01/02/2005
IWDM Study Library
FIRST SUNDAY SPEECH 
Pt. 3
By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

Imam W. Deen Mohammed: Yes, just wasting our lives and everything. So we have to change all of this. And we gonna change it by doing what I've been speaking on for now a hour and about 10 minutes. That is seeing ourselves as not individual life, community life. Every person has to see himself through community life. The great wisdom in the scriptures that you read and you don't understand them, things that Jesus said to get his people to see what is the real life. Others said it in the Old Testament. It was said in the Old Testament. Of David, the same thing was said. David's men said to David, they said, "King, you are flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone." They was telling the king, "You can depend on our cooperation because whatever you are here to serve, we are here to serve the same. And we gonna serve it as though we are one person. You can depend on us to conduct our life in accord with your own personal life. If you can trust your hand, you can trust our hand. If you can trust your feet, you can trust our feet because we are telling you king, we are one body. We are bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh." Then Jesus come in the New Testament and he tells his following, "You are members of my own body. Members of our own body, of my own body."

 And if we understand Islam, Islam requires of us the same. Islam says your life and your death is as the life and death of one single person. If one person can live, all the rest can live by following that way of that person. But if we follow one who's corrupt or stupid or insane in his behavior and his life, then he takes all of us to death who follow him. So we live in one and we die in one. And if there is any single one of us, whether it be a prophet or a saint or whatever or a wise man or a teacher or whatever, if there is any single one of us, male or female, that is able to rise up in the life that G-d created for us, to draw other than to us so they would have the life, too, it is only because we have risen up in the human nature that G-d created us for.

 Jesus Christ was able to say that because he was in the perfect human nature that G-d created us for. Yes. David was able to say that before Jesus Christ because he was in the perfect human nature that G-d created us for. Muhammad has given to us... And G-d says of Muhammad, "You will certainly find in him an excellent model of life for any who believe in G-d in the hereafter." Yes. G-d gave us him as the model life for us to emulate, become like that life, live like that. This is the human type. This is the human life. Don't behave like those out there destroying the neighborhood, corrupting the neighborhood, making the misery for family. Don't follow these crazy people. Find the one who is established on the human pattern that G-d, the creator, the designer of the stars in the sky, and earth, and whatever is in earth, follow that person. And I'm sure you can find more than one. We're not so extinct that there's only Imam W. Deen Mohammed standing up in the human model that G-d wants us in. No, I'm sure there are others. You can find others, but they're very rare, very rare. I heard my father say at the table once... He was eating like when... He did all the time. He'd have, they call it, "table talk." That's the language that was given to prophet Muhammad. But he did have... Southern people, they got table talk. That's just the way of folks, regular folks, is to eat and have conversation, enjoy and socialize and have conversation. So one of those times my father was talking, he said, "Well," He said, "There was a woman and she had a bone and she was seen in the public, walking with the bone in her hair. And somebody came up to her and said, 'Woman, why are you carrying that bone?' 'It is the bone of a man. Bone of a good man.'" But, good men were so rare, so hard, to find...

[laughter]

 That she would hold on to the bone of one that died. The bone of a good man.

[laughter]

 Well, you parents, you know raising your children, spending all your money on them struggling, struggling, not giving in to the corruption of the public life and your daughter taken by one of the young men and you have to send her money to take care of her and him.

[laughter]

 I know some of you all wanna walk out go to graveyard and dig up... "This is where George died. Let me see if I can find something there."

[laughter]

 Take it and walk through the city, walk through the downtown area, and hope somebody ask you a question. Say, "Yeah, this is the bone of a good man."

[laughter]

 Now let me get back on a serious note here. Oh, no, that's serious.

[laughter]

 That is serious.

[pause]

 G-d want us to see with our eyes. G-d want us to see clearly with our eyes how we are to know ourselves and the external world. G-d want us to know ourselves and the external world. If you could take a lesson from man's world, it can put you back in a situation or in a position to appreciate what G-d offers us and G-d always offers the best. You look at man's world, everything he got, in order for you to benefit from it, you have to use your good sense.

 Man makes shoes. If you wanna wear shoes, there's a certain way you put them on. You don't cut a hole in the bottom and try to stick your foot in that way. They got a place there to put your foot. Your foot goes in top. You put your foot in, if it laces up, you lace it up. If it doesn't buckle up, you buckle it up. If it just slip in there, you just slip in there and you walk in the shoes. But there's some kinda sense, there's an amount of good sense that you need to benefit from anything man-made. Like this cap I'm wearing here. It's supposed to be worn like that. I can't stick it on my chin. It won't work that well. It goes on top of my head. A car. Most of the youngsters want cars. Even before they get old enough to drive one, they want car. Everybody wants their own car. But when you get that car, you gotta use good sense. You got to follow the good sense, instructions, that they give to licensed drivers. And the manufacturer of that car, who made that car, he knows more about that car than you. He knows how to treat that car better than you do.

 Now, isn't G-d a manufacturer of our human bodies? And if you believe that, shouldn't he know better how to take care of this human body than we do? So we don't have a... They give us a manual, say, "Okay, service this car at the next 5,000 miles or whatever. Service this vehicle and do this and get this and get that." Then he leave a guide with you. You got your Bible, you got your car Bible there. Or you got your whatever it is. Automobile Quran.

[laughter]

 You've got your automobile Quran and it's gonna tell you how many prayers you have, how many wudu, how many of ghusl, and how many Salats, and how many rak'ahs in the Salats. It's gonna tell you all that and it's gonna tell you if you miss these things, if you miss too many of these, your value is gonna go down. Maybe you'll still be driving this car, but the value is going down because you didn't keep up the service. Yeah, so when we look at man's world, don't we see sensible instruction? And don't we find ourselves conforming to the direction that they give us? To live in this man world, you have to follow direction that they give us. That mans' world give us. Now you wanna live in the world of spirits, in the world of G-d, in the world of soul and heaven and whatever, but you don't wanna follow any direction, you don't wanna follow the book that the Maker gave us.

 The Maker gave the book to Moses and before him he gave the book to Abraham. The Maker gave the book to Jesus Christ, the Gospel, the good news and the Maker gave the book to Muhammad the prophet, peace be upon his servant. The Maker gave him those book and those books are for us. And all that you have in your world is nothing in comparison to what G-d gave those servants of his. Nothing. Your world would not be surviving, it wouldn't be even established, if it was not for human beings, believing, having faith in those great servants of G-d and preserving what they left and building a new world by the blueprint left to them from those great servants of G-d. This is what I know to be a fact. We would have no democratic republic if it was not for wise men, preceding and seeing the wisdom in scripture and the direction for human society in scripture. That was the only way they came to this great idea we call America or call the democratic republic. That's the only way they could've gotten here. I can prove that to anybody got some sense and got some knowledge. You have to have sense and knowledge.

 Anybody read, if you read, you know history, I can show you from scripture and shine light of scripture on history. I can shine the light of scripture on political history. I can shine the light of scripture on industrial history, the history of industrialized nations. I can shine the light of scripture on all of them and I can show anybody with good commons sense, I can prove to you that the scripture was before them with the pattern, with the blueprint, of how to establish that life.

 So you been cheated out of a valuable life because you're weak for it. That's the only reason why. You're weak for it.

[pause]

 You eliminate yourselves. Nobody else eliminates you. You eliminate yourselves because you follow sleep. You follow death. You follow surrender. So you eliminate yourselves. I have no spirit to sleep in the face of work to do. I have no spirit to die with great hope for tomorrow, staring me in the face. No. Wake up people, please. It's time to demystify this world, take the mystery out of it for the common man. He's the only one that carries the burden and he's left in the dark because he can't be trusted with his own life. But that's the way of one disposition of mind under G-d.

 There are two main dispositions of mind under G-d. One is the disposition that you can't trust the common man with his life so you have to hoodwink him. You have to keep him in the dark. The other position is that he's a valuable creature, created to rise up to any challenge. But, G-d gave us this life as a test or a trial. It's to test us as the human body. Hear what I said? To test us as a human body. You know they say the body congregation. The body congregation. Now, you know there are many people in the congregation, but they use the single noun 'body.' The body of the congregation. Well, that's exactly what we talking about. One single person, but in many. One in the many. And one living by the pattern that the whole, that the many live on or that the many live by and, therefore, the function, the essential function of life, is the same for all of us equally as though it was one function and not many functions and many individuals. Yes.

[pause]

 We are given language and we need to be educated. Religion, if it can't be entrusted to the majority of the people, to the masses of the people, it'll have to be entrusted to just the enlightened person or the person that's given revelation, we'll stay in the condition we in right now when most of the people are non-productive with terrible burden on their souls. No. Jesus Christ, peace be on him, he said of them, "They will arrest me in the night and everything that I have done, I've done it in the light." Then Muhammad comes along, continuing that work. G-d says of him that, "We've given it to you that it may be delivered or given in plain language for it to be made clear and to clear up. Matters that are confused are in error." This is the way.

 And great progress was made for the masses of people in his day and time. How come it's not done in these days? Great progress was made. And it was the common person, the common men, that followed him. Common people, slaves were free and even before their freedom they were already insisting upon being called a Muslim or a follower of Muhammad the Prophet. And we know what happens to one of the slaves, called Bilal, because he wouldn't denounce the religion and his masters tortured him to get him to denounce the religion. And a companion of the Prophet, Abu Bakr, came and paid, bought him from his master so he could have the freedom to practice Islam or to practice his religion. So Muhammad attracted the masses of the people.

 And there's a saying of his that makes this very clear, what he's all about. This saying goes like this. It says that he was offered a path through the mountains to get where he had to go. And he was offered a path to the plains. He chose the path through the plains. This a saying, "Muhammad the Prophet, prayers and peace be on him." What does that mean? It means Muhammad was saying to them, "I am not of the nature to want to rule over people. I don't wanna establish a government to control people and rule them. I refuse to establish a governmental order. My mission is not to guide people and the building of governments. My mission is to guide people in the building of human life, human families, human communities." That's what prophet Muhammad was telling them. Islam is a religion of freedom, justice, and equality. This is what my father told me and the more I learned about it I said, "Good G-d Almighty, it must have been an angel that brought them that kind of language. 'That Islam is freedom, justice, and equality.' It had to have been an angel or G-d's messenger, had to bring a messenger in some form, a bird, a something."

 A cat once brought me guidance, whether you believe it or not. A cat once brought me help from G-d. Yeah, and I still practice that wisdom I learned from that cat. I practiced it right in my home. It helped me a lot. And I've shared with members of my family and I've shared with my friends what that cat taught me. My cat, called P2, Panther two. It was a child of its mother. The mother was a Panther one. Both black, beautiful, black female cats. Yes. So I'm sure that that message, strong message, look how easy it was. I heard it when I was six or seven years old from the ministers, from my father. He used to say it regularly in the early days, like 40s, even the 50, he was still doing. "Islam is freedom, justice, and equality." Well that makes sense. You're telling blacks to leave the church and become Muslim. Why? Why should we leave the church and become Muslim? Well, for freedom, justice, and equality. That's reason enough. Elijah, that's reason enough.

 Come in. Why? Because we were in this country, denied equal citizenship and that lasted all the way up to the '60s. We were denied equal citizenship. So when the Honorable Elijah Muhammad began preaching, there was no equal citizenship for us in this country. You might say, "Well that was in the South." No, everywhere. In the South it was just more bitter, more cruel and bolder, shameless. But in the North it was existing, too. The same belief that you are inferior, you're not human like white folks and you shouldn't be accepted in their society with them to share their society with them. Stay to yourself.

 I remember reading the Chicago Tribune on that, as a boy, in Chicago. I remember those mornings as... I know Elijah and I've got a brother here, Elijah, and might have another brother here. Members of my family, we can tell you that Chicago Tribune had one ad that said, "Whites only. Whites only." It let you know don't even go ask for that job. Whites only. In Chicago. This ain't Mississippi. I'm talking about Chicago. Not Jackson, Mississippi or whatever. Greenberg, whatever. No, this is Chicago I'm talking about. And we have had blacks lynched in Chicago. Why? Because he was in a neighborhood after dark and some whites caught him and asked him what was he doing there. He was said he was coming off work. He worked late. They lynched him. You recall that, Elijah? 

 Yeah? In Cicero. Working over in Cicero and they lynch this young man. Brutal killing of this young man. So we're not talking about, "Oh, well, you wanna point the blame on the South." No. The blame has to be pointed on the white supremacist system that was ruling everywhere in America. White supremacy was the rule everywhere in these United States. You all want to excuse the North, excuse both, excuse that. Who was the President of Boston when they had us on the plantation? It was the same President that was voted for by those people who had us on the plantation. They voted one President, not two. They didn't vote one President in for the plantation south and another President in for the east and the north. They voted one President in.

 So that one President was supported by all those white bigots that was mistreating us in the south. He was supported by them, they voted him in and he was catering to them, not changing the system until the time came when the Quakers and others and Jews joined in and mainly because of Frederick Douglass, determination and his skills, his mental skills, his education and his ability to articulate the problem, to speak very clearly, sharply, and to reach the hearts and the minds of whites and Christianity and shame them out of that ugly thing that they were supporting. That's what happened to change things and it was changed. Thank G-d. And thank G-d for all the good supporters we had from Christians and from Jews. Thank G-d for our human soul that couldn't accept to be de-valuated and put down to lowest dignity. Frederick Douglass and many like him, males and females. Thank G-d that they still stood up in their human nature and their human excellence and demanded their rights. Thank G-d for that. But, now you look at the world today and you see the laws have changed. Thank G-d for that, too, that the laws have changed. We can go to court now. And we can get a sentence to punish the people that deny us our rights. We know we can get that now.

 But you waiting for Jesus Christ to come and take you up in his arms and say, "You'll have no more worries now, Mary. I'm here for you. I'll make sure the lights are turned on at night in the house and I'll make sure they to turn 'em off at bedtime, whatever time you like to go to bed and I'll make sure the water bill's paid and I'll clean up the kitchen for you. I'll make up the bed, get all this stuff you've got strewn all over the room, I'll take care of all of it for you. And if that boy is on drugs, I'll take care of him for you, too. That daughter that won't go to school and just want to lay up here in the bed with that pimp of hers, I'll take care of that for you, too, honey." You're waiting on Jesus Christ, some Savior, to come in. G-d says to us in our religion.

Quraan 66:6 ( yaa-ayyuhaa-allazeena-aamanuu-quu-anfusakuum-wa-ahleekuum-naaraan)

 "Oh, you who have faith, save your own selves and your families from the fires of passion."

 Passion for wrong things and not passion for the right things. G-d says, "Save yourself first." So don't think you're gonna get Jesus Christ to come to you and take on your burden and do everything for you that G-d made for you to do for yourself. Don't hope for that. G-d want you to see the great edifice that he made when he made you. So he says, "Observe the sky." I'm getting a little warm here. I don't know if it's the heat, but it is warm in here. I don't believe in mistreating myself.

[laughter]

 See, some people care more about looking pretty...

[laughter]

 Than being comfortable. Yeah. Young lady go out and she got an outfit that she just got to wear. It's 10 above zero and she got to wear this outfit. And she out in the cold weather, Chicago wind is stripping her and her breasts are showing. Breasts is all showing and the body is all naked, almost like she is wearing a swimsuit. She have a good time. Christmas Eve, New Year comes, she's in the bed sick as a dog.

[laughter]

 No, I care more about life than I care about the way you look at me. I don't want you to say, "Oh, he's handsome." No, say, "He's ugly." Shoot, I put a monster coat over me...

[laughter]

 And I get in a monster's fur. Look ugly. I don't care. If that's what it takes to keep me warm, keep the cold, keep me from getting sick tonight and you don't have to like the way I look. Turn your head.

[laughter]

So G-d says he had made this world and he made it to support our life and to give us all that we need for our life. Isn't that wonderful? And G-d says when this world is finished, he says that hereafter that he'll give to those who earned it, it will be the same as the space of the skies and the earth combined. So G-d didn't say in our religion... And I don't think he said it in other people's religion either. G-d didn't say in our religion that when you get to the hereafter after this world, you going up in the sky. He said "you wanna go up in sky, you go up in the sky" but also it's going to be the space down here, too. The hereafter is gonna be the space down here and the space up there, all of it. That's gonna be the space for us to occupy. Now, isn't that good living? 

 That's what Jesus Christ came to give to the world and some of 'em got it. Yeah, some of them favorite leaders, the saintly leaders, they got the right understanding. G-d frees our soul to live in all the space that he himself created. And man has gone through the skies and man has also walked upon the earth. And he says, "When they get to the new life, they will say, 'This resembles what we were in before.'" You hear that? This not me talking. This is what Muhammad, the prophet, left with us from G-d taught. Says, "When they get in that new life or that new world, they'll say 'This resembles what we were in before.'" Well, look, if G-d is gonna do justice by me, don't give me something looking like ET for a wife in heaven. I want somebody looking like Shirley or some of these women that I fell in love with while I was down here on earth. That's what I want. Now, don't mistreat me and call to heaven G-d. G-d ain't goin' mistreat us. He said, "You gonna say, 'This resembles what we had before.'"
