhammad, the first communication he got from God, he didn't learn the name Allah, not from the communication, anyway. God says to Muhammad, "Read". First word to Muhammad, "Read". First words of the Quran to Muhammad, "Read," he said. "In the name of your Lord, who created. The one who created human beings from a congealed blood, congealed blood."

08:17 IWDM: Two lines, not Allah yet. Then he said again, "Read," and your Lord is most generous. And the one who taught man how to record, use the pen, the writing pen. And he taught human being, the human being, what the human being was not before knowing, what he never knew before. These are the five lines. First five lines communicated to Muhammad the Prophet, from God. Why am I saying this, that Allah, the name Allah is not mentioned in the first communication to Muhammad. Why am I saying this? The connection for our life is with creation. So the first name that was given to Muhammad of God, is God the Creator. Since we call God by different names, I'm sure, the wise writers and founding fathers of this great political idea that we have in America, I'm sure that they chose not to say Jesus Christ, or not to say God. They didn't even say God because there'd be many people coming to this democracy, living here, they foresaw that in fact, that was invitation from the very beginning. It began with people who were persecuted abroad, overseas, and they came here for a place to live their life of their choice, the life of their choice.

10:12 IWDM: So this was a country that was going to be a country of many. And the founding fathers seeing ahead of time, seeing into the future, use no language that would disrespect any of us, or that would exclude any of us. Creator, all of us can accept that equally, because we are equal in the creation of God. Adam and religion, both Quran and Bible, and the Bible and the Quran, our holy book, the Quran, and in the holy book of the Christians, the Bible. In both these books we have Adam as the name of the first human to exist on this earth. And we are told that this Adam was made or created by, made by God, and he was made from the earth, from the ground.

11:13 IWDM: In fact, it says, "From the dust of the ground, from the dust of the ground, the dust of the earth he was made. And it goes on to tell us how he became the father of all people, of all people. So we identify in our mortal body and in our original human spirit, we identify with Adam, the First Father. Adam the First Father. Now just reading the story, to me it sounds like myth. Not like reality, it sounds like myth. Because how do you make a man from dust and make dust adhere together, make it whole together with water. It says then rain came and then he formed a man and make it hold together with water... Mud, and breathe into that mud and it becomes a living soul. To me that's more like myth than reality and anybody believe that literally, you're not ready to help Detroit or the neighborhood I'm living in...

[laughter]

12:33 IWDM: Or any other place. You have a problem and really these stories are for children, and then men know how to translate those stories. If you are a man, you suppose to know how to translate this story. I don't mean man in the world, I mean man in knowledge. I'm not talking about a man in the world, because many men in the world they can't read at all, no. But if you are a man in knowledge, you're supposed to know how to translate that and see it in reality. No, in its first picture that it presents, it's nothing but myth, it has to be understood.

13:19 IWDM: I once said on a radio program, and I was then rejected by my father, I was not inside of his organization called the Nation of Islam at that time, and I was trying to get back in. In fact he had permitted me to come to him at our house and I could attend but he was not permitting me to lecture... To give speeches. They thought they were going get me put back out, out again, the offices of the Nation of Islam. When they got the tape, they thought they had something get me put out so I would never come and speak again. They gave it to my father... I didn't know he had it. At the Sunday dinner... He invited me to come to the Sunday dinner... And I was sitting at the table there, he said, "Son, we want to play a tape."

[laughter]

14:16 IWDM: I didn't know what it was but I've never been afraid of anything I do or say. I've never been afraid of anything I did or said because I'm always trying to say the right thing. And when you know you trying to do right, you're not afraid. Anyway, they played the tape and at one place in the tape my father... He was sickly too... He stood up and applauded and he said, "My son has got it." This is before you all knew that I was going to be a leader soon because he was sick at that time, that was no more, one, two years before I was your leader. Anyway he said, "My son's got it," And he looked at my mother. My mother was sitting there. Now this is about... Can't recall it, maybe '72 maybe 1972 around there, somewhere around there, right about around there. He looked at my mother he said, "Isn't that right Clara?" And my mother with that bright smile... She's very dark skinned and her teeth when she smiled the face looked like the sun... And she was smiling with that bright smile and she said, "Yes. This is what we've been waiting for," And my father said... Now he got me baffled.

[laughter]

15:40 IWDM: What in the world did I say that...

[laughter]

15:44 IWDM: I wondered what did I said. But as I thought about it and thought about it, I said I know what moved him because in the book... The lady I got her attention too. The interviewer, I got her attention too. She said, "I wish you would do more on that topic," I said, "I'm planning to write a book on it one day," She said, "Would you please come back to my show when you do?" I said, "Yes." The title of my talk on the show was, "Myths: The burden on America," That was the title of my talk, "Myths: The burden on America." Now I hope you'll understand where I was coming from as I go on with this address. When we identify with Adam, we should understand that Adam is to have us identify with mother earth, with mother earth, with the ground, with the land, he created the man from the earth.

16:51 IWDM: Now if I would just tell you that all that was said there mean that he made the first man an industrialist, would you believe me? Your father... Your first father was an industrialist, that's what that means. That story is to tell you, your first father was an industrialist and he was made by God. He had the human nature and the spirit that God wanted in him, and he was an industrialist. If you read the bible... Genesis... You'll see that all of the builders, all of the metal workers came from Adam. It doesn't say he made the Adam and then say this one preached the word of God and had the Holy Ghost. No, he made Adam and then the industry comes. Metal workers, industry, the farmers and all, they come behind Adam. So Adam is not the story of the Holy Ghost, Adam is the story of natural man interested in the environment that God put him in and having a spirit to develop that environment.

18:11 IWDM: God created all of us to have a spirit to develop our environment, whether it's land unoccupied like Adam, he was the first one to occupy the land or whether it's a city that needs our help. God has created us to engage our environment and make it more beautiful and make it more productive. If this is a message from God, then this is a message that awakens my intelligence, it awakens my creativity, it awakens my spirit to achieve wonders in this universe. And those who have achieved wonders in this universe, they have followed the true tradition of our first father, Adam. Those who have built cities, made roads, connected continents, put a higher form of transportation in the air. These are the ones that have followed the tradition of Adam. Now Adam is not our only father. Am I taking the myth out of this a little bit for you? 

19:30 IWDM: I hope I am. I'm trying to separate myth from religion. You know the Holy Ghost is good and bad. It is. It's bad for those who think they got God's spirit but they're behaving as though they've got the Holy Ghost. For those who have that kind of Holy Ghost, it's bad. I think Paul addresses that in the Bible. He said those who speak in tongues, they can only understand it. Well, I want to tell Paul, not even them, not even they understand it.

[laughter]

20:15 IWDM: He said but what we need is to edify. To put common sense together, put reason on reason, logic upon logic. So that's what we need to do. Give some construction to the thing. That's what Paul says. I'm elaborating on it but that's what Paul says. All right. Now there was a great man, a great man, mysterious and when you get to know him he's not mysterious at all. And I'm talking about the man that took my father off the streets of this city, lost it during the depression, not having any faith in the future. He never was a churchgoer. His father was a Baptist preacher. Willie Poole, who later wore the name Wally Muhammad, my grandfather, that I loved so much when he died I wanted to die with him. Yes, he was the first man to father me. My father was away and serving a five-year prison term, but my grandfather, he had my grandfather and my grandmother come and live with us while he was away. So the first father I knew in my house was my grandfather. I didn't know my father until I was about 13, almost 14-years-old. Before I knew my father inside the house but he was in there.

[laughter]

21:50 IWDM: And I was obeying him because if I didn't, my mother would kill me.

[laughter]

21:57 IWDM: She took care whatever her husband couldn't take care of, she took care of it in that house. That's right. My mother, Clara, Clara Muhammad, Clara Evans Muhammad. Both from Georgia, father and mother. Anyway the mysterious man, Mr. W. D. Fard, he's called Fard Muhammad, And Wally Fard. He's called by different names. But the more common name for him in the writings that we have and also in the teachings that we have is W. D. Farad. And you will find W. D. Fard in the dictionary, in the encyclopedia, you'll find it W. D. Fard. So Mr. W. D. Fard was a very wise man and he knew that if he was going to change the uneducated African-Americans... You see the educated African-Americans has a different attitude.

22:54 IWDM: Once he's educated he got a different attitude. Mr. Fard didn't want any of them. He said "Du Bois has tried to get them and when bearing changes for blacks with them, I'm going to try, I'm going to do something different." He said, "I'm going after those who are uneducated." So he came to the slums of Detroit and he gathered around him a good number of poor people, not only poor in their pockets but poor in education and culture. And he knew that they hadn't been given English 102, or higher English. They hadn't studied literature to learn how to translate fiction or translate allegory or allegorical language. They couldn't read Gulliver's story and translate it. He knew that.

23:56 IWDM: So he's dealing with people who are uneducated, but they're under the rule of darkness. Because Margaret Mead, I think it was, she said, "Only the educated are free." Now, I would have to add to that only when the educated are free from myth, they can be educated. But if they're still not free from myth, they're not free. You're only free when you're freed from myth. I'm not going to tell you spell out the myth that you're under. I'll leave that for you to do, but most people are under myth, the rule of myth. They're under the rule of myth, they're controlled by myth in their life, not by reality. And Satan loves that, the Shaitan, the enemy of God, the enemy of mankind. He loves that you'd be under myth and not under reality. God wants us under reality, and under him who created the reality that we identify as reality. He created all of that, and he wants and we want all of us to be under the authority of God. But if the authority of God is confused and we are made to see God as some myth, we'll be deprived of God as the rule in our life. Yes.

25:40 IWDM: Mr. Fard was an Asian, and we were told he's from the Far East. But again, you know Mecca is not Far East, so we're told he's from the near East, or from the Middle East, pardon me, the Middle East, too. But we have concluded that he was from the Far East, he was from Asia. He did something that made possible my freedom. My fore-parents were free by the emancipation of our people. Free from physical enslavement. You can take a free man and put him in chains, limit his physical movements. He will not be a slave necessarily, even though you are making him do everything. He will still be a free man though you have him chained, although you have him in prison, although you have his movement, his physical movements restricted. He will still be a free man in a body that you have enslaved. You won't be able to enslave his spirit, you won't be able enslave his mind. He will be a free man, though you, he will be your captive, your prisoner.

27:24 IWDM: The wiser ones who wanted to use us and not see us enjoy this country as free people with them, and there were many, not limited to the South. Northeast, Midwest, everywhere. There were many. They didn't have to worry about us being physically free as long as we were mentally enslaved. So Mr. Fard was a very wise man. He said, "I'm going to work a strategy that will free them and they will no longer be mentally enslaved." So he said he come to resurrect, using his words, to resurrect, give life again to dead. He come to resurrect the mentally dead using his exact language. He said he comes to resurrect the mentally dead. I believe God was with him. I don't think the man could do this all by himself. I have been created from my father and mother's flesh, I have been created. And I don't think a man could do that without the help of God. No.

28:56 IWDM: So anyway, he told my father that you shouldn't believe in the Bible, shouldn't believe in Christianity. He said, "That's to enslave you. That was given to you to enslave you." I'm not knocking the church or Christianity, but I have to recognize what worked in this formula that was used by this man to make a new people of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and those who would follow him. I have to recognize that. Okay, 'cause I know there's some Christians, I met some Christians, some very wonderful Christians, very wise Christians. And they know how to separate stories and fiction from truth. All Christians are not living in the dark. [laughter] So, I know that. And as long as we have alive people in heaven watching over us, we can't fare too bad on Earth. But, what about those who get separated from even their help? Coming from the live people up there. Like most of us have done. Most of us, even the preachers and I know some of you here today. Some of you here wearing Muslim names, some of you Christian preachers. [laughter] I know you very well. You're here today, you're here every time I speak. Every time it's announced that I'm going to speak, you're here. I don't blame you. You're doing right to come brother. Yeah.

31:07 IWDM: Some of you all have gotten out of touch yourself, with the...
