2005 September 4th
National Convention Chicago, IL: Part 1
Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Alhamdulillahi rabbil alamin. Praise be to G-d. In our Quranic language, his name is Allah. Praise be to Allah, the Lord, the sustainer of all the worlds. We witnessed that Muhammad, the last prophet to bring scripture to all mankind. The prophet who spoke the language of his people, Arabia, Arabic language. And the prophet that G-d says has a community after the order of Abraham. After the order of prophet Abraham. Our second father, Abraham, or personality that brings Christians and Muslims and Jews together if we will accept it in a relationship as religious communities that have a real relationship or real kinship to one another. So we thank Allah for him and we greet you with peace, as-salaam-alaikum.
Congregation:
Wa alikum as salaam
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
I want first before I begin my address, I want to present our Christian friends, our brothers and sisters in humanity and in faith. Representatives of the Focalare Movement, a movement founded by and led by until this time right now, a gracious, beautiful, blessed lady Chiara... So I now ask them to come forward and address us.
Speaker 3:
Thank you, Imam Mohammed for this opportunity to bring you greetings on behalf of the Focalare community and of our sister, Chiara Lubich, whom I'm sure she would love to be here and to see such a beautiful crowd. What can I say? It's always a gift to be part of this friendship, of this dialogue. Over these years, we feel that this dialogue has been a beacon of light for many people. In the Gospel we find to put your light on the light stand, not under the table, and we feel that this has happened. Just recently we had a meeting among our two communities and there was a young person from the Middle East, from one of those countries in war for many years. And at the end of the meeting, she shared with us... She was very moved and she said, "Now I see that you unity is possible, that peace is possible." And I want to take this opportunity to thank again Imam Mohammed and Sister Chiara for this relationship, for this new hope that you are bringing to society.
Speaker 3:
Just a year ago, less than a year ago, I had the privilege of being with Imam Mohammed in Rome and he addressed a Focalare community, and at the end he said that we are one. And I feel we can say the same. We are one. And we want to be committed to bringing this light, this common faith to humanity. Thank you.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
We will continue now. It's no small thing. We need to think about things that happen. It's no small thing that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad's son was invited to the Vatican and spoke before better than 100,000, maybe close to 200,000 witnesses. And greeted the Pope, Pope John Paul II, and embraced him. Not only greeted him, but gave him a hug. An affectionate hug. He is a leader that gave his whole life and did a great, great work of bringing not only the masses of people, more importantly the leaders of those masses to at least look at themselves and look at the vision of their publics or their people. And he inspired many leaders, governments to be better by their suffering masses. We thank G-d for him.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Muslims, if you understand it, we are very much like Christians and Jews. We are supposed to be a moral people. Moral people. And our community is supposed to be an ethical community. We're supposed to stand for justice, as witnesses for G-d. And that's what Pope John Paul II did. He stood for justice as a witness for G-d. We ought to embrace all righteousness. All righteousness. For Allah says in our holy book, "He wastes not the good works of anyone, whether it be male or female." So G-d is saying to us He acknowledges the good works of all people, everybody, whether male or female. Should not we acknowledge the good works also? And if we want justice for all people, and righteousness for all people, aren't those people who put themselves on the line and risk their lives and labor hard, aren't they our brothers and sisters? Our allies in the struggle?
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
[inaudible 00:07:13] till he passed in February of 1975. So that was not required of us. So naturally, as I begin to myself study the Quran and meet more Muslim representatives, mostly religious persons devoted to religion, dawah, from different parts of the world. From Pakistan mostly, but also from Saudi Arabia and Egypt and other places. When I began to meet them and become acquainted with them and even prayed with them on the campus of the University of Illinois, IT. Pardon me, Illinois Tech. IT, Illinois University of Technology. When I began to meet with them, pray with them, I got acquainted with them, and I learned much about their life directly from them about what's happening in the Islamic world. Learned it directly from them. And I had been studying for a long time the teachings of my father, but also the Quran that he encouraged me, he didn't encourage all of his followers, but he certainly encouraged my youngest brother, Akbar, and me to study the Arabic language so we would be able to read the Quran in Arabic.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So all of that brought me to think that, "Oh, we're so far behind. We don't know what Islam really is. We only have the love in our hearts for Islam and for the Muslims of the world." He put that in our hearts. A lot of us lost it. I don't know why. But the Hon. Elijah Muhammad told us that when we become a Muslim, we become members of every Muslim nation on this planet earth, that Muslims are one community or one nation. [foreign language 00:09:08]. He told us that. And he also told us the Prophet Muhammad as we know, but he kind of hid Prophet Muhammad from us. He didn't give us the full picture of our prophet. As he did not encourage us to read the Quran, he also didn't encourage us to see Muhammad in his true and complete beautiful life, his tradition.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
But today, I'm convinced, when we look at the state of Muslims globally, the state of Muslims in Africa, the state of Muslims everywhere, even here in America, when we look at the state of Muslims everywhere we are not so happy when we're looking at that picture. The picture of Muslims everywhere is not making us so happy. I'm not talking about terrorists. Those people were forced by desperate situations, desperate circumstances in their lives to go out of their minds almost and do the acts that they do. I'm talking about those that the doctor would say are normal and healthy and not extreme, not extremists. Those are the ones I'm talking about. Majority of the those are not showing the beautiful picture of the followers of Muhammad that we know of in the life and history of our prophet. No indeed.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
We are taken by the world. We like to go our own ways, separate ways, which is okay. Believe me, I want no one to become a negro if you are not one or a black man. I said negro intentionally. I want no one to become a black man if you're not one. And I want no black man to become a white man if you're not one. I want no Indian to change who he is. I want no people to change who they are. We want to just be one in the core of the human life. Inside.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And if we're one there, then we can be helpful to one another. We can stay in our respective places. We can keep our geography. We can keep our neighborhood boundaries, ethnic boundaries. We can keep all this, and we will be encouraged to embrace each other's good works. And if one of us is doing a good work in business and we have a big brother, he's stronger than we are, he should want to come to the aid of his small brother. Even if he has nothing to offer his brother as far as a relationship with his brother in business but good advice. If that's all he has, he should do that. And I know those that we have called enemies who see us struggling and they will come and give us good advice. And sometimes they will even work with us for about two hours or so.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
We need to know our prophet. I'm speaking to all Muslims. Not to black. I'm speaking to all Muslims. We need to know our prophet. In our holy book, Allah says, G-d says to us that He is the only prophet mentioned in the Torah and in the Injil. That is He is the unlettered prophet mentioned in both the Jews' scripture and the scriptures of the Christians. That's exactly what G-d says to us in Quran. And how many of you Muslims want to know how He's mentioned in the book of the Jews and the Christians? Now the Jews and the Christians might not agree with that. But that's what we have to accept. We can't disagree with it if we are Muslim. But Allah says in our holy book we have to accept it. So Allah says to us that He is the only unlettered prophet mentioned in the scriptures of the Jews and the Christians.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
How is He mentioned? Allah tells us that. He doesn't leave it for us to guess, or to go around and try to find a Bible and look it up. But you should do that too. Find you a Bible and look it up. It's in the Bible. I have done it. I found it. It's in the Bible. That is, what he was addressing, what G-d had Him address is in the Bible. I found it. And it says of Him that He would be one coming to lift the heavy burdens off of the backs of the oppressed. Off of the backs of the oppressed. And he'll be the one coming to break all the bonds of slavery or servitude to any except G-d. He come to free slaves so that they would have their life that G-d wants for them and the life of their own choice. Like those good Christians who were persecuted in Europe, came and founded this country here, this part of the world, this New World. They founded it because they were persecuted in their own lands. They were denied the freedom to practice religion of their choices in their own lands, and they were happy to know that there was a new, undiscovered part of the earth for them and they came here to establish their religious life. And they did. And they did. And we thank G-d for that, for them.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Yes. The point is this: that Muhammad the prophet didn't come with a message that was completely new and had no connection with Judaism, Christianity, or with the scriptures of the Jews that the Jews identify with, and the scriptures that the Christians identify with. No, he did not come to bring something unconnected, completely separated from that. No. He came to actually present what G-d revealed to him as a continuation of that divine education. I say education. Of that divine education. He came as a continuation of that. And he didn't want us to be separate from good Christians. He said that in time... It didn't happen in his time maybe, but in time they, meaning the people of the world, mainly people of the book, they will see Christ Jesus and me together. Together. What do you mean by together? Not disagreeing, but agree in our life and in our mission. That's what He said.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Now, we don't have to accept that but that's what He said. And you claim to be a Muslim, and you don't accept that, then I won't accept you as a Muslim, and that's for sure. If you don't accept what Allah revealed to Muhammad the Prophet, and you don't accept what He left us, I don't accept you as a Muslim. Why? Because Allah says what He gives you, accept it. Speaking of Mohammed the Prophet. And He says, ["foreign language 00:17:14]," and obey G-d and His Messenger. Obey G-d and His Messenger. Are you going to feel bad or feel in danger to follow the messenger of G-d? But He's the one that connected you with G-d. He's the one that brought you to know what G-d wants of yourself in the religion. So how can you not obey Him? It would be ridiculous. These great religions don't invite us to something stupid. These religions are supported by great logic. Perfect logic. Divine logic.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So if G-d says, that of Muhammad, that He is the one coming in fulfillment of what was in the books before Him, and that He is coming to take the heavy loads off the backs of the people that weigh them down. That means keep you from going up. That's exactly what it means. Means keep you from going up, hold you back from your potential, hold you back from the progress that you were created for. From realizing the abilities that you have as a human being. Yes, oppressors, societies that oppress. Cultures that oppress. Not just people, not just flesh and blood people. And sometimes the worst oppressor is your own ignorance and your weakness to the temptations that are in the world. Sometimes that is your worse oppressor.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Hence the Prophet Abraham, Ibrahim we say in Quran. Thank you. The Prophet Ibrahim said beginning His great mission. He first said, [foreign language 00:19:10] to His G-d. [foreign language 00:19:13]. "I have oppressed my own soul." That's what He said. [foreign language 00:19:22]. Forgive me my faults, and He went on to pray. Some of you know this prayer by heart. Yes. So even Abraham, our second father, He had to begin His life, His life that Allah created him for, began it by first acknowledging the wrong that He had been doing to His own soul. Neglecting it. Accepting that that was not good for it because the world had given that to Him. So He woke up to what the world was giving Him that was not suitable for His own soul and nature and future. He woke up to it and then He confessed to G-d. [inaudible 00:20:02] the black people of America. Look at ourselves and say the same thing. "Oh, Lord, oh, G-d. We black folks have wronged our own souls. We have oppressed our own selves.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
This language, referring to Muhammad the Prophet, our prophet, says to us that He was a liberator. A liberator. And what impressed me most as a child and stayed with me till now from the Honorable Elijah Muhammed... Most of you didn't know him when he was beginning his ministry, in the first 10 or 20 years of his ministry. Most of you don't know him. But they are those still around, they're in this audience today, who did see him then and they do recall what he said then. And he would hardly ever give a lecture or speech without saying, "Islam is freedom, justice and equality." You can get all the rituals and prayer beads and toothbrushes or tooth cleaning sticks and sandals and prayer rugs, you can stack them up until they block the traffic. But if you don't register freedom, justice and equality, you're a dead negro. And again I use the word negro intentionally. I got to take you back to a time when you were conscious. You got black and got drunk on that black wine. You ain't conscious no more.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Now look at the wisdom here, if you accept my interpretation, says the load, the heavy load that weighed down their backs. Now the people that first heard that in their ears, they were not advanced like we are industrially. They didn't have Cadillac car, Mercedes and all that, and motorcycles and cycles, whatever you want to call that. They didn't have that. They had animals. They're riding around on donkeys. If they were fortunate to have that much money, they had a donkey, a horse or something like that. Some of them, they had a lot of money, they had camels. Riding around on big camels. Now when an animal is carrying a load on his back, he hardly ever sees what's weighing him down because his eyes are in the front.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Now if you can imagine a human being and many of them still now they walk from the market or walk from the farm carrying a big load on their back to take in the house to cook or whatever. And they don't see what's on their back. You don't have eyes in the back of your head. You don't see what's weighing you down. But you know because you picked it up, right? Now I think black people picked up a load and they forgot. It's still on their backs, but they don't see it. They can't see that load that's weighing down their backs.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
But also, this is addressing a subtlety. This is addressing a psychology. A psychology for holding and keeping dumb people in obedience to something that's oppressing their lives. So this word back means apparent. Yes. If we think of things that have made themself present and we can see them, we use the word that comes from the word back. Okay? But back that is also behind you too. The back of a person is behind us, not in our eyes. It's speaking of the psychology that oppresses you. They put in your mind ideas that you think are good for you, and they make you feel good, they make you happy, but they suppress your creativity as a human person. They retard your intelligence as a human person. They make you less able to function in a competitive world. And those ideas. So those ideas are working in your psyche, but they're not in your conscience. The damage, the harm to you in those ideas is working in your psyche. But they're not seen by your eyes or by your mind. Not in your conscience. So we are oppressed by ideas that were designed to keep us down and out of the greedy ones' way. Out of their hair, they say. Out of their way.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So the Quran, if you will accept my understanding that G-d has blessed me with, the Quran is not only addressing seen obstructions to justice and to our good life. No. It is also addressing the psychology of the oppressors who use psychology to dominate us, and at the same time make us feel that they have favored us with what they gave to work on our life and retard our life.
Congregation:
Right, right.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
I ask now the question, this question: was our prophet a Muslim before He got in touch with G-d and got the first words of Revelation and became a religious person, like Jews and Christians that is, believing in G-d, having similar beliefs, similar articles of faith, and having similar concepts of a picture of G-d? Was He a Muslim before He got that? Was He a Muslim before He met G-d up in the mountain that became to be called the Mountain of Enlightenment or the Mountain of the Light, Jabal-an-Nur? Was He a Muslim in His lifetime before that? How many say yes? Muslims only, raise your hand. How many say yes He was a Muslim? Thank you. You who are raising your hand saying yes He was a Muslim, you're correct. Because He said Himself, everyone is born Muslim until circumstances overpower you and make you something else. If we ask any student of Quran or a student of a learned teacher in Islam, if we ask you, was Moses a Muslim? What is your answer?
Congregation:
Yes.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
If I ask you if Jesus was a Muslim, what is your answer?
Congregation:
Yes.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So Muslim is not necessarily identifying our religion, is it? No. It's identifying something we have in common with all good people. And that's why Allah in the Quran He doesn't say, "Oh you Muslims." Yeah, [foreign language 00:28:16]. I thank you. It's hard to find G-d speaking to us that way. G-d says to us, "Yeah, [foreign language 00:28:22]." All you believers. Believers. Because a Muslim may be a Muslim only in his original substance that G-d created when he created man. But he might not be a Muslim in his mind. So G-d does not address you, "All you Muslims." No. "I created you Muslims. I created you with a natural disposition in your life to want peace and that peace will eventually be found with G-d. And once you find that peace with G-d, you will then find it with your fellow man in time." All in time, of course.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So, then G-d says to us also that the religion Islam, Deen Al-fitra. (Arabic) I'm only using Arabic because I know some of you speak Arabic and you think Arabic is the sign that I know something. If I don't speak Arabic, you think I don't know anything. What a pity. That's why I speak it. But I translate everything. I'm not like a lot of these showoff Imams. " Alhamdulillahi, Alhamdulillahi akhi, inshallah, salaamu alaikum akhi". And that's almost his full vocabulary. In Arabic, of course. So [foreign language 00:30:26]. Allah says in our holy book, Highly glorified is He. He says this religion that he gave us through Muhammad, He said it is religion of the original nature, fitra Of the original nature. Fitra come from the verb fatara. Fatara means to originate, to come into existence for the first time. So it goes back to origin, human origin. And don't we take our human life back to the first man, Adam? Our father that's given to us in religion? Back to him.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So this is religion of origin. It goes all the way back to our father, Adam, and we got this life, that we call human, we got it from fathers and mothers before us. And if you trace it back and back in time, you have to eventually arrive at a first person. And this first person for us in religion is Adam. On him be peace. And he is in our genetic makeup. He never leaves us. Every one of us has inherited Adam. We have him in our genes. Yes. He is the human type that G-d made to be the father of all people. And that also means the leader of all people. A type to lead all people.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And we know he was a kind of novice, a young beginner, and Satan was no novice. Satan had been around a long time. Had gotten wise and real slick and greasy. And Satan slipped up on him and invited him to a different thinking for his mind than that his original fear, shyness gave him. Shyness and fear had been preserving for him a good innocent nation, a good innocent human character. But then Satan caused him to sink in opposition to the suggestions of his better nature in his soul. And told him, "Hey, forget about that stuff. That's not going to make you rich. That's not going to get you great knowledge and wealth. You listen to me and I'm going to put you on a road to great success."
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So Satan seduced him, Allah says, seduced him out of his form. In another place Allah says to us, "And do not follow Satan, the ways of Satan, sin, and be seduced out of the dress. Out of your dress, the original dress that G-d gave us." This is not dress like this coat and your coat and your physical coat. No. It's that that dresses up the soul. It's the word of G-d that dress up our soul. It clothes our soul. It dresses up our soul, it dresses up our mind. It gives us a new mind. And it gives us a new life. And a new culture. A culture of righteousness. Yes?
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So this is what dress is referring to. Do you wonder sometimes how come they keep a skirt on the Kabah? It is because that house represents human life and human life wears clothing. So G-d says that this is a religion of origin, of human origin. The pattern, the fitra, this is the life pattern of human origin. The life pattern that He patterned all people upon. [foreign language 00:34:27]. The pattern upon which the original [inaudible 00:34:46] pattern for human life or human nature, upon which He patterned all people.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Now if Adam, our first father, represents that fitra, that original pattern, then we can also understand the language that He's our father and G-d through Him generated all the people on earth. As Allah says, "[foreign language 00:35:13]." That he created all people from one soul. One soul. Not one human flesh body that you can cut and bleed and die. From one soul. He created all people from one soul. And then he made of it its mate. Male and female. And caused to be spread from those two all the men and women on earth. All the males and females on earth. This is the picture.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So it takes us back to our oneness, to our beginning before we took on these other clothing. The clothing of nationality. The clothing of tribe. The clothing of nationality. The clothing of race. These things He made us [inaudible 00:36:05] and He says He is the one [foreign language 00:36:08]. He is the one who formed you in the bellies or in the stomachs of your mothers. [foreign language 00:36:15]. And he made most beautiful and excellent your single picture. Your single picture.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So Allah is not concerned how beautiful you look as a black man. Or as a white man or a red man. No. Allah want to know how beautiful you look in your soul as an original human person, before you became attached to your skin color, and other things like that. Now the reason why we have this breakdown in our lives, Black man, is because we have made the outer clothing more important than the foundation. The human foundation for all of us. Yes. So these clothes, these outer clothing have become so much our conscious awareness, have become so much our occupation, and for some our obsession, for some our insane obsession, that we have become completely detached from the fitra, the original excellence of human life that G-d made and want all of us to pattern ourselves after it.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So I feel pretty good now. I asked you if Muhammad was a Muslim before He received guidance or revelation and came to know about the religion or scripture, and you said yes. I feel good. And I asked you if Muhammad said that Moses was a Muslim and Jesus Christ was a Muslim, peace be on the servants of G-d, and you said yes. I feel good. And then G-d says of us, "[foreign language 00:38:28]." Don't just read the compliment to you and don't read the last part. Sometimes an orator or a great speaker will put the most important thing right at the end of the sentence. So the emphasis is left on your mind. Yes.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So if G-d says you are the best community... Or really if you understand the Arabic language, He didn't say you were the best community. When you understand [foreign language 00:38:58], you're the best of communities. That means someone else may not be as good as you. In time they may be better than you if you don't stay on the right track. But G-d says He revolves it for whom he pleases. And if one people he blessed with it don't keep earning it, He takes it away from them and give it to another. That's G-d.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So when G-d says you are the best community or you are of the best communities, [foreign language 00:39:31], evolved. Evolved. [foreign language 00:39:38]. It comes from the word meaning to bring out, to bring out. And G-d says he liken our life to that of a plant, to that of plant life. So when the farmer farms and puts the seeds there and he works with them. He works with the life even before the seed come. And if he thinks it's too dry, the seed needs moisture, he'll sprinkle the earth before any life is showing yet. He sprinkles even before the life is showing yet if he thinks it's too dry for the conditions that new life needs. And he says he [inaudible 00:40:14]. Let me tell you something else, G-d says He is the one who brings the dead out of the living. And He brings the living out of the dead. Again speaking from that recognition, or that observation, that our life have many resemblance to the life of a plant. Many likenesses to the life of plant.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
For it is a dead seed that bears a living plant. And then the living plant gives us a dead seed. And it continues. The life is continuous. So G-d says that He is the one that brings the living out of the dead and He brings the dead out of the living. Now I think we were working hard under the Hon. Elijah Muhammad to bring the dead out of the living. Now what we have to do is work even harder to bring the living out of the dead.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
When G-d tells us in our holy book that Muhammad is the unlettered one mentioned in the books that came before, and don't you know we have to believe in the prophets, but also in the books that came before. He described the Muslims in these words, "They believe in the unlettered prophet. They believed in Muhammad the prophet, that is who brought the Quran. They believe in the Quran and they believe in that that was revealed before it." This is Allah speaking to us in the Quran. "Oh, I don't believe in the Bible." Well, you're not a Muslim.
Congregation:
[inaudible 00:42:15].
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
"Oh, the things in the Bible, we don't accept that's true." But if you don't believe in the Bible, you're not a Muslim. Because the Bible contains the words of Allah to his servants the prophets. And Allah says that Muslims are the ones who believe in Muhammad, they believe in what He brought, and they believe in what was brought before Him, brought things to the people before Him. If you just change the way you look and think about other people in religion, it will help free you up to make much more progress in Islam than you are making.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So Muhammad could read. Muhammad was a businessman. Muhammad was a businessman, a merchant who traveled to Syria. Syria. He didn't just live his whole life, 40 years in Arabia. Before he was called to serve G-d as the Messenger of G-d and the mercy to the world, Muhammad the Prophet was a businessman, and he traveled to Syria and other places abroad, doing business to make his business strong. And understand this: He was kind of an unusual businessman. His boss was a female. Lady Khadija , his wife. She was in business and liked him for his honesty and his trustworthiness and his just beautiful human character. So she asked him would he accept to take over her business for her. And he did. He became the manager of her business. And he did trade, and went to other countries doing trade. This is our Prophet Muhammad. A businessman.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
This is not to criticize anybody. I have no desire to do that. G-d knows that in my heart, to criticize other religious communities. But the reason why, I think, he made so much progress in the physical world as well as in the spiritual world... I think his following and he and his following made so much progress like that because G-d didn't choose somebody who got up early in the morning, in the wee, wee hours, and nobody else was up but him. And He said, "Ah, got a revelation. I'm going to start me a business. And that business is going to be G-d's word." No. He found a man dealing with the practical things of life. A businessman, but a man who was lonesome in his heart because he knew there was more to life than what he was seeing among the ignorant idol worshipers of his people. Yes. That's the kind of man G-d chose. He chose a man that was used to sound reasoning, business sense, rational thoughts, practical things on his mind. He chose a man like that to give the last revelation to. Thank G-d He didn't choose a dreamer, who broke his sleep and woke up and was hearing voices and thought they were the voice of G-d.

2005 September 4th
National Convention Chicago, IL: Part 2
Imam W. Deen Mohammed

Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
... of human life. It's really the seed. What is the seed? The seed is the most productive part of the life. The bark of a tree, you can't plant it and get another tree. Even the skin and meat of the fruit that holds the seed, you can't plant that meat and skin and get another tree or another life. You have to take that that died inside of the fruit. It died so it may live again.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Oh, you sound like a Christian now. Yeah, you keep reading the Qur'an and you going to sound like me. If you read it with your eyes open, not with your eyes fastened to something that is outside of the Qur'an and contrary to the teachings of the Qur'an. That will never permit you to see the Qur'an. Yes. So the seed is the core, our core. And we are the seed of one father, aren't we? Aren't we the seeds of one father?
Audience:
Yes.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So shouldn't all these seeds be the same?
Audience:
Yes, sir.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And shouldn't all of these seeds be able to reproduce life? "Oh yes I can", but that's what the arrogant white people charge us with. Say, "You black people, you can produce babies, but nothing else." I'm not talking about that kind of sexual thing. I'm talking about your head producing something. I'm talking about the intelligence in the skull, in the cave of your brain, the cave that holds your brain. I'm talking about that intelligence reproducing life so that we will have the same excellent life now and hereafter.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Can you reproduce yourself black man? The arrogant whites, they say you can't. And they about to convert me. I'm looking at what you're doing on this planet nowadays, and they about to convert me. I don't think you can reproduce yourself either. I'm beginning to doubt that you can reproduce yourself. Can you reproduce us for us, Frederick Douglass? I want you to try hard. I'm afraid to mention any other leader.
Audience:
Oh, yes.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
I feel pretty safe with Frederick Douglass. I'll stop right there. Not that I don't love others. I love them, but you done attached so much to them I don't know if they will destroy you or save you.
Audience:
Amen. Preach it, brother.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Yes. I was preaching like this once and someone whispered in my ears, said, "Imam, isn't that anthropology?" I love anthropology. Anthropology is the study of human life on this planet, how human life started and how it evolved, how it progressed, how it advanced from primitive time to this time. Anthropology. I love anthropology. But anthropology speaks not with a focus on what is the most important, none tangible or none physical principal or element working in man to explain why he is so unusual as a life type or a life. But religion does.
Audience:
Right.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Revelation, scripture, does explain that. Allah made Adam, and the angel said, "What is this that you're making here? This is going to cause a lot of trouble. You're making this creature, and he's not like us. You made us to do only your will, to obey. And you're making this creature here to have his own mind and to choose for himself whether he wants to obey or not." They were afraid of that kind of creation. So they expressed their fear to G-d.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And G-d replied to them. He said, "When I have inspired him of my own soul, of my own self, of my own spirit. When I have inspired him of my own spirit, given him of my own spirit, then you accept him and make sadja to him." That's what G-d told the angels.
Audience:
Right.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So it is not the human being like we see each other. It is not Wallace, born October 30th, 1933. And the first thing they saw was a flesh. They didn't see me. They saw flesh. And they called that me. "Oh, that's still you, brother imam." No, it's not. This flesh is no more me than this here is me. Because I do not anymore identify my life and my birth with that physical birth that took place October 30th, 1933. I identify my birth now with the birth of a new person, the new life that's in me. That's my real self.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Hold a minute. My soul inside of the physical body that was born on that day had a seed in it. And it was just waiting for the right environment to open the self and release the new life for me.
Audience:
Yes, sir.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And it took the right environment and everything, as we need for a seed. It took the right environment to give me the moisture and the support substance, from substance, earth, or whatever you want to call it. It took that to bring out the life, and it sprouted a new person. Yes, out of it came a new person that I call my imam, W. Deen Mohammed. Yes.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Now if I don't know my imam, W. Deen Mohammed, I can't make any more progress. If I just know Wallace, Wallace D. Muhammad, born on that day I gave you, I cannot make progress. But if I stay in touch with the new life that was born in me many years ago now, that has been growing, then I have to say, as a witness, Wallace has to say, "This imam, this new person in this body, oh, he is something. He is beautiful. And he is great." Yes, he is.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
He is great enough to make me not see Wallace D. Muhammad, the flesh man that was born October 30th, 1933. He's so great he keeps me humble. He lifts me up and make me big. I can look over the rooftops of everybody. But I'm still humble on the earth. That's a great man that G-d has given birth to in the flesh of Clara Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Yes, I know. I'm not asking for that. I thank you and you're giving it to me freely, I know, and generously and willingly. But that's not what I asked for.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Now, as I continue, scripture is the most important thing. What G-d revealed for us is the most important thing in our life. So if this scripture is not feeding our life, and something else is feeding it, these books that fascinate you, these ideas of men, and women, I guess, that fascinate you. If other literature other than the holy scripture is holding your attention and your mind and feeding your mind and your heart, you'll never see the great light that your G-d created you for.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
But if you recognize that the real word of life is the word of G-d. The other books are not the word of life. They cannot give you life, and they cannot preserve your life. Only sacred scripture can give you life and sustain and preserve your life. Realize that and accept that, and you'll be on a good footing, you'll be dispositioned for success for all your days. And if you can pass it on to your next generation, you also will have a new generation following you that will be just as you and devotion to what gives us life, supports our life, and advances our life. The word of G-d.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So G-d has given us leaders, figures, human figures as models of the human nature that he made when he made the first human being. The nature of his choice. The nature of your creator's choice. You know in the Qur'an it says a prophet was being ruled over by a tyrant. A tyrannical person, tyrannical ruler. And this ruler said to this prophet, "How are you going to survive without me?" He even went so far to say, "I give life, and I give death," this tyrannical ruler. Meaning, "I will kill you. I can spare you so you can live, or I can give a order and you'd be dead. You'll be dead."
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
This prophet, humble little man under this great tyrant, he said, "The one who created me, he shall guide me. The one who created me, he shall guide me." There's a lot in that, there's volumes in that word, volumes in that expression. The one who created me, he shall guide me. [foreign language 00:11:42]. That's the words of Allah in the Qur'an. [foreign language 00:11:46].
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Our present world that we see owes more to these special models than it owes to anything else. The earth would not have yield its treasures to the builders of these great civilizations that we have witnessed upon this earth, and especially the last one that we have here, the new world, couldn't have achieved what they have achieved had they not benefited from these excellent human models. Moses, Jesus, and for us, Muhammad the Prophet.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Yes. Look at who has succeeded. Look at the societies that have succeeded, who have survived paganism, cruel, war-making civilizations, or so called civilizations. Who have survived that to be the inheritors of this earth today? It is the followers of Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. Upon the three be at peace. Yes.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Oh, you might say, "Well, Russia didn't follow. Russia conquers a lot. Sent Sputnik up on the moon and everything. The Russians accomplished great things. They didn't have them." The Russians, before Marx, they bought Marxism and followed Lenin and whoever else, they were a strong Christian society. And that new idea that was given to them just lasted for about 70 years. Now it's dead over there. And the Christian church is back active in Russia. They also kept down the Muslim. The Muslim mosque is open again after the death of that ideology and those people. It has opened again too.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So we've got to give the credit then to the followers of Moses, Christ Jesus, and Muhammad the Blessed Prophet. We got to give them the credit. Their work, their labor, the credit for man's great advancement that we have made in modern times. This is not to favor Islam or Muhammad the Prophet over Christianity or Judaism, but the fact of history is that the great awakening that caused mankind on this earth to turn back to his brain and scientific thinking and scientific labor, the thing that initiated that or awakened that, in the brain of the thinkers or the intellects, for people of intellect, it was the Qur'an and Muhammad's message and his model. That's what did it. This is history.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Can you imagine us trying to do all this complicated math we got now. Might could put it in a computer, but I can't handle it. I want to do division, multiplication, algebra and calculus, one I one, two I two, three I three, IV four, V five, V three IA, V four I nine, X ten. Oh, I'm telling you, I wouldn't know how to work my math. That's a little bit too laborious.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Thanks to the light of the Qur'an and Muhammad that reached the brain of thinkers. And they studied the works that had been accumulated before by the Greeks and others. They studied those works and they brought out what was lost, what mankind had left aside. They brought it out, and they extended it, they built upon it, and they extended it, and they introduced even new sciences, sciences that we didn't have before. This was done by the followers of Muhammad.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And there's no decent intelligent historian that wouldn't acknowledge this and say, "Yes, it was the advent of Muhammad the Prophet and his great works with his followers that attracted Jews to come to the learning places, the places of higher learning, higher learning of the Muslims. And attracted Christians and others to come to the places of higher learning founded by the Muslims. And they labored together.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
You know, men of science, hard to find one hung up on his color of the skin, or the texture of his hair. He's devoted so something, and he doesn't see you as black or as white. He see you as science. He see you as science. And if you want to go to doctor right now for some ill, he see you black, and that might tell him a lot, that you eat too much grease, you drink too much soda pop, too much sugar. It might tell him a lot about you. And you play too much for your soul's development, you know. But he looking at you, and he might start crying while he's examining you. Say, "I'm sorry, I can't help this soul. I wasn't trained to help this soul."
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And when they give you anatomy. They give you anatomy. They want to show you how a human being is composed, put together, inside, under the skin. They don't show you the anatomy of an African. You go to school to study medicine, study treatment of the body or whatever. They don't show you, they don't say, "This is a black man." They say, "This is a human skeleton. This is a human digestive system." Huh?
Audience:
Yes, sir.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Yes. So that's the way they are focused. They are focused on what is our life in common. They don't want to know your special life that you got, black afro and all that. That won't help them not at all. Say, "Well, man, you getting ready to prescribe something for me, and you didn't even look at my afro?" He might say, "The doctor you want is down the hall. He's down the hall." Say, "You need healing." Yes.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
We have all these great signs of G-d before us, and we are all burdened and head hanging and sad. "Oh, I don't see no sign that there's a G-d. The world has just gone astray and look like nothing that can help us. Where's G-d? Where's G-d?" G-d is showing us signs, just like he did the people of Moses. Two people separated from one another to conquer the world. To become the dominant idea on this earth. The one was capitalist and one was socialist. Huh?
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Communism and capitalism. And they threaten us so much with their powers that they amass, that we were fearing they could bring about the end of life of human beings on this planet with their atomic energy and atomic weapons. Yes, we were fearful of that.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And look what happened. The one that rejected G-d, didn't include G-d in their plan or in their ideology, they only lived for 70 years and came back to G-d. At least permitted the citizens of their country to go back to G-d. That's the communist.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And the other one continued to go, but look how it has progressed. At one time there was North and South. And the South was treating human beings worse than they would treat bad animals, even animals insane with madness, with madness. They would just kill the animal. They wouldn't hold the animal and torture the animal. But the blacks, they would take out their rage on us and hang us and burn us and have a party watching you burn slowly hanging from a tree in agony while your flesh was falling off your bones. They would have a party, drink and have a party, watching that.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
But it has progressed. Now it doesn't allow that. And it have accepted all of us into one class for citizenship. There no more two classes. In fact, we had no citizenship. We never took a oath. You didn't even have passports. If you went abroad, you went on a white man's passport. He accompanied you. You didn't even have a passport. If you did, it didn't mean anything. It just meant you can come back to your place in the white society. Come back to your place in white America. And you knew to get back in your place or risk being hung or beaten or killed. There was a time like that.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And oh, we want to say, "Oh, that was the South." That was the South and the North. The same political party of the people who were mistreating us in the South, the southern states, was our party up North, the Democratic party. It wasn't always like that. But Abraham Lincoln was not a Democrat. He was a Republican. Now I know they were called by another name, but they sprung out, they grew out and took on another name later. Same.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Don't think the South the only one that discriminated and separated, segregated it, they did too. White only. Up North they did too. White only. You knew not to go to those places looking for a job. It said, "White only," plain as day in the ad for employment.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So this is what happened. You all don't connect G-d with these things. You used to do that. Your leaders before these new leaders, these new political leaders and hustlers, they used to try to get you to make connections with G-d's plan, with G-d's will. When big things happen to affect life, the life of the people, they would want you to bring G-d into the picture. And try to see, understand these things in the light of what G-d wants. What is His will, what is his plan for man? But they don't do that anymore now.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
But if we would look at how both these nations have come from a very ugly past. Huh? Very ugly past. In fact, the capitalist past is more ugly than the socialist past.
Audience:
Yes, sir.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
The communists never treated us like the capitalists did. It was the capitalists that fed on the poor, used our labor, and didn't give us opportunity to have a decent life with other citizens in this country. It was the capitalists that did that. Capitalists in the South supported by capitalists up North, the bigger capitalists up North. These are the realities.
Audience:
That's right.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
But look how both of these faces, these two faces that were very ugly in the past, look how they have patterned, start conforming to the looks of a true human person. They are being humanized by unseen forces. Hmm? By unseen forces. What is unseen forces? Truth is a unseen force in the heart, in the head and in the heart.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Truth. They're being formed by truth. They're being formed by the pressure on their life and their intelligence and human nature, human sentiments, to respect truth and justice. So these unseen, invisible qualities to the human eye, to the physical eye, that have been working in man to reform him, transform him, and give him the beautiful human life again that G-d created him for. This is happening.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
You don't think that's a sign of G-d? To me, that's a bigger miracle than the parting of the Red Sea. Oh, G-d parted the Red Sea. The waters opened up, and the children that were persecuted by Egypt, they were able to, they didn't have boats, so they were able to walk across on dry land. Huh? To me, the miracle of transforming white people in America and showing the whole world a sign by committing a people to establish an idea and a government and world order leaving out G-d and bringing to it's end within the life of the average person, 70 years. Huh? To me, that's great miracles.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And another great sign of G-d to me is that G-d said his righteous servants, no matter how much you see the criminals advancing, and no matter how impressive their accomplishments and their power over the righteous is, G-d said that his righteous servants shall be the inheritors. Huh? It shall come to them. Huh?
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And I see now it is not the unG-dly nations, it's not the unG-dly nations that's over us and over our resources. It is those that claim belief in G-d that are over these things. Huh?
Audience:
Yes.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
These are the realities. That's enough to wake you up. That's enough to strengthen you if you're weak in your faith. That's enough to make you say again, yes, I know there's a G-d, and yes, I give myself to G-d.
Audience:
All right.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Yes, it should be enough. And if it's not enough, it's because you have been rotten, made rotten to the core. Even your seed is no more good. It's rotten. And a rotten seed can't produce life again. It's fit for nothing but to be left in the fire, or given to the fire. And that's just what these bosses in our modern times do. When they find rotten seeds, they give you to the fire. If they can't do anything with you, they give you to fire. And that's real. And Allah says in our holy book, we're not of [inaudible 00:28:06]. And hellfire is reality. Huh?
Audience:
Yes.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
You all read the book and you don't even register those little things, do you? [inaudible 00:28:17]. Hellfire is reality. Ain't no myth or superstition; it's reality. Don't you see yourself? I smell you smoking way over here. And I bet you if I pull your coat open and your shirt down and get to your flesh, I'll see some fire.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
We went in a restaurant once on the road. We stopped in there, a truck stop. And these white waitresses saw us. I guess the truck stop, the truckers made them relax with us, you know. Black truckers coming in there too. They said, "Uh-oh. We know what you boys want. But I'm going to give you some cold water for those hot pipes." That's what the waitress said to us.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Our holy book speaks of the thinkers, thinkers. And it identify males as thinkers. It doesn't say females are not thinkers. In fact, it says, females also are thinkers. I can give you to quotes from the Qur'an, if you would have to have it. But it says the male is known as a thinker, a thinker. You know, we didn't design, we didn't create our physiology. We didn't create our physical bodies and our physiology and our spirit to go outside the home of boys, males, to go outside the home and find your interests, and find our interests, I should say, out there in the material world, in the field. But that's what we are. And doing that cause us to think on the material things in the world more than females. So males have been created and motivated by their nature and also by their relationship with their field of work or interest to use their mind thinking more.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And our second father, Abraham. How did he come to his great idea for religious people, for the followers that he would have all over the world? He came to it by looking at the world, looking at the natural world, and studying the natural things in the sky. And he had watched them so long. He started when it was daylight, and the interest held him so long until night came. And there's a story goes in the Qur'an and both in tradition, day came again. The sun rose again. And finally he came to the conclusion, after studying, letting his mind roam the objective world all around him and high above in the heavens. He came to the conclusion. He said, "None of these things are G-d."
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Now mind you, he had come from a father who rejected him because he wouldn't accept false idols, false G-ds. And he said, "None of these things are G-d." His people worshiped the sun, the people of his father. Their biggest G-d was the sun, the symbol, the sun. The sun is a symbol in their religion, was their biggest god. And he saw the sun rising, he said, "Oh, what a magnificent god." In it's brightness and in its beauty. He said, "What a magnificent god," he said. And he saw it, and he kept his eye on it. This is teaching us the patience and discipline of scientific thinkers. He kept his eye on it.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Though he was impressed, he marveled at the sunrise, witnessing the sunrise after the night had passed. He didn't conclude yet that it's truly the god that Abraham should have. He said, "Isn't this a wonderful god. A magnificent, glorious god. A brilliant god." And as the sun went up and started to decline, and finally disappeared and night was about to start again, Abraham said, "My G-d is not one to die or to set. Not one to die or to set." So he did not accept that the sun was G-d.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Then he concluded. He said, "G-d is the one, the cause, for all of these things." So he came to the conclusion that there is one cause for all existence. And that was Abraham's G-d. And Abraham's G-d was the G-d that was truly the G-d. And G-d was pleased with Abraham. But Abraham didn't stop there. Abraham said, "Surely I have wronged my own self." Speaking to a G-d now. He said, "Surely I have wronged or oppressed my own self, and I confess my faults to you, oh G-d." He said, [foreign language 00:33:51]. And so, "Forgive me all of my faults." And he went on to pray to G-d for forgiveness. That's what we should do, brother, my black brother.
Audience:
Right.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
We should in this day and time, in this 2005, September, right now, we should say quietly where we are sitting, "Allah, my Lord, Rabbi, means my Lord, Rabbi [foreign language 00:34:26]. Surely I have wronged and oppressed my own soul. [foreign language 00:34:33]. Forgive me, please, for all of my wrongdoings. And you should continue the prayer of Abraham.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
But let me stop here and go on from that focus, but yet staying with the prayer of Abraham. Muslims have the prayer of Abraham. We can't complete our prayer without it. We can complete it without it, but we're cutting it short. We can complete it with Ash-hadu alla ilaha illallah. I witness that there is but one G-d. wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadar-Rasulullah. I witness that Muhammad is his servant and his messenger. And we can say As Salaam Alaikum and finish our prayer.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
We can do that. But that's what is called a shortened prayer, a prayer when you have an emergency, like going to your baby's rescue. You hear the baby screaming and crying, and nobody's there but you. So you can cut that prayer real short. As salaam alaikum, and go right to the baby. In fact, I'd be going to the baby, I'd be saying as salaam alaikum while I'm running. [foreign language 00:35:39]. Life is very important and especially our babies. Yeah. So, yes. So we have that prayer called [foreign language 00:35:51]. The prayer of Abraham.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Now listen, look how this prayer goes. Don't lose the focus now. The focus is on model excellence, the human excellent nature that Allah created for us. It's our core life. It is the seed of Adam that will live in us and give us another chance for even a greater life if we don't corrupt that seed or corrupt ourselves to the core, where the seed's not even any good stuff anymore.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Yes. The prayer goes like this, [foreign language 00:36:28], Oh G-d, [foreign language 00:36:31], make Muhammad successful. [foreign language 00:36:35]. And the followers of Muhammad. [foreign language 00:36:40], here is the important part, [foreign language 00:36:45]. As you made Abraham and the followers of Abraham successful. Huh? So we're not just asking for success in this life, we are asking for success that Allah gave Abraham and the followers of Abraham. Who are the followers of Abraham? I'll leave that for you to answer as you go back home tonight. Think about it. They're all around you.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Yes, the Christians came into the new light, the enlightenment of the gospel, but they still say they're the children of Abraham, and they know their great leaders were followers of Abraham. Yes.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
All right. Now the second part says [foreign language 00:37:50]. And bless us as you blessed Abraham and the followers of Abraham. So we're asking for two things. We're asking for success, and what does success have reference to? The eternal life. Huh? The eternal life. We ask first that G-d favor us to have that eternal life, the life that will take us to the destiny that G-d wants for us. Huh?
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And then but secondly we ask, so you have to put first things first. The life of the soul is more important than the life of the body. The flesh. But now we ask for him to bless us also as he blessed Abraham and the followers of Abraham. Oh, Allah, bless Muhammad and the followers of Muhammad as you blessed Abraham and the followers of Abraham.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Bless. How did he bless Abraham and the followers of Abraham? He told Abraham that you will become leader or father of the many, the nations. Huh? And he said, "Look at the stars. Can you count them? Look at the sands on the seashore. Can't you count the grains? I'm going to multiply your seed like that." Ah, you think he meant this flesh body? Abraham was whatever he was, his race. Do you think he meant he going to multiply that? No. What is your seed? Your seed? That's your core life. Your core life.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
This core life that I'm giving you, this new enlightenment that gives you a new mind and a new life, appreciation for education that you can extract from material existence, from the physical world all around you, even yourself. And G-d says in our holy book, [foreign language 00:40:03]. He has caused everything in existence to embody science and knowledge. And modern science has brought that out. There's science of everything. There's science of the fingernail. There's science of the hair, science of the skin, science of the bone, science of the blood, and many other sciences also including under these sciences.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And there's science of everything in man's makeup and science of everything in the outer world's makeup. Science of everything. And that has been stated already 1400 years ago before the enlightenment. Before the industrial, long before the industrial age. Before even the age of enlightenment that is stated in our holy book.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
I can't help but say this to my friends. And there might be some that have studied their book like I have studied it. It's also in the Bible. What I'm telling you is also in the Bible. Yes, and I could give it to you in the Bible, where there's science in everything G-d created. Enlightenment for the human being, if he will give his attention to it with his brain and with his good nature, G-d will bless him to draw out, extract, from the matter, the dead matter, the light of science that he can use to make his world a much better world, a much progressive world.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
And a much less burdened world. Do you know knowledge and science, progress for science and knowledge has taken a lot of burden off of man's community life? Think how we traveled back there when they didn't have these great sciences and this great enlightenment. Think how we traveled. Look how hard just traveling to another area was. Not to mention crossing the water or crossing the ocean. But not only travel, everything else have been advanced. Great burden has been taken off of man's life.
Audience:
That's right.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
I know the time is going, and I'm going to be leaving you shortly. But G-d knows, this is my cup of tea and everything else on my table. I could stay here with you forever until I'm gone. I really could. I could stay here with you until I shrivel up and die, and I'd be happy.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
Returning now to nature and to the subject for this occasion. Nature then has been our most valuable resource, beginning with the nature of the human being himself. The human being, thinking as a thinker, as a philosopher, as a scientific thinker, the human being has been able to bring out of man and out of the environment treasures of knowledge, benefits, blessings for our better life and advancement. Man.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
But this same man, now, who is the cause of great production and great wealth, this same man, his original type is studied by those who are moved by greed more than by love of humanity. And they have studied us too. And they study and draw out of you, extract from what they studied, ideas, schemes, attractions, language that can excite you, attract you, motivate you and influence you, captivate you to an extent you lose consciousness of your original self or your original life. They study you too. And they study you and they increase the material wealth for themselves. And they cause their victims to lose eternal life, to lose the real life. To lose even the seed of Adam, the seed of the original life.
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
So there's a science of exploring the original model of man, to take him from his Lord and his true destiny so that they will be the rich and the powerful. And I conclude, may G-d save us from the satan and from hellfire. And may we rise up and do what we can to save ourselves and our families from the fire of hell that's burning right here in the United States and everywhere on this earth now. G-d says, [foreign language 00:45:30]. Oh you who believe, save yourselves and your families from the fire. [foreign language 00:45:36].
Imam W. Deen Mohammed:
As salaam alikum, G-d be with you, and I'll see you next year right here in Chicago. And we promise you that we're going to save a million and a half to more dollars out of your pockets. You tell the poor that was left back home, didn't have no fare, tell them I think they'll be able to afford it. Many of them will be able to afford to come here next year because we are reducing the cost greatly. We are going with the poor people of the South. And we're going to have our big convention there. These places are too expensive for us. Thank you.


