01/08/1983
IWDM Study Library 
Northeast Regional Business Workshop

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Praise be to Allah, the Guardian, Evolver, the Cherisher, the Sustainer of all the Worlds. Dear beloved Muslims, As Salaam Alaikum. If you give me a minute here because I want to make this as quick as possible. What time is the Maghrib prayer? So, it's near that time. So InshaAllah, I can finish and InshaAllah, we could go and make Mahgrib prayer. Now let me first say that the slides that I saw of the Sedalia facilities there certainly pleases me and raises my hopes even more for the facility. The Imam whose President of the college Hamidullah, he learned of the opportunity to purchase that land down there. And I think most of you know something about the history of it. It was an effort just like the one we are making right now here. And it was operating successfully for many years as the Palmer Institute. So, it has gone from African American people or Bilalian people to the Bilalian people or the African American people. Now I know how it looked when I went there. He said he had located some people down there, had some property, told me about it. He said he thought it was an exciting idea. I said, I agree with you. So, he invited me to go down and look at it. I went down with him to look at it and I saw it and it didn't discourage me seeing the buildings and terrible repair.
Some of them looked like they should be demolished. It wouldn't be worthwhile to put a penny into them. And the pigeon droppings was three feet deep or deeper. At least three feet deep. And they had taken over some of the facilities there. You see? So, I understand why you need a shotgun. That's a terrible thing to do to a building. So, believe me, my heart is in the facility and in the purpose. My heart is in the purpose that we have agreed to for that facility. We want a college there, college for training our teachers and certifying teachers for our schools and for public education, for the public school system. And we achieve certification for our own Islamic studies and et cetera first. Then we can't give up because we want certification for the whole system so that if a person has to transfer or has to leave that job, they will be employable in the system. You see? So that was our wish and it's still our wish. And I don't lose any faith myself so far. Allah has blessed me not to lose any faith. Well, you say "Why you stepped down from the position of leader over the community?" In the spirit of faith. My faith dictated that.
Now, several things, I'm going to try to go over them quickly, but first I want to go outside of this meeting here to a situation that we had that presented a problem for us on Jumu'ah day. Now, I was told by the Imam that on Jumu'ah day many people couldn't attend the Jumu'ah because they were in the upstairs or somewhere in the building. And then he told me after we had concluded that there are other people he said that haven't made Jumu'ah. He said we should have a second Jumu'ah for them, right? So I agreed. I said, "Oh yes, right." But after thinking about that, I said, Why? There's no need for that. If they were there at the Jumu'ah, and I don't think this was done either. I think he might have thought about it himself or discussed it anyway. It wasn't done that way. Instead they did the noon prayer, those who missed the prayer. But let me make it clear that if you were in the building, if you can't be in the area where you can see the Imam, if you are in the building and you can hear his voice, you listen to the lecture and after the lecture, when you hear the call for prayer and the Iqama, wherever you are, you do the same thing.
So many times you can't see the Imam. You just follow the Imam. You don't have to see him. You don't have to be in the same area as long as you can hear him. So, whoever's in a different area, they form their ranks together, they face the Qibla just like we do. And they follow the signals to stand, to do whatever we have to do in the prayer until it's concluded. Alright. So, I just wanted to get that out of the way first. Now many other things that I would like to get out of the way too, but InshaAllah they will go in time. The news of Sister Zakia receiving the recognition that she received for her merits. Oh, I'm so happy about that too. And I'm sure all of us are. It's wonderful sister. Now you know our Prophet Muhammad, Peace be upon him. I hate to say our Prophet really. But when I speak, I speak as a human being and as a Muslim, you see? But really he's, he's a man for all human beings. And Allah's word says that he is a Mercy for all the Worlds. So, he's called Al Amin before he became the Prophet. He was called Al Amin. And the meaning of that word is the trustworthy one.
The one in whom the people could place their trust. Al Amin. And we find in the Qur'an that the community idea in Al-Islam is a community that is trustworthy. In the Qur'an, the Holy Precincts under the leadership of Muhammad is referred to as Baladil Amin. Baladil Amin. The town made safe. Al Amin. But safe in what sense? It's trustworthiness. The people feel secure there, they feel safe from violence, they feel safe from theft, et cetera, et cetera. You see. Trust. Now I have to do this. I don't need glasses to see a little distance away like that. In fact, I just need them to see up close and this is kind of uncomfortable for me. I'm not used to doing this. I just recently got these things because they help see up close. I'm aging a little bit. Yes. So, there was an American ambassador. He might even have been the American ambassador to Russia I believe at one time. I can't recall his name. But anyway, he said something on trust. And let me just give you an idea. I'm not quoting him exactly, but I'm going to try to give you the exact idea what he said. Nothing threatens security, nothing threatens security more than insistence on a no risk situation.
Or insistence upon the absence of probability. Oh, now we know that nothing is going to happen, that we don't want to happen. It is secure, perfectly secured. Some of us want that kind of security. We want to be secure to the extent that we can rest and know that there's no probability of anything giving us any trouble, of anything happening that we don't want to happen. That's not a community of trust, that's a police state. If you want a free community, then you have to accept risk. You have to trust people. And I thank Allah for blessing me to be born in the environment, time and situation I was born in so I could learn. I've learned a lot from people in my immediate surroundings, my father, my mother, sisters, brothers, relatives, and my other relatives. The Pioneers of this history that we have as people following faith. Yes, believe me. And dear beloved people, I appreciate the tribute made to me by Imam Rashid. But most of what I've done has already signaled the concerns we already had. We are just trying to deliver in the right way what we already wanted. We had already indicated that we had these concerns. We wanted to do things collectively. We wanted to build a school of our own. We wanted to build a high school and college of our own. We wanted a University of our own. We were so courageous. We put the name University on an elementary school that was not even accredited.
No, I'm not making mockery. I think that's wonderful. The people with hope, with courage. And we had a courageous leader in the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. So just wanted to clear up that. Now if you are thinking big, there's nothing wrong with starting small. And we make the mistake of thinking that if you've got big ideas, you should start big. That's not the way things naturally develop. I've read a book on the history of the Palmer Institute at Sedalia, and I know that they weren't rich people, they didn't have Saudi Arabia to fund them. They didn't have rich people in their family or rich friends to fund that idea. They had courage. They had faith and courage. And that facility was sustained by contributions from Ford Motor Company, their funding institution and other foundations that gave them support, financial support. And as long as there was hope for them and the situation wasn't bad as it was for them, they continued to receive support. I don't know whether it's due to the aging and weakening of Ms. Charlotte Hawkins Brown, is that her name? Yes. Ms. Charlotte Hawkins Brown. Really the one who, the woman who established that institution, or not.
She named it for Ms. Palmer. Is that correct? Yes. I don't know whether it was that, whether that caused it or not, but I know something caused it. And it might've been a combination of things caused it. Maybe the absence of her being there attending to it might've had some effect and some influence on the weakening of the institution and maybe just the situation, the circumstances that started to develop around the late sixties and seventies, early seventies, I don't know. Or perhaps through the sixties, that decade of the sixties perhaps had some effect on that. We don't know. But we do know that it went down and we were blessed to purchase the property. It now is coming up. We see it. We saw the evidence of it on film. It's coming up.
What is my advice? I'm speaking to you as a member of your community, not as a leader. Not as the leader in an organizational sense or in an administrative sense. And really we shouldn't have never been speaking that way. A Muslim community is never supposed to be dependent upon no organizational leader or structure, except the ones that they form independent of a central organization. We don't have no central organization in our religion. The central focus for our authority and leadership in our religion is the Qur'an and Prophet Muhammad. That's what it is. I hope you understand that. I find that societies that have been successful in progressing and staying around here for a long time, for generations, they have been societies that have followed the same form that we have in this religion. Those that have wanted a central authority within an organizational structure, they failed. But those that open up the leadership to the general supporters of their particular concern, they have remained, they stayed, they don't die out. So, what I'm saying here, and I thank Allah that I have been able to establish this officially. This has been established officially before my giving up that one man office.
All right? Yes. I went to New Orleans, I went to Los Angeles, I spoke in Chicago and I addressed the people and I told them that we want to change this idea. We want to change this concept of government and authority in this community. We don't want a Council of Representatives and regional Imams. We want councils represented in all the Imams of the people. The council must be represented by all the Imams of the people. All that was already established and they agreed to it willingly, sincerely, or hypocritically, they agreed to it. Yes. And some of them I think really supported the idea. They liked it. Yes. So, if they really follow me, then they don't recognize that council, the old council of Imams. And the convener who was convening at the time, he announced that in 30 days the transition will be made. And I think about 15 days have gone past. The transition will be made from the seven man or six man body to a council of all the Imams in this community. Before you already made that announcement. And again, I've already established too that the Imams are not to control the community,
The people, the Qur'an, Prophet Muhammad, and the good sincere support and consensus of the people who follow that, they are to control this community. No man is supposed to control this community. Have I tried to control this community?
Audience:
No sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
I've tried to represent this religion and I've tried to represent your hopes and aspirations and I've always asked for your support. I've never forced myself on you. So that's the example. If they follow me, I've given them that example. So, we are not to control the people. Now what I'm getting at is this, because I'm getting at something specific. What I'm getting at is the situation we are now in where we are waiting for the Imams, the Council of Imams to get the ball to rolling so we can have some money coming in so we can get something done. No, you shouldn't do that. Whenever we establish an institution, and Sedalia is an institution, that's an institution. Whenever we establish an institution and we agree on a leader and on a body of people to represent that operation, then that leader and that body of people should think independently. You know what you're supposed to do. As long as we don't have independent institutions, we don't have anything. That's the problem with the black man's society. The black man, he just want a preacher over him. And he would like to know that that preacher is consulting with the white man often.
That's our problem. We need to accept that there are people who are qualified for certain things and give them authority, accept their authority. Don't give it to them because we don't have that power to give them no authority. Accept their right and their authority to be over that. Especially if the people support them because that's what goes in the community is the majority of the people. That they support them. Is it acceptable in the eyes of G-d? Is it what Muhammad approves? Then you should demand it of your people. Even me. Say "Brother Imam, G-d approves this. It is acceptable in the light of Qur'an, in the light of the Prophet Muhammad's life. It is acceptable. It is good for us. We need it. We all know we need it. Now Brother Imam, what right do you have? You should be talking to me this way if I'm the one. "Brother Imam, what right do you have to deny us this?" And you should replace me if I don't submit to what is right. That's right. Alright, so what I'm saying is we have to have independent institutions. I asked for an independent institution that would appeal to the general public for charities.
For concerns that we are justified to put out before the general public for their support. Does anyone get upset when the Jews appeal to the general public of America for support for some Jewish cause? They don't get upset, do they? Well look, this country doesn't owe the Jew anymore than it owe us. Look what it has done to us. So, we have a right. If we have something good, something good that we know is good for our community, for African-American people, especially for the poor, for the deprived, we should be willing and should be courageous enough to organize an effort and bring that concern before the general citizens of America, before the citizens of America and make an appeal for them to fund our cause. That's what we should do. And I think if that effort in Sedalia would take it upon themselves, you've done what you've done and the council didn't do it, the council couldn't do that. If you had been waiting on the council to do that, man, you'd still be somewhere sitting in the dust like Job. So, you can't wait. You've got to accept that this responsibility here is mine. I have been put over this function, I've been put over this operation, it's mine. Now I have to make an appeal to the people to get some help. I have to go wherever I can think I can get help. Don't give up the idea of going abroad.
But we would like to know, shouldn't the American people have a chance to prove that they are good people by us? They should have a chance to prove that they're good people by us. And I wouldn't like to be dependent on no people that's that far away. Take too long to make a phone call. And I think we'll make it. I know we'll make it. So, if you accept me as your leader, then believe me, if you want to follow me, see the facility in Sedalia as an independent institution and the only right the Imams have to question or criticize what you're doing down there is the right that I have or that brother have or anybody else have as a believer. They have no more right than these people as a believer. What right do they have that we don't have? If you're doing something un-Islamic, then we all have a right to question what you're doing. But as long as you're doing something in line with Islamic principles and you're doing a good work for us, nobody have a right to interfere with what you're doing. The Imam is nothing but a representative of the people. So where did he have authority outside of that representation?
And I don't think these people asked the Imams to sit on that project. They never asked them to sit down on that project. They didn't ask them to deny your support. Alright. And I'm sure that we didn't want him to be denied the opportunity to go to that meeting that they had and address the concerns of Sedalia. We had no share in that. I know I didn't. I just learned about it not so long ago and I thought it was outrageous. What kind of leaders are these that don't want to know what's happening in our facility? Here's an opportunity to really have all the leaders now that claim to be the ones that represent the leadership, to sit down and listen to a report on the facility and they tell the man don't come. No, don't come. What is that? Nigger politics or something. See nigger is a term. Niggers is something I don't know anything about. Unknown politics. We tried to get people to get together and form a committee to make public appeals for the schools. Our schools need money,
Audience:
Yes sir.
Imam WD Mohammed:
So, I named some persons myself after the committee didn't come forward. I named some persons. It didn't work too well. Finally, I named some that I knew would act. I knew they would do something. I named my wife. I named my brother Jabir and I named Imam Clyde Rahman who is a good fundraiser. He's good at raising funds. So, I named them and I asked them to get together in Chicago and bring the idea to the Imam that Jabir had conceived to really raise some funds for our schools. They sat down with the Imam. Qasim Ahmed right? They sat down with the Imam in Chicago and got up from the table and all of them just went back in their own ways and forgot about the project. Jabir told me "We couldn't make no progress, said the Imam won't support the idea." My wife told me, she said, "Well, she said, we didn't make any progress. Don't look like we're going to be able to do it. Say the Imam said he wouldn't support the idea." Now what am I supposed to do? I'm supposed to then go and say, "Brother Imam, you said you wouldn't support that idea. I chose these people. I want this idea. Okay, you removed from your office." That's not me.
How come my people didn't tell that Imam this is the Imams project and if you don't support it buddy, you going to be in trouble. That's what they should have told him to his face. My wife, my brother and Imam Rahman. They should have told Qasim Ahmed say, "What's wrong with you man? Are you going crazy or something?"
Audience:
That's right.
Imam WD Mohammed:
I know you don't want me to go back and tell the Imam this. And then if they fight for me a little bit, I'll fight for them a whole lot. But we've been in the habit of letting one person that we think is an authority just tell us what to do and we go away like sheep that have no other alternative. That's not right. And I won't leave a house like that, believe me. So, I'm still waiting. Rahman, he wrote and he said, and I like that because he did say he would like to make another try at it. And I didn't ask him, I haven't said anything to him, but I guess he'd been thinking about it. He said, "We'd like to meet again and have another try at it." The Imams have proven by their own indecision and inaction that we can't trust them with these projects. Now either because they're too busy or they don't know how or something. So, what reason do we have to even respect what they have to say? We have no reason to respect what they have to say. So go on and form the committee to raise funds. And if you support me, I'll die with you.
We need to trust, to have faith. We need more trust. There are Imams.... I hate to talk to you this way because it's not conducive. But it's a must that we know what's going on. There are Imams in this community that do their best to keep my word from reaching the ears of the people. There are many so-called Masjids throughout this country with Imams over them that are doing their best to keep the people from ever seeing what I represent. So, what am I stepping down from when I step down from the leadership of the American Muslim Mission? Nothing. But if I step down from leading people in the path of Al- Islam, if I step down from serving the things that you want me to keep serving, then I've done a terrible thing and you should kill me in the street. If I ever do that, you just kill me wherever you find me. That's right. We have an effort and believe me, I've tried to work with these people. I've tried hard to work with each and every one of them. And I can face any of them. And if they say, "Brother Imam, you hurt me. You did me wrong. You hurt my image. Okay, I say, I did? Was it before or after you hurt me?
And all of them, if they tell the truth, they say, "It was after you caught me hurting you. I had been hurting you a long time." So, I've tried hard. I tolerated a lot. That's right. Now dear beloved Muslims, It was really burdening my heart that I had to do what I did. Yes, it was until I really looked at the religion and I said, well what I want to do is exactly what this religion calls for. You're not supposed to have a political structure over a religious organization, over a religious community. You're supposed to have leaders that best represent that religion. And the people are supposed to be free who have qualifications, who have ability. They're supposed to be free to form committees, to form groups and establish institutions and establish programs and progress the community that way. So, I know I'm on the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad. What does this religion say? Our Prophet, Peace and blessing be upon him, he said, "If you are faced with a situation or problem or if you have a task or an endeavor to do and it calls for a number of you to carry it out, select first a leader, a representative, right? That's Prophet Muhammad's word, Peace be upon him. That's his advice to us, his instructions to us. Alright.
So, what does that tell us? If we have to establish an institution in Sedalia, we should get together and select a leader for that purpose. He didn't say if you got a situation or a project and it calls for a number of you to do it, consult Abu Bakr. See Umar first. He said "Select you a representative for that project." How in the world can one person watch over everything that's going on in the community? Impossible. And when do you refer to the Prophet? I'm not the Prophet. But even if the Prophet was here speaking to you, when should you refer that matter to the Prophet? Say "When you have a dispute in a matter, refer it to Allah and His Messenger." Isn't that right? That's right. Did it say, and if Abu Bakr is around, refer it to Abu Bakr? If you have a dispute, and this was left to us, this is to live with us forever. If you are differing in a matter, refer it to Allah and His Messenger. It didn't say refer to your President. So, if we differ in a matter, we'd refer to the Qur'an and to the life of Prophet Muhammad.
And if we can prove that it's wrong on those grounds, it's wrong. We have to accept that. Right? Okay. Alright. See, this is what they don't want for us. They don't want the little people to have this kind of sophisticated democracy because they know that it opens up unlimited possibilities. I think some pigeon just shitted on me, wasn't it? Excuse me, please. I might have to borrow your shotgun.
Now one other point. And that's the need for persons to follow through on curriculum. Once the curriculum is decided upon and the school gets that curriculum, it has to be followed through, right? They have to implement it as Sister Zakia was saying. And it's going to take time. Now I know I'm not telling Sister Zakia or any of you all in that field, in that area, anything you don't know. But sometime we might look over something in haste trying to hurry up and sit down under the time pressure. But the problem is that she knows is achievement level for the teachers themselves. So, they work with what they can manage. But once we decide upon something uniform and standard for them, then they have to really measure up themselves to that task. So, what we have to do is really support the college and really work in our local areas to bring up the achievement level of those persons so they will be able to follow, implement the curriculum. And InshaAllah we will do that. Now, Brother Imam, Abdul Haqq Muhammad, he has been assigned with approval of the official council members at that time to head this particular project. To head up an effort to bring people, involve people in the development, economic development of our community, business progress and economic development of our community. And also, to have seminars throughout the country to bring other persons with other skills and abilities and professions you see together. And this is what we need. We just late, you see. So, if we support him, and he should understand too that he can't be calling up no council member. Say, "Hey brother, council member, can we buy five stamps? We have five letters we want to send. Hey brother, council member, we've just decided upon something. Can we send this to you for your approval? Is he more qualified to do that than you? Why wasn't he chosen for that then? You must've been more qualified than him. That's why you are in that position. So, you don't call him and ask him to approve something. This is what they're afraid of. This is what they're afraid of. Because if our enemy put one of them in the community to contain us and we set up a system where he can't be operative himself, he's wondering now where is he going to work. I might have to get a new job. And that's what we want to do. We want to put the pigeon out of work. He ain't our pigeon. He doesn't carry our message.
That's a good thing. Man, you really hit up upon something. And now, I don't know if you had the same idea I got. I don't want to say. I'd like you to tell me what idea you had about it. But anyway, in Chicago we have a lot of pigeons and I think it's because of the way we build the roofs on our home. And they get right up under that roof, right up in the track up there. And they are some noisy things. They come home and you think they come home to rest and they'll be, up there making all types of noise, just carrying on all night. Only time they quiet is when they flying. And they must eat too much. And you know they train them to carry messages right? Now you know, people that can't agree with each other, the enemy will hide in there to hold down each other. Yeah, you can't agree with each other. You can't work in unity. The enemy, he likes that. He say, "Now let me select, let me get one of these boys, let me give him a job." We going to change that InshaAllah . So, we want to support all these efforts.
AAMCOP. Situation got bad for AAMCOP. But I wasn't worried. I wasn't worried. No, believe me, I haven't worried yet. I knew everything would work out all right. But some of them, they were afraid. They said "What are we going to do Brother Imam? And one of them told me, say "Brother Imam, we are prepared if you want." We are prepared to take this outside of the community and establish it independently and invite all the people that want to join us. We can do that. There's nothing stopping us from doing that." You see? I told him no. I said, don't worry about that. I said, you got more support than you know. So, he stayed. I believe he was going to stay anyway and work with it, but he was just trying to see maybe he say, well maybe the Imam ain't telling me nothing, ain't talking to me. Maybe he want us to do something else or something. When he found that I was still there, it wasn't going to change. He was happy. He was happy. So, this AAMCOP, they want to bring it under a few Imams. It ain't under nobody, but Allah, His Messenger, and you,
That's all. And when I say you, I'm talking about all of us. Imam Pasha, Imam Qasim Ahmed, all of us. All of us of us have a right to stand up and question your behavior or what you're doing if we know it to be un-Islamic. But except for that, we have no power. And no one man should have the power to stop something unless the people agree to it. While we waiting on him to say yes and get it started again, why we might have lost the whole effort. We can't have that. Allah says "Never will He relieve the believers." Meaning He's going to press on the believers. Never will He relieve the believers until there be separated the good from the bad. The good from the bad or the bad from the good. He's not going to leave us. He's not going to let us have any peace. We ain't going to never have peace, unity, until He separates the good from the bad. Now, when we organize the good people, that's what I mean by a select group, A core people. When we organize ourselves to do good and we stop depending on the bad people, Allah will manifest His power that is on our side.
But first we have to collect ourselves. The right people got to get with each other and say, look, we are going to do this at any cost. For Allah's pleasure. And then you see the burden goes off. Situation becomes nice. Lastly, and really I had planned to say much more to you, but InshaAllah we will deal with it Sunday, I wanted to bring it to your attention because I think we have an obligation to share with people in our situation anything that we have that we know they need. We have that obligation. And look, if a leader has the ability or the insight to take a people onward toward progress, then that leader must be struggling himself as hard as he possibly can to qualify those people to go to that objective without him. He might fall down and die. Anything can happen to him. So, every time he gets an insight, every time he gets a vision, that opens up a way, he's supposed to share that immediately with those people. Yes, whatever vision he gets for the future, he should share it immediately with the people and should be trying hard to educate the body, the general body of people into his vision so that if anything happens to him, the vision lives. Because the vision is with the people.
A leader must be unselfish. A leader can't be jealous of his brother. A leader can't be envious. A leader can't be arrogant. A leader can't want to promote himself. A leader can't want to dominate. A leader must want to free everybody that identify in the concern. Then you'll have progress. Then you'll have progress. So, dear beloved people, this is what we are trying to do. And I want to bring to you some things that I see in the economic developments in this country and how they bear on us as little people in this country. And InshaAllah we can talk about it Sunday. I hope we can go quickly and make Mahgrib. As Salaam Alaikum.



