05/09/1999
IWDM Study Library 
Muslim and Christians Together for a Better Life in America
Masjid Bilal Islamic Center, Los Angeles

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
The following lecture titled "Muslims and Christians Together For a Better Life in America" was recorded Sunday, May 9th, 1999 at Masjid Bilal Islamic Center in Los Angeles, California. The lecturer is WD Mohammed, Muslim American Spokesman.

Allah says, "See how the same rain falls from the sky on the same ground with some things come up cheap and worthless while others come up beautiful and lustrous with great value." Yes, we don't need all of you. "Oh yeah, they need us. They need us." No, we don't need you all. We need you one or two. And one or two of you from this gathering here today, can join the one or two from other gatherings in different places, and we will have a good number, a sufficient number to do what the model leaders of Muhammad the Prophet did with him. Change the whole world. You don't need a lot of people, you only need a few determined people and they can change the whole world for the multitudes. So, let's get out of this idea that we got to convert everybody.
What must be done to remove the rusty lock, to remove the rust from the rusty locks? We intend to save every one of the 17 million. Impossible. And you should know it by now. After 60 years of that, you should know it by now that it can't be done. So, you let the water fall on everybody. The rain from the heavens is for everybody, so let it fall down on everybody. But don't worry if a damn thorn come up over there. Crab grass came up over there. Do you see anything that you want that you wanted, that you were hoping for? Harvest it, and go on to make progress. Go after progress. Yes, because there always going to be crab grass coming up and thorn bushes, et cetera, always going to be those things. They ain't going to stop it, but hell let them have a little rain every now and then brother, because G-d made the rainfall, all the living things. Community pride, a sense of community.
We can't get anywhere if we want to be Shi'ite more than we want to follow G-d, more than we want to follow the example of Muhammad the Prophet. If we want to be Sunni more than we want to follow the word of G-d in Qur'an, more than we want to follow the example of Muhammad, we ain't going anywhere. We are not going anywhere. We won't be successful. If we want to be members of the nation of Islam more than we want to follow the Qur'an, more than we want to be like Muhammad in human excellence, then we are not going anywhere. We are not going to be successful.
If we want to be the friend of the establishment more than we want to be followers of the word of G-d and the leadership Muhammad, we are not going to be successful. You want friendship with the Christians, with the church leaders more than you want to see the proper dawah for the Masjid. You are not going to be successful. Community pride. That's what we want. We want to fulfill the natural need in us for community pride. Bill Cosby, he's gotten more wealth than maybe 90% of the whites could ever get in their lifetime. Not many whites can get the wealth that he had been able to get. Very few, but is he really satisfied with his life in America? No, he's not. You go to him and ask him, he'll say no. Why? Because he looks at himself as an individual, he's very successful. But when he looked at himself as a member of a community, he's terribly deficient, terribly deficient, way behind, not advanced.
And you know what make us feel that way more than anything else? The knowledge that we have not been singled out for abuses, for denials. We have been all lumped together for abuses and for denials. So, it has gone into our souls since we all were denied together. We all were abused together. It has gone into our souls by the will of G-d to make none of us be satisfied until the whole of the people is in a better state of condition. That's G-d's way of helping all the people by causing them all to carry the burden of what affected them all and what was planned for them all and what was executed upon them all or against them all. Now you know, some of us, we enjoy our little freedom and our little achievements in life. Like the cocaine sniffer. We are not even aware that we belong to the African-American people.
So, I'm not saying there's not an exception. Everybody's not feeling like Bill Cosby. There is the exception. "See, far as I'm concerned, those poor niggas don't exist. My buddies are rich and that's the only world that I'm concerned about." There are some of us like that, but they on drugs, heavy drugs. None of the normal minded people or natural minded people would be thinking that way. Life in America. Life in America is a very special life. I want you to understand that. If it wasn't a very special life, I wouldn't be your leader. G-d knows I wouldn't be your leader. I'd be living somewhere else. I would. This is a very special life here.
America in its concept, political concept, political ideology, governmental concept, societal concept, whatever you want to call it, in its design, in its construction, in its plan, America is an experimental model. I'm not saying this. This is what the wisest of the American builders of this American society say. It is an experimental model. They call it a living constitution, meaning that it's subject to mature more. It's subject to develop more. It's subject to even change itself. Get rid of something that's there to improve its form. This is the nature of American ideology, American political ideology, American governmental concept. This is the nature of it. It's experimental. What does that mean for us as citizens of this country? Any citizen of this country can dream of a better America and you can share with the American public your dream. And you can compete with those who are in power. And if you get more of the good people on your side, you can change America and make the America you are dreaming of. This is America. This is what makes it so special. Make this place so special.
So, I'm not a naive person who's got a lot of ideas that can't be realized. No, I'm not. I'm looking at facts and reality and I'm responding to facts and reality and I'm saying to you that we have as much rights as any American to plan our Islamic future. And our Islamic future is not just planning to have a place to make sadjah. Our Islamic future is not just planning an elementary school, a high school, or even a college or even a university. That's not the whole life. That's an aspect that's a little facet. That's an aspect of our life. We will never have the life that satisfy our souls until we concentrate on having community life. And then see these other things as steps toward the completion of community life. Masjid is first. Yes, worship of G-d is first. We must have a place to pray. We must have a place for Jumu'ah. Jumu'ah is an obligation on all Muslims. We must have a place for Jumu'ah prayer. Yes, that's first, but is that the whole picture? No! Very small part of it. The big part is the whole. G-d never said to us, you are the best mystics on earth.
You are the best group of mystics I've created. He said, "You are the best community. Evolved for the good of all people. Evolved for the good of all people." Now you going to hold on to that crazy stuff from the past. You going to keep on looking and see what scars you got left from the plantation? "Yeah, that look like a whiplash back there. Dirty devil, slave master. Yakub grafted skunk. Look what he did to my back. He hadn't put me on all those old shoes that wasn't big enough to fit my foot, forced us to wear small shoes. I wouldn't have this nigga toe. Yeah, he's a Yakub grafted devil, the skunk on the planet earth." Realize that today is a new world, new time, new world.
You could get in the shoe that fit you now. Yes, you can wear the shoes that fit you now or go barefooted . Not in Chicago in January though. But you can go barefooted now too. So, nobody to blame for your condition as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said. Nobody to blame for your condition now that you have been freed and invited to truth. There's no one to blame for your condition but you. That's what Elijah Muhammad said. Are you going to stand still? Stand still and wait for the mothership to come and save us? Huh? We going to stand still and wait for the Muslim police to be on every corner saying "Go that way to the mothership. As Salaam Alaikum."
Go to Culver City. The mothership is there waiting for you. You going to wait for that foolishness? It was good in it's time. Powerful psychology to hold you. I'm telling you, that's some stuff that I watch every now and then. I just conjure some superpower. I just make my own screen. And I sit there, I put all that stuff on a white wall. I had white walls in my house too. I put all that stuff on a white wall and I say, "Wow, what a terrific piece of work." But I ain't going to get in the picture anymore.
You can bet your life on that. I may project it once in a while, but I ain't going to get into the picture. Not ever again! Because I'm free at last. Thank G-d All Mighty I'm free at last. Community pride, a sense of community. G-d didn't make any one man to live alone. G-d didn't make any one man so limited in his potential, so limited in his resources that he can do nothing but take care of one person. G-d made every man with the capacity, with the resources, with the potential to take care of many people. And the more we exercise that great power and property that G-d has given us, the more freedom we enjoy, the more of the good life we embrace. Praise be to Allah. So, you're invited to grow. Allah says that He have given you this religion so that you may grow.
He don't want you to stand still. He don't want you to be stunted, doesn't want you to be a little small midget forever. He wants you to grow. Grow in your ability to support community life. You are a community. He wants you to grow in your ability to support community life. And the more you grow to accept responsibility for community life and the more you contribute to the life of the whole community. Some of you have no desire to be welders. You have no desire to be industrialists. You have no desire to do anything perhaps, but just draw beautiful pictures, make beautiful designs, do beautiful art work. Make your contribution. If it's satisfying, no more than you, nobody but you are a freak artist. Yeah. Any artist that draws beautiful things and don't want anybody else to see it, that's a freakish artist. Exercise your talents. Increase your talents. You are going to better the society because your contributions, if they're worthwhile, they're not going to stay just with you. They're going to be accepted by others and the whole community as a result of your contribution will be better.
Some of you are singing and you send me your music. And I'm sorry I'm so busy that I can't hardly respond to most of you. You send me CDs even now. Yeah. Oh man, they've really stepped up their program. They make CDs and I'm wondering if you were having candles in the dark when you were composing it because it sounds like a seance going on. Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah. Wait a minute, I ain't ready to go sleep. I'm trying to wake up. What is this sedative you just sent to me on a cd? Long playing sedative on a cd.
Go back to Africa and learn some rhythm and just do that and say "Takbir" and play it. Allah says that He has made us the best community. It means best in its youth to supply the society, the members of society with the good things that G-d created them for. That's what it means. Kairat. And G-d says "Who have said to my devoted worshipers that they're forbidding, the Kairat." It says these things are for them in this life. Listen, this is what G-d says in Qur'an. These things are for them in this life and exclusively for them in the hereafter.
What does that mean? That mean in this life there'll be those who do not respect G-d enjoying these things, but in the hereafter those who now share in enjoyment of these things will be cut out of those things. And only the believers who are faithful to G-d will be enjoying those things, the goods and services that benefit and prosper humanity as G-d wants humanity to be benefited and prosper. That's what it means. And G-d says, "Seek with the means He have made possible or availed you with, the hereafter, the afterlife. But don't forget your share in this world. Don't forget your share in this world. How are we going to have a model community if we don't want to have industry and be responsible for industry? If we don't want to have industry, commerce, thriving businesses, et cetera, and be responsible ourselves for that, be the generators of that ourselves.
How can we answer that obligation to respect our responsibility for this present world, to respect our share in it? Now there's a logic for that statement of G-d. G-d, what He says is not only revelation. What G-d says is a logic. There's a logic for that. All of you, whether you're Christian, Muslim, no matter what you are, and believe me, just cause you dress like Muslim, don't you think I believe all you're Muslim, some of you are Christian, some of you are Christian, but you've been caught into a Muslim portrait and you've been known in that portrait for so long that you're just ashamed to tell them this is the wrong picture.
But no matter what religion you are, all of us believe in religion. We believe that One G-d did all of this and He made the earth for all His creatures. If He made the earth for all His creatures, then that means I am a shareholder. I am a part owner in this earth, at least in terms of my ability to utilize it, to make use of it. I'm a shareholder. I'm a part owner. I'm one of the owners. That's the logic. So, when G-d says, "Do not forget your share of this world," G-d is saying just that, that I made you just like I made all other people. And when I see you in the judgment and you have done nothing with what I gave you, I'm going to treat you accordingly. That's what G-d is telling us. I'm going to treat you accordingly.
Do we have any support for that in the teachings of Muhammad the Prophet? Yes. Some people brought Muhammad the Prophet, a man they thought to be a holy man. And they said, we wanted to present this man to you, dear servant of G-d because he is so good. He prays all the prayers. He fast all the fasting. Muhammad the Prophet said, "Who takes care of him? I guess Prophet Muhammad knew if he said all those prayers and everything, he did more than Muhammad was doing. Muhammad said, I'm a busy man, I can't pray fard and sunnah and nafi and nafi and nafi and made up nafis.
So, our Prophet says, "Who takes care of him? Who provides him with his sustenance for his livelihood? They said, "We do." He said "Then you are better than he." He said, "Then you are better than he." Is there any more support for that? He said, "The hand like this, asking for something to be put in it is not equal to the hand like this. Putting something in the hand that's asking." So, the dignity of the poor is never poverty. The dignity of the poor is the spirit in the poor to get out of poverty. And that's why the Prophet was giving us an incentive, giving us help for that spirit that we have in us to get out of poverty. By telling us the hand like this is never equal in value to the hand that's like this, putting something in the hand. Praise Be to Allah.
And then we have G-d revealing to us the prayer of the best of His followers, of the best of His devotees. "Our Lord give us of this world the best, the good things. Hasana means excellence, best. And in the hereafter after this world, the good, excellent things the best and save us from the punishment of the fire. That's the prayer of the best of G-d's devotees. Do you pray to have the best in this life? Do you think it grates on your soul, on your beautiful mystic soul to hear me praying for the excellence of this world? It shouldn't because G-d has the best of His devotees revealed in the Qur'an asking for the best of this world. The term didn't change. Fit dunya, the Arabs made a song. Some of the performers, the singers made a song about 40 years ago or so.
Et Dunya Hiya Hiya. So, it's still the same language, haven't changed. 13 or 14th centuries later they still know what dunya is. They say the dunya of the world is what it is. It's what it is. And life is what it is, is what it is. It's not changing. And I want to get a piece of what it is, what it is because G-d told me to get a piece of what it is, what it is. That I have a share in it and I want my share of what it is, what it is, whatever it is. Allahu Akbar. Yes. So, you know they call us spooks. That's another name for black people in case some of you Muslims who came over later and joined us as citizens recently. Blacks ain't the only name we got. Spooks. Spooks, that's another name we got. Spooks.
They call us spooks. And when you look at Soul train, that's what they're saying, spook people. Soul Train is blowing off steam. They done upgraded the locomotive. And it is not a steam engine anymore. It's not ran by coal and steam anymore. It is diesel. But Soul Train still have a steam puffer. Soul people. What are they saying when they call us soul people? They mean you live for nothing concrete. You live for no community establishment. You are like people with no house. Spirits with no room to live in. Spirits with no body. Soul folks, spirits with no body. And we buy their language and we take pride in calling each other soul brother. "Hey so brother, hey pap pap, soul brother."
But one of our leaders, a writer, he wrote about us and I guess that was 40 years or more ago, he's a novelist. He put it in his own language. He said, explaining his misery. He said, "Seeing that somewhere behind me, I got separated from my social responsibility." He's explaining the bad situation of the race. The bad spiritual situation of the race, that we are in a bad spiritual state. We are not happy, we are not fulfilled, we are not free. And what's the reason? We haven't accepted social responsibility. Somewhere in the struggle, in the freedom struggle up from the plantations along the way to the present time, we got separated from our social responsibility. Our responsibility to our families, our responsibility to African-American neighborhoods, our responsibility to African-American community life. We got separated from it. And then here come Islam, voice of Islam, the voice of the Qur'an, the appeal of Muhammad the Prophet and his excellent model. And it touches us. And a lot of us don't know why we just love Islam so much. There's many reasons for this, but there are few really important reasons for this. One important reason is that we can't trust the society that reduced us to less than a human being to give us or show us the path to G-d.
So, when Islam comes independent of America, we embrace it. Here's something that my slave master has not given me. Here's something that the country that denied me is not giving me. Here's something that's coming from the outside. So, we embrace it. That's a tendency in us. That's a tendency in us to grab and embrace and adopt that that's coming from the outside. I remember long before our people got acquainted with Islam. Long, long before the Nation of Islam got popular in America. And I used to see African-Americans dressing like old Spanish medieval time captains of the ship, on the ship and things. Yeah, they'd be dressing like that. Another one dressing like Napoleon Bonaparte.
I mean that was their dress. I mean they were so proud of it. Another one wasn't carrying an easel in his hand, but he looked like a French artist, was wearing a French tam just like the French artist. And in every way he was imitating the French artists. Anything but America, anything but this. Just wanted to get away from what was forced on them, what was forced on us. Yes, yes. Now I believe that part of the reason for us embracing Islam coming to the Nation of Islam, coming through even now, coming to the call of Islam now, is that we want something that doesn't say to us, you got this from the same hand that pushed you down.
Now that's a problem for our leaders to look at address and work on it. Until we get that thing out of us. You can't keep living in the past. You've got to travel, you've got the prosper, you've got to grow. You've got make progress in the path. Don't keep living in the past but walk the path and make progress every day. To do that, you can't be remembering that "Yeah, the white man this, the white man and this is the white man's thing and this is the white man's world. We ain't going to be able to get nowhere in the white man's world."
Well, when the man first was put on this earth, it was the animal's world. Now suppose he had said, "Oh, this is the animal's world. We ain't gonna get nowhere on the animal world." And believe me, in Western society mostly what you are looking at who's holding power is the animal. So again, rise up human being and say, yes, this is the animal world, but it wasn't made for the animal. G-d made this for human beings. And advance your life over that life of the animals so they will live in their inferior quarters and you live in your superior quarters. That's the way G-d wants it. Yes, I don't care how high they are up in the society, they're up and established man politically or otherwise. G-d, if they're not the human person that G-d created us to be, G-d does not want them there. And if you sincerely go after them to unseat them, to establish them with your establishment. Not with your mouth, with your establishment, that's how you unestablish them. With your establishment. You know how come animals are not ruling this area we in right now? Because too many houses built here, too many streets are all around here. Too many vehicles are running up and down the roads. They don't want that. They can't live in this kind of environment.
So that's the way you unestablish them, establish yourself. And the natural spirit in you for community pride, if you just obey it and respect it and do something every day to make a contribution to the betterment of your household and the betterment of your neighborhood, the betterment of your town, we'll be successful. It's as simple as that. And do it in cooperation with the best of your people. Let the weaker be supported by the stronger. Let those who see better see the way for those who can't see, this is the way of G-d for all times. That's the way of G-d. Don't be so proud of your little vision that you don't want to have it helped with a bigger vision.
"Well hell, I know what Imam WD Mohammed is talking about. He's talking about revitalizing the neighborhoods, opening up new business and creating retail stores overnight. Sounds good. But I got my own plan and I had mine before he told you all about that. In fact, I had mine in 1971." See, when you're living in a society as a minority and more dependent group or community, it's wise for you to study how can you work with the bigger establishment, the bigger numbers for a better future for all of you. And it is not their job to look you up. It's not the job of 200 million to come and look for 35 million and say "35 million scattered all about and doing without. We would like to have you included. And we want you to put your heads with ours. Let the best of your leaders put their heads with the best of our leaders so we can have a better society, a better country for all of us."
That's not their job. The obligation is more on you. You should authorize the best of your leaders to go and make contact with the best of their leaders to let them know that we all have the same life. That G-d did not create us with different human lives. He created us with the same human life, the same human emotionality, the same human passions, the same human nervous system that breaks down under extreme pressures and sends us to the hospital crazy and helpless. So, you made us all the same. We all the same human make, and we all want essentially the same human future. A future that will put us to rest, that we can go to bed and rest or go to our grave at peace knowing that our children will fare well in the world we have left them. All people want the same. So how come we can't go to them?
Send your best leaders to them and tell them that. You don't need any great wisdom. Tell them just that. Tell them plainly like that. That is the wisdom. Sometimes the things that are put in the simplest terms are the wisest expressions. Yes. Especially when it's coming from somebody in a circumstance that tells the others, looking at them in that circumstance. "Oh, they'll never send people to us to join us in our efforts. They're too small minded." Think about it, brothers and sisters. That's what I'm doing for you. I'm doing it on my own and I've been doing it for a long time. And many of your leaders have joined me now. So, we are doing it. We are doing it. But we want to see more of you supporting it. We want to know that the members of this community, the members of this Masjid here and the members of the other Centers and Masjids throughout this nation are supporting my leadership. That you believe in what I'm doing, that you see a great future in what I'm doing and you are well wishing me and you are praying to Allah for my success. That's what we want to know. We want to know that. We want you to give the support to your leader who will stand up and take the stand that I've taken. Join me in this stand and work for what I'm working for. We want you to give him the love that you would show me if I was here. Give him the support that you would give me if I was here. That's normal and natural.
Allahu Akbar. This is what we want. And I guarantee you that the way has already been opened. I've sat with big, big power holders. I've sat with some of the richest people in this country and they have permitted me, they're interested in me. They marvel, they think it's a modern day miracle that the son of Elijah Muhammad is now Wallace D Mohammed in this day and time, that mans son from back there is this man we are looking at today. They say that's a modern day miracle. So big, powerful.... No, no joke brother. Big powerful rich people. They invite me to come and address the top of their people, their big leaders. And I addressed them. And you know what I told them? Almost the same thing the Honorable Elijah Muhammad told them.
I said, "Really we don't want a lot from you all. We got a plan. I said, all we want you to do is not interfere with our plan. Don't hurt our plan. Don't bring your big machineries in the way of our little machinery." And you know what they told me when I got through talking to them? That's not all I told them. I taught them to. That's not all I told them. But when I finished, you know what they said? Their representative came back to the podium and he told them, he said, "Did you hear what he said? Do you hear what he wants? He said, all he wants us to do is stay out of his way."
And he didn't ask them for a response. But I looked at the audience when he was saying that and I saw that they were respecting everything. They were accepting and respecting what was said. When it was over, he sat privately with me and he told me, he said, "We are with you that and we will be quietly supporting you." Allahu Akbar. And I know that he is he and his group of capitalists. They're powerful capitalists. They're quietly supporting Imam Warith Deen Mohammed. They're watching our progress. They're watching what we are doing and seeing if there's opportunity for them to assist us quietly or from out of sight, from behind scenes. And that's the best way to support us. They don't want to alarm other big fellows.
And that's not all the support that Islam has opened to me. Islam. Living, trying my best to live Islam and follow Muhammad the Prophet has opened up so much to me. And when I say to me it means to you because they wouldn't even want to hear me if I didn't represent a constituency. And I represent a very special and a very large constituency. So let us prepare ourselves and let the people, the congregation of Muslims everywhere support the best of our leaders. And if you don't have good leaders, give them some encouragement to be better leaders.
You can start by giving them a little more charity. That's right. Some of you all, you want the rent paid. You want a Mosque to pray in and you want schools and you want a man to lead the Jumu'ah and to be there on time and everything and to be available to you when you want to discuss your marriage situation with him and et cetera. But you don't think you should look at your income and say, here's $10 out for this week for the Masjid, $10 for the Imam. That's not right. Then some of you got undesirable characters over you.
And you think that you're being good by coming to the Masjid to listen to that undesirable character every week. And you think that you and he are different but in the judgment you're both going to be in the same fire because he was the undesirable character and you gave him your support. The establishments of Christians in this country have always wanted to have more and better education. Education in these lands and in this country was not always public education. It was private education. It was church supported education. Those were the first schools, the first colleges, the first universities. Now it's public education. It's been that way for a long time. Public education. And the whole establishment is changing now. They're becoming more conscious of an authority over them. They're becoming more conscious of their neglect, them neglecting the good life to make contribution to the good moral life and ethical life of their society. They're repenting a great period of sin behind us. They're repenting that now. The year 2000 is coming in, they're preparing for the year 2000 to be in wudu and ablution. They're working hard to be in wudu and ablution. When the year 2000 comes, this is the best time for us to go and let them know that we are comrades in arms. That we are all fighting for the same moral cause. We are all fighting for the same ethical future for our society. And we are all fighting for the same justice for all people. So let them know that. Let people who are fighting the same war or the same battle, acknowledge each other and then support each other.
So, the war, the battle will not be so long and not be so hard on all of us. And we'll have support of the big ones, support of the many numbers, support of the big ones. And they will not be looking at us as outsiders and looking at us as enemies. You don't have to be a Christian to be accepted in. Inclusion under the law of this land does not require you to be of any particular faith or religion. It requires you just to be of a certain standard of moral human excellence. That's all. And if you have that standard, then you have the rights to plan the future for the whole society. So let us go to them and embrace them and let them know we have so many common values, basic values in common, so many essential aspirations, things that we want. Our hopes are so much alike for the good future of human life on this earth that we should not be living separate from each other, not even knowing that the other exists.
Let us know our numbers. Let us know our strength. Let us know our combined numbers so we'll know our combined strength so all of us will have a greater spirit to go forward for the great future that we want on this earth. Go to them and talk to them like that. I'm showing you how to talk to them. Go to them and talk to them like that. They'll embrace you. You'll be in. When you're in the police department will change its attitude towards you. When you're in the FBI will change its attitude towards you. Because the big boys on top, they hire the police department, the big boys on top, they hire the FBI, the big boys on top, they hire the President of the United States. His salary is being paid by us. But who hired? They hired. Ain't a one of us went to the White House holding, leading President Bill Clinton by the hand and say, "Okay son, go there and take your place. Hold your hand up and take your place. The big boys do that. They see that that's done. So, when you have them as your friend, they know you're not threatening the good order of the world or the good order of society. They will accept you as a friendly people and they will work for your good when you are not even knowing that they're doing so.
See, I know what I was up against. I'm getting ready to conclude this. I know what I was up against When the responsibility fell on me to lead the followers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, I knew, I know what I was up against. I said, now we going to have to come out of this prison. A lot of them ain't going to want to come out of this prison. I'm going to take risk inviting them to come out of the prison. And once they're out of the prison of the constructs that have held them, the Fruit of Islam, the MGT and other constructs, then I'm going to have the problem of freeing their minds.
And I say, I know what I'm up against. I say, and their leaders, most of them are not going to be trusting my leadership enough to follow me comfortably and to keep pace with me. They say foot draggers, I think that's what they call them. There're going to be a lot of foot draggers, 98% foot draggers and 2% walking with me keeping pace. So, I knew that. So, I said what I have to do to preserve this, G-d blessed my intelligence. I said, what I have to do to preserve this, I'm going to have to expose this to the public so they ain't the only ones knowing what's happening.
So, I began to expose my plans and everything to the public so the public knew what my leadership was, not just you. So, in case I fell dead under a heart attack, looking at your faces telling me you'll never make it. You'll never get there. No, they won't say it with their mouth, I said it. "You'll never make it, you'll never get there. I'm going to stay on your back and weigh you down forever. I'll be dead. Wait on you forever boy, you're not talking like Elijah Muhammad, your father, the Holy Messenger of G-d and I'm going to stay a dead weight on your back forever." So, I got to look in their faces, right? So, I say yes, dead weight. So, I'm preparing something for you that's going to pick your little light tail up and throw you into the universe. But they didn't know it.
See, I wouldn't tell them what I was planning, but I just went on about doing it. So, I exposed my leadership to the public, the public society. And the church was so, the church leaders, some of the church leaders were so happy and so proud of my own leadership that they began to come to me and invite me to come to them and telling me of how happy and how proud they were. And you think Muslim leaders didn't come. Muslim leaders came from Egypt, came from Turkey, came from Pakistan, came from many places around the Muslim world, came to me to tell me how proud they were and how happy they were that the change had been made and praying for my success. They said that "You don't know how many Muslims would be praying, say thousands of Muslims will be praying for your success all the time." That's what they told me. This was an uplift, this was encouragement for me. This was a kind of security for me. I felt more secure. Alright? So, I had to keep on working that to work you out of the prison. Now you are out of the prison. You can't even put yourself back in.
You are out of the prison and you can't put yourself back in that prison again, thank Allah. Thank Allah for Islam and Muhammad, the best of all creatures. Yes, thank Allah. So, we joined the Christian leadership who are moral and ethical and believe in G-d and hold G-d above all authorities. We join them, we join them as friends, we join them as coworkers for the better future for all American people. And we want to make our effort now mainly to establish community life. And all the other items on the agenda must come under that heading. Our effort is to establish community life, Muslim community, life. Education, better schools. number one. A place to pray is the earth itself.
I know this might sound ridiculous to some of you, but I think the situation is so critical for us as poor people, we should forget about making us a Mosque. Make a school. Build good excellent schools and we can pray on the gym floor, we can pray on the kitchen floor, dormitory floor. We can put a minbar in any spot, any corner, set the minbar in the direction of the Qibla, then make our prayers. Once we have the good school completed, then we are going to build a separate structure as a beautiful Mosque to accommodate the people's Friday prayers, et cetera. But until then, let us pray on the ground.
Pray on the ground. The earth is G-d's mosque. That's what Allah says in Qur'an. Pray on the ground. Yes. Wouldn't that be beautiful? I think that's what we need to do in America. More of us need to pray on the ground. Even in the wintertime. They say "Hell, those people really believe in G-d." You get in enough trouble, you'll pray in Chicago on the ground in January and February. I know it because I did. Yeah, daddy put me out. He had already messed me up by telling me my name was Wallace D Muck Mud. And later learned from the Arab man from Jerusalem that it's supposed to be called Muhammad, calling it Muck Mud. And I'm 13, 14 years old telling people my name is Wallace D Muck Mud. Pronouncing Muhammad Muck Mud. You know that Turks pronounce it Mehmed. Mehmed. So here we are in America pronouncing Muck Mud. So, they didn't know who we were, they couldn't even call us Mohammadans. Because Muck Mud can't be pronounced Mohammadans.
Yeah. And told me I wasn't supposed to work for anybody but the Nation of Islam. So, I don't have a job record. You want a job? What's your last employer? Shabazz Restaurant. Shabazz restaurant? You have any other employment? Yes. Shabazz Clothing store. Any other employment? Yes, Muhammad Speaks salesman. Well, we'll call you. So here I am knocking on the door for a job. Daddy put me out because I said I didn't believe in his idol G-d anymore. So, I'm in trouble. Some of you all would've prayed to Fard. "Oh, forgive me Fard. I'm going back home."
And I had a wife and a child too. One child, one girl Layla. And her name means beauty of the night or darkness or something. And that's exactly what I had at that time. So, I'm telling you. I said "I'm going to get me a job." It was in the wintertime. G-d is my witness and I wouldn't share this with you if I didn't think you could take it. I got down in that snow and I made sadjah, I prayed. And I went into that factory, Bethlehem Steel and they gave me a job. So, we don't have to build a lot of Masjids. Let's just build life. Let's just concentrate on building life, community life. And it's more important for us to have a good school facility than for us to have a Mosque right now. And we can pray in the school facility, the area that's not being used during the school days. And on the weekend the school is not going on anyway.
So, you can have the gym for the Jumu'ah. And the Sunday outreach program that you have. You can have that on Sundays in the gym and constantly working to build the school like you want it. And constantly raising monies to do the Mosque later. To do the Mosque later. And give so much to the Mosque. Hour to the Mosque, hour to planning work in the neighborhood, planning to have business in your neighborhood, planning to have strong business in your neighborhood. Planning to give business life to the African-American quarters, especially where Muslims are living. And you'll be very successful. G-d is with that because G-d made all of us honorable. G-d says in Qur'an that He made all the descendants of Adam honorable.
He made every descendant of Adam honorable. So, you know, the Moorish Americans, they had a leader called Noble Drew Ali. I guess if he can hear this message in his grave, I guess he say, "Oh, I should have told all of them they were noble. Because G-d said G-d every human being is created noble. That means you're created for the highest position that any man can aspire to. You just have to work for it. And if you can't get it, let your life have it. Your life is not just in your immediate body and your immediate presence. Your life is in the presence of your people you associate with and identify with. So, feel your success also in their success. And when you see one achieving, encourage him on. Give him support. And when he becomes the leader or the President or the industrialists who industrializes your neighborhood, you'll have a sense of fulfillment in him because he is you and you've supported him. Your achievement is his achievement. His achievement is your achievement. And we will be successful. G-d will love us and give us help always.
Now in concluding this, G-d revealed to Muhammad to say to those people who didn't want see him successful, who didn't want to see him free to bring the better life to them from G-d, to say to them, "I am a free man in this town." So, who authorized citizens to be free? G-d. G-d, all of us are supposed to be serving G-d. The nation is supposed to be serving G-d. All of us are supposed to be serving G-d who made all these things possible, made us and all things possible for us. So, the claim to freedom is based upon the fact that G-d made the world and made us and made us to aspire to freedom. He gave us this spirit.
So, nobody has a right to deny us the fulfillment of the life that G-d created us for in that town in Mecca or any town, Los Angeles or any other town on this earth. If you believe that and respect the guidance of G-d, the wisdom of the Qur'an, the logic of the Qur'an, the plain sense teachings of the Qur'an and the wisdom and logic and plain teachings of Muhammad the Prophet and his human excellence and his respect for everybody. Muhammad respected women, Muhammad respected children, Muhammad respected animals. Prophet was walking down the road and the dog was coming, them walking the same road. And they, what did he put in them? Inspire in them. Respect for the right of animals to walk this earth too. So, what did they do? They said give the dog his right to walk the road. So, we have great modern society with much money given to animal welfare, protection of animals, et cetera. And we don't know the first to do that. The first to ask people to respect the rights of everything was Muhammad the Prophet following the guidance of G-d, the Qur'an. Yes. So, we are really the leaders on this earth, but we don't have our own equipment.
We don't even know our own equipment. If we knew our equipment and picked it up from the book of G-d and picked it up from the life example of Muhammad to Prophet and pledged ourselves to follow it and be true to it. Be loyal. You know another thing slavery did to us in my conclusion. It killed loyalty in us. It made us feel we had no one to be loyal to but G-d. And that's how a lot of you are now. Your loyalty is only to G-d. "Yeah. If Allah tell me I'll do it. I am going to wait. We been disappointed so many times. They saying he's this and he's that. I'm going to wait." That's what slavery has done to us, made us not have faith in people, not have faith in other people. Let us get rid of these old damages that were done to us.
Let us heal these wounds from slavery, heal so that we can really be functional, functional and successful in a real practical world. And we can be, if you'll only put those petty things aside, put the pettiness aside. I can't ask you to do what I do, but I do it with no burden on me. G-d is my witness. I live for your children just like I live for my own. And if I plan a future for my children, it will be a future the same for your children. If I save $1,000 to have a better school for my child, that's going to be also your school for your child. And if your child come there and get a score above mine and I'm the principal of that school, your child will get the place it deserves in that school. I'll not put my child before your child.
G-d has made me that way with Islam and with Muhammad. And I'm so thankful to G-d. Yes, I'm so thankful to G-d and I love my children. I have the same love my children you have for yours. Yes, but I love G-d more. I love Muhammad more. I love the Qur'an more. I love obedience to Allah more. So, I'm happy doing the right thing. That's what makes me happy. Thank you. Let us pray to G-d for forgiveness, for our errors, our sins, our mistakes. And let us all ask G-d to put our minds on the more important things. Obedience to Him, not as individuals but as a community. And let us work for community establishment. Let us work to hear the adhan called from the Mosque, and I'm sleeping in my house I'm renting from a Muslim or I own my house and I'm looking at other houses across the street that a Muslim developer put up.
And I'm hearing Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, ringing out over the neighborhood. And I see cabs run up down the street owned by us. And I go out there and ride down to the big shopping plaza and I get some things and come back home knowing that that shopping plaza is a Muslim responsibility. Muslim responsibility. I go to the docks and look at the ships coming in with huge sums of goods coming in from many parts of the world coming into my neighborhood. Muslims are in charge of it. That's what we want. Then your child will come up with a spirit to make an A, where he was making a C. To make an C where he was failing. Yes. Success depends on circumstances to a great extent. Yes. And until we have those physical circumstances, supporting encouragement or our faith to be successful, at least do what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad did. He was a powerful psychologist. He didn't have nothing much but words, but those words were powerful.
And he said, "We are the owners." You weren't the owners, didn't own nothing, Went to the temple. And if you wasn't careful you would stumble over a drunk. That's kind of neighborhood we were living in. But he said, "We are the owners, it all belongs to us." And believe me, old folks, middle aged folks, and even children heard him say those things and it went inside of us and it changed the way we thought about ourselves. So be positive and be brave like the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, be courageous like the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Be daring like the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Don't be afraid to tell the world, I'm here to stay and I'm here to get a piece of what you got and I'm going to get it. And don't forget to pray. "Our Lord give us in this world the good and excellent things. And in the latter life the good and excellent things." And protect us and save us from the fires of sin. Pray that and be successful. Amin. As Salaam Alaikum.
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