10/00/1987
IWDM Study Library
Mecca Arena Milwaukee WI

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

Thank you. Peace be unto you, As Salaam Alaikum.
Audience:
Wa Alaikum As Salaam.
Imam WD Mohammed:
We begin in the Name of G-d, Bismillahi Rahman Nir Raheem, With the Name Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful, and we pray His peace and blessings be upon the last universal Messenger, Prophet Muhammad upon his descendants, his companions, the pioneers of the worldwide religions with our Prophet Muhammad. May G-d be pleased with them and we pray Peace and Blessings beyond us, Ameen. We have chosen to speak on Al Islam, commonly called Islam in America today, and we hope to bring before you the concerns of Muslims that we think should be before us today as Muslims, especially as Muslims in America. But before doing that, I would like to refer to the Book of G-d for Muslims, the Qur'an, and read some notes from Qur'an, Allah as G-d says in the Holy Book Qur'an, that He Almighty G-d is the one who sent Muhammad the Prophet, the Messenger with the guidance and with the true religion that it should become the most prominent of all religions, even though that be disliked by disbelievers. In the beginning of my talk, I want to say to the Muslims, whether we realize it or not, the influence of the teachings of Prophet Muhammad, Al- Islam, are more prevalent, more widespread in the world than the teachings of any other religious representative.

And I'm not the one who first said that. That has been documented by Muslims and also a non-Muslim who has studied the influence of the personality of Muhammad and his teachings. Many may visibly appear to be in greater numbers than Muslims, but when you look at the content of faith and practicing people, people who practice their religion, Prophet Muhammad has the greatest number. And also, when you look at his influence on the real life of man, as one author established, his influence is greater than the influence of any other man. And he named not only religious figures, but he also named men like Alexander the Great and others. It was documented in a book by a qualified author. That's not the point of the talk, it's just to say to Muslims, this is to Muslims. I'll be talking to Muslims and to non-Muslims. This is to Muslims, to let you know that one prediction has already come true. In fact, many predictions have come true, but one of the great predictions in the Holy Book has already come true, and that is that the religion of Islam, Islam as it is commonly called, will become the most prevalent religion, the most prevalent religion, though people detest it. I go so far as to say many people who identify under other religious labels as Christianity and others are in a real sense motivated more by the teachings of Muhammad the Prophet than they are by those teachings they got from their religions. Muhammad the Prophet, stressed rational life, stressed rational life, intellectual pursuits. He stressed many things that stand before the Western world as great Western values, great Western values. You should understand that those values were not great Western values before the advent of Prophet Muhammad, Peace and the Blessing be upon him, who brought enlightenment to the dark continent of Arabia before enlightenment, came to Europe and thereafter to America.

Continuing now with the word of G-d in the Holy Book. G-d Most High, Allah Most High says, "You have not been sent except to be a Mercy for all the Worlds. That's the Prophet Muhammad. Knowing Muslims that our Holy Book says this, how can we separate ourselves from the world of man when our book tells us that our Prophet has been sent as a Mercy to all Worlds, to all the Worlds. And we know from the study of historians, both Muslims and non-Muslims, that the message of Qur'an and the period of enlightenment that came with that message, the sciences, math, chemistry, astronomy, medicine, we can go on to name many other areas that again, awakened the intellect of the Western man, European, the Western man. We know that that was a Mercy to all the worlds. We may not be in tune with it today ourselves. Maybe we have lost the importance of that interest and that intellectual concern. But we know that before, many centuries ago, I would say eight to 10 centuries, a thousand years ago, there was a great glorious period of intellectual activity for the followers of Muhammad the Prophet, Peace and Blessings be Upon him. And that made possible the reawakening of the intellect of the Western man in Europe and that great excitement of the mind came to America and America took the lead.

We should look at that and understand that the Prophet that we identify as our Prophet, may not be the Prophet for the other people, the Christians, Jews, and others, but we must accept that he came to be a blessing on all of them. And again, Allah Most High says "You have not been sent except that you be a good news giver and a Warner." Now we know the Gospel is the good news for the Christians. And by being the good news for the Christians, we know that the good news giver was G-d, but G-d through Jesus Christ the Prophet, Peace and Blessings be on him. So, he for them is a good news giver and the good news is the Gospel. We must understand Muslims that our Holy Book also contains the good news for us, good news for the Muslim. And it is not only good news for us, good news for the world if they will accept it. As a good news giver and as a Warner, we must understand that the Prophet came to warn man to alert man in his best interest. And again, Allah Most High says, G-d says, "You have not been sent except as a complete, complete blessing to all people. A giver of good news and a Warner." Muhammad is identified in the Holy Book as a complete blessing, a sufficient gift to all people. I was at a meeting once I was invited by the Lions Club. Some of you might know about the Lions Club. The Lions Club. It's a Society that does a lot of good like the Shriners, the Masons. The Shriners does a lot of good, but it is also a kind of secret society, a closed organization. They invited me right after I became leader. You made me leader. In 1975 5th of February, right after I became leader, they invited me. It wasn't many months, wasn't but a few months, they invited me to come and address the Lions Club in Chicago. I addressed them and one of the questions that were put to me, one of the first questions put to me after I made my short address. I wouldn't make a long address before them. Anybody got secrets I don't want to talk before them too long. So, after I made my short address, one of the first questions they put before me was, how do I see the two great figures Prophet Muhammad and the Prophet Jesus, Peace be upon them both. And I thought about it and I wonder, I said, how can I answer them with all these thoughts running through my mind? Because when they asked me right away, I was just overwhelmed with thoughts. I had never thought about it. And I said, boy, I can't tell them what's really stirring in me.

So, I told them, I said, well, Prophet Muhammad said, it's reported that he said "One day the people will see him and Jesus Christ together." So, I preferred to leave them with that than to drop the heavy load that I wanted to drop. Well, the great difference is the most considered concept of Jesus is the concept of Jesus as a sign, as a sign. But Prophet Muhammad, a living reality in the history of man, please to be patient with me, I won't be here too long I don't think. I won't worry to death, bore you to death today I don't think. Let me continue now with the Qur'an first. Again, I have taken these quotes from Qur'an that are very similar stressing why Prophet Muhammad has been missioned by G-d. And you see that what is stressed here in these references to his mission, why he was missioned is him being a Warner. And that's what we need now, a warning. We always need a warning. Now we know that Prophet Muhammad was not the kind of Prophet that, He was no dooms day preacher. He was a teacher and a very rational, I would say a very obviously rational teacher. He emphasized the rational need in man's life. He built upon the rational need in man's life. He called the mind of man to respect the rational, the rational life of his mind and he considered men dead if they weren't rational.

Mentally dead, that is if not really dead. So, we know that the Prophet was not the kind of warner that kept preaching fire and brimstone, repent from your sins. Repent. Repent, destruction is at hand. He was not that kind of warner. He was a more sophisticated Warner. He warned man, that if he expects to have good life on this earth, he has to respect all that G-d intended for him to be. And if that's not similar to what the Americans uphold than what is? I hear them saying that all on the television, be all that you can be. Some people don't like me, say "A Muslim ain't supposed to show similarities between Muslims and non-Muslims. Muslims are supposed to just project what the Muslim is. We ain't supposed to be embracing no infidels." Well, why embrace your brother Muslim when he's an infidel? Some of the biggest infidels are Muslims, or at least the people who call themselves Muslims, pretend to be Muslim. I heard just here since I've been here that the Imam was on the way to deliver his Friday sermon, the most important message of the week, the prayer, the Friday prayer, the Jumu'ah, the sermon. He stopped and robbed the bank before coming to the Masjid to deliver a prayer.

Now, while we are worried about Christian infidels and whatever, we are overlooking these much more terrible infidels that's right under our nose, leading us in the prayer.

I'm not saying that that can't happen for other people too. I'm sure that has happened for other people too. They've had people among them claiming to be true religious people, but were just imposters, pretenders and when weakness, when an opportunity came to test their strength, they couldn't pass it. They did a terrible thing. In fact, I've read in my lifetime, I read some terrible things that people of other religions, leaders of other religions have done, but I don't think any can be worse than that. An Imam stopping to rob a bank before he comes to the Masjid. Well, thank Allah he got caught. And I told them, I said, well, if you are like me and if I didn't have so much to lose because of the position I'm in, the law wouldn't have to worry about him long. That's right. I don't care if you say, "Hey, you ain't supposed to do that. That's a threat if you're serious about what you're saying Brother Imam. You ought to protect your welfare better than that." I love to protect it just like I just protected it by saying that he wouldn't be a problem for the law enforcement laws if I wasn't, didn't have so much to lose myself. I'd be waiting for him.

Soon as they let him out of court, the problem would be over. Again. it is said in our Holy Book of Prophet Muhammad, "You indeed have in the Prophet and most excellent model of conduct." So here G-d established for us in the Holy Book that Prophet Muhammad, the last Prophet, according to the revelation of the Qur'an, the revelation of G-d to us, we have the last Prophet established as a model of human behavior for us, for the Muslims. So anytime we are worried about how Muslims are behaving, the first thing we should do is call the misbehavers to the behavior of the Prophet. Because G-d has established for us, Allah in the Holy Book has established for us that He has given us Muhammad the Prophet as the most excellent model for human behavior. And again, we read in the Holy Book, to make a connection between two great Prophets, Abraham and Muhammad. So here is the same thing. In Prophet Muhammad, we have a most excellent model for human behavior, for human conduct, for the conduct of man and society. And it is also said in the same book, our Holy Book, "That surely there was given in Abraham, Ibrahim, Abraham, and in those who followed his Sunnah, the way of Abraham, a most excellent model."

And we are told that this is the order, the Milah of Ibrahim Hanifah, this is the order. Muhammad's order is the order of Abraham, the upright in faith. Well, there is much to be said on this, believe me, much to be said that I wish I could say, but this is not the time and the situation for it. Some of you would be bored to death. And again, it's said in our Holy Book of those, not the Prophet only, but those who followed the Prophet in his example, his companions, his close associates, Abu Bakr, Ali that the Shi'ites exalt too high, and Usman and many, many others. Many, many others that are given in the Hadith and the collected Hadith of Bukhari and Muslim and other Hadith. We read about the great companions of our Prophet Muhammad, how they supported him in the most excellent way, how they lived the life of Muslims in the most excellent way. So, Allah has given us Muhammad the Prophet as a model for us, as a model for us to look at to see how He desire for human being to behave on this earth, at home with his family in the marketplace, in the position of authority over an army, over city, over finances, over charities, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So, He has given us this great Prophet, the last and universal Prophet as a model. But He has also taught us in His Holy Book that we also have models in those who followed the example of the Prophet, his companions, and that we should follow in the excellence that they established. For Muslims of America, understand that we are to join the Muslims of the world in this sincere, sincere study of the life of the Prophet and the life of his companions, the early Ummah, the early effort to establish this religion on earth.

Those who followed in the excellence of them, those who followed Muhammad, the Prophet. Those who followed in the excellence of those who followed the Prophet Muhammad and of those who followed Muhammad, G-d says, "They have G-d's favor, they have G-d's pleasure. G-d is pleased with them." And we say because of that, we say when we mention any of them, when we mention Umar or even the women, when we mention Khadija, Aisha, we also always say "May G-d be pleased with them," for them, all of them, the males and the females because they were all models of the excellence that Allah wants demonstrated in the life of His creature, human beings. So, if we want to continue this religion, if we want to further the religion, if we want to be a good contribution, a good representative, then we should know the life of Muhammad the Prophet and we should know also the life of his companions and we should look to them, to their example, and we should try our best to measure up to their excellence. First of all, the excellence of Prophet Muhammad, but also we can learn from the many ways that that excellence was faceted, was presented to the world through those who were in close and direct contact with the Prophet and embraced him and embraced the religion and embraced him completely, and also demonstrated the same excellence that Allah wanted. Through themselves they demonstrated it, that same excellence. And we should understand that we are human beings. We are not going to be the Messenger of G-d. We are not going to be the Prophet. There's no need for it. We are not going to have a Qur'an revealed to us unless it's the same Qur'an that was already revealed to Muhammad and then it'll be revealed to you in the sense of interpretation, in the sense of insights.

But not as a fresh revelation. So, we know we are not going to be Prophet Muhammad, we are not going to be any Messengers. Our religion is a living religion is a living religion. It is not a religion that comes to die so that the secular of the world can live. It is a living religion, but it is also a constant religion. It is a constant religion. It is a complete religion. It is a finished religion. And many Westerners, they have a problem with that. They say, "Well, there's no room for dynamism, there's no room, no room for invention, knowing that invention is forbidden. We can't invent anything new in the religion. And the West have taken on this kind of mind and that's why the Pope has to come here and say, "Hey, will you come back from all of your makeshift religions, you Catholics, you Catholics, especially your black Catholics. Will you come back from your makeshift religions and again, identify with the established religion?"

I believe the Pope would love to hear the Muslim way of handling this. Are you interested in what I'm talking about? I know some of you are. If you're not interested, just tell me. I got other things I can be doing too. I was just joking. I always do this. But look, once I had a girlfriend. Tell you the truth, she was more serious than a girlfriend. And she told me, she said, "Why don't you try to please me sometimes?"

I said, Hey, I'm trying to please you all the time. I said, if you serious, I'm not going to try to please you again. What I'm saying is this, that when I do a thing I try to do my best. If I come out to speak to a people, I try to give them my best and if I'm wasting my time, I'd rather just go on. Why torture you and myself too. So, on that note, we say that we have to understand that Muslims are people established by G-d in the Qur'an, in the Holy Book to be motivated toward excellence. The Prophet, in agreement and fact, only lived his life reflecting the Holy Book. Because his wife Aisha, may G-d be pleased with her. She says that her husband the Prophet, if we would know him and understand him, he was the living word of G-d. The good life of the American people. They have been working hard during the last five years or more and they're bringing the mind of Americans back to an appreciation for excellence. And you are right. I've been right in there with them. I've been doing my part since, well, 1975 and even before, the best I could. But you all gave me room to work. So, I did a little more after 1975.

Again, we have something we share and it's concerning that we should stress for Muslims in America today or whatever we stress for today, it looks toward the future, it looks into the future. Men should be aware of time. G-d says, "Be aware of the hour. The Gospel, the Christian book. "Be aware of the hour." Old Testament. "Be aware of the hour," right? Called to be aware of the hour, A time, a time that is going to bring different situations about. So don't be ignorant of the time today because the time today is an indication of what's coming tomorrow. So, man should always be considerate of the time. "Wal Asr, Ina Insana Lafi Ghusr." Regarding the time, the Hour, surely humanity is lost. "Ila Ladhina Amanuw" Except those who are faithful. "Wa Amanuw Salihat" And have good works. "Wata Watsal Bil Haqq"- And cooperate in the advancement of truth. "Wata Watsall Bil Sabr." And cooperate in patience. Oh man, look how G-d has presented to us. "Ila Ladhina Amanuw." Say, you know you look at, excuse me for digressing, but that's my trait.
Audience:
Go ahead.
Imam WD Mohammed:
My trait is digressing. If you can charge me with anything say, "Hey, that's him. He's a digresser." So don't you be apologizing to anybody.
Imam WD Mohammed:
If you look to the natural workings of things like the ancient thinkers did and like the People of the Book are called to do, for G-d asked us to reflect, to look at the great works of the universe, the artistry, the great marvelous work of creation. To look at it and learn from it, get signs and understanding from it. Insights that is. Now, when you look at situation for human life, the physical life itself, the mortal life itself on earth, on land we feel best, don't we? We feel best. Even a swimmer. You throw him in the water, he doesn't feel that safe, he feels insecure right away, you throw him in the water. And the situation of water is similar to the situation of faith. Now a lot of us don't like to live in faith because it's not as comfortable as living with practical reality. "Oh man, don't tell me about that man. It's too heavy. That's too much on my mind." Well, that's what you need to develop your muscles that you're not using, that you need. You to be put in a situation where you have to trust more than your knowledge, more than your intellectual ability, more than your rational ability. Because your rational ability haven't done too much for the world.

Right? I'm speaking of the average of us. We have those exceptional men and women whose intellects have done marvelous things for the world of man. But for the most of us, our intellects haven't done much for the world, haven't done much for our families and many of us haven't done much for us as individuals. And we going to put that up and say, "Hey, this is more important to me than faith." I think you should look at it again. You ain't no Einstein. You should look at it again and weigh your little pea of intellect, knowledge. Weigh it with the benefits of faith. And some of us need to go and get a complete baptism. We need to jump in the water and go under it completely. We need to get a baptism like the Baptist, some Baptists give you. We need to get dunked in the water and get it all and don't have no land or no material supporting you. Just hang right there in midwater until you learn respect, until you learn fear, until you get a sense of insecurity. Yes, sometime it is a sense of insecurity that saves you from insecurity?

But many of us, we live in the world in the most insecure situations that a human being can live in but are not aware of our insecurity. We're not aware of our insecurity. We're going on like everything's okay, and we just about at the last step in our road. Well so much for that. Now look at another. See how these elements, these elements and situations, they really make us see ourselves in the world. Some of us we like to play with fire. Now you need a whole lot of sense to manage fire. Take care little babies, don't play with fire. Give me those matches, right? I better not ever catch the written matches again. But here we got so many among the common masses of America who are just gone crazy over playing with fire. Let's do the funk. Let's get way down. Let's let it all hang out. Let's love until we die. That's playing with fire, isn't it? That's what it's doing. You're playing with fire. Children playing with fire. So, after a while man looks at you and he got more sense to play with fire. He looks at you and say, "Well hell, we got to go out and stop the children from playing with fire."

This thing done got out of hand. And if you ain't prepared for the time, if you haven't been watching the hour, you're going to be lost. You're going to be left out, discarded as something that can't be used. Then some of us like to give ourselves to emotions. We think the Holy Ghost is the wind of human beings. The Holy Ghost ain't that kind of wind. The Holy Ghost is intelligent wind. It's a peaceful wind. It's a wind with a direction, with a constant direction. That's the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit is a wind with a constant direction and we think there's all emotionalism that takes over blacks and some other races, some other minorities occasionally. But it keeps us. We are always under it. We can't go to the White House unless we all geared up in emotions. "Want to talk to you Reagan. You better listen to us now or you'll listen tomorrow." The wind won't even let him go to the White House correctly in a decent manner. Embarrass himself, embarrass all his people because of his wind. G-d says that He breathed into the man of His spirit. He breathed into the man of His spirit. And Allah says in the Holy Book for Muslim when He created the man and the angels looked at him and they weren't, some of the angels weren't impressed with him. G-d says, "Wait until I have breathed in him of My spirit."

And then G-d says, He said, "I have given every creature something of My spirit." So, we have to have a wind superior to our own winds, to save us from the destruction of our own winds. Because some of us live in a constant tornado, constant tornado, emotional makeup up that's nothing but a constant tornado. A tornado that won't spin itself out, a hurricane that doesn't know it's supposed to stay out the water. Just keep coming on the land drowning all the things that people are trying to construct. So, this brings us to another part of our address today and that is the burden of human life itself. Allah says in the Holy Book that He created the universe, He created this marvelous creation and He invited the angels and the mountains themselves to accept the responsibility for upholding the order that G-d had made. And the angels they refused. And the only one that accepted was man, man accepted it. And Allah says, "Surely man is foolhardy, given to be hasty and ignorant." Yes. Now I've thought about this and when I have glanced over mythologies, Greek mythology, et cetera, seeing these pictures of man holding up the world, I say, I guess that's the fool that G-d's talking about. Atlas, Charles Atlas got the world on his back. And sometime I think the church make a mistake in believing that Jesus supposed to carry the world and the government shall be on his shoulder.

That's speaking of Jesus as a sign, a sign of responsibility that everybody's supposed to accept if they are alive and awake. Because he said, "I in you and you in me." So, what he was talking about was a common thing. In many of his preachings, he was speaking of himself. He was speaking of a common thing, a common property that not only he had but all men had. And when he asked that you shoulder, take up his burden, he was asking to do something that you had the capacity to do and don't be looking for no superhuman being, no G-d to come here and carry human burdens on the shoulder for us raised up among men. G-d is not raised up among men. G-d is before men and He raises men.

And none of us should be so fool hearted to try to carry the whole burden of society on our one back or one shoulder. We have to work in conjunction in association and cooperation with other men and women and it should start right in your immediate association with your friends, your family. You should work in cooperation with those closest to you to relieve burden upon the ones who share the situation. When you share a home situation, people share the burden. When you share a job situation, workers share the burden. If you share friendship, friends should share the burden of that friendship and no one should be presenting himself as a savior of that crazy fantasy that men have that one man going to carry the burden for everybody else. You know in our religion, we don't even have a priest.

We don't even need an Imam to get married. You know that? Prophet Muhammad establishes religion under G-d. We do not need an Imam to get married. Any Muslim who knows the Qur'an, knows the requirement, knows that he's supposed to have witnesses from both sides of the family. He can come and read the verse from the Qur'an, read some certain verses from the Qur'an speaking to the concerns of marriage. He reads those verses. He can select his own. He doesn't have to select the ones I use. He select his own verses according to his own thinking and his own sensitivity. He selects those verses that speak to his need as a man. He reads those verses. He have witnesses, he's married. If you don't know I'm right, ask the Supreme Council in Saudi Arabia. They put me on the council. See, I used to didn't have all this to use but I use it now.

We have no priest to go and confess to. I don't have to tell any religious leader about my problems with my wife, my problems with my children. I don't have to go to anybody in my religion to ask. I can go to somebody that worked with me in General Motors. If I think that person in General Motors is a sensitive Muslim, is aware of family problems and everything, I go to him and talk to him. If the Imam say, "Well how come you didn't talk to me?" I don't have to talk to you. G-d didn't obligate me to talk to you just because you an Imam. That worker with me at General Motors perhaps got more sense on this subject than you Brother Imam. Yes. Now isn't that a beautiful religion? Now I have no problem with the Pope. That's his thing. I respect him and honor him. Yes, I have great respect for the Catholics, great respect for John, Pope John Paul II. Great respect. So much respect and admiration. I've been thinking how I could meet him, going to the Vatican asking for an invitation one day. Still might do it. And we have to respect anybody in positions like that.

And even in smaller less important positions. We have to respect them when they carry the heavy responsibility for many, many people, for many, many people. And especially when they serve goodness, serve justice, serve excellence in the life of man. Muslims are obligated upon our Muslim principles. Whether we differ with them concerning the content of faith or the content of religion or not, we are obligated to show them the greatest respect. And to identify with them in their commitments to those principles that we share or that we have in common. Yes, to the extent that if they should call us, we are obligated to come. Yes, if they should call us, we are obligated to come. Now how much more important it is to join your Muslim brother in common interest, in the support of excellence that you both want for each other or want for yourselves. Yes, business or whatever it is. How much more important it is for you to join your fellow Muslim brother. And many of us go along and we don't even consider that there are other Muslim brothers and sisters who have our same business concerns et cetera, and we should find them because together though operating separately, together you can do much more. Isn't that a fact? Yes. Together you can do much more. That's how come many other nationalities have such great advantage over us because they trust each other, they seek out each other, they find each other and they are more selective than we are. We will let a man come into the important club just because he, "Hey, my black brother, Hey yeah man, you look like a brother. You talk like a real brother man, come on in here man. Let us show you what we doing." The white man is more selective. The red man is more selective. The yellow man is more selective. He wants to know his family, he wants to talk with him a long time. He wants to see him in different situations. And then one day he say, "Hey, we like you. We want to introduce to you what we are doing here. We think you'll be interested in it." They already know his life.

They have enough indication from his life over a period of time how he behaves with his family, how he is in situations where he was charged with responsibility and trusted with valuables. They know him. Prophet Muhammad say "You don't know a person unless you have had dealings with them." So, you don't bring nobody into your confidence to share your business plan, to share your ideas and et cetera, to invest in your company or whatever. You don't bring them in without thoroughly searching them, searching them out, searching their records, establishing that they can be trusted. You say "We ain't supposed to be suspicious of each other." Buddy, all of us are not authorities on the subject of logic, fiqh and jurisprudence, et cetera. So don't take something and run away with it. Suspicion is of two kinds. There's suspicion without grounds. That's the kind of suspicion that's condemned, suspicion without grounds. But when you have a suspicion upon grounds, there is basis for your suspicion, and you act cautiously out of respect for what you see, for what you know. You have strong idea that this is the case. Man, you ain't doing nothing but practicing intelligence, you are respecting intelligence.

They don't call that suspicious, but you know how we are. We stretch everything. We take one word and give it every meaning in the dictionary. You know what? Yes, yes we do. Hey, wait a minute, wait a minute. What are your qualifications for this teaching job? "Well, you see me, you've known me. I've been around here a long time. I'm as intelligent as you are in a conversation. Why do I have to bring some credentials or proof for something? You questioning me, you suspicious of my qualification? The Qur'an say you're not supposed to suspicious brother." And I'm sure the Lord in some kind of way, we don't see how He does it, but I know He lets the strap down. Well, here's one I got to give a lashing. And they get it. We don't recognize it, but I am sure they get a lashing from upstairs or from a distance. From a distance ,long place away they get a lashing. I'm sure.

Again, we should understand that Muslims have been motivated by the word of G-d and the life of the Prophet, Peace and blessings be on him, to have high regard for family life. High regard for family life. G-d says in our Holy book family has a priority with G-d, before G-d. What does that mean? It means if you neglect your family obligations and perhaps you took care of the Masjid, you took care of a whole Mosque by yourself, but you neglected your family obligation, you neglected your family. G-d going to say, "Look, your obligation to take care of that business, that building there is not before your obligation to your family say, didn't you read what I said in the revelation?" Family obligations have a priority before G-d. How are you going to be any good to the Mosque or to the society if you neglect your responsibility in your household? You are going to become a burden on the society. In a Muslim society, you're going to become a burden on the Muslim society. You're going to be a burden on the Mosque. If the Imam had some sense, he'd say, "Hey, get the hell out of here. Stop sweeping up and wiping up and putting rugs down in here. Get your a-- home and take care of your family."

Excuse me please. But I still have these unpolished ways of driving the point and I'm trying to straighten it up. I'm trying to clean it up. Most of the problems that we have as minority people in this country today can be traced back to our neglect at home. Many of our minorities start their first day in high school and college at a great disadvantage. And we have been told this, this is no discovery of ours. We've been told this by the educators here in America, by the social workers here in America. They start at a great disadvantage. Even the poor families, even poor families before the spirit of decadence came in America, even the poor families, the majority of those poor non-African-American people, they wanted the a home environment to be most conducive to the good future of the members of the household. You would find a drunk every now and then, but that wasn't the way of life in America. There was a strong Christian influence in this country, in the general public. There was the worth ethic, work ethics. Christian believed in a strong respect for a lawful employment activity that benefits society. Yourself, your family, and the general society. Involvement in work that benefits the whole society. Christians had a great appreciation for that so strongly they almost made it a commandment of G-d. In fact, I think it is almost a commandment of G-d for many Christians that you must have work, you must have a job.

And perform honorably, honorably on that job, have respect for the opportunity to work. Now that spirit and quality in us as African-Americans need a lot of attention, need a lot of cultivation because of the damage done to our forefathers during the long period of slavery, chattel slavery, physical abuses in this country that almost destroyed the appreciation, the right spirit for work in industry in the company of the blacks of this country.

Yes, so we know that. But we know even in spite of that, despite that, many of our fathers and mothers, our aunts and uncles, our relatives, they didn't let that defeat them. They didn't let the abuses and the animal treatment under a segregated world or society, America, they didn't let that defeat them and destroy the excellence in them. Excuse me, destroy the excellence in them. They kept that in them. And even though they were performing for a white man that they disliked, a white man who was a segregationist, a white man who was a racist, even though they were doing work for him, they would do it with an appreciation for the opportunity to work and they would do excellent work even for that man that looked down on them as a four fifths or two, three-fifths of a human being. Yes, they did that and we are product, many of us are products of the loins and of those people, those excellent forefathers of ours. Some of them are not far behind us. My mother was such an excellent person. My mother appreciated opportunity to labor. She would talk admiringly about how her hands hurt from working so long doing common cheap labor.

But she was proud at least to be doing something constructive. At least doing something that benefited more than Clara, that benefited other people. Yes, they right behind us. So dear people, we have to understand that our religion obligates us to appreciate work, to value the place of work in the life of man, to appreciate family ties, to regard our family tithe with a sacred regard. That's what G-d says. G-d says "Be regardful of G-d and also of the family ties." Now maybe some other religions say that too, but I don't know of it. I know that our Holy book says to us be regardful of G-d and also of the family ties. So here G-d has asked us to reverence not only G-d Divine but reverence also family ties. And He have made family obligations second only to Him. That's right. Family obligations are second only to G-d. You can't even follow Muhammad if you don't have respect for your family. I know somebody said no, it's G-d and then the Sunnah. Well you wait for somebody to invite you on the Supreme Council. You have to know when to see, when to recognize that it's G-d and the Sunnah.

And you have to know when to recognize when it's G-d and my family. That's right. Prophet Muhammad, before he was missioned as a Prophet, he established that he was honorable as a family member. He established in his own life before he was missioned to be a Prophet, that he was honorable, that he was excellent in his treatment of family members. And that's why it is said of him in the Holy Book that he's lived a lifetime among you even before he was missioned to be the Prophet. Meaning he has a shining life of excellence, of human excellence even before G-d missioned him to be the Prophet. Now, isn't that an appointment that we can accept? That G-d reached out. He didn't pick a wine head up and say, I'm going to make this wine head a saint. I'm going to make this wine head a shining saint, a star in the heavens. No, He picked a man up who already had established his excellence, who on his own, on his common ability, on his common human ability, he had been devoted to excellence and had established his excellence at home of his family members and the public everywhere. That's our Prophet Muhammad. Then G-d looked at him and said, here is the best. Here is the one to lead the rest. Doesn't that make sense? I couldn't understand how G-d looked down and pick a wine head up and make him a saint and send him to people that had the strength to resist those things. I know that's heavy for some of you.

Why are you our leader? Cause you made me your leader. That's why. You tell me why. You have to explain it to me. I think you loved my father. Because you treat me bad some of you now that he's gone. Some of them don't even want me to come to their city. I'm not joking. But look, Prophet Muhammad was told in the Holy Book to tell them that you are a free man in this town. So, G-d didn't establish Muhammad only on the basis that, look, I have made him My Messenger so you have to accept him. No, you also have criteria too. So, on the strength of your own criteria, you are born free. He's free too just like you. He's a native son just like you. He has the same freedom that you have. And I tell you, Muslims do not let any other bullies frighten you away from his turf. He has no turf. Allah says the Earth belongs to me. And if he's a true Muslim, he regards the earth as Allah's Earth. He regards the whole situation as Allah's. They don't tell me this. Nobody approached me directly with anything like this, but I hear it from a distance. They will do it from a distance. They won't come directly to me with that anymore. But when I first became your leader, a lot of that stuff came to me direct. "Well this is my turf now. You come here, tell him if he come here, he has to do such and such. He has to do such and such." I never regarded any turf. Why? Because I'm a free man in America. I insist upon exercising the freedom that has been accorded to every citizen of these United State. And no town belongs to anybody. The town belongs to G-d first and then it belongs to the American people.

Who is anybody to tell you don't come in this town doing your thing. They have no authority like that. His authority doesn't go no further than his house. He can tell you don't come to my address. He can say don't come to my address. That's his authority. That's his Milwaukee, that's his Detroit, his Washington DC. His address in that town. We got some got right now, right now working. They see me as a greater danger than the dangers we are facing from the ruined society. They're not addressing dope problem and crime and broken families. They're not occupied by that. They're occupied day and night with the thought that "Hey, he might come here in this town. And when he come here he going to have to come through us." That's what they're working on. You see, that's what they've been working on all the time. And when you go and look at him, they got nothing. About 14 people attending their Mosque. There's a few people attending their Mosque. Man begging for light bill money begging for phone bill money, begging for rent, something to pay his bills. Just begging a few people for money all the time. And he doesn't know all he has to do is join me in this freedom. Join me in this freedom of mind, in this freedom of thinking, in this freedom of sharing.

Join me in my thinking. I say my thinking because I'm among you. I'm among the few. I'm in association with him. Join me in my thinking and let, not let but invite me. Rush to invite me to come into your town. Not through your door, your door too small. Tell me, come to town, Brother Mohammed, but please don't come through my door. My door is too small. Be the guest of the city. And then he will see people interested in the life that we are all supportive of. He will see them come from nooks and quarters and closets and et cetera that he didn't know even was in this town. And as a result of him doing that, he will have more associates when we leave town. It'll be easier for him to pay his light bill when we leave town. But he has not that sensitivity. He has not that innocence. So, his own wrong thinking and attitude blocks out the good that would come to him from G-d. We are going to keep working. We are not going to let that distract us at all. In fact, that just excite me more to work harder.

We are going to keep working hard. And I have some good workers with me who understand what we need to do and they're making it possible. I didn't have to come to Milwaukee to do anything. Others came here and they told me everything has been arranged. People are waiting for you to come to Milwaukee. So, we are not destitute, we are not out of answers. We have a lot of good answers, a lot of good answers, a lot of good work. But I am saying this because I think it needs to be said and especially here in Milwaukee. Some of us think that the religion depends on one little address in our town. You got to get away from that kind of thinking. In Chicago, in Chicago we have several nice Masjids built from the ground. Over the last few years they have built nice facilities, both immigrant Muslims and the native African Americans. On 47th and Woodlock, Brother Jabir, who managed Muhammad Ali, has used his own private money to build one of the finest Masjids in Chicago. I joined them in the Jumu'ah service a couple of weeks ago. But there as I said, there's several.

Do you think we see it as a threat that someone has a Mosque? "Hey, this is my turf." I'd have to forget my whole religion to think that way. I can't think that way. And only reason why you think that way because you came from the criminal days and you didn't put down that mentality. No Muslims should be thinking that way. And what has happened? We go to the Mosque on 47th Street. They have people that we would never see on Stoney Island. And they come to Stoney Island, they see people they would never see on 47th Street. And I'm looking for the day when we will have 1000 Mosques in Chicago. I think there's something in the religion that says, I believe it's preached in the religion. I'm not quoting it because I can't recall it, but it says this in effect. You don't prepare an invitation from G-d. G-d invite people to faith. G-d invite people to the life. You don't prepare on the observation that you yourself made. You make your observation and then you prepare according to your own observation what kind of reception you should make for the people that will come to G-d.

So, the average one will prepare hardly nothing because they don't have faith that people will come to G-d. So, you're not supposed to prepare based upon your own observations.

You should prepare with the belief that G-d can call the many if He wants. So, if you have the means to build a Masjid to house 10,000 people. If you have the means. Don't do it if you don't have the means, don't take from the families, don't drop the family life to the gutter or in the poor house, send them to the poor house. Send the family members to the poor house. Don't do that. Don't abandon the school program. Don't just destroy the other essential things to do that. But if you have the means to do that, you are not supposed to say, "Oh, ain't nobody in this town interested in being no Muslim. That'll be a waste of money." You supposed to act upon faith that G-d can get them in it and maybe that's all they need to see is that there's somebody who puts the material value on their religion as well as a spiritual value on their religion and are willing to spend some money to produce fine facilities for people to come into and worship of G-d. Yes, that might be the answer for all you know. So don't be that way.

So let us prepare. Let us be energetic in preparing a way for people to come to the truth. Come to the calling of Almighty G-d. Let us be like Christians. They don't come into town and build one church. Christians put churches all over town. Sometimes they have more churches on one block than we have Mosques in the whole state.
Audience:
That's right.
Imam WD Mohammed:
And don't think they all are filled. Sometimes, I go past the church, they hardly got two or three people sitting in there, but the man got faith. "Hey this man, I thought the man going to come here, he supposed to be telling us where Islam is going, where Islam is today." That's where it is. That's where it is today. That's what I'm talking about. Where Islam is today and where it should be going. I'm showing the neglect on our part, the oversights on our part in order to point us in the right direction for today and tomorrow. Another important point I want to mention is that we live in the most difficult situation for preserving the human life in tact that can be found anywhere on Earth. America is the most difficult situation for keeping human life intact in the order intended by G-d in the excellence or through the excellence of nature itself. Yes, the most difficult situation. But on the other hand the same, most difficult situation also has an opportunity that is not available, that is not there anywhere else except America. What is that opportunity? Opportunity that came with Muhammad, came with the great liberators, came with Moses, came with Muhammad, came with Jesus Christ, Peace be upon the great liberators, the Prophets, but have been lost from the world. Only in America, where people are still upholding the right of the basic freedoms, the essential freedoms of man. The right to congregate, the right to assemble, the freedom of speech, the right to have your own word in print to say what you want to say to the public by way of media, freedom of the press and all of those cherished freedoms. They are here in America for us. So hell we know. Excuse me, I didn't want to say it like that. I wanted to say we know hell has his mouth wide open. Come on in.

Yeah, we in America and the mouth of hell in America is as big in America, is the biggest in America. Ain't nowhere you'll go in the world, you're going to find a bigger mouth of hell than in America. But at the same time, in this situation, in this trying situation for human life, for human nature, and human life for the life of man that G-d wants, we also have these precious freedoms defended by the people of this country, by the Constitution that have had its tainted days, but its purity has survived. Yes, they wrote in that Constitution that we were only a percentage of a human being and justified and gave freedom, freedom to the savage, the real savage, the racist, the segregationists, the savage among them, the real savages among them, to brutalize us, to mistreat us, to hang us in their courts. Courts with no justice.

All of that evil, evil was done. But that same Constitution because of its essential spirit, because of its consistent nature, its consistent nature, its consistent principles. That same Constitution has survived the ugly days that painted with the ugly mark, that blacks are not even full human beings. It has survived all of that. It has survived the time when they interpreted the Constitution to eliminate women, that women are not supposed to be given the rights of men, that women are not supposed to even be given the right of public education, not the right to vote, et cetera, et cetera. We know they wrote their women off and they wrote the blacks off in a horrible way. But the intent in the Founding Fathers, the purity of the Founding Fathers, went on the paper and has survived to this day to outlive and overcome all of the interruptions.

And today we stand in this country and we declare ourselves free, free as any other man. We declare that we have the same citizenship, with the same citizenship value that every other man has. We know it. The courts are obligated to hear us as the same way to hear any other man. They can't look to our face and say, you are black. We have to deal with you in a different way. They can't say that. If they say that this whole country will be destroyed, it'll be destroyed because nobody will have faith in it anymore. If they go to such extreme, the American field of whites themselves will not have faith in the country anymore. It'll bring the country down all of a sudden if they would try to do something like that. Many of us think, "Oh, Reagan's in the White House. The time is going to roll back." No people are going forward. They can only roll back time so far and people won't trust them anymore. And people will overthrow that government that will allow time to be rolled back. Don't fear. Don't fear a Reagan in the White House. Fear a Reagan in your heart, a Reagan in your house, A selfish narrow mind that's conservative in your own house that's looking only to protect what is and not looking to bring about things that are not.

See, that's my motivation. To look at things that are and protect them. But don't take away my attention from working for the things that are not, I want to be bigger tomorrow. I want to be further ahead tomorrow. I want to be better tomorrow. I want to be richer tomorrow. I want to be richer tomorrow. Say, I didn't know you were rich. I ain't. Half the time I ain't got enough gas to put in my little car. But I never think of myself as poor. No, I never think of myself as poor. I may have $4 in my pocket, but that's not because I can't get more. I can have $4,000 in my pocket every day, but I don't want to sacrifice principle to have it. I'm going to wait till the time present itself when I can have $4,000 with honor, with self-respect, but don't think I want to be poor. I want to be rich one day and I'm 55 almost. But I still want to be rich.

And any person that doesn't want to be rich, something wrong with him. "I'm a Muslim brother. I don't put my values there." Hey, Allah says, "Work with what I've given you here hereafter for the end promise, but don't neglect your share of what's here now." That's the teaching of Allah in the Holy Book. And the Prophet says, "Those people are best among you." And I'm quoting now the book of Mehdi. His name is Mehdi, M-E-H-D-I, Mehdi Naskosteen. N-A-K-O-S-T-E-E-N. I believe that's how you spell his name. This well respected who died recently. Well-respected scholar in Islam. He gives this quote from Prophet Muhammad in his book called Islam and its Contribution to Western Education. He gives this quote that I'm about to give you from the Prophet in his book after he already established that the great learned, the bright intellect of the early days of our enlightenment as a community of people on this earth, new religion. He refers to, refers his readers to Ghazali that some of you I'm sure are well aware of. I know some of the scholars I'm looking at right now, they're well aware of this history. Al Ghazali and his belief on the levels of knowledge. The levels of knowledge. So, he's quoting the levels of knowledge, which we should be to understand because I see it as a great importance focus that Al Ghazali had. Where he says the levels of knowledge- And some of us are hung up in one level of knowledge. He says the level of knowledge, divine revelation number one, divine revelation number one. And he says the second level of knowledge is science. Science, true sciences, second level of knowledge. And he said the third level of knowledge is intuition, intuition. And some of us worried so much about what we going to come up with on our own. "Where that come from brother, where that come from, brother?" "Wait, what you based that upon?"

Well, according to Ghazali, I can say upon intuition from my own effort, in my own intellect, from the nature that G-d has put in my own intellect, I have come upon this knowledge. And according to Ghazali, you have to prove that my knowledge is not knowledge. You can't say I'm not entitled to speak that. Yes. And not only Ghazali, Al Ghazali, but many other scholars. In fact, most of the intelligence among the intellectuals of Al Islam will stand upon that. We have to understand that. One level is science. But what is the first step in that progression? Common sense. The great ability to use in an intelligent way, common sense. To rely upon external information, external information to dictate what your mind should do. And the beginning of that exercise is right at home. We learn from mama the good lesson of common sense. She's the mother of that school of thought. Yes, Praise be to Allah. Much to say on these things, but we are just leapfrogging through the evening today.

We like to spend more time in these areas. I wish I could spend more time in these areas, but we are just hitting upon concerns. So dear Muslims in this day and time, we should understand that we are to respect the intellect of man as it has been established for us in our Holy book and in the teachings of the Prophet. Don't be around here watching each other, afraid of everything someone says. "Buddy. what's your authority for that?" This country is stagnant right now because it has to have a credential a authority, a media support or somebody's support for everything that a man is trying to do. Many good works that can change the city of Chicago are ignored because the man didn't have the credentials that they look for.

Muslims shouldn't have that kind of mentality. We should have Islamic sense, the Islamic mentality to look at something for its worth. To look at something for its worth and not associate it with personality. A man can come up. He might be the slowest person, the slowest person in the Masjid. He might be the one that hasn't impressed me at all, but when he come to me and speak, I'm not going to see his personality. I'm going to hear his words, cause out of the mouth of babes come perfect praise. And that's not Islamic, that's Christian. I believe that's what they say- Out of the mouth of babes come perfect praise. Sometimes it's out of the mouth of those that you look down on that comes the excellence.

And there are groups that will look at another group. In fact, there are many groups looking at us right now, say, "Hey, what are they trying to do? They think they can come about this knowledge on their own. They think they can rise as a star of Islam by themselves. They need us to tutor them. They need us to be their shepherd. They need us to walk with them hand in hand. They need us to lead them as babes until we make them men." That's the attitude. Many of them from Saudi Arabia, from Egypt, from Pakistan, from all over the Islamic world, they're looking at us and just because we are African-Americans and just newly embracing the religion, they think that we don't have nothing going for us unless they give it to us. Allah created us and He gave us the ability to come into the levels of knowledge. Qur'an, science and intuition. He gave us the same capacity that he gave them. So, we have faith. If we are sincere, if we wrestle hard, if we endeavor, make strong endeavor to comprehend what G-d has put in the Qur'an, there's the possibility for us that we'll have intellects born among us that will rise up to that level and may surpass them! And understand this. That another concern we're bring to you today is emphasis on distinction. Allah has created unity in harmony, but Allah has also made things to multiply by diversity. So let me tell you, don't never absorb yourself into another race. Don't absorb yourself into another people's culture, into another people's ethnicity. Be distinct as African American people and rise up in the excellence without losing your distinct personality as a group. And that's more precious to me than all the money that they can give me from all the oil in Saudi Arabia.
Audience:
Allahu Akbar. Thank you.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Cause I sense a great future. My father and mother turned me on. They turned me on. They gave me great hopes. And many times I couldn't see. They left me in the dark. In many situations I was in the dark, but they didn't leave me without the light of hope in that dark. They have just excited me with such great hope. Such great hope that one day the African-American is going to do what Marcus Garvey said would be done. He's going to take his place in the constellations of the stars of heaven. That's right. Yes. I have a strong belief and I know Allah G-d, the Almighty Lord of us all. He is with us. He is with us. We are going to get aid. Don't turn down aid from anybody. If an immigrant will help you, "Allhamdulilah, thank you." We embrace our brother. He's the same as us. If he's a Muslim, he's the same as we are. We love him. We embrace him, but we are not going to be dependent upon him to the extent we look to him to know how we are to breathe, how we are to eat, how we are to smile, how we are to walk, how we are to talk. We follow the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad, not the Sunnah of Egypt.

The Sunnah of Saudi Arabia or the Sunnah of another nation. We don't follow that. So, we follow Sunnah of Muhammad. And the Sunnah of Muhammad is a type put before me to tell me what the capacity is that G-d has given me. That here, G-d has brought this out. This is your potential. Muhammad is your potential. Go on, grow, follow it. Grow into your own potential. So, I can follow Prophet Muhammad because he doesn't represent a race, not in his Uswah, not in his model. He does not represent a race. He represents the common excellence of man. So, I can follow that common excellence, but I can't follow if you put an Egyptian label on it or if you put a Pakistani label on it or Saudi Arabian label on it. You say Saudi personality. Well Saudi personality belong in the desert. I'm not criticizing, I'm not criticizing. That Saudi come out of the desert and go to Egypt, that personality don't change. But some of us are so funny minded that Saudi comes over here and impress us with his Islamic language, his Arabic tongue and pretty soon the brother that came out of East Road, and it's five below zero on Lake Michigan in Chicago. And he's walking down there in sandals and his long white Saudi garb. And wondering how come nobody pays attention to him when he's talking Islam.
Audience:
That's right.
Imam WD Mohammed:
Telling the world he's situationally insane.
Audience:
That's right. That's right.
Imam WD Mohammed:
He might not be clinically insane, but he's environmentally insane. Now this is not to invite us to go back to those extremes where we think we are some special specimen of G-d's human creation. The black man is created to be G-d. That's insanity in every circle. That's insanity everywhere. That's clinical insanity. We don't want to degrade ourselves after stepping up to the excellence of the universal human man to go back and pick up that narrow, shrunken brain idea. No, we don't want to do that. We ain't going to do it. In fact, I have brothers that tell me they willing to go to physical blows with some of you all if you ever try to impose that on the ignorant of our society. But I didn't tell him don't go to physical blows either. I was silent. Longing for yesterday. You have to understand that man must always live in the present with a view on the future. He treasures the excellence of his past. He treasures the lessons of his past, but he lives in the present and looks toward the future. And really if you understood it, it might be too philosophical for many of you, but actually man is always a creature of the future.

Because the present is gone before you can think about it. Is that not a fact? I say it being philosophical, the present is never there. So as soon as you think about it, it's passed. So, man has been created to be a creature of the future, but that doesn't mean that we don't have interest that we have to take care of now for the present. Certainly, we do, but we have to have always our eyes looking toward tomorrow, to be better tomorrow, to increase. Some of us think that we can't increase, can't grow. Allah says in the Holy Book, He created you to grow. He created you to grow. Not to stand still, to have no progress, to remain the same. he created you to grow. Those are profound philosophical statements of the Holy Book. They should motivate you even if you are not philosopher minded. They should motivate you to follow at least the spirit and principle of the book. If G-d said He created me to grow, then I must feel obligated to make progress in my life. If G-d says He prescribed excellence to his Prophet, he prescribed excellence for everything, then I must have excellence to my credit.

Though it would be excellence on a level of the common worker, I must have excellence to my credit. Because many times it has been the excellence of the common worker that has brought the wealth to the town that made the town grow. Yes, common worker cooking in the kitchen come up with a recipe that she introduced to the local town. It catches on in the local town, pretty soon in the nation. Factory built in the local town to produce the product to be shipped all over the nation. The local town is put on the map because of what a common worker did in the kitchen and brought it to the city. Huh? Yeah. These are real cases in the life of man. So don't underestimate this. Many things we'd like to talk about, but I'll sum them up. I'll try to sum them up and close for today. The most important thing that is needed for attention in the Muslim concerns. And I keep saying attention. I say attention because as far as the ordering of Muslim concerns, that's already established. No matter what time we live in or what country we live in, what situation we're in, G-d has already established for us the order of our concerns, the constant order of our concerns. He has established where the emphasis are also for our concerns.

But changing times eyes require that we give attention to certain concerns in greater degree or a lesser degree. Sometimes you have to give less attention to this concern cause of changing situations, changing circumstance, et cetera. But sometimes you have to give more attention to certain concerns, more attention. But a Muslim should not be looking for concerns outside of the Qur'an and outside of the life of Muhammad the Prophet. All of your concerns are already established for you in the Qur'an and in the life of Prophet Muhammad. What about our concern for this new music they got? It's in the Qur'an, it's in the life of Prophet Muhammad. It's there. But what about our concern for this culture, this pop culture, the problems we have. It's in the Qur'an. It's in this life of Prophet Muhammad. But what about our concern for getting some racial dignity? It's in the Qur'an. It's in the life of Prophet Muhammad. What about concern for having our own banks, our own banks, some financial power.

We need some dollar power. It's in the Qur'an, it's in the life of Prophet Muhammad. You can't say enough. Allah says nothing has been left out of the book.
Audience:
That's right.
Imam WD Mohammed:
And I believe it. I have searched the book. Allah says, "And why don't they search the book?" He makes the statement. And then people, oh, they amazed. How can any book have all of that? How can any book do all that for m? G-d says, "How come they don't research the book?" I have researched the book. I'm convinced, and not only me, I'm just joining a lot of other long trained generations of converts. And Al Ghazali was one. Great one.

Yes. So, we are not to be looking out here in space for concerns, and that's what we have a habit of doing too. We just like the typical of the ignorant masses of America. When they want to get into something to advance themselves or to lift themselves up in society, most of them have a tendency to go into guess zones for their future. Go into the guess zones. I mean guessing. Not the guest invited, the one invited. Into the guessing zone. They have a tendency to go into the guessing zone for a direction to the place they want to go in life. That's terrible. Look, just because they say it excluded us and rejected us as the people in this country, look here. And many of us been excluded. The Indian American. American Indian rejected before we were. Hispanic, a lot of them are rejected. Believe me, a lot of you may not be aware of this. You see it all the time, but it doesn't register on you that some of these whites will not live next door to no Hispanic. They don't want them around them. You ain't the only one. And there are other people too. They don't want them around. Not just us, but they have a way of dealing with us more effectively.

Say you holy head blacks. That's a sure mark man. No way of getting around that. Yeah, I can't get away from it. They have a way of nailing us down better than they nail other people down. But they have the same feelings, the same animosity, the same old racist, racist feelings for other people they like to do for us. In fact, some whites, they hate other races other than blacks more than they hate us. That's right. Believe me, I know from experience with them. See, when they think you ain't going to marry their daughter, they let you into a lot of their confidences. And that is one thing they can count on. I will never marry their daughter. And not because I hate their daughter, not because I think their daughter's inferior won't produce me a good son. Probably produce me an excellent son. But too many of my women need me. I don't get no more than four. I ain't going to break no laws. Let me clean that up.

Because I'm just joking. I'm not polygamous my nature, my life doesn't call for polygamy. Polygamy is a provision to block and help us overcome other threats and social problems in society. It is an answer, it is a remedial measure. It is not a principle of life for men in Islam that they should aspire to have four wives, two, three or four wives. No, it is not. It's the condition only allowed under strict, strict, very strict, I would say guidelines. Very, very strict guidelines. And I'll tell you as I told you years ago, think almost 8, 9, 10 years ago, that most of us don't qualify. You got to treat them equal. You got to treat them equal. If you have more than one wife, you're supposed to treat them equal. You can't say, well this is my first wife baby, I can't give you what I give her. No they all of the same status. They all have the same status. So, you can't go buy her a $200 ring and bring the other one something out of the cracker box, the caramel corn box. No, you can't do that. You can't put one in the Econolodge and the other one in the Marriott. You can't do that.

So, you know you ain't ready. You can't hardly put two in a station wagon. So that's a privilege for a very, very small minority in society. That's right. Privilege for a very, very small minority of men in society. And it's given to them who can afford it to keep women that would otherwise go to adultery, fornication, and maybe even the prostitution. Take those women off the street and give them good decent environment. Some of our scholars, they point to the provision in times of war, but they fail to understand that the situation that is brought about because of war, brought about also the cost of unemployment, the cost of poor economy, where women are at the mercy of society. War is not the only thing that throw women at the mercy of society. So, they got to be aware of that and apply that same logic to situations other than war. And really we need a whole lot of rich men in the black community to take care of our neglected women, don't we? Now I know this. Hey, that don't sound like our Imam. Is that him talking? Yes it is. Yes it is. You Imam grows up.

Things that I couldn't say yesterday didn't have the strength to say, didn't want to look at, thank G-d I have the strength to look at today and I can say it. And we need some rich African-Americans to take on more than one wife, some decent human minded African-Americans who can treat the wives humanly, and deal with them fairly. For G-d said, if you cannot be just and fair by orphans, then only one wife. If you cannot be just and fair by the orphans, then only one. So, if he going to treat one child, give one family a better situation than give the other, have one suffering and the other one living fine because he's physically attracted to her more. Than even though he has all the riches, all the wealth in the country, he's not qualified. He's not qualified. But if we can find qualified men for polygamy, for the strict rules of polygamy who have money and means to take care of these poor women who have no husbands. And don't say "Oh, the American woman will never do that." I know better. I can tell you some American women have already done that and they say they are happy with that situation.

One lady told me, she said, well, I never knew my father. I had sisters and brothers I didn't even know were my sister and brother. This is an African-American girl in this country, in fact, in the north. See, I didn't even know my own brothers and sisters and I never knew my father.

She said, "This man that has taken me as his second wife, accepts his responsibility. He lives with us. He comes to see us. He share his time with us. He spend nights with us as well as with his wife, first wife." Says, "My children know their father." She said, "Brother Imam, I wish I could tell the women that I appreciate the provision of polygamy in Al Islam." I know how sensitive you are because you American, you don't believe in sharing no husband. You believe in sneaking out with him until he likes you better than he like his wife, and then taking him to your house and never let him go back home.

You believe in baiting him, bating him. No contract, nothing. In fact, "Darling, I want nothing from you. I just love you so much. I'll give you everything. Take all of me. I don't need your money or anything." Hey, I'm pregnant. What you going to do about it? Are you going to tell your wife? A new bait after the hook has been secured, got the hook in there. She feel the hook is secure now. All together, different person. "Okay, I'm pregnant. You going to tell your wife or do I have to tell her? Don't touch me no more until you marry me properly." Who is this? Who is this talking? This the same woman that came up and told me, I don't want anything. Just a chance to get you from your wife. Yes, we have to look at reality, don't we? Let's look at reality. Stop fooling ourselves. The worst, the worst a family life there is is the one that's in America, the one that's accepted by America. Do you hear what they're saying now in the news? "Oh, why talk about Hart. Look how many Presidents did the same thing. We can't be selecting men because they never committed adultery. Never had another woman." Say, "We can't do that." Say, "We'll have nobody to select." That's what they're saying on the news now,

Which is worse, A restricted polygamy where everybody has protection, a contract and protection and the limit is four. No matter how much money he got, he ain't supposed to have more than four. He not supposed to be driven by lust even to get the second one or the third one. Lust is not a reason to get any a wife. You're not supposed to get the first wife out of lust. G-d condemned that in the Holy Book. It's in the Holy Book. Yes. Approach women and make the proper approach. Be honorable, be upright. To give them a contract. Marry them, but not out of lust. That's what G-d says. That's what G-d says. So wouldn't it be better for us to have Islamic way of life. Islamic, the way of marriage, than to have all of this embarrassment? Guy running around, whole network, NBC and whole crew laying behind the hotel, waiting for the man to come out. The son and his daughter might commit suicide. Sometimes that's so shocking. The sudden shock of that may cause a child to commit suicide. A bright child that perhaps will be President 20 years or 40 years from now, might commit suicide. So don't tell me about this society. I'm ready to debate at any time.

Hey man, you think Islam is best? What about you? You think Islam is best? What about you, you think Islam is best? Ain't nothing left for me to say. I got four witnesses. Islam is the best. I'm through. Now, that doesn't stop us. That doesn't stop us from promoting and encouraging people to stick to their own religion if that's their choice, and pursue a better life for themselves in their own religion. That doesn't stop us. That doesn't change that for us at all. And you should feel the same way if you're convinced that your religion is the best. You should feel the same way. And we all should cooperate for what is best for all of us. Peace beyond you. As Salaam Alaikum.



