05/09/1998
IWDM Study Library 
South Shore Chicago

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
As Salaam Alaikum.
Audience:
Wa Alaikum As Salaam.
IWDM:
Bismilah Ar Rahma Nir Raheem. With Allah's Name, the Beneficent, the Merciful. Wa Ash Hadu An La Ilaha Ilalah, Wa Shaika Lahu. Wa Ash Hadu Ana Muhammadn Rasulahu. We witness that Allah alone is G-d and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. We pray Peace and blessings be upon Muhammad, the last and universal Prophet, the Noble and best creation of Allah.
We hope that everyone will be as comfortable as possible. I know how it is to stand when you're not doing something other than listening. It's easy to stand when you are speaking, I don't know why it is, but it is. It's easy to stand when you're speaking. But those who are listening, and I know because I've stood for hours listening to certain ones and I know you get very tired sometimes, even sitting you get very tired. So, we want you to relax as much as possible. You who have problems standing like I do with my back, I don't have the best back right now. I have injury in my back. I have to lean up against the wall, the wall, put my back to the wall, it helps a little bit. So, make yourselves as comfortable as possible under these circumstances.
We have a lot of servants of Allah, workers in the community here with us from around the country. It is really a pleasure to see Imams here coming from the East Coast and all the way from the West Coast. I see Oakland, California represented here behind me and Boston and many Imams from this area, Midwest area. And there are others, too, I'm not naming all of them, but I'm making a point to say that we have Imams coming from the distant areas for this two-day speaking engagement we've had here, Jumu'ah prayer, and this Sunday public gathering.
We also have other distinguished persons here. We have a distinguished gentleman here from Nigeria, a fine and excellent Muslim and also a fine and excellent journalist from Nigeria who spent a lot of his time in Ghana I understand. He studied there and also lived there for a good while. He is our brother, Misbahu Arafial . If he would just stand so people would see our brother. He's an excellent journalist. Allahu Akbar.
Audience:
Takbir.
IWDM:
Allahu Akbar. I thank Allah that we have other distinguished persons among us too. I don't have the list before me, from the outer community. We welcome all of our community and of other communities and pray Allah that He guide us and grant us the reward of pleasing Him. That's our main objective as Muslims, is always to please our Lord and Creator that we know as Muslims by the name Allah.
I'm happy also and very pleased, feel very good to know that many of the members of my family are here today and I've seen many of them in the audience. I have my oldest sister who was like a second mother to me. Sister Ethel Sharrieff. She's here and her husband Raymond Sharrieff, that we all know, Brother Raymond Sharrieff. I still want to salute him when I see him.
And my son-in-law, as you know, is Imam Edmund Hafiz and also my assistant in not only religious matters but also in business matters. And also his wife, who's my daughter, naturally, he's my son-in-law, so I didn't have to say that. His wife, Makira Muhammad Hafiz, she's here. Will you stand there? Yes, yes. That's the Imam's wife. And next to her, I can't get everybody. I'm working my way to the star among us, to the star in the family.
And we have Taira. Taira standup, that's my granddaughter, my daughter, Layla's daughter. And since I have her, maybe I just keep with the family there. Layla Muhammad Abdullah. Most of us know her. Will you please stand there? Yeah, let them see your pretty face. And Dorian is next to her. Dorian, her son Dorian, our grandson, Dorian. Stand up Dorian. Yeah. Very good. And who's that next to you, Dorian? Where's your brother Tahir? Tahir is outside somewhere. And he's a twin. Tahir and Tahire, they're twins. We were blessed, the first grandchildren were twins. And now for the star in the family, the first mother and father, Kevin, Kevin Walker and Andina Muhammad Walker. Will you stand? That's my daughter and son-in-law and the star is the one they are holding. Lift him up there. That's Kevin P. Walker Jr. He's a star. Really a star.
Yes. And we have other members in the family too. Another one that I have to hesitate sometimes when I say "As Salaam Alaikum", your hand start to go up to do this. I stop it right there. Elijah Muhammad II, he's here too. I saw him there. And my oldest brother Emmanuel, I saw him at the Jumu'ah in the Jumu'ah congregation Friday. And I don't know whether he's here today or not, but I did see him Friday. So, this is a blessing for us to be together. It is a blessing.
We all share one history, one great experience. It's a great experience, great experience. Many people are not blessed to be in a kind of unique experience like we had to have their minds influenced in so many different ways. And I mean in ways to excite the tools of intelligence because you had to work with it. So we were put in a situation where everything here was trying to come up to deal with it. Brain cells were excited. And I hope they're still excited, they should be. And in a even a more positive way now. We are speaking on our religion commonly called Islam. Al Islam, Al Islam properly in the Qur'an, Al Islam. And we are speaking on our religion as a religion that inspires hope in humanity and the whole of humanity. Humanity, all people.
It is my understanding that the thing that is most needed in a person or in a household or in the society is faith. Faith. However, many of us only see faith in the religious light, in religious context. And today I hope that before we leave here, we will all see faith together. And there's my oldest brother, he is here in the audience today too. Emmanuel Muhammad. Excuse me for mentioning that. I had mentioned that I saw him in Friday congregation and now he's here again today as I thought he would be. I thought, be here today.
Yes, isn't that wonderful that families can disagree, but they still come together? And I never want everybody to say yes to everything I say, even if it's right, even if it's right. If everything I say you say yes, that kind of makes me feel uneasy. Even if it's right, don't say yes every time I say something.
I hope by the time we are finished with this address today, which we call a public address, but we know our public is always the best Muslims. That's what it makes up our public, the best Muslim. But we say public because our invitation is not only to Muslims, our invitation is to all people. And that invitation will always be open to all the good people of any city or wherever we are talking small town or big town. That invitation will always be extended to all the people of that town, whether they are Muslims or not, or whether they they're African-Americans or not. It will always be extended to all of them.
And we are happy when we see them respond to our invitation and join us in our meeting. We hope by the time we are finished with this address today that all of us will see faith in a bigger, bigger circle, a bigger picture, a bigger context. One that includes you, whether you are thinking of yourself as a religious person or not, one that includes you as much as it includes anybody else. I will begin by saying faith is a condition that makes possible positive things to happen, good things to happen in our lives, good things to happen in our lives.
The absence of faith is distrust. Distrust. I have faith. If I don't have faith, then I have distrust. Distrust is good when it's called for. There are many things we should distrust. Like some people that get so holy, they think they can jump off a building. Well I distrust that power. So, distrust is good, but only when it is justly called for. Just like in our religion, we are permitted to be suspicious. Although G-d tells us that some suspicion is sin, is sin, some suspicion is sin. Nevertheless, we are permitted to be suspicious because some situations justify us being suspicious. Being suspicious. Just like when you go into an all European American neighborhood and you've never been in that neighborhood before. Well you're going to be cautious if you're intelligent, you're going to be more cautious than you were around your neighborhood. You're going to be a little bit more cautious, you'll be suspicious of the possibilities.
So those are circumstances that justify you being a little cautious, a little suspicious, having a little less sense of security, being a little less trustful of the circumstances you have certainly found yourself in. So, these are natural. In fact, we cannot think of anything that is natural for a human being that is not approved in our Holy Book. Whatever is natural for a human being is approved in our Holy Book. It is natural to hate. I know some people say, "Oh, if you are a religious person, but how? If you are really a sincere servant of G-d, how can you hate anybody?"
It's human nature to hate certain people. Hate is just a strong dislike. That's all it is. Hate is a strong dislike. So, there are certain people because of their behavior and because of their treatment to you or treatment to some of your loved ones, you naturally hate them and you will hate them until you see something in them to make you believe that now I can stop hating them or now there is not a real reason anymore for me to hate them. And if you are the kind of person that can forgive, you'll start to hate them less. I used to have a problem with the Christian religion because I heard they say that you ain't supposed to hate nobody, you ain't supposed to hate. I heard that and I had a problem with that even when I was young. I was young still in my teens. I had a problem with that.
And I heard my father once said that there's a writing in the Bible that says there were two brothers and G-d loved one and hated the other. So, I said to myself, if that's true, and the Christians know that, how can they say that you ain't supposed to hate nobody, when G-d Himself hated one brother and loved the other? So, I just couldn't manage that. And I still, as much as the religion has really grown in me, and I thank Allah, sometimes I have to put a check on myself so I won't slip out of this body as some angelic form and leave it all and lose it all.
But I've really grown a lot in a virtuous way and a peaceful and humble way. And I still hate, some things I still hate. And some people, I don't hate them as a person. I hate what's in them. And maybe that's what the Christians mean. Maybe they mean that we shouldn't hate the person, we should only hate whatever's in them that's causing the problem. Well, that's right. That's what I do. I hate the way they think. I hate the way they reason. I hate the way they feel. I hate the way they express their feelings. I can go on and on and on and tell you what I hate. Well, that's enough of that, I think.
Now, getting back to a situation that is best for us, best situation for us. Best situation for us is first of all a situation where we can have faith, faith. Without faith, you can't accomplish anything. If you don't have faith in yourself, you can't accomplish anything. If you don't have faith in something outside of yourself, you can't accomplish anything. If you don't have faith in your family, you can't have a good family. You got to have faith in something in order to... Even when your family just appear to be a total loss, oftentimes you will find certain people still with their family, loving their family, doing for their family, and they know the family in its appearance is a total loss. Why? They have faith. They have faith in the family. They have faith in the family or they have faith in a principle, faith in a principle.
They have faith that if I continue to present myself in a decent way and if I continue to keep my life, my decent life, maybe that will one day bring them back or influence them to come around. So, they have faith in something. You have to have faith in something. If we don't have faith in anything, there's no way to survive. When Allah created everything, and now I'm going through the idea that we in our true nature, true character, true makeup, we are people in a good situation. We are people of faith. When Allah created everything, the creation, it's said in the traditional sayings of our Prophet, Peace and blessings be upon Muhammad that He showed the angel, Jibreel, Gabriel, His creation.
And the great angel, Jibreel or Gabriel, he said, "My Lord, oh my Lord, how can anyone go wrong, go astray, in such a wonderful creation?" Then Allah showed him the creation after the creation had been altered, affected, influenced by the Satan, the devil, the Satan. And the response from the angel Jibreel was, "Oh my Lord, how can anyone go straight in such a creation?" So that tells us something. I will go now directly to it with the saying of the Prophet Peace and blessing be upon him that "Everyone is born a Muslim. And it is the circumstances that they're put in that make them Jew, Christian or other."
Science, as you know, points to two conditions as being responsible for forming us. One is our genetic makeup, what we have inherited genetically from our parents and from those behind us. And the other is the environment. This is science, Western science, and I would say it is universal science. Wherever you find it will say that is true. So basically, or essentially, there are two circumstances accounting for what we are, the condition that we have internally. The genes of our parents and the environment that we so happen to be in.
I don't know how many of us will be concerned to work for the better genetic outcome of our life, but according to science, it'll make good sense even to work for the better genetic outcome of our lives. That is by seeking a person of good nature, of good behavior, of good reputation, of good mind to mate with so that the likelihood of the child being good and what you would like will be improved a little bit. You see. And I think it would be not only scientifically backwards, but it would be ignorance of a common sense person to knowingly go and pick some trash, some junk, some filth, a wreck from the society and mate with them and have children. Now, I know some religious people, they're so tender-hearted, even this hurts them. Some of you might be sniffling a little bit now.
Well, you are the ones should be left with those wrecks of society. You can have them, but I think the sensible man and sensible woman should be looking for someone with a genetic makeup, with a natural makeup that will most likely account for a better generation, will account for a better generation. Don't just go out there picking somebody. Don't you know our religion tell us, do not pick a mate out of lust, out of sexual drive? You cannot pick a mate because of sexual desire. No, there's no founding, there's no grounds, pardon me, no justification for taking a mate into marriage. So, we marry, but if that is the main motivation, then that marriage is not respected. If sex is the main motivation. If sex is not the main motivation, what should be the main motivation? It should be decency, qualities in that person that will make for a good mother or a good husband or a good father.
You see, we should be looking for that. The qualities there that will make the home, that will contribute to the life in the home being good and being better. Each generation should seek to improve the generation behind us, whatever good they did, it should be a challenge to us to do better. I should want my family to be better than my father's family all around in terms of virtuous life, in terms of education, in terms of material success, whatever, I should want my family to be better. And that's how we should be motivated. And now we've come upon a word that's very important to faith, motivation, motivation. We find that the conditions we have today in spite of very, I would say very, very excellent conditions, we have the worst of conditions, right along with those very, very excellent conditions.
There was a professor, a school teacher and instructor. In fact, he was the principal of our school who I call him professor. His name is Yusef Salim, who now teaches in Washington DC, that's his home, I believe, the home of he and his wife. Both of them are educators. Sister Mariam Salim, his wife and brother, Yusef Salim. He spoke in my absence at a educational meeting in Richmond, Virginia here recently. And one of the things he said in his talk caught my attention for my address today because it goes along with what I'm going to say today. And he said, "Right in the midst of advancement is stagnation, right in the midst of advancement is stagnation." We know what stagnation is. Stagnation means nothing is happening, nothing is going forward, nothing is improving. Everything is just held in a bad situation. Can't get started. That's stagnation. Can't get started. That is stagnation.
Right in the midst he says, of advancement, of progress. And I would say astounding advancement, astounding amazing progress. Because when we look at this time that we are living in, 1989, and look at the achievements of man in terms of education, science, technology, modernization of towns and transportation and all that, we live in an amazing and amazingly progressive time. It's surprising how much progress we have in our lives today, in our environment today, but right in this environment that is so advanced in scientific terms, in material terms, in technological terms, and so many other ways. We have this absence of motivation, absence of excitement in the life of our people in these big cities, and many times in the small towns. We have this absence of enthusiasm, no enthusiasm. And I have looked at it and brought it down to its smallest factor. And I find that at the base of all of this is the loss of faith. And I can see just how they've all come about. First religion was treated in a way to make the public play down its sacredness.
And I'll go back to maybe 25 years ago or so when a headline appeared in one of the popular magazines, and I was so shocked by it at that time, I was believing in the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and believing in his way of presenting the religion. I was believing in his Trinitarian idea of G-d. That is, I believe the flesh manifestation of G-d was a man, his teacher called Fard W.F. Muhammad, or Wali Fard Muhammad or W.D Fard. I was believing in that. But when I saw that headline, it angered me that anyone would let anything be published in any kind of civilized society that believes in religion. This is a religious society, America's a Christian country with many other strong religious communities in it, Jews and others. So, it bothered me that magazine could come out like that with a big caption on it saying "G-d is dead."
Now we know the magazine wasn't actually saying G-d is dead. The article wasn't actually saying G-d is dead. The writer was not actually saying G-d is dead. But what the writer was saying is that he sensed a growing disinterest in American society, in Western society for the kind of respect we give G-d or we should give G-d. That's really the message he was trying to come to. And I believe maybe he had good intentions to try to shock the American people to say, look, we are a Christian country, but in our country G-d is dead.
But many times we can be motivated and intentions will be good, but if the rational tools are not working properly, we can make a big boo-boo, excuse me, goof, mess up. We can make a big mess up. As a young child believing in what Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught of religion, I had the rational alertness to see right away that that thing was doing more harm than it possibly could do good, because you have many people, the masses of people.... Understand this too, that Allah in telling us about the good people in religion, those who we can trust to carry responsibility. He says they are in the few, but how does he say it? "And most of them are not." And most of them are not. Talking about people in general. Most of the people are not. Not what?
Not the ones that you find in the forefront, not the ones that you can give responsibility to for the religion, for good behavior, for the good future and good security of the town. You can't give them that. Most of them are careless in their life, most of them too relaxed in their life. Most of them are not disciplined enough. Most of them are foolish minded. And it's true today when you go downtown to a movie or to a whatever, most of the people in the crowds would you say they're responsible? Unless you go to a special place that's attracting intellectuals, are attracting the better minds and better caliber of the people. You know you'll say most of them can't be trusted. And many times if you got a little money on you, you keep your hand in that pocket, you afraid to even take your hand out of that pocket. So whatever Allah said back then, 1400 years ago or more is true today, that most of the people, they're just not the ones to trust with heavy responsibility.
And our condition today is worst perhaps in the history of America right now. The condition of people today in terms of being trustworthy is worst in perhaps in the whole history of America. I do believe that. Yes. No, we have to have a motivation. There has to be motivation. Motivation. We need to have the motivation, to be moved, to want to do something. And if you don't have that motivation, that tells me that the problem is the absence of faith. Now when the attack upon G-d, now I'm not saying that was an intentional attack upon G-d, but when that came out, I see the history of it now. From that point, more and more disrespect for the sacred things followed. From the movie, what was it called? G-d, Oh G-d! Came out and there was a little shabby man that I like. I like him as artist, George Burns, little shabby man. He's playing G-d, he's G-d. And then behind that movie came another movie with him. Oh, G-d! You Devil You.
Can't you see how they increase the dosage? Let's give them a dose of disrespect. They took that dose. Well, let's give them a stronger dose of disrespect. And along with this is also something that developed. It would happen in the past, but it would be frowned on. It wasn't approved, it wasn't made popular, but the thing now is made popular, this disrespect for Catholics, disrespect for the Catholic Church, disrespect for the Catholic Priest, disrespect for the Catholic Nuns, all in the movies, all in the society. Just a joke. Now they even included in commercial sometimes. Or disrespect for a Catholic. Why do they want the Catholic? Because if they pick a Baptist or one of us, we dress just like everybody else. We don't say with our parents that we are religious or the church people or the Mosque people or G-d-fearing people. But the people of the monasteries and of the, what do you call them? Nunneries, you don't know what I mean by that. Yes, yes, that's it. Yes, that is correct.
It's been so long since I've been in touch with that language. Yeah, I was in touch with that language as a student of Christianity, but now it's been so long. Yes. So, they readily identified them with religion, their dress, pardon me, their looks readily identify them with religion. So, while you are laughing at that person, they know that the same conscience that has to relax to laugh at that person is the conscience that has to also become alert to respect what that person is connected with. So if they can get you to relax and laugh at that person, subconsciously your guard is dropping, your discipline is relaxing, and then they can bring, Oh G-d! You Devil You, and you'll take that. What am I getting at? There has been an intentional thing going on to break down the foundations of faith so that the majority of the public people will have no strong foundations of faith. And a people who fear G-d, the best way to break down all of their supports of faith is to get them to relax and take G-d lightly.
Even for the non-church goer, for the person who doesn't frequent the Synagogue or the Mosques. Even for that person that think he's really outside of the church, in America, most likely he's a G-d-fearing person. If not today, at least 25 years ago. I remember when I was a boy, it was almost impossible to find a person that wouldn't acknowledge G-d in America, almost impossible. If they were Communists and atheists, we were almost impossible to find, especially in the African-American community. But with this thing consciously happening now it's hard to find a person truly consciously believing in G-d. Their belief is a belief like believing in the numbers. It's something that they believe in, but let's not talk about it too much. Do you believe in the numbers? Oh yes, I believe in the numbers, but let's not talk about that right now. Do you believe in G-d? Oh yes, I believe in G-d. Let's not talk about that right now.
That's uncomfortable. Now how are we going to bring faith? If I'm correct now that the big problem for the absence of enthusiasm in us to do positive and real things for our good life and progress, if the real problem of the absence for the absence of enthusiasm, motivation, faith, the real problem is the actual loss of faith itself, the loss of a foundation of faith itself in us, then how are we going to go about bringing that back? We hear the call coming from what they call the far right, but I don't think that's a justification, not for many of the good things that's coming from the far right, because they weren't only coming from them, they were coming from us long before they got their attention.
But because of them having great wealth and European American identity and such great numbers and was so important to President Reagan, they got all the attention. But many of the basic virtues, the basic virtues, the basic kind of thinking that have come to be associated with the far right. Long before they got that reputation, we were fighting battling like the dickens to get our people to come back to basics. Yes, we are witness. I have many witnesses here and throughout this country. In fact, there are many witnesses for many things. I'm telling you, over the time of my father and time of myself, since 1975, February 1975, many great things have happened. Many great things have happened to bring about a revitalization of the human life, not only in our small circle, but in the whole world where it is needed. If only the message of what had been happening with us among us had gone out to the world.
Yes, the power to bring life back to the world is right in the story if it's told in the right and true way, is right in the story of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and myself. Yeah. Right now I'm rolling a thought over in my mind. I'm invited to join a summit of African-American leaders that's to be held in Louisiana. And I'm rolling the thought over in my mind, and I know some of you are saying, "Well, how come you have to roll that over your mind? If you're fortunate enough to be invited to the summit, you better get on down there." No, I have to roll the thought over in my mind because I recall that it was from us that came the announcement that we are going to start a separate party and present a candidate from ourselves to run for the Presidency of these United States. We were the first.
Not that others didn't have the desire or have that aspiration, I'm sure they did. Not that others didn't say that in close quarters or in talk with each other or at meetings. I'm sure they did. I'm sure they discussed the possibility of running an African-American, but I don't know of anyone coming and making a public announcement as we did in Washington DC and sometime after that we had Jesse Jackson, the Reverend Jesse Jackson running for President of these United States. Not only that, I can go and go and come name, I can talk for next hour just on the firsts that have come from to us and picked up our side who called first out there.
For example, for about 30 years now, I have been preaching a new way of looking at Africa. About 30 years I've been preaching a new way of looking at Africa. I've been preaching that the way we see Africa, even in so-called African-American writings is wrong. The name itself is not ours. The term Africa and African is not ours. It was put on us to say that Black people are people just that have nothing but a mind for sex. If you want a strong sex potent to make you strong sexually, then go to Africa. Aphrodisiac. Yes. So, I was aware of that and I couldn't find any support for that name in true history of our people. But I found support coming from Europe, Cipio Africanus and others named Africanus.
We call the people of Northern Africa there Egyptians, the people above the Sudan, we call them Egyptians. They don't call each other Egyptians. They only say Egyptians when they're talking to people outside of them and from the West. They call themselves Misraim. That's what they call themselves. Misriam. If you look up in the Bible, the Bible will tell you that that part of the land was called Misraim, and it's the Jewish language or the Jewish influenced language, which identifies two Egypts, Misraim, two Egypts. And we know that Egypt was once two Egypts and they were combined under one Pharaoh at one time.
And actually now in a sense there are two Egypts, Sudan and Egypt. They once were under the same roof. Sudan and Egypt were once under one roof and hey had hair like mine, not quite as soft as mine. These are facts. Now, I am proud to say that the experiences I had in the Temple of Islam, that's what they were first called, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad's religious places were called Temples of Islam. That I had the experience in the Temple of Islam that made me at least alert minded and curious to not just take things on face value, especially coming from this world.
Now, the only problem that I had with that mind that I had back then was that it made me relax too much before the people that I believed in. That's why I say I don't want you saying yes to everything I say, even if it's true. Every once in a while, don't say nothing. Don't say no to something true, that'd be lying, but at least don't say nothing, just look at me. Because back then, whatever the Temple said, "Yes, yes." And the Japanese made a ship on an island and that Japan there and that ship is going to be one of the ships that'll use in the destruction of America. "Yes."
Japan's losing the war. "Yes." The atomic bomb falling on Japan. "Yes." We weren't situated to deal with that situation, but we were sure enough alert to the white man's world. Every day he said, "Wait." No, no, no. If he just had to say yes, we say yes by just looking. That was our yes, we didn't say no, that was our yes. That means, "Well, I have to admit that." We need a situation in our life for faith, first of all. And Allah created everything to situate us in the best way to be a trusting people, to trust something, you have to trust something. The human being in its natural makeup is trustworthy. We're not suspicious of our new babies when they come from the mother. Who is suspicious of the new baby that comes from the mother? Nobody. That baby is coming from the mother exactly as Allah created it.
It has to wait a while... It's really fascinating, life itself, the wonderful life Allah created, fascinating. They tell us in science that the child comes with an immunity. With an immunity, isn't that wonderful? Now, here we don't have an immunity. Big old grownup, we don't have any immunity. The thing gets in our mouth, we're sick. The virus hits our nose, we're sick. The baby comes here with a natural immunity. Ain't going to catch no disease, it's going to be all right for at least I think six months? About six months, it's got a powerful immune system for six months.
Now, here's grownup America, immune system gone, just like everybody got a bad case of the AIDS. I'm not talking about the physical immune system, I'm talking about the human immune system. You should have protection in you against things that tend to destroy your virtuous life, destroy your moral life, destroy your rational balance. We should have an immune system to deal with that. So, we have to have circumstances within to deal with circumstances without. And the most important thing, I repeat, the need for faith, real faith. Have patience with me as we progress along here.
So, we will get an idea of some of the problems that we are facing. Among the issues that they list as top issues for us at this present time, its education, our schools. Income, or jobs, but I think we shouldn't say jobs anymore, we should say income come because many people can get jobs, but the burden on them today just won't allow them to accept the pay that some of these jobs offer. They have to have more, so they have to work two jobs or three.
Or have several people in the household working full time to manage. So, I would say the problem is really income, and believe me, here's another thing we have to look at. We want to see the conditions because we are not just making a recommendation that we look at the state or condition of faith in our lives to solve our problems. We are also pointing to the things that make it absolutely urgent that we look somewhere for an answer. There was a time in this country when the masses, that is the majority of our people, and when I say our people, I would like to include all people in our circumstances, or in this particular picture that I'm addressing, there was a time when the great majority of us were uncomfortable and not satisfied with what we were getting in this world, with what we were getting in America.
But today, let's be honest, people, let's be truthful about this, today, the great majority of African-Americans are satisfied with what they're getting from America. They're satisfied. Now, if you hear them complaining, it's because somebody is agitating out of their circle. Somebody out of their circle is agitating. So, a politician will get up and agitate and he'll agitate and maybe you'll excite a certain number of the masses to join him in a complaint, but most of us, we don't have any complaints.
We have lost the fine conscience of progressive-minded people. We have come now to the typical condition for man in the history of man, and that condition is that most of the time it is only a minority that's ready to do something to change conditions, not a majority, always most of the time a minority. We used to have a majority because the system had the majority of us in very bad condition, but now that there's plenty of food... What did Napoleon say? Napoleon said, "A well-fed army is an obedient army." Napoleon, the great general, great strategist, genius on the battlefield. He said that a well-fed army is an army you can trust. So, what happens when the bare necessities of life are made plentiful and then the society goes a little bit over that and give luxuries to its masses? What happens?
The same thing happened to the masses that happened to Pompeii and many other great ancient nations and even nations less distant in the past. They are energetic, enthusiastic, working people, excited about tomorrow, excited about the future, excited about possibilities, until they reach a point in their life and their progress as a civilized and materially advancing society that they have so many comforts, everything. They don't have to want for food, they don't get hungry. They have all the conveniences, they sleep in very comfortable beds, nice homes, got all the amusement they can dream of. Everything is just so easy for them. So, what happens? They lose the desire, the will to struggle. They lose the will to make real efforts and they start to depend upon the circumstances and the circumstances happen to be favoring them, just take it easy.
So, they start to depend upon the circumstances and in time they grow soft, the muscles collapse. Not only the physical muscles collapse, but the internal muscles collapse. The muscles of the will collapse, the muscles of the moral life collapse. When those things collapse, also the intellect, the muscles of intelligence, the muscles of reasoning also collapse, and pretty soon a nation that they used to just spank any time they wanted to becomes a threat. Now today with America, it's not a threat from somebody that's holding a bigger gun, bigger material, or bigger artillery in that sense, but it's coming from yet from little people they used to spank. Little people like the Koreans, West Germany, Japan, all challenging America industrially and giving her a hard battle, taking the lead in some respects from America, yes. Why? What does industry say about this? What does the factory say about this? They say it is because human beings in America are no more competent.
You no more can find real human substance in the persons that's coming for the job. Why? A loss of faith, that's what I'm saying. That's what we believe, a loss of faith. According to these conditions. Now, let us look more directly at African-American people, then we'll come back and look at the national scene too. The African-American people, what is our biggest problem? Some of you may say jobs, some of you may say crime. Our biggest problem is self-abuse, whether it be crime, whether it be the absence of employment or a job. The biggest problem is self-abuse. The problem of crime in the African-American life or in the African-American society is not just a problem of crime, it is a problem of Black on Black crime or African-American on African-American crime, that's the biggest crime problem in our lives.
We don't see any Italians and other nationalities, European American people bringing our stores, neighborhoods down, bringing our businesses down, making it frightful for us to step outdoors at night. We don't see other faces when we anticipate the bad thing that can happen. We see the faces of our own people. We expect this to come from them. So, we just can't say our problem is crime. Our problem is criminal behavior in us, self-abuse. But where does it all come down to? The absence of faith. We don't have faith in each other. We distrust trust each other. There's not even enough faith under one roof in most cases to make a strong family. The family members don't trust each other enough to make a strong family. The bonds of faith are the strongest bonds we can have. And to bring this part home, I'm going to go to the language of the spiritualist people, or the mystics.
But I'm quoting from the Holy Book. Allah says, "The heavens are held up without pillars, without posts. " Some structure going up from the earth to hold it up, or going up from some other solid mass to hold that solid mass up. You don't see nothing solid as a mass going up to another solid mass in the heavens to hold it up. So, it says, "The heavens is held up without supports," without material supports that you can see. It says... And I'm quoting the Holy Book, "That you can see." Now, let us go out there tonight and look at the moon. You don't see anything holding it up, but they'll tell you, you can't carry it. Don't think you can lift it.
All the African-Americans on this planet can't hold it up if it would drop down here. If it come down real slow, like a kite. We couldn't stop it from hitting the earth, it's too heavy if all of us would try to hold it up. Yes, but it's held up there and we don't see anything holding it up. The air pressure is something else. Air pressure is something else. Air pressure can break, break, break, break, break, break, break thick mass, material mass, can just bust it wide open. The heat can do the same thing, but when you go up there, you don't find air. The higher you go, no air, the less air. Pretty soon as you get up there, no air at all.
And as far as heat, the more you go up there, the colder it gets. Pretty soon it's so cold, as I said in one of my talks, you can sneeze and take the camera and take a picture of it. That's how cold it is up there. Just sneeze out the window if you can, I don't know how that's possible unless you have a suit. You have to have a suit for some kind of protection. If you could sneeze and if you have a camera in your hand... And you could take the photograph of that sneeze back. It would be still, frozen, frozen still in the air. That's how cold it is up there. I know, I've been up there. Yes, I've been up there in an airplane. And when you're on the ground, you want that air coming. You open your air vent. After you get way up there, you start closing up those air vents, and sometime the captain will tell you how cold it is out there.
It's mysterious a little bit, although I understand this scientifically now. It's called universal gravitation, it holds all those bodies in place without any material supports whatsoever as we know those material supports. It's the invisible body of the material body that makes possible that miracle, so to speak. In fact, it is a miracle. It's the invisible body of the material body that holds them up. So, now I believe Allah is telling us this in the Holy Book to let us know that the thing that holds up your mass is not that that you weigh on a scale, not that that you can feel with your hand, but it is that that appears to be abstract and almost nonexistent.
And nevertheless, it's your greatest strength. You can take a hand or a leg and put it on a scale and you can get the weight of it, but you take truthfulness and put it on a scale, it weighs nothing. Not on that scale, the scale that will weigh the meat and the bones and the material thing won't weigh truthfulness, it won't weigh trust, but those are the things that we can't see. And they say "What's holding those Muslims together? What is it?" They thought it was pride in being Black, but now the son told them, "Don't be excited about their blackness, and they're still together." We thought it was money, and now the son of the man plays down the role of money and plays up the role of faith and they're still held together. So, what is it holding those Muslims together? See, this is what make me quietly beat all other African-Americans in this country in the competition. Now, I know some of them think they're beating me, but I'm keeping the record. You are not beating me.
Like a fellow I knew, he's telling me my problems he have at home. And he said, "I wish I could just... You're an Imam, and I know you're close to G-d. I wish you could just tell me something to help me with my situation with my wife." He said, "Look, I do the best I can. I give her as much as I can afford from the job. I got to have something to get back to work with. I got to keep this old car running." Saying, "I just give her all I possibly can, and she's constantly telling me that I ain't giving her enough. And when I go and show her what I'm giving her, she tells me I'm lying. She say, 'You didn't give me that,' and I'm reading right from my records.
She said, "No, you didn't give me that." And I say, "What your records, baby?" She said, "I remember nigga."
Well see, some them leaders out there competing in the race to get the African-American man established. His woman established, his children established, his home established, his community established. Some of those out there competing for that, they ain't keeping no records. And every time they start reading off what they accomplished, when it's something really, really consequential, I'm saying, where did they get that? Where did they get that? It look like it came from us. Like it came from us. Well, that's why I'm still rolling the thought over in my mind whether to go to that summit. Summit means the top. Summit is as high as you can go. Well, I am telling you, the group that they got together, they got some nerve calling themselves the summit. I sure would like that summit to reflect better people, better character, better minds, better human content, and a better caliber of people.
Yes, we have them. Look, when a bunch of preachers and politicians get together, you've got something that's representative of the common run of the people. Believe me. You might find among them outstanding ones. But the majority of the preachers that are vocal, expressive and public, and the majority of the politicians that are public and vocal and expressive, the ones we are seeing all the time, they represent the common run of the people. On the whole they have no more to offer in that scale than the neighborhood, the mix of people in the neighborhood. They have no more to offer. They cater to the weakness of the people they represent. They're called leaders, but they don't lead the people they represent. They cater to the weaknesses of the people they represent. They find what weakness is in the people, what are their weaknesses. And then when they see their weaknesses, they become a spokesman for that particular weakness. And that's how they managed to get your votes.
It's a shame what happened to Timothy Evans. All of this spiritual motivation, all of this emotionalism from Harold Washington's good record. Joining Timothy Evans. Joining Timothy Evans. For what? So that Black will win against white. It ain't good enough. So that we'll have it and they won't. That ain't good enough. And in order for us to have it, let us have a coalition. A coalition of poor Hispanics and us. A coalition of radical whites, radical Europeans and us. A coalition of downhearted women and us, a coalition of gays, homosexuals and us. A coalition of lesbians and us. And you don't have to keep talking. That mean a coalition of criminals and us.
So, here's the people desperately reaching out for everything. Everything. No matter how undesirable it is in the eyes of a decent people or a decent society. We offer everything to make that coalition to defeat the other side. Don't you know eventually you are going to wake up those on the other side that perhaps were relaxing and wasn't even going out to vote last time? But you wake them up. They say, "I see not only Black people coming against us, but I see the worst of the people, they have the worst of the people in a coalition to defeat the white people. So, I'm going to join the white people though I'm not with them either."
So, you'll find Asians, you'll find Hispanics, you'll find many others. You'll find even European Americans going to the poll to vote against that disreputable coalition. So, they're saying what hurt Timothy Evans was Sawyer. That's the tone now. But the tone earlier was that Sawyer had hurt... Timothy Evans thought he had hurt Sawyer. But now it's changing that really Timothy Evans should have been the one that got Sawyer's support from the very start because he represented the numbers. So that's what they're saying now on the media. That's what we are saying on the media. All right.
So, what I'm saying that the problem is not what appears to the eye. The problem is not what appears to the eye. We look at our people and we just readily come to conclusion, "Oh yes, we lost because we were divided, we couldn't unite and defeat Daley." But the record shows that Timothy Evans got just about the same count that Harold Washington got. He got just about the same numbers that Harold Washington got. But Daley was able to get more. So that tells me that there's some credit to my point that maybe our behavior and the way we are doing things is frightening more people to join the opposition.
Now, I don't have to tell you the way I voted, but I'm going to tell you. And I'm going to tell you the way I voted because I think I owe it to you to tell you because Timothy Evans came to our place and spoke so wonderful to us and extended his hand to us. And I do believe it was a sincere gesture. I voted for Timothy Evans. I didn't expect for him to win, but I voted for him.
And I said to myself, this is the last time I will vote for an African-American without some real rational support for my action. And I mean it. The next time I'm not going to wait until the African American put himself in a bad light for the public to come out and say something about it. When I see and know for sure that he's putting himself in a bad light, I'm going to go to him and tell him. And if he doesn't respond, I'm going to come out on the public media and tell the people that that man is not going right and you shouldn't support him. Yes, I don't care if he's one of our kind that can put all of us together. I'm going to come out against him if I see he's taking us in a direction that will move more trouble for us. Yeah, I promised myself that I'm going to do that.
Yes. And I regret I didn't do it this time, but I was saying to myself now, I say now Timothy Evans, I'm sure he knows what I stand for and if he wants my support, he doesn't show it by what he's doing. And you may say, well, "What did he do wrong?" From the very start, he shouldn't have come out in the public first calling Black people together, talking about Harold Washington party. From the very start, he should have made an appeal to all the citizens of Chicago.
He should appeal to all citizens of Chicago that we have to bring the city together. We have to have more respect and more trust and more concern for each other. We live in one community. What we do affects this whole community, makes the life good, or bad for all of us. And I'm a candidate that if you choose me, I'm going to do my best to not do those things that polarize Chicago, that sets Chicago as against each other. But I'm going to do those things that will unite the people of Chicago. If he had come out that way from the very start, then make his appeal to his particular supporters that he represents, his strength. Then make his appeal to them. Say to do this for Chicago that I promise I'm going to do. I'm going to need a show of support. Yes, that's a common sense way to do it.
If you are in a circumstance, if you are in a situation to be that way. But if you got the kind of people that he had all around him, the cheerleaders that he had. And you get a bunch of cheerleaders, if you ain't got everything up here real tight, when you get a bunch of cheerleaders, you have to close your eyes. You have to stop looking at the cheerleaders, especially if it's a critical kind of thing that you have to do. You have to stop looking at the cheerleaders and while they're cheering, you have to be thinking about how you going to accomplish what you have to accomplish. And when they stop cheering, then you open your eyes and continue to speak to them. But once you are under the influence of the cheerleaders, you're just like something floating on the stream, you just floating on the stream, you can't help but go the way the stream is going. And maybe you started out the go on the north side, but the stream is taking you dead south and you just howling, talking, just going south. Everybody see he's going south. All right.
We are looking at our circumstances here as a people. Just a few things that we can bring before your eyes that will show you that we do have serious problems. We think of ourselves as progressed over the last 20 years in many ways, especially in the business world. We have, because of people like Reverend Jesse Jackson who negotiated with the big corporations to get us into better positions to make them be fairer toward their employees, we have some real big positions in some of these corporations now. And not only that, we have a much bigger share of business now than we had 10 or 15 years ago, much bigger share of business.
But when you look at the facts about on how much we have right now, it makes you feel terrible. One of the best papers that you can get came out with a figure 5 million private businesses and our share of the 5 million private businesses is less than 1%. Less than 1%.
Now, a lot of figures are always coming at us to show us how we are measuring up with the white man in education, how we are measuring up with him in that is the acceptance of our applications in schools, the good schools, how we are measuring up with him on jobs and incomes in terms of income. And they say we are about one third, one half, right? We are measuring about one third and one half. Average one of them earn twice as much as we earn. The average one of them twice as likely to get into college and go on as we are. And it goes on like that. About one third to one half. Most times it's one half. In a real critical area, about one half going on, and that's their figures. We don't make a study ourselves. We have some organizations like Urban League and a few others who do studies, do studies of their own, but I don't think they put into their studies what these European American organs or organizations put into their study. So, I believe that these people that treat us unfairly in life also treat us unfairly when they're reporting on that life. That's my belief. I'm suspicious of them. You can blame that on The Honorable Elijah Muhammad's influence in my life if you want, but I'm still suspicious of them.
Yes. So, I feel almost desperate to organize a group to go out and make surveys, to go out and have interviews and come up with a real sample of just what is the state of our people in certain important areas. Yes. And until we do that, we are not responsible yet. To be responsible, we should be doing this for ourselves. We shouldn't be waiting for them to come out and tell us you got a headache. Wait on them to tell us you need shoes. You're supposed to be doing that yourself. Now, if less than 1% of the private businesses are owned by us, that mean that we are a long ways from just reaching what we would consider to be a just kind of circumstance or a just kind of situation for us. They say we are 11% of the population. So just grabbing something real quick, we would say then we should go after 11% of the private businesses.
But I don't think we should look at it that way. There is a more scientific way to look at that. We got to look at what their situation is and what our situation is. If you got a nice home and a car and you pay your utility bills every month and you stay at one place year after year, you are not a nomad going from home every two months to another place. And now they going to prepare me and you, you see. They say, "Well, you're okay now you are making the same income he has."
That's not enough. I've been set back in so many ways that he hasn't been set back. I have so many more needs for my money than he has. I have to spend on my children that's behind. I have to spend on my condition, my own that's behind. I got to spin to get myself in a better situation when the situation is looking brighter for him to even move up from the bracket he's in now to a higher bracket. So we just can't judge it like that. But I'm going to go with that simple way of looking at it, that if we have less than 1% of the private businesses, we should at least be shooting for 11% of the private businesses. That mean we should have at least 11 more business people, thriving business people, equal to what we have in that community, if it's in your neighborhood as an African-American businesses combined with business worth a million annually. Now I know it's much more than that in the big towns and big cities, I'm talking about just your little local area, local community. If they're worth $1 million in their business efforts, they should be shooting for at least 11 million instead of one. 11 million. At least for 11 million.
Now, they didn't say what percentage of that one we are. I wouldn't be surprised if we ain't nothing about 4% of 1%. They didn't say what percentage of the one. They just said less than 1%. And we usually think that less than one means close to 1%. It doesn't have to mean that. Not when they're talking. That give us some idea of our situation. Now look at something else. We as a people during this time that Brother Yusef Salim called the period of stagnation in the face of great progress.
Instead of having more of our numbers going into the professions, we have a much smaller number of our people now going into the professions. Instead of having a greater number of our people graduating from high school and decent colleges, we have a much less number, the number is much less now. And we can go on and go on and on to show that we are really not performing at all now. As a people, we're not performing at all. We just have a very small minority that's outstanding. But we have a great majority that used to be alert 30 years ago or so, used to be alert. That great majority has just given up on everything but a good time on the weekend or a good time whenever they can get it any way they can.
So, it's very critical, isn't it? And they're calling that summit in Louisiana to look at what they call the survival of the African-American, the survival. So that summit in Louisiana is saying that our very survival is at risk, that we may not even survive. Now, we'll survive. We'll survive just like Hagar and her children survived. At the expense of Sarah. We'll survive with no dignity, with no pride. We'll survive. Now, look, dear people, when we look at our households, the average household for us, when we go into that household, it can be a home, it can be an apartment. We go in there, we will be shocked if they tell us they don't have a TV. They got a TV, and most likely they got a color TV. We'd be shocked if they tell us there's no carpet on the floor. Most likely the floors are carpeted. I'm talking about the average one of us in any neighborhood almost. It'd be a hard thing finding the exception to this.

