07/06/1980
IWDM Study Library
Committee to Remove Racial Images of Divine
CRAID

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Peace be unto you as we say in our language. Asalaam Alaikum.
Let me first make it clear to you that I requested of Imam Qasim Ahmed that he do more than just introduce me. I told him that I said, you have to remember that you are a member of the leadership. You are on the Council Of Imams and you should have more than that kind of place on the program. You shouldn't just introduce me. You should have something to say. And I appreciate his words. The words were delivered very clearly, very forceful. We appreciate that very much. He is a Imam that is really advancing the main purpose of this community and the good of the general society.
Now I am before you to address the need for the removal of images in religion that invite the members of the religion to worship or to address those images as deities or as G-d's. First let me express a belief that is in scripture and it is a kind of general principle, but it says something that I think will help us understand our problem and it may be a good start for this address. We read in the Bible these words: A tree is known by the fruit it bears. Regarding these images in religion, especially the crucifixion, I believe that what I'm about to mention to you is a product of that tree. There is now a movement headed by a man who was once a member in the Nation of Islam officially called in those days The Lost Found Nation of Islam In The Wilderness of North America. There is a man who now heads a religious organization or religion.
In fact he has the religion, he has formed his own religion and he has also formed his own Bible. His Bible is called the black Bible. It is not a cheap effort. He spent some money to put it together and to have it printed. The pictures you'll find in that Bible are mostly pictures of black people. And Satan in that Bible is depicted as a white man.
The scene of Adam and Eve in the garden shows Adam and Eve black and the serpent representing the whisper of the devil is a white man. This is without any question black reaction in religion to white man image in religion. If that's one of the fruits of the crucifix, then we have to acknowledge as right-minded, sensible people that is a bad fruit. We hope to establish our reason for insisting upon the removal of all images In religion. And that is our first reason. That it produces reactions in the conscience of people that don't identify racially with the image, that are bad for society and that represents only the furtherance of that kind of confusion and corruption. We are not attacking Christianity. We respect Christianity with sacred respect. We are not attacking Jesus, Peace be on him. We respect Jesus Christ with sacred respect.
Let us continue. And now I like to go to the positive side of the crucifix. That is to say that it has its good influence as well. And we as intelligent people should be able to line up it's good influence or it's good utility with it's bad influences if you agree with us and it's harmful utility and make a decision as to whether it is acceptable to leave the image in society or to remove it. Another reason we have for the removal, for insisting upon the removal of all images in religion, is that the crucifix, while it is true that it does have some benefit in terms of the kind of accomplished or the kind of purging a wrong mindedness on the part of people that it offers or that it holds, it has some benefits. When we look at a human being or human form physically nailed to a cross and we are told that that person was a good person, that that person had no malice, no ill will, that that person's was well natured and meant well to everybody. It does draw our sympathies toward him. And when our sympathies are drawn toward a good thing, it does have the effect of awakening our good nature, they are good concepts. So that's the good side of it, that's the good side of it. But in spite of it having that kind of influence to provoke the movement of their good sentiment, moral sentiments, compassion, et cetera, in the ones who look upon it, for races that cannot identify with it racially, it has a reverse effect, it has a very negative effect. And not only for races that can't identify with it, even for those who identify with it simply because it's in their image, it has a reverse effect. It has a negative effect.
Of people there is an understanding in psychology that the human conscious can be transported and detached and lose all identity with the concerns that it previously belonged to if you can transfer that particular consciousness and its concerns to an image. In very early times of man's cultural growth and evolution, the psychologists or the psychiatrist and the priest was all in one person. He was the magic worker or the witch doctor as we call him now. He took on a bad name when the sciences were evolved. The witch doctor. And the witch doctor, he would form an image and he would use that image to drum up emotions, sentiments and emotions, and draw all those sentiments and emotions to the image until the person would almost fall out. In fact, many of the people he was treating would fall out, they would lose consciousness and they would fall out. Some would go into fits.
But after the experience was over, most of his patients felt better because he had detached their own consciousness from the subject of their consciousness, from the owner of that consciousness. He had detached their own concerns from the owner of those concerns. And he had made it possible for them to experience their own existence in the image rather than in themselves. And I tell you with scientific proof, I tell you that that's what has happened to many non-Caucasian people all over the world where that image has been established, where that image has been accepted of a white man or of a European looking man or of a European Jewish looking man on a cross. They have been successful through what I am talking about. I'm talking about people who saw this utility in the crucifix, people who didn't mean well, people who wanted to capture the productive forces of other people for their own selfish purposes. People who wanted to empty out the concern for the individual's life and attach it to an image so that they could drive those individuals to inhuman extremes, to inhuman conditions, supress them with inhuman circumstances, inhuman burdens so they would find it possible to survive and be happy all the time, every day because their reality was no longer in themselves, their reality was in the image.
Now let me explain this in a different way. You know you can experience a thing factually and you can experience a thing through the medium of a fantasy. You can experience a thing naturally and you can experience the thing vicariously. Vicariously means that you have become so absorbed in the thing that you are beholding that you experience now what that thing is experiencing. So I can be enjoying music and you can become so absorbed in watching me enjoy music that you become me and now you'll enjoy the music just as I'm enjoying music. And you are enjoying the music through me and your situation is not my situation. I'm free to enjoy music. They have you handcuffed, they have your feet shackled, they had your mouth muzzled. But you see me and you are doing the same thing I'm doing with your hands handcuffed, with your feet shackled, your mouth is muzzled, but you doing the same thing that I am doing. In your soul inside you are copying me. You're doing everything I'm doing, you're doing everything I'm doing. But you're not doing it factually, you're doing it vicariously.
Now let us go on to explain what we are talking about. So in psychology this is called transference, where the person's own reality has been transferred to something else. Now suffering people will identify with a suffering image or with an image that represents the sufferer. It's easy to get someone suffering to identify with an image that represents the sufferer. So no matter what color he is, no matter what ethnic image he has, if you see suffering, the human being is more a spiritual creature than he is a physical creature. So if they can show you that spiritually you want to say, he is a spiritual sufferer, you are spiritual sufferer. His free spirit is oppressed. Yours too. He has been wronged in the world. You too. He has been denied the freedom of movement. His hands are nailed. Yours too. He has been denied the freedom of progress, his feet are nailed. Yours too. He has had his heart injuied, his heart is bleeding but he can't do anything about it. Yours too. If they can make a picture that identify very closely with your own reality, then it's easy to transfer your reality to that image and you can stay in shithouse, you can stay in the dungeon, you can stay in ignorance, and you can find satisfaction through the image.
Now please excuse my language. If we have been able to come that far and see what we are talking about and understand what we're talking about, I say we on the way to removing these images. Because any intelligent minded free-thinking person that sees this reality, he has to submit himself for life to get rid of that image. We're still on the second reason. The second reason is psychological reason. The second reason is this thing that it does to our psychology that rob us of attachment with our own reality. Now if I'm correct, won't this explain the lack of motivation in the black man, the lack of community building on the part of the black community? Won't this explain the lack of advancement on the part of the black community? And most of all this will explain the disunity on the part of the black community. And not only on the part of the black community, but on the part of the Hispanic community, and on the part of any other community that hasn't been unable to identify with image in its physical reality.
Now what kind of message comes from this image to the white man? He identifies this image as Lord. And he knows that in the world he lives in the white man is in charge. Thus, this causes him to be satisfied with this image in a way that you will never be satisfied with it.
The Muslim Holy Book challenges the idea that we have to wait until the hereafter to get something good in life. The Holy Qur'an encourages us to strive with all the means we have to get a good piece of thsi material earth as well. You have to work for the after life, the after world. But don't forget your share in this world. That's what our Holy Book says. But we're still on the second point now we are people, Caucasians are white people, and a person that sees the Caucasian image on the cross has an advantage over those that those who can't identify with it. The white man is able to identify with the judge over mankind. Is that right? Jesus will also be in judgment. Is that right? So they have identity with this image and they say, "Oh yes, G-d gave Jesus Christ everything." And the white man says "Yes, we have got everything." And G-d gave Jesus Christ authority and the white man say "Yes, we have got authority as well." And G-d made Jesus Lord and the white man says "Yes, we are Lords."
So isn't this an injustice? If this image is going to be an image for all the people, if this is an image for all races, isn't that injustice? So here and now, that is the second reason for the removal of that image. Now let us go on to the third one. The third reason that we present today for the removal of that image is the conflict that that image holds for the life of the American people. And I'm talking about the national life, the political life of American people. And that life is understood by the Constitution of these United States. The Constitution of these United States established that man has one nature. And that all men have the same potential for growth. And that all men are entitled to ownership, freedom, ownership of material possession, political freedom, the right to aspire to the highest office of the United States along with every other man or every other citizen. This is a concept in the Constitution of these United States. it recognizes the human purpose. It does not give priority to ethnicity over what is essentially human beings.
And as a consequence of that particular recognition being in the Constitution of the United States and the life of American people, we have found that the movement of freedom and justice have trampled down ethnic concern to establish the human concern and a just society. We have no problem with the Constitution of the United States, but the Church itself is in direct conflict with the spirit of that Constitution when it holds up the picture of one race and calls it Lord in the face of the fact that white man, within the last 100 years, has falsely established that black people are racially inferior to whites, that the white man and a black man are not of the same substance.
They are not on the same level in the social evolution, the cultural evolution of man. That the black man is going to have been fixed by divine decree into a low level of social and cultural evolution and that the white man has to always be the guardian of the black man. This is what they established in their so called sciences not too long ago. This is history. In the face of that now, how can they dare tolerate the lifting of a white image or a Caucasian image as the deity, as a G-d, as the image of G-d's son in whom G-d manifest. No wonder the only faith we have in religion is spiritual faith. No wonder we get nothing in religion other than the emotional bang.
It's because that image says that G-d chose a white man as a medium for His expression. Not a black man, a white man for the medium of His expression. Some of you'll say, "Well man, it could have been anybody, could have been a black man." And if it had been a black one, the white man would be in our situation after a few centuries. So we don't accept that. And some will say, well what about your Prophet Muhammad? Was he a negro? Yeah. Was he an African? No. By a white mans classification, a negro is anybody with any amount of African blood in his vein. And of course in the history of our Prophet, Peace be on him, he had African blood and Caucasian blood in his vein and the two of them met and made an Arab. No, that's not permissible. I only said that for emotional effects.
That's not even permissible in Islam. The point is this. Here is the point. Muhammad is not a G-d, he established that he was not a G-d. He established that he was a human being just like us. In fact the sacred scriture that he delivered says "Tell them Muhammad, I'm a human being just like you." Didn't leave any doubt, didn't leave any question. Didn't say I'm a mortal and stop there. Didn't say he was as mortal with the divine light in him. Says "Tell them Muhammad, I'm a mortal just like you." And this is in answer to what was corrupted in the New Testament where Jesus said, "I in you and you in me." Saying that we are one nation, we are the same essence. Whatever possibility is in me the possibility exists also for you.
Now let me say again, the Qur'an is not a white picture book. In fact it has no pictures at all. Not even of our Prophet. We don't have a picture of our Prophet. There is no picture in existence. G-d directed him to outlaw any imagery of that time. Now let me proceed and understand now that he himself came in the movement of truth that was before him. He came willfully by G-d's will to complete it. So whatever he established it has this justification in the Prophets that were behind him. Now let me proceed with this. Another point is that our Holy Book says there has never existed any place on the earth that G-d did not raise up from among them a Prophet. So our book doesn't make Prophethood a white posession, of white dignity. Our book makes Prophethood the dignity of all people. And our book goes on to say that there are Prophets named in this book and others that are not mentioned. And it says also and I'll repeated it again, that never was there a community of people that did not have a Prophet. All the communities behind Prophet Muhammad had Prophets. All the nations, all the races have their Prophets. It is generally believed among Muslims presently on earth, and it has been believed for a long time that the Prophet called Luqman the Wise in the Qur'an was a black African.
So we think we can go on now that we have dealt with that kind of injustice. We can go on now and finish that and go to our final point. The final point in this address. We see in the science of the crucifix, and its a science because it touches the human psychology in an effort to preserve human morality. So it's a science. We see in this science a step in the long progression of Prophets a desire to preserve morality for the individual in society. We know that when the moral concern leaves society, the society is thrown into confusion, chaos. And pretty soon there's social turmoil, destruction and abuse of human rights. And all of this serves to disturb the good life of the people. So we choose that weak leader that will allow us to keep on going with our weaknesses. Is that right? And what we see here is that the crucifix that is supposedly designed to simulate consciousness when people look upon it and in that stimulate the moral activity, preserve the moral life of the o society has so many other major negative signs of influences coming from it that it doesn't justify us keeping it for that one reason. So now lets look at the symbolism of whats being presented. They try to tell us that Jesus went up in mind, soul and body. But the Bible clearly states that flesh does not enter the kingdom. So if that is the case, then Jesus Christ must also be a sign. But a sign of what? Well, if you have one cross and then you place the human being on that cross and crucify him on that cross, then that's a double cross. Is that right? So let's see who has been double crossed. Allah has taught him through what means? Through the medium of the external reality. And the oldest living example we have of this kind of progression or evolution of man's effort to communicate is in the Ancient Egytptian language they call hyroglyphics. Hyroglyphics is a picture language. It's a language of concrete concepts. We have dogs there, we have sun there, we have daylight, we have fire, we have birds, we have a wolf, we have all of these images put together to make a script. They put images together and they made a script. And in order to read that script you had to read their images and it became good to them. See primitive man had come into that naturally. We find unevolved, I hate to say primitive, but we find unevolved society all over the world that speaks in concretes. They haven't learned how to speak in abstract. So they speak in concrete pictures. But we don't find any as evolved and established as that language of Ancient Egypt.
Forgive me if I keep you just a little more. Yes. Now they have a mystery associated with this particular thing in Ancient Egypt. And this mystery is told in this way. That when anybody came into the capital of Ancient Egypt, they had to first break the riddle before they could enter. If they couldn't break the riddle of the muse. M-U-S-E, muse. Now you know muse means something that holds profit, something that can give you divine guidance. That's what it meant in ancient times. But you know now muse has become amusement. And I even believe then for the foolish it was amusement, but for the wise it was direction. And they would come up to the city and they would behold the muse. It was a great statue, it was a huge statue. And it was imposing and mysterious. So it would captivate you, it would just suck you into it.
And if you couldn't break the riddle, you couldn't get into that city. Not that you couldn't get into that city, you could go physically into that city but you couldn't make progress in that city. Now we are physically in America, but for now, after three generations, after three cenuries and many decades, we have not progressed. Yes we have. What about Andrew Young? Ask Andrew Young, what about his situation. Talk to him now. Please go talk to Mayor Andrew Young, the former Ambassador of the United States. And if he doesn't depress you, come back to me baby, then I will apologize.
We had men in places during Reconstruction. In fact, we had more significant positions in the political structure and during Reconstruction than we have had since Reconstruction. So that's no proof of our advancement. The proof of our advancement is our ability to command our own Lord. Now I don't know what to call it here in this area, but in Chicago we have precincts, district wards, and so far we haven't been able to command a district. We haven't been able to command the ward, we haven't been able to command a precinct. Our precinct captain, he related between us and the city, or City Hall for their advantage. We see them getting advantages from us. But so far our reality, our political reality, our economic reality, our material reality, it stays the same.
We are not stable communities. We don't have an equal share in the authority of our area. We don't have equal representation in the capital or in the material resources of the area. We are in fact in the same situation considering how everything else has progressed, how everything else has advanced. We're in the same situation we were in when the man said go, we going to give you 40 acres and a mule but did not fulfill his promise. Alright, now I know you're saying, "Oh Brother Imam, please don't talk like that. We American, we American Muslim Mission." That's right. And the mission is to make America deliver. That's part of the mission. We have to make America deliver. And to do that we are going to have to have some kind of possession of our own reality and we have to begin with our personal self. And any time your whole conscious and your whole concern can be transferred to an image that you cannot identify ethnically with because it's an negative image. Buddy that tells me that we have to do something about getting control in possessions of our own reality.
Yes, let us continue. So Ancient Egypt had a riddle and the key for entering that city. Entering that city means becoming a part of that city, a functional part of that city, a progressive unit in that city. That's what it means by entering the city. Now we know those people that scripture say were in bondage or enslaved by Pharaoh, the Lord of Egypt, who himself claimed very much what they claim for the crucifix, he claimed that he was the Lord of earth. In fact, he said he was Lord of everything and he chose the same language. He claimeed the heavenly G-d chose him as His descendant as an earthly embodiment for their presence. Or for His presence, the heavenly Lord's presence. And Pharoah, when he was questioned about him saying he was G-d, he said, well no I'm not G-d in that sense. I am G-d manifest.
G-d is in me. And when the Prophet in our scripture challenged Pharaoh, Pharaoh said, "I know no Lord but me." Yes that's what Pharoah said. And do you know they had one of the most elaborate religious orders that history has recorded. We are not talking about savage man. We are not talking about barbaric man. We are talking about an ancient kingdom that knew science, knew medicine, knew chemistry, knew physics. We are talking about an ancient kingdom about 4, 3, 4, 5,000 years ago that made the first dustpan, that made the first broom to sweep the trash up, that made the first modern furniture. Some of your moderrn furniture today does not look any more modern than the furniture they have in the Museum of Cairo Egypt that those people made three or 4,000 years ago. And I'm speaking from firsthand knowledge. I saw this myself.
Oh, we are not talking about a shabby society, a shabby nation. We talking about a well established nation. A nation that boasted in its material accomplishments, in its industry. A nation that boasted in its sciences. A nation from which we trace our own science we call psychology. And you study psychology, you know this, that's if you have studied it. If you have been trained in it by the white man, maybe you don't know it, but if you have done a little research on your own, you know it. If you have thought enough about the field you were interested in to trace it's beginnings in history, you have traced it's beginnings back to Africa, to Ancient Egypt.
Alright, okay. Now the people who were in bondage in Egypt, their main hope was to free themselves from Egypt. Now the one who wanted to come in to come in, he had to do what? Break the riddle. Now according to the Bible, the Hebrew children were already in Egypt. So what is this telling us? If they were in bondage, they didn't break the riddle. And if they were in bondage they hadn't got into Egypt. So haven't we struggled as a minority people to get into the mainstream of America's life? Now we know we've been here all the time, haven't we? But we haven't been in the mainstream of America's life. During reconstruction we had men in high places of government. But we were not yet able to get into the mainstream of the American life. And since then we have had men become rich. We can point to individual black men, individual black women to say they were millionaires and multimillionaires. But still we are trying to get into the mainstreams of American life.
Now look back there at that time. Wasn't Nathan sitting on a couch of luxury and he was one of the Hebrew children. Yeah, Nathan was one of the Hebrew boys. And in Egypt, Egypt he sat on a couch of luxury. In the movie about the Hebrews he had so many fine pieces of jewelry. But he was as happy as he could be. And I think it was Paul Robenson. Yes he played Nathan and yes he was a Hebrew that was well off but the Hebrews were in bondage. Now I'm trying to tell you to look at this reality and see yourself. We have a Muhammad Ali, we have a Johnson Products company, we have a few well to do heavy pocketed Bilalians, but the state of the Bilalians at large is the same as the Hebrew boys in bondage. We not getting into Egypt. And getting into Egypt is not getting money in your pocket. Getting into Egypt is breaking the riddle. You heard that a fool and his money soon part.
And that's a sad story of our people in the world, fool and his money soon part. So let me move on up a little bit with this now. Now remember we just on the third. We have one more to go. We haven't yet finished the third one, we wanted to show you the symbolism associated with this process. Now what happened now? The Hebrews with the help of G-d, they had to have Allah, they couldn't make it without Allah. With the help of Allah, their uneducated man Moses comes along. How do we know he was uneducated? Maybe he was an intelligent man. In fact, I'm convinced he was a very intelligent man but he didn't have the scholarly ability of the Egyptian leader. The proof of it is that he said, "Oh G-d untie the knot in my tongue." And since he couldn't speak very well, he asked G-d he said, "Appoint my brother G-d and make him a representative for me."
Obviously Aaron was articulate. Obviously Aaron was eloquent, Is that the word when you're learned? Yes. Obviously he had been an academic talent and had become wise. Aaron that is. Now, but he didn't have the conviction that his brother Moses had. He was still attached to the crumbs that fell off table of Pharoah. He still had his heart in that. But he was religious, he belonged to the religious community, he was the religious head, But he wasn't grounded in what Moses had been established in by G-d. The proof of it is G-d told him, now don't you let Aaron get into this. Now that's your business. I'm charging to you with this. You let Aaron speak, but you do the acting. So Moses let Aaron speak. So Moses, he was given the responsibility of leading the movement, taking the people out of bondage into freedom.
And he needed Aaron for appropriate expression when he wanted to talk to the educated. So when he went back to Pharoah Aaron spoke for him, right? G-d communicated to Moses and Moses supported that or communicated that to Aaron. And Aaron articulated it before Pharoah and his mighty people, right? Okay, we have the same situation today. We have the learned who are very articulate. But they don't see the strategy in the cultural life or the social pattern. They don't see the strategy, they can't break the riddle. So they can't be charters of progress into freedom or allegiance. We need somebody else for that. And again, G-d has chosen the one who has difficulty with his rongue. He does not have a degree. He's not polished. He hasn't been on the errands of academia.
So he's at a disadvantage. So I would like to talk to President Reagan, but I don't know if I can do it. Now this was your leader five years ago. But since then your leader has fulfilled his promise to Moses at a later time as a leader. He has taken the knot out of his tongue. Now didn't Moses pray for G-d to take the knot out of his tongue? And he asked G-d for a helper to articulate for him. And the scripture never tell you that Moses became articulate but it leaves that for the imagination of the religious scholars for them to discover that yes he only used Aaron when he was in that situation. But later on at the mountain he saw into the riddle, he saw into the symbols. And he came down and Aaron didn't speak for him did he? In fact, he spoke to Aaron didn't he? He asked Aaron, "What is the matter with you? You the last one that I thought would get hung up in these riddles. Taking the earrings of these people and melting them down and making a golden calf. You supposed to know better Aaron." So Aaron backed up in fear and said "Please don't grab me by the hair of my beard." Alright. So look, we're trying to get to a point, we're trying to complete our third point. And the spirit of G-d is on us and I can't stop. Now let us look. When he got into Egypt, when he got out of Egypt, pardon me, he went out of, we would say, the pot into the frying pan. When he was in Egypt, Pharoah was the threat. But when he got out there in the wilderness, his own people threatened him. And out there in the wilderness, they didn't have the conveniences of Cairo, Egypt. Those conveniences were not out there. So the people began to mumble and groan, "You are our leader, you say you G-d sent. Have you taken us out one situation to put us into a worst one? At least in Egypt we could eat collard greens, black eye peas, ham hocks, onions and lentils, all kinds of pot herbs. But out here. Moses, you got us eating nothing.
We can't survive of the kind of stuff you feeding us. You got one kind of food out here. And another thing. When we were in Egypt, we had more money. Even though we were in bondge, we had more money. Out here, we ain't got no money, we ain't got decent food. We just lost in the wilderness. And Moses said, "I got word from G-d for that disrespectful and ungrateful kind to talk on your part. Do you recall the miracle that brought you here? Do you recall the great wonders that made it possible for you to get out Egypt without them slaying all of us? So G-d, because of this terrible disrespect and ingratitude on your part is going make you wander out here for 40 years."
"Ohhh excuse us please. Tell your Lord to forgive us. We can''t stay out here no 40 years." He says, "Yeah I know that. All you hypocrites gonna die. And when you die off then G-d will give the kingdom to a new people." That was their punishment for ingratitude. Alright, so let us see what happened in the wilderness. This particular problem he had with people, you know the problem he had in Egypt, it was dealt with with a stick, wasn't it? Says G-d said, "That stick you got in your hand Moses, I'm going let you in to some secrets in the stick." And when G-d showed him the first sign of the secret that was in that stick, Moses got frightened. G-d said don't be afraid. Approach it. It had turned into a serpent, moving like a poison cobra. G-d said, "Now grab it in your hand." And when Moses grabbed it, the staff grew back out and became a stick again. So Moses said, "Oh Yeah, I need to go see Pharoah righ now." Now forgive me for this imagination. If that's all the imaginative problem we had, we would be safe. Alright, So a stick gave him victory in Egypt. He beat the people of Pharaoh with that stick. Now in the wilderness he was met with another challenge and this time it's from his own people. His people wouldn't have no confidence in his intellectual ability, his intellectual foresight. And they wouldn't trust the fact that there was a Supreme Being behind what he was doing or supporting what he was doing. Every time things got more difficult for them or got real serious for them, they began to doubt Moses.
So while Moses was away, they got to mumbling and grumbling. And when Moses came back they were all against each other. They were hurling insults at each other with a fiery tongue. And it is called in the Bible, the curse of the fiery tongue. Now fiery tonuged we know means hothead expressions, bigheaded and hotheaded expressions. Same kind of problem we got. Everybody wants to show off what they know. Just got to resist, got to despise somebody. "Well now you don't know everything Mister. Can you prove that? Where'd you get it from? Well Mr, you don't have any credentials. There's no credibility. You don't have a PhD, you don't have a Master's, you don't have a Master's degree, you don't have anything of substance Mister. You just telling us something with no way to prove any of it." Well, can't we reach common ground, can't we find a moral basis for agreement? He get hotheaded then because he know you going to catch him. Because he know he can't stand up morally. Now he resorts to fiery tongue tactics.
You listen to that? I don't know why you people follow this sucker. You going to be disappointed I know his game. In fact you ought to drive this nigga off the block. You ought drive this nigga out our community. He ain't nothing but a problem. So fiery tongue start right? And then as soon as he about to be established, the next jealous hearted one say, "Well look, you might be right about him but I tell you something, you ain't no good either nigga. I think the best one qualified for this thing and give us some direction is probably Joe." Not he going get out the focus now because he don't want people to identify him that he just attacking cause he wants to get the position. So he say, "I'ma put Joe in there first that I'm going to get it from Joe."
So they begin to attack each other with fiery tongues right? Now how did Moses deal with that? Moses raised up a cross in the wilderness. It was a stick, a pole with a bar across. He raised up a cross in the wilderness and he put a a serpentt on that cross as a symbol. The cross itself was a symbol and the serpent itself another symbol. So he put a serpent, or a brown serpent on the cross. And appeared as a crucifix. A serpent crucified on a cross. Now why did he do that? He did that for the same psychological effect. Remember he came out of Egypt, the place that had evolved psychology to a very, very high peak. So he knew the psychological benefit of having that imagery influence the emotional behavior of those people. So every time they saw a snake, a snake on the cross, they knew to translate. It was a sign of what their emotional unstableness and emotional rages had done to their basic constitution, to their fixed nature. See the human being has been given a fixed nature and that fixed nature is a nature that opens up. It accepts to be altered, it accepts anything. It accepts to be altered, it accepts to be changed, it accepts to be suppressed. It accepts anything for the sake of doing what? Releasing the potential in that nature for higher station of life. There's a potential in that nature for a higher development and that nature will accept to be mistreated, that nature will accept to be altered, that nature will accept to be held down because nothing can hold back it' potential. And pressure is what speeds up its activity to reach its full potential. So it accepts all of that you see.
The serpent when it gets cold he hibernates. When it gets warm, he comes back to action, comes back into activity, right? He can survive all kinds of conditions. He has a terribly long age and many other mysteries about him that we won't go into. The serpent without legs can go up a tree. The serpent without legs, without legs can go across the country you see? So a serpent without legs can go across a mountain and can go further without legs. Now what is it without leg that has freedom of movement in all kinds of situations? It's our intellect, the human intellect. I can stand up a tree without leg, I can sit it to the ground without legs. I can send it across country without legs. Now when it becomes a blind serpent, that means my intellect, my intellect has unlocked the rhythm of the atmosphere. Then it can take wings as the scripture say, to become a flying serpent, right? Yes, I hope some of you can follow what I'm saying. But if you can't follow me in all that I'm saying the trip is very essential.
So he puts the serpent on the pole and raises it up, showing it dead on the pole, meaning that intellectual arrogance on your part, intellectual jealousy on your part, will render your mind dead. And he raised it up as a sign to remind his people after he educated them to that particular thing. After educating them to their particular behavior, behavioral risk on the part of their intellect, then he put a sign up there that held the message in simple form. And you know what the Chinese philosopher says: One picture is worth a thousand words. Yes. So he raised the serpent up and said, for any man, says when any man has that problem, if he just look on that symbol that Moses raised, he would be healed. Now don't be telling us look on Jesus and be healed. So here is the value in that symbol and the power to prick the conscious and to quicken thought and memory and moral sentiments to make them stir again in the person.
So what does the book say? The book says, "As the serpent was raised up in the wilderness, so shall the Son of Man be lifted up." Isn't that what the book says? What does it mean? It means Moses raised the serpent up to speak to a defect in the intellect of his people. Cowardice, emotional rage, intellectual jealousy. As the serpent be raised up in the wilderness, so shall the Son of Man be lifted up. Alright? Now what does that Jesus mean on the cross? There's a defect in the morals of people. And isn't that where Christianity bases itself, that man is created in sin? That this as an inherent or natural defect he inherited from Adam his first father? So they say that we are inherently given to sin and we need something to redeem us.
The thing that redeems us is showing us a spotless person in in terms of sin. Crucified by the world for no other reason but for his righteousness. And that make our sentiments go to him even though we are sinners. And in our sentiments going to him, our being is transferred to his enemy and we become one in Christ on the cross. And we begin to call for Jesus the new self represents when we get involved in crime and immorality. And those that still hold the image in their conscious will say, forgive me Lord. Right? Forgive me Lord. But look, I said in the early part of this talk also that a tree is known by the fruit it bears. And we find that wherever the image has been established there is a greatest amount of homosexuality. There's a greater amount of behavioral perversion, there's a greater amount of killing, robbing, brutalizing and mutilating the flesh of human beings.
So it has the affect of appealing to the conscience of the people and making them feel sorry for that. But it also feeds the perversion in the human being. And we find the people, I hate to mention their name, but Allah as my witness I love them as much as I love my own family. And that's the Hispanic people, the Mexican people. We find that they are more Christians than hardly anybody in this creation. But we find that they are the people that are more cruel to each other also more than anybody in this creation. They cut each other up, they shoot each other up. They just cruelly strike the body of each other on the weekend, on Friday and Saturday. Is that not fact? You thought we were the most violent to each other? They got us beat. They got us beat. Now if that image is also feeding the burdening behavior in the person, then we must be fair and look at the benefit.
But let go on to finish this very point. And believe me it won't be long. Let us look at two things here, two points here right now. One is this. The promise in religion. What is the promise in religion? Jesus said, I talk to you, I speak to you in parables now. But however there will come a time when I'll speak to you in plain language. Isn't that the gospel? That's the gospel. So what does that tell me? If the cross represent a symbolic way of reaching the conscience of people in order to preserve their moral nature and moral interests or moral concerns, then the Bible tell me that there is coming a time when symbols, real symbols, parables are going to be pushed back out of the way as the veil opening up for the light. And the knowledge shall come to us in plain language that all of us can understand.
In other words, that wording in scripture is a promise of what America and the West has tried to deliver. And what is that? Public education, equal access to knowledge. And America is pledged right now isn't it? To make private education available to all of its citizens who qualify for it, isn't it? Yes, we have a little period, a little dark period right now because of certain allowances, certain funds that were available for students are not available now. But the commitment is still there and students that qualify are still getting assistance aren't they? Yes. Whether they be black, red or poor. In fact the poor are the ones that they recognize, okay? So America is on track with that. And the Bible, if you understand it, if you understand the whole mystery that's centered or focused in Jesus and the cross, then you understand that the promise is given in that particular New Testament expression, I speak to you now in parables. When someone speak you in parables, it's like speaking to you in riddles, it's like speaking to you in concepts that you don't understand. Parables need interpretation. What he says, "Albeit, the time will come when I will speak to you plainly." Isn't that the New Testament? Well those who understand it know that this is a promise. The promise that man recognize as a divine promise or a divine will that everybody will one day have the opportunity to see the reality of their purpose, their dignity, their destiny, their potential in this life, in this world.
Now I won't going through the Islamic view on this particular idea, but I'll simply say this- That that was answered in Muhammad Peace be Upon him, because education became an obligation on every male and female and no one was discriminated against when it came to divine knowledge. In Prophet Muhammad priesthood was abolished and everybody had equal footing when it came to an opportunity to get the word of G-d and also the knowledge of that word. That was established in Prophet Muhammad's time. And over a period of less than 15 years he brought what was described as dark age, ignorant, ignorant masses, warring like hoodlum gangs to be the model of civilization and enlightenment for the whole then world. So that's where we will stop there. We'll stop there. You might say, "Well why is it your community of Muslims internationally in such a shambles now Mr. Imam?" Or you might say, "Dude" or whatever. You may say anything in this situation. You may say anything.
The reason for that is because Jesus Christ was a sign of Prophet Muhammad being crucified, not as a man but as a mission. Jesus was a sign of what would come after him. Most of us think that Jesus himself was crucified. In our religion we are told no, he wasn't crucified, but it was only a sign that really something was substituted in his place. It's a substitute, it's a replacement of your reality to the image. And you were put into his image on the cross. Actually you, your intellect is crucified along with the word of G-d. That's double cross. Yes. Jesus represent the word of G-d in his physical value, double crossed, that is put on a cross, crucified, on a cross. And by you attaching yourself or putting yourself in the image, then you have identity in the image, therefore you are crossed, right? Yes. And you were crossed even more because now you can't even muster up the moral courage to demand dignity for yourself in the world. So you are crossed now. But by the fact that you are crossed morally and in that image you are also crossed intellectually because without moral life you'll never come into the rational spark. It's impossible. The rational spark comes in the moral body. That's why light illumines in Jesus, because he was a moral body. That's where the light illumines, in the moral body. And since you don't have access to interpretation of the word of G-d, you'll put off intellectually. Now I hope we can hurry up and proceed. The promise then is to bring enlightenment.
It is expedient then that I go away. The Comforter will not come onto you. Now, wasn't he the Comforter? But the scripture also says another Comforter, doesn't it? Another Comforter. And G-d will give you another Comforter. So he's speaking of that, another Comforter. He says, if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. Now what reconciles human life, what brings it into harmony? What rest it? What give it a feeling of confidence? Moral fortitude, moral fortitude. But that don't last forever. It is expedient that that goes away. You have to stop depending on moral sight alone. You have to be blessed with insight into the material composition of the world and the sciences that that material composition holds and the power that it holds out to the man of earth for his life. And this will bring him to rational progress and productivity. And isn't that a comforter? The moral life comforts me until I begin to feel the economic life.
"Oh Lord! Thank you for morality, but please take these terrible economic conditions away soon." And G-d says it's expedient that you go away. For if you go not away, the Comforter will not come. It will allow man to pick up his spiritual stake and set down a spiritual stake. Say I put my spiritual stake here, this land is declared for spiritual life. I place my spiritual flag here. This land is declared for spiritual life. The principle here, the orientation here, the theory here, the orientation here is moral excellence. And it lasts so long. And the people say we can't plan these material conditions. Something short in your leadership. There is something lacking in your leadership. Say, we love you, you sweet as can be. But Carter, you've got to go.
I know you weren't ready for that one, but Carter had to go. He had the pretty, gritty heart, but he didn't have the vision to take the people rationally, materially, scientifically out of the situation that America was in. He had the moral vision, but he was lacking the scientific vision of how to deal with the material and economic problems. See, one vision opens up all of them, and when the next one open up in order to be successful in it, it has to also be the first one. Therefore, Jesus said, you don't see me. I go away and you see me no more. Say, but nevertheless you shall see me. Is that right? Meaning that when rational enlightenment comes, when scientific enlightenment comes, if I'm not there, G-d didn't do it. And if I'm not there, it won't be successful. Now look at the scientific treasures that the West has come into, but look at the clumsiness of the West.
The human clumsiness on their part. They don't look for the way to avoid destroying the value in the people that are going to be affected by what they do. When we see the history of the material advancements of America, the West, when we look at how human life has suffered, how human lives have been abused, how human lives have been unjustly, suppressed, polluted, crushed under the weight of a city that wasn't designed with respect for the human being. When we look at all that. We say, yes, they have the technology, but they were clumsy when it came to respecting the human element. Is that right? So that tells me that they didn't have Jesus. And Jesus said, I go away. As long as I'm in the world, I'm the light of the world. But he said I had to go away. That tell me when Jesus died, not only did we lose Jesus the Prophet Peace be Upon him from this world, but this world that challenged him also lost the light that he brought. Because He was the world the light of the world as long as he was in the world.
Now you will say yes, it means that as long as Jesus is in our heart, the moral light will stay on. I don't think so because Jesus, as you have conceived him, haven't kept the moral light on. If the moral right was kept on, how come they discarded us, disregarded us and wrote us off as an inferior stock, as less than human people. And they sold us as they sold horses and mules and treated us worst than they did horses and mules. Used our bodies for their sport on the weekends, tortured us for sport, smoked cigars and drank whiskey and laughed and enjoyed seeing us tortured, whipped, beaten. Or put two blacks against each other and let them beat their brains out for 40 rounds. You fight 10 rounds now. They used to fight 40 rounds back then, put two black together and they fight for 40 rounds, beat each other to death with their fists.
That means that those people have been denied of their human intelligence. If this was possible under the image, then the image did not have the same effect that Jesus had. That didn't happen in Jesus life, did it? When Jesus was with the people, did they treat each other like that? He went along the town, he went along the ways of the town and he was able to draw people away from cruelties wasn't he? He said, "Oh, that suffering man there in the street. Don't walk around him, pick him up." Jesus said I'll pick him up myself. You won't pick him up I'll pick him up myself. He demonstrated what the human being was supposed to do. So if that same concern, that same power was in America, was in the West, it would not have allowed the West Europe and America to treat human beings as cruelly as they treated us over a period of better than a hundred years and since. Well 200 years and then another hundred years of Jim Crow and lynching. So now what is it saying? It's saying G-d will send you another Prophet. It is expedient that I go away for that Prophet will not come unto you. Prophet Muhammad is the answer of that. Now you all deal with personality too much because that's the way this Western culture has conditioned you. That's the way it has orientated you in your emotions. You identify too much with physical bodies, a physical person. You identify too much with a symbol.
You have be able to identify the meaning that the symbol is nothing but a representation for. Prophet Muhammad Peace be on him, he came and he represents the second Comforter, but he also represent the Jesus principle too. He says in the Qur'an, G-d says of him, "I have lived a whole lifetime with you." And we know his lifetime was 40 years, 40 years prior to the coming of the revelation. Is that right? Now, what does that 40 year symbolize? It symbolizes the moral excellence of Prophet Muhammad before enlightenment dawned in him, G-d missioned him as a Prophet and taught him, taught him, made him educated, educated him, made him the most enlightened person on this earth. Says that G-d, the very words of the language when G-d talked to him tells us that it was an education. An education or an educated process. He said to Prophet Muhammad, "Read." And Prophet Muhammad said "Read?" G-d said it again. He said, "Read." Prophet Muhammad said, "I'm not one to read." He said again to Prophet Muhammad, he said, "Oh Muhammad Read." And Prophet Muhammad began to read.
Is that in the scripture too? Yes. The scripture says that there'll come a time when there'll be a famine and it won't be a famine of food. It'll be a famine of hearing the word of G-d. This is Bible. Says that darkness will engulf the whole world. Wasn't Prophet Muhammad, born in what they call the Dark Ages?When darkness engulfed the whole world? Says, and darkness will engulf the whole world. Saying if one will come with the word, with the scripture and they will go to one and they would say, "Would you read this for me?" Saying that person would say, "I'm sorry, I can't read this. I'm not a man or a person of letters," meaning that they haven't been educated in the knowledge of how to read the script, the print. Says then he would take it to another one, a learned person, and he would say, "Will you please read this for me?" This is Bible. And that person will say, "Sorry it is sealed."
Meaning that it is sealed in a symbolic interpretation. And he does not have the sight, he does not have the ability to break the riddle, even though he's Aaron. He cannot break the riddle. So Allah missioned Prophet Muhammad. And he said, "Read." "I can't read." Read again. "I can't read. " Read the third time. And he began reading. Then he told him, "Oh you wrapped up in your mantle. Arise and warn. Get up. Rise and warn the city." So He educated him and then told him to come out the wrappings of the oppressive culture. "Oh, you and your mantle, wrapped up in your mantle. Rise and warn, teach the light to the world." One from among the illiterate given the spark of enlightenment. And then guided by G-d step by step until it's completion. Now this is a miracle, isn't it? This is a natural phenomenon. Not only a miracle, this is a natural phenomenon. And in our religion, G-d has shown us this as a natural phenomenon. And that's what Jesus was saying in the New Testament when he said "It's expedient that I go away." Meaning that this thing is not only created by G-d. It's a behavioral principle in nature and the dawning of morality and the dawning of the intellect inside the moral body. The excellent moral body is a necessity.
It is a physical, natural phenomenon as well as the divine will. So let us see if we can go a little further. Let us see now. Has that been fulfilled in the crucifix? We go now to the idea of the Last Supper. In the Last Supper, who's there in that picture? 12 men under one. Is that right? 12 disciples or apostles under one Messenger of G-d. What do they represent? They represent the spiritual kingdom. They represent the skies, the heavens. The sky and the heavens are symbolic of man's spiritual aspirations. So what did Jesus then represent for the people? He represented a community that poromised a new life. Didn't he promise something new? He didn't give it in his day. He said that he prayed, "Give us this day our daily bread." Is that right? And he goes on "Thy kingdom come," not his. So he prayed for daily bread and he prayed for the kingdom to come down from heaven. Is that right? That it be on earth as it is in heaven.
So his table represented the heavenly aspiration. When we look at the heavens, what do we see of up there? A sign of peace. At night we look at the sky oh it look so peaceful doesn''t it?. So quiet, so peaceful, so orderly. Things are up there in an orderly arrangement. Isn't the moon so orderly? And they're so dependable. You can clock it and oh you came back the same time 'ol sweetheart moon. You came the same time baby, I thought you'd be a little late tonight. The moon say no, I'm pretty regular. And the sun. You know the night gets long and you get tired, bored with the night. "I wonder where that sun is. Sure wish it would hurry up. And you get up and you wait "Oh boy, you sure do your own thing, don't you? I wanted you a little earlier, you came the same time you did yesterday. Sun say well I'm pretty regular. Order, peace regularity. Is that right? Isn't that what we want on this earth?
Girl kiss you today, kiss you tomorrow and then two months before she kiss you again. You say "Hey, what was happening to you girl. Why you kiss me yesterday and the day before and the day before. And now here two weeks have passed and no kiss. You got me used to the kiss, you got be expecting the kiss. You ain't regular. I'm going out and find me a steady." Doesn't our life call for some kind of system, some kind of systematic order, some kind of regularity. So man look at the heavens, there's a sign of that. He said, "Oh I wish it was here. I wish we had that same kind of discipline, that same kind of peace and orderliness and regularity down here in our community."
So Jesus prayed for that, didn't he? He said, Thy kingdom come. So that means Jesus prayed for orderly life, for consistent life, for regular life to be established on earth. And not only for that he said, "And the daily bread." The daily bread, he took it and gave it to the poor didn't he? And they charged him with going into the sacred house and giving that bread to the Saducees.. See, well that's forbidden. Say you did wrong. And Jesus defended it. He quoted past scripture, David, right? I think it was David. He quoted David. He reminded him of David to justify what he had done. Now what does the daily bread symbolize? Now here again we have two major concerns being addressed with a symbol. Bread is a symbol. And we have here two major concerns being addressed with a symbol. What is the first concern?
The first concern. The first concern is for the freedom of the human intellect. And bread we know is symbolic of doctrine, symbolic of the teachings of Jesus himself. For the New Testament speaks of people eating bread and compares this with knowledge. And the New Testament speaks of eating bread, meat and compares it also with knowledge. This is nothing that we are secretly disclosing or any lost secrets we exposing. The Bible itself tell you this in plain language, that bread represents knowledge and also meat represents knowledge. So bread represents a certain kind of knowledge. What kind? How do they make bread?
The bread that we eat today is bread filled with air. So our bread represents spiritual science. The bread of the New Testament is spiritual science. It's bread filled with air, representing spirit. And we know that Jesus is called what? The one blessed with the Holy Spirit and he's called also child of the Holy Spirit. Is that right? Okay, so the doctrine then, the gospel of Jesus is bread. Not meat, bread. And if you studied the gospel, he ate bread and fish, right? He didn't eat anything beef. No lamb. And the only thing he had for pork was a curse.
This is a fact of the New Testament. Some people were possessed by demons, he drug those demons out of those people into the herd of pigs and the herd of pigs went crazy and jumped off the cliffs and committed suicide. That's the only connection I know in this Bible of Jesus with the pork, that he drove the spirits out of the people that were possessed by them into a herd of swine and they became crazy and ran over and jumped over a cliff and committed suicide. Now I hope you not one of those swine. And I sure hope you stop eating them too. But that's beside the point. You don't have to allow that into this discussion today either.
If bread then represents spiritual science the way they make bread now, the Bible says a certain one put yeast in three measures of bread. Is that right? And we know that the Trinitarian doctrine is a doctrine of three. Trinity means three. Says a certain one put yeast in three measures of bread. Now what does the yeast do to the dough? The yeast makes more air into the dough and it makes the dough rise. The yeast puts more air into it, it makes it rise. And we know that New Testament doctrine is a highly spiritual doctrine. It's a loaf of bread raised up very high with yeast there. Now this is not to criticize. I respect these symbols, these elements. They hold wisdom. they hold science.
So in the Last Supper, let us look and see what was on the table. Bread and wine. Now he said do this in remembrance of me. We are still talking about the crucifix. Don't forget our point. We are establishing reasons why that image should go, reasons for its removal. So he said do this in remembrance of me. And he broke the bread and he gave it to the disciples, right? And they all ate of one bread, meaning they all ate of one doctrine. Is that right? And then he also took the wine and they all drank of the same wine, same wine. Symbolizing that he was telling them to be of the same spirit. And you know now liquors are called spirits, aren't they? Liquors are called spirits. So one was a spiritual doctrine and he say eat of it. See the teeth have to work with bread. You don't just swallow bread, you swallow water. You chew bread.
See some ideas we give you, you don't have to chew it. You always say, so chew on that for awhile. You ever heard that expression, chew on that awhile? It means think about that, ponder on that, think about that for a while. You see. So bread represents religious doctrine or teaching that whole science, the science for treating the spiritual ills of the person. And the wine represents the spirit that is connected directly with human sensitivity. And those sensitivities now have become concerns. And we know that concerns are stronger than sensitivities are. Water represents sensitivity. If you just touch water it quivers all through. Water is very sensitive but wine represents a higher development in the water. Wine represents concerns.
Concerns will stimulate the mind. Concerns when they are sober concerns they will stimulate the mind if they are promising but they won't necessarily drunken the mind, right? But we can get concerns that are not understandable or are not in accord with the needs of our nature. And those concerns will make us drunk, won't they? Yes. That's hard liquor. That's not communion wine. That's why communion wine is different. Now if you catch the priest giving the wine around and it's Morgan David, then you know the priests don't know what's happening in the scripture. He's passing the wrong wine around.
He's supposed to have water or grape juice, water with some red dye in it to symbolize or to resemble blood. Or some grape juice. That's what he's supposed to have. He ain't supposed to be drinking no wine, no real wine. Wine is called a juice of the vine. Now if you leave it to ferment, it will become something to make you drunk, intoxicate you. So what is the meaning of this intoxicating effect now? It means that the people become so emotionally into it, so emotionally involved into the religion, that the effect on them is the effect of alcohol.
And if you increase that too much, you make your congregation drunk. Yes, that's strong liquor. Now no amount of that stuff you buy from the liquor store is justified. G-d forbids that. He says surely alcohol, gambling, and certain other things are works of the devil stay away from them. But this wine that they take in Communion is symbolic or the Eucharist is symbolic of enthusiastic teaching. Enthusiastic teaching. So Jesus was able to take that doctrine that the Jews were dealing out or giving and he was able to see with his insight, he was able to see meanings in there that they hadn't been able to discover. So he was able to develop those concepts to a high level like developing water up to the level of wine.
And the people were excited. Like some of you are right now. You perhaps have listened to religious preachers, teachers before, but now you are excited. Your curiosities are excited, your imagination is excited. So you are like drinking wine. It is exciting for you. So it's like drinking wine. But if I just harp on the moral message, it will be just giving you plain water and pretty soon it gets dulled doesn't it. Well hell I'm tired of this nigga telling me that I ought to be righteous. Hell he don't know the rest of the problems I got, I'm going to leave. But ain't hardly nobody left here because it is not flat water. It's a little wine.
So you know wine is hard to resist. You had to have a divine to stay away from it, especially with the situations down here that throw you into chaos, turmoil and confusion, et cetera. And you know everything that's going bad, that wine is hard to resist. You say you have sweet promises, you sweet tasting, I got the taste. Okay, going back to the Last Supper, look at that Last Supper now. What's offered on the table? Wine. and bread. Do you call that a supper? I'm not making fun, there's a sign in this. Do you call that a supper?
Have you heard of after dinner wine, cocktails? A cocktail and after dinner wine. Now if this was a supper, this tells me that this was after dinner, right? It wasn't a cocktail, it didn't say before supper. This is called supper. So that tell me that this was supper time and at supper time there was being served at the square table, not the round table, the square table, wine and bread. So that tells me that this was dessert. tTe supper had been finished. And the wine and bread was the dessert. That's why they call Jesus sweet Jesus. The next time that priest put that cracker on your tongue, if it doesn't taste sweet tell him, say "You you don't have the right one. You doing all right but make the bread sweet because Jesus is sweet Jesus. This ain't supper man this is dessert after supper not supper time." Alright. Okay, so we know the doctrine of Christianity is built upon the scientific basis that man is driven helplessly toward pleasure. Man wants to be pleased, he wants to be happy. And Jesus is given to us as a sweet symbol. He represent everything sweet and pleasurable. Is that right?
Yes. So that's the sweet bread you see And the wine represents the sweet wine, the sweet spirit in that doctrine. The spirit of what? Love. Love for G-d, love for your fellow man, do good even by your enemy, right? That's the sweet spirit. The spirit of conscious that motivate you to do good, to be good in spite of the situation that trumps you or stimulates you to do wrong or to do evil or to be cruel. So here we have a doctrine and we have a behavior. We have an doctrine in the bread and we have a behavior, our spirit of behavior in the water. And that's called the Last Supper that I said it's dessert that came after the supper.
It was what he gave them in the end of his life. During his mission he gave them instruction, he educated them. And at the end of that mission there was a supper, he gave them the dessert and dessert was to keep the sweet conscious, to keep the sweet inclination, to keep the sweet impulses and eat of that that will sustain that. For if what we eat of solace, does it sustain the liquid? Yes, the blood is two things. Nutrients from solids and liquid from water, is that right? So there are two, solids and liquid, that's what it is. Nutrients from solids and liquid from water. When they come together they make blood. Now look if we can only bring the material concern back into our spiritualism, won't we have blood again?
Yes we need the nutrients of the solids to mix with the water to make blood. What does our scripture say? Said G-d told the heavens and earth. And He said "Come ye together willingly or unwillingly." So in the scriptural language He's saying that the heavenly aspiration and the earthly need has to be reconciled whether you like it or not. Willingly or unwillingly. And we are going to proceed because this is good. So let's look at the other. Here we said there were two things being addressed by these symbols. So we have just discussed one side. Prophet Muhammad said, and those who have studied the Christian sciences, I'm sure they've been told too, that the word of G-d addresses two major concerns and have at least two major and distinct applications. Now, Jesus said I come not only, I come not of water only but of water and blood.
Blood means that particular knowledge that reconcile spirituality with material reality. And water meant that that just serves the thirst for moral understanding, relieve the burden in the content. Alright, let's look now at the other knowledge that we're addressing. We just mentioned material concerns and spiritual concerns as the wine and as the blood. For Jesus said take the blood of the New Testament, right? Take this wine of the blood of the New Testament, alright. So now let us go look at the other application or the other address.
We use water to clean ourselves, to clean our environment, etc up until recently. Now chemicals do the job and we filthy as hell. So we have on the other side water symbolizing moral life and bread symbolizing rational knowledge, rational knowledge. And to show you that man has not been deprived completely of that kind of knowledge. You remember us speaking of bread as our ration? And right now in the army they call it K rations right? And K rations is your food. And it's a play on rationale, the rational knowledge. And in the Bible you find the eating of bread and meat is symbolic of the eating of knowledge or the digesting of knowledge. To being able to manage knowledge with your intellect or with your senses and digest it through your system. And we restore cells, put cells back, revitalize life again, all of that, right? Oh yes. You know scientists, they tell us that the skin cells, they go, undergo a cycle, and in 28 to 30 days they are renewed. And if you have a disease that interrupts that cycle, you'll start scaling on that side.
You'll get ugly looking, terrible looking skin because that cycle has been hurt. You see? Well now we're talking about knowledge, knowledge. And if he said each of my flesh, what was he saying? On the one side that we have been discussed, he was saying eat of my material concerns. And on the other side that we're now discussing he was saying eat of my intellectual concerns. We have to get into academic concerns, we have to become educated people. And Jesus didn't represent this to the Ivory tower people or to the intellectuals. Jesus was a Messenger to the common people, according to the New Testament. Is that right? First to the House of Israel, and then he told his apostles to go out to the whole world. Is that not right?
And he himself lived among the weak and uneducated. So he represented concern for education and a concern for material growth of the poor and oppressed masses of common people. And Prophet Muhamamd acted that out. He was the fulfillment of that sign. For he was a Messenger to the illiterate. He's called in the Qur'an the Ummi Prophet and his people that he lived among were called the Umiyeen. And he had adressed them. He sparked both the moral and the rational concerns of that society. And they became the pinnacle of moral and rational effort. The interest in science and the sciences went from there into Europe and sparked the Renaissance. Is that right? This is history. This is what Western scholars say.
And also ethics was quickened. The love for ethics was quickened again, was sparked agains. And the societies of the world became more ethical, their cultures became clean, more civilized, more human. So dear beloved people, look at this. This is saying that Jesus promised something. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, give us this day our daily bread. He promised something. And these things, these symbols in the Last Supper promised that the poor, the oppressed people would have material freedom. They would have freedom, free access to higher education, they would have moral based life, ethics. And they will have also the material conveniences, education, material conveniences. Don't want open up the other? Material concern brings us into material involvement. Material involvement brings us into the rational understanding of the material basis, the material nature, the sciences, et cetera. They go hand in hand. Material and education, spirituality and morality. Don't they go hand in hand? Spirituality and morality, material goods and education. So this is the promise, dear people. Now has that sign fulfilled that purpose? Has the crucified Lord on the cross fulfilled that promise? I can prove to you with just your familiar story, because almost all of you are as old as I am. And a man told me on the plane, he said, "Well you are going downhill."
I said, we don't have long to go. I said, "WE" don't have long to go. He tried to get funny with me, I put it right back on him. He was about my age. He might have been younger but he looked like he was in worst shepe than I am. I guess he saw all the white hair in my beard and my bald head. He said, "Yeah, you';re going over the hill." I said, yes, we don't have long go.. All right. So dear beloved people. Concluding this third reason for us getting rid of it. We say that the crucifix has not promoted these concerns. Everywhere the crucifix has gone and everywhere it has been established there has been the confusion of the social life of the people, the vision of the people, social turmoil. In most places, racism, this is a fact, nothing but a fact. Racial cruelties, et cetera. And also along with that has been a tendency on the part of the people who have really immersed themselves or been submerged in that idea to neglect the essentials of life.
They're lazy, not responsible, not civic, responsible not to speak of being economically, materially responsible people. Their communities are the most materially neglected. I'm talking about the masses that have absorbed themselves in that particular crucifix symbol and also cruelty toward each other. So if it hasn't been able to deliver what Jesus represented and what he promised in his own symbol, then what good has it been? It hasn't been much good at all. Now I would like to tell you one thing before I get to the close. We are really holding your for a long time. I am going to try and beat the sun down. It's not quite dark I can still see daylight. Now look when Jesus was on the cross in the New Testament and I'm saying that my people will tell you I do this all this often. this no special occasion. This is the way I talk all the time. Whatever I have, I give it to whoever's present. And it is my hope that it will reach people that are in responsible positions of leadership for the ghetto, for the masses, for the oppressed masses. And that they will catch on to this and not in my name, but in the name of whatever they believe in, share what they're getting. That's my only hope. That they'll take what we are talking about and have the courarage to do what we are doing. That is have the courage to do what Jesus is supposedly have done and cost him his life on earth. Have the courage to upset the high people's monopoly on the treasures of life. They're not entitled to that monopoly and we shouldn't accept that monopoly. Alright. Now, oh yes, getting back to the last point here.
And he supposedly died in the 11th hour. And this is not, again, this is not to make mockery. In fact none of you should be offended by what I'm saying. My brother Reverend, you should not be offended by what I'm saying cause it's not me. It's the gospel speaking. And my concern is not to injure you or take anything from you, but to compliment everybody or to share. Now it says on the 11th hour that he died and we know the church begin its service on the 11th hour, in the 11th hour. Now we know they say, well that means that we base our hope in Jesus who gave his life that we may live. So it was the act of him giving his self, his own life that makes it possible for us to live. We begin living when Jesus dies, we begin living at his time of death. So that's the 11th hour. We know that. But let's look at something else.
The New Testament says that Jesus on the cross thirsted. And we know that Jesus hungered and thirsted. He said, I was hungry and you didn't feed me. And I know they say, oh, he was talking about his followers. He didn't hunger, but he was talking about his followers. So when he ate bread, he was eating bread demonstrating what his followers needed. And when he drank wine, he was demonstrating what his followers needed. So when he went up on the cross, he was demonstrating what was going to happen to his followers. And when he died he demonstrated what was going to happen to his followers. So if we started at one place, we have to continue it.
In other words, none of this stuff happened to him at all. Okay, let's go back now. Says in the 11th hour, Jesus thirsted or around that time, and they brought him something. They brought him vinegar and hypsos. Now what is another term for vinegar? Vinegar is ascet. And another term for vinegar in Italian and Spanish is aceta. Now say if you want to use a descriptive word to describe something that is vinegar you would say it is asetic. Asetic. Now this word ascetic is a play on asectic and it directs the scholar to asceticism.
When Jesus passed, who succeeded him as authority on earth? It was Catholicism, the Pope and Catholicism. And what does that order represent? Asceticism. Asceticism for the order, for the hierarchy of the church. Asceticism, right? So asceticism is what killed him, saying when he took that he right away gave up the ghost. Mean he gave up the Holy Ghost. Say he gave up the ghost, not just life, he gave up the ghost and he was born of the ghost. He was born of the Holy Ghost. And at that point he gave up the ghost. It didn't say Holy Ghost because it didn't want to kill him too much. And it doesn't mean he gave up the Holy Ghost, it means his people, excuse me, his followers gave up the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost left them And instead of having the Holy Ghost, that is the spirit that leads him to the life of the Comforter, the second Comforter, rational enlightenment. Instead of having that spirit of inspiration in them, they were devoid of it. Asceticism killed that aspiration in them. All right. Yes. So now dear people, if the cross represents that, then why should they say that the son of G-d is on that cross? Why don't they tell the truth and say that that's a symbol of humanity on that cross.
And then I could have gone along with the church leaders who have suggested to me an alternative. They say, look, can't we meet a compromise Imam. Say if we don't have any problems, let everybody put the image in their own image. Let it be Chinese for Chinese, Jewish for Jew, white for the white folks, for the white folks black for the black folk. That's the way they want to dismiss the problem. That every man is to see Jesus in his own image. If that's a fact, then let's tell every man that that's not G-d on that cross.
Now number four, lastly. We are finally at the last part we wanted to establish for the rule of the crucifix. And as you see I'm closing up the papers. So that means we might beat the sundown. Now, the last point is this. In the study of symbolism and how it moves and is correlated or intertwined with man's cultural development. And when we see in anthropology, especially where anthropology addresses the cultural development, the cultural growth of man, we find that man has strained and struggled to bring communication, rational, intellectual ideas, to put them into language that will articulate those ideas for him. And to bring his thought, his ideas plainly to any man. Where he doesn't have to take a man and put him in a special school and train him in the knowledge of symbolism, et cetera. And then begin to educate him. That he could take a man straight from the streets and right away can address him and educate him. This has been the burden on intelligent communication. And man has had to take concrete symbols and establish them as concepts by which he communicated with his fellow man.
Now we go and we look at another movement that's, pardon me, yes, that's anthropology. Now we look at another movement and this movement is the movement of symbolism as it is found in religion. Man has had a need to see his ideas in himself. And not only himself, but he found a need to capsulize the information. If he wanted to talk about electricity, he would put electricity in human image and he would call it the G-d Electro. The people who progress the most in this kind of idea were the Greeks, the people of Ancient Greece. They had a whole pantheon of G-ds, many G-ds. And these G-ds were in human and imagined forms. Not real form, but they imagined them as human beings and human forms. So Electro was a G-d, Zeus was a G-d who was over all the others. He was over all the other G-ds.
Apollo was a G-d. Apollo was a G-d symbolizing the main motivation or the main generative force in creation. It was symbolized also in the sun. But Apollo, he was the one who drove the sun. Well how would he drive the sun. Well in this picture of this idea of his wisdom, Apollo had four horses, four black horses and a carriage. And the carriage carried the sun. And the horses pulled the carriage. And he steered it right? This is in mythology, Greek mythology. So we find that man has had to rely upon human concepts in order to attract human interest. Human beings are automatically easily attracted to an image of themselves. As we have heard, likeness attracts. You recall that. Now you know what it was now. I know what I'm saying. And you know what it was. Likenesss attracts. Okay, so man is attracted to his own image.
So he gets curious, he's self curious. Isn't that a fact that the human being is self curious? The thing that he is most curious about is himself. He want to know why, what is it? But the culture can be orientated in such a way that it will take us from this central concern and attach our concerns to just frivolous kinds of interest. Right? Okay, so man, okay, had to pick up concrete. And the last concrete he picked up, because Greece was a very, very evolved culture. The Grecian culture, very evolved culture. They had the sciences, they had the divisions of labor, they had highly developed culture, they had everything. Don't think that the past is inferior, the past is superior to most of the communities on this earth. That's a fact. Okay. You say, did they have airplanes back there?
Okay. Yes. So man picked up different objects in his environment as a symbol to attract the conscious of the mind or the intellectual interest so that symbol then will begin to represent and radiate or express other disciplines of knowledge to the society or to the person through the medium of that symbol. Alright? So the human being was the last thing he stopped upon. That was the last thing he erected, the human being. That was a long time ago, a long time ago. Now why is there no more need? Is there still a need for this? That's the utility. Again, that's a utility, right? But is there still a need for this? No. Why do we have to say this idea, how come this started in the first place? History tells us, science tells us that it started in the first place because man was superstitious.
Even the Christian society was superstitious. With all of their science, they were developed quite well. But they were superstitious too. They believed that certain phenomenon in the external world held bad omens for them, right? And because they didn't have truly enlightened lives, they had been introduced to materialism and material sciences, but they hadn't been introduced into the human sciences. And because they didn't have that kind of enlightenment, when the materialism grew it toppled the establishment. The Greeks gave themselves material luxury, to material comforts, to material extravagance. And they lost their interest in the sciences. They lost their interest in building up a culture and they collapsed because of that, right? One of the nations that fell is called Pompei, the destruction of Pompei. You heard about that? Now the word pompous comes from Pompei. And pompous means giving too much to extravagance as it relates to luxury, right?
We call it pomp. You go in a man's house and he got mink on his couch, just got out of his Rolls Royce, there was mink on the dashboard of the Rolls Royce. And you go in his house, there's mink on the mantle there, and rugs running upside the wall and jewelry and sparkles all over the place. You say, "Oh this guy is very pompous." Pomp and glitter right? Pomp and glitter. So we understand then that man depended upon those concretes before he had not become yet free in terms of the need for him to understand himself, his own nature. Himself, his own reality. So man put himself up as an image and a symbol because he didn't know his own reality. Allah says in Qur'an, "The creation of this universe is a bigger creation than yours." It tells us that the universal scheme is bigger than man.
So don't raise your own image up thinking your image is perfect and it holds everything. No, you're smaller than the creation. So if we would put the universe, the galaxies on the cross, there would be a bigger, a bigger interest, a bigger significance. "Oh no, G-d's son is bigger than the whole creation." That's not what our scripture says. Our scripture says, G-d's servant is what is meant in the expression of G-d's son. And it says that none, no creature, nothing can come to Him, angel or man. Nothing can come to Him except as a servant. That He can't be approached by no equals. He has no equals. And if you understand the New Testament, it says the sent is not equal to the sender, and many other things I can quote for another half an hour to substantiate that. Okay? Alright. So dear beloved people, in our last point, we are saying that the evolution of this particular need, the progress of this need in expression, in the human intellect for rational, clear, articulate expression started with the human concept or the human symbol because man had not yet been introduced into the human science. He was just struggling and searching. The Greeks were struggling and searching to understand the sciences of the human nature and the human spirit. And they had not come into the full grasp of those sciences, therefore they tolerated those images.
And today our masses are still burdened by an image on the cross, a symbol that is called in Christianity a mystery. The cross is called a mystery. Jesus Christ, Peace be on him, is called a mystery. And his mother, may G-d be pleased with her, is also called a mystery. All of these things are called a mystery. So why should we be burdened with all these mysteries now that science has dawned in the world, and the common man has access to science. And we have tools of higher learning that welcome the common man and our government has made it a law that the common man must have access to those schools of higher learning. Then doesn't it go counter to our interest and isn't it out of step with the time of man, the masses growth and development? Isn't it out of step with them to still go back and depend on those primitive savage barbaric kinds of concepts in order to attract man to human, to law and to community concern. It is time to put it down. Please help us for your own sake as well as for the sake of all of us. Help us and advance this particular committee and its effort to remove all images that claim to represent, depict or portray the divine. Peace be unto you. Thank you for your patience. Good to see all of you here. You come a long way really for two to three days.
Allah bless you. And if you have faith like I do, you know that today was a blessing. Today was a blessing from heaven. This is Dallas, Texas. About a year or so ago, they had 117 degrees in this town, in this month. I think it was August. I remember myself hearing a report that it was 111 degrees and Allah made it cool for us today. The sky was cloudy. So the sun didn't beat down on us. The walk you made was in the shade. I came out, it felt so nice. I think I want to make my home Dallas. I don't think I can do it, but I don't want to go back to Chicago. I can't think of, or I don't want to think of what happens in Chicago during the winter. This is a very beautiful city. I said in my talk Friday at the Jumu'ah, that this city equals, and maybe it even surpasses Chicago in beauty. Skyline and also down here, very beautiful city. So let us thank Allah for this meeting and for the peace, and for the conveniences, and for the mild weather, considering what it could be in Dallas in August. Let us thank Allah for all of that and let us make it our business and right now begin to thirst and hunger for another meeting of this type. At least once a year we want invite people from around the country to come and demonstrate their support for one major concern. Peace be unto you. Asalaam Alaikum.


