07/18/1987
IWDM Study Library 
Sacred Life Connections Newark, NJ Pt.2

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
... for society here and everywhere, right in the descendants, the survivors of the days of slavery in this country. Those people, us, we that have survived the days of slavery that have come to share responsibility for life in this country as free Americans. The hope of not only this society, but the hope of world's society is better put here than anywhere else. Believe me, we have some people right now who are super, but they're so few we can't really know what is going on. But we have some super performers right now, not just Muslims, Christians and Muslims. We have some super performers. They're not anxious to get the camera on them to have that picture taken. They're not anxious to tell everybody about their achievements.
They're not people who toot their own horns. They're real people. They're real people. And we have some great ones, some great ones, some tremendous men and women right now that are Christians and Muslims and others from these generations of forefathers, of slaves, that right in the present day descendants we have some tremendous people and we have more than we realize we have. In fact, right out here in this audience, we got some tremendous people. We have some great leaders right here in this audience. Great leaders. We have some people who could come into positions of responsibilities and could do much more with those positions than the people who are presently holding those positions. Yes, I'm aware of that. I know that for a fact. I know that for a fact. The time will come when you will be able to just move right into those positions. The time will come, but first G-d has to give us time to repent.
Yes. To repent. And you might say, "Well, what is our crime?" The good ones, the free ones, the real ones, you have no day of repentance that you have to face, but the majority of our people must repent. The majority of our people must repent. Because our mothers and fathers from the days of slavery, in that time of slavery and after, in the time when there was discrimination in this country, no equal opportunity for us in this country. When we were marked, stormed in this country, when our worth as human beings was degraded as the monkey, on the level the monkey are worth, those parents of ours, even the worst ones who couldn't stay away from the liquor bottle. Or couldn't follow a job, even the worst ones were better than we are today. We're better than we are, I mean, on the whole, as a majority. They were better than we are today, because they at least have somewhere in their makeup the fear of G-d and the belief that it was G-d that was delivering them.
It was G-d that was delivering them. They believed that it was G-d that would bring a change in this country. They didn't put their hopes in the white man. They put their hopes in G-d. They didn't think they had to wait for the right President to come into office. They believe that if they could press upon the minds of the white race, that they would find enough sensible white people, enough white people with their life in good human form to respond to demands of G-d. There were no different in their position than the Hebrews under Pharaoh. They were no different. The Hebrews under the Pharaoh, they didn't go to Pharaoh seeking salvation. They went to G-d seeking salvation and then they pressed upon Pharaoh that this is G-d's position, and your position is in direct conflict with G-d's position. And they were eventually able to win their way, to overcome the evil influences and the evil power of opposition of those Egyptians under that wicked Pharaoh, under that wicked ruler.
Our people's situation was similar, very similar. They were not looking to the white man for hope. Few Uncle Toms were looking to them for hope openly, but privately even those few Uncles Toms were praying to G-d and fooling the white man. Making the white man think that, "Yeah, you the master. We know we won't go nowhere. We won't get no opportunity without you master." But in the private room, behind the scene, in the cornfield somewhere out of the eyesight of the white master that poor black man that poor Uncle Tom was praying to G-d. We have changed. We went from black power to green power to nothing. I'm talking about on the whole. We went to greed, to getting over at any cost to getting over at your brother's expense.
Even if it means selling them dope. Cheating them at the game. Tricking them into buying your products. They were not fair. Huh? Yes. So, this is what we did. Preying on him with a gun, robbing him, taking his little money, extortion games, extortion rackets, or pressing their own neighborhood. All of this has occurred during the last 10, 15 years and it had brought the state of the African American people to a state that the white man doesn't respect our aspirations anymore. The white man as a whole does not respect the aspiration of the black community anymore. He's not even listening to your cries. He's not even cared about what you are being bothered with. He see you as the people who lost your opportunity. He see us as the people who turn our back on our better motivations, on our better principles, who turn our back on our better way of life and just went out greedy and chasing the material things and chasing the dollar and living the life of fun and pleasure, doing the boogie, shaking the booty, doing all these crazy things, popping the dope, popping the pill, shooting the dope.
So, he see us as a wasted mark and we have to repent. Repent before G-d, before a change will come for all of us. We not looking for a change to come to the millions of American blacks. We are looking for a change to come to a few courageous Muslims and the few courageous good Christians of this country who will not turn their back. Yes. And that's what makes the time so good for us. That's so good for us. Let me tell me you, best to come in on the ground floor. They say, "Hey, come in on the ground floor." See, this is a new company. Come in on the ground floor. There ain't no competition here. Very little competition here. Well, the scene in America has changed. Americas being discovered all over again.
Too many people have been eliminated, a few are qualified. We're in on the ground floor. Let's take advantage of the opportunity. Let's go forward to become the new industrialists of America. Let's go forward to become the new leaders of America in government, in industry, and everything. Let's have the courage to think idealistically for a new vision for America. Let us be the writers of a new Constitution if anyone is to be written. Huh? Why not? We know the good side and the bad side of America, huh?
Yes. Our soul, our spirit has been carried through the fiery furnace. We know the good and the bad side. White man knows the good side. We know the bad side also. White man can look at the good side. We have the courage, we have the situation, not the courage, but we have the situation to look at the bad side too. And I don't see how all of us can look to America and where she is today and where her people have guided her. I don't see how all of us can look to that and say that's where our hope is. Some of us, I know, I know, some of us have been qualified by experience. Some of us have been qualified to have a desire, to have a mission to go further than America has ever taken us.
I want to go further than America has ever taken me. I'm not satisfied with the limits I see on America's vision and aspirations. No, I want to go further than this country has taken me. And believe me, if we don't do it, somebody else will. This country now has to trust the energy, the vision and disciplines of the newcomers. The Asians, the Cubans, the Haitians, the Japanese, the Koreans. It has to look for its strength and its future in those new Americans. Those new Americans. I believe that in time, the Japanese that came here, set up his house, drove his stakes into the ground. The Korean, the Haitian, Cuban in time, they're going to be overcome by the pressures of this society and they're going to give up their culture. They going to give up their disciplines. And the only people going to be left around is those that are inferior now, me and you.
And we are going to be better off than them in time. We can't go anymore distance backwards, buddy. I don't care what happened to America. We can't go backwards no more. We have backed up as far as it's possible for a human being to back up. We must go forward. And the spirit is going to become stronger and stronger and has to go forward. And the great fortune that is with us is the Qur'an and the life of Muhammad. That's the great fortune. G-d could have not given us a better situation than bringing us a religion that highlights practical sense, rational values because that's what we need more than anything else. Now, I'm not saying the church hasn't been good for us. The church during the time of no opportunity was excellent for us because the church is an escape. The church as it's conceived by most people, as its practiced, as that religion is practice by most Christians, the church is an escape from the obligations of the world.
The church is a relief situation from worldly situations. Our religion accommodates the need of a man whose free now to live in the world. When we were not free to live in the world, perhaps the church was the best situation. Although I won't agree with you, I'm saying I can compromise. I can kind of sympathize. I do believe that slavery and Jim Crow and all of that, that time would've been cut short if we had embraced the teachings of Islam. The Qur'an and the life of Muhammad. That time would've been short. Oh, we wouldn't have waited that long for no equality in this country. That time would've been cut short. Because with the rational teachings of Islam, we would've changed the establishment so much that they would have changed all the laws.
They wouldn't have feared, no integration, no rushing to the bed of the white woman. They wouldn't have feared that because our religion, when it's accepted in the right way, it doesn't leave us with any desire to take out our grievances on another people, to fulfill old animal desires that were denied. No, it doesn't leave us in a situation like that. Our religion puts us in a situation where we are comfortable and are best situated when we are in our own life and identifying as ourselves. What I'm saying to you is that our religion does away with that old inferiority idea, inferiority complexes, identity crisis, all of that vanishes in the light of the teachings of our religion. We have no false or silly things stirring in us that will have to be satisfied only when we have experienced going with a pretty white woman.
You know, whether we realize it or not, a lot of our people are not really burdened with that as they used to be. Most of our men used to be really burdened with that. Oh, they just wanted a white woman. But that has changed now. Good times have kind of given opportunity for the mind to become normal. And many of our men, we don't have that problem anymore. We not caring about no white woman, we satisfied with our own women. But still there are some of us still around who rather be in the bed with a pretty white woman than embrace Jesus on the streets of Chicago or in heaven. Yeah. And it was said that the powerful, the most powerful symbol standing as a proof of emancipation is a black man with a white woman on his arms or in his bed.
And that's true for some of us like today. Some of us will work hard for a better car, a home, more wealth. And really what we have is in our sight down the end, what's going to cap all of that is that we going have a white woman in our bed one day, one morning. One morning, we going wake up and a white woman going to be laying on that sheet with us. Don't laugh sisters because some of you all have that, you don't have the problem as much as we do. But some of you going to have that problem too. You going buy you a white man. I'm going to get rich enough and buy me a white man. I bet you then I'll get me some respect. Yes. So, G-d has given us a situation. It's a blessing. The opportunity to be Muslims, contact with the Qur'an and the true life of the Prophet, the last Prophet. Oh, the Prophet who came to establish what?
He say, "I have been sent in the world for the express purpose of promoting good character." Slave life reduced us to bad character if we were broken by it. Opportunity, the life of freedom and opportunity in this country have had even a more damaging effect on our life. It has spoiled our character because we haven't had the right vision before us. We haven't had the right principles ruling in our lives. So, we've just given ourselves to pleasure, to immediate gratification, to the opportunities that the material world, the secular world offer, forgot about the higher ideas. So, we've almost been wiped out as a conscious race by these things, by these circumstances. But Al-Islam is here and it is a great situation. It is a great situation. And if the truth was known better than 50% of the African Americans of the blacks in this country prefer Al Islam to all other religions, but they don't have the courage to say so.
They don't have the courage to say so. Some of them have lived the life of pretense and a lie so long, they don't have the courage to tell the truth even to themselves. But if they would tell the truth to themselves, they would say that, "Yes, I know this religion offers me better opportunity. It's more suitable for my needs than any other religion I know." We got to get a lot of that slave sensitivity out of us. I don't say fear. It ain't fear all the time. It's something else. The slave, some of them really bought the idea that they were inherently inferior. And many of us who are free today, our behavior seems to indicate that we believe ourselves that we are inherently inferior. That there's really no real hope for us to compete with the white man or to join him in bearing the burden of responsibility for his world or for the world, which should be our world too.
Yes, the performance of those people who were influenced by the white man's own preaching, and his preachings were powerful. Understand this, many of us forget, many of us never knew. But understand this. Just as today, we find ourselves in a cultural climate in America that we can't deal with. We cannot manage it when it comes to saving our children from the bad cultural influences of this time. We can't manage it. We are powerless to take our children out of the grip of this cultural time and keep them in the path of the religion we have chosen or keep them in the path of the moral life that we have chosen. We are powerless. Why are we so powerless? Because the media, the powerful media has advanced the idea. The powerful media has published the idea. And whether intentionally or not, the powerful media has exposed the idea to the minds of unprepared, unqualified people that were not prepared in terms of emotional maturity, in terms of mental maturity, in terms of social maturity.
They were not prepared to be exposed to the kind of things that television exposed them to. So, because of that, the influences have just wiped out the senses of most of us. And we can't reach our little children no matter how desperately we try. We can't reach our teenagers no matter how desperately we try. Now, I know there's exception. There's your son. You got him. You're fortunate. Thank G-d. Thank G-d, you got him. But for most of us, we can't reach our children. We can't control them. We have no power over them. Now, as we can understand this, that these changes in the cultural makeup, the cultural makeup, the cultural fabric of the country from positive to negative, from discipline to looseness, have affected and influenced and affected the masses of our children and the masses of the ignorant people so that there is and now death to us, death to G-d, death to us.
You should understand that you can understand that. You should also understand how in the time of the white man's preaching of white supremacy, of his inherent worth, of his divine image. Of his divine essence and image. In the time of him preaching that, and at the same time preaching that we were the children of Ham, cursed by G-d to be the cutters of wood, the toters of wood, the drawers of water for him and his people, and understanding also that it was not only the Church that was advancing that idea that we were a different creation, or a cursed creation, an inferior creation to the white man, but it also was his sciences. Sciences. The Social Sciences of America was also advancing the same idea that we are by nature, inferior, different and inferior to the white man. Not only that, the culture was broadcasting the same idea. His billboards gave the same message. His news media gave the same message. It was filling the air of America, filling the institutions of America. We lived in a time like that.
So you should be able to understand then, by the same token that we accept the cultural norm, the, what you call, the super ego, the super influence just wiping out, crushing whatever is left in the individual to survive against that. If we can understand that and you understand in a time like that, it's a miracle that some of us escaped being affected by a sense of inferiority. It's a miracle. When the whole world says a thing, brother, G-d has put it in your nature to accept it. Because G-d made the world so that the environment, so that environment will influence the creatures, but G-d also provides for a time when environment would go away from the order that He wanted it.
So, he provides for, I would say the redeeming of the world, the restoration of the life of the environment through the individual. But it's not many individuals that's blessed by with that. A Prophet. An inspired man, one man of vision, a Dr. Martin Luther King or somebody, not many, just one. Just one in a generation. One man in many generations. Just one. Will be inspired, sensitized, inspired to come forward and reject the status quo, reject the establishment, reject the prevailing order and say it's wrong. That doesn't happen often, and that's not going to happen in many people. So, the great majority will be overcome. The great majority will be overcome. Hardly any will escape being affected. And let me tell you something, if you want to do yourself a great favor today as an African-American person, have the courage to say, there's a great possibility no matter how free and independent I think myself to be, there's a great possibility that I have been affected by inferiority, inferior concept of blacks being inferior.
Speaker 2:
That's right.
IWDM:
I don't care how palliative your mind is, how palliative your idea is about your blackness, about affirming your worth and all that. Don't be afraid to have the courage to admit the possibility that in spite of your strong mind and your strong position, your strong stand for your black dignity, it is possible that you've been affected. It is possible that you have been affected. The proof that you are not affected will be seen in your actions, will be seen in your behavior. You will be looking for somebody who is not interested in advancing black. When our race stops asking for black vote, black culture, black media, black economics, black psychologists, when they stop asking for things like that, that would be a clear indication that we have changed.
That we have overcome. That we are really becoming free of the effects of white supremacy in our lives. Yes, that will be the proof. You know, it's strange that most of us can't see that we are doing the thing that we condemned in the white man. The more freedom we have gotten, the more we have tried to put everything under the label black. Black this, black that, black products, black this, black that. The only other people I know that does that and want everybody else to see it, recognize it, accept it is a certain element among the Jew. Who has to tell everybody this is Jewish. But let me tell you, if the Jews on the whole, depended on that element, they would not be as powerful as they are in the world.
The Jews that have built powerful Jews in America is the Jew that does not toot the horn of his Judaism or his Jewish makeup or his Jewish ideas or his Jewish life. That's the Jew that has really gotten ahead. And when you stop tooting the horn about your blackness, you will really get ahead. I'm not interested in us advancing as a black conscious people. Black conscious people. No, no. We want to be a race conscious people, yes. But we do not want to be a black conscious people. Now what's the difference between black conscious and race conscious? Black conscious is reaction to white supremacy. Black conscious is a reaction to white supremacy. And health and race consciousness is no more than my inherent life. I should be race conscious.
I should think about my race. I should be interested in the condition of the circumstances for my race. "Oh brother, you a Muslim, you shouldn't be talking about that." Yes, I should. Yes, I should. Prophet Muhammad he addressed the condition of the whole of mankind, but he addressed the condition of the whole of mankind, mainly through the condition of his race, the Arabs. You Arabs, you Arabs, your problem is this. Your short coming is this. Your failing is this. You Arabs.
Audience:
Yeah. That's right.
IWDM:
And he was called by G-d, he went to G-d. Why? Because he was weeping over the state of his people the Arabs. It was not the whole world. But because he didn't look at his people and see divisions, he was not belonging to the narrow-mindedness of his people thinking one tribe to be over another, thinking one deity to be over another. He was free from the hangups of those separate deities. He was free from the hangups of those separate tribal values and et cetera. He was free from that. He was a man who was universal in his thinking though he only had the situation of his people to look at. And because G-d prepared him for the universal mission, he addressed the universal man, but he addressed them through the state of the Arab people. Look at what you're doing, your dumb habits.
Look at your dumb habits. Look at your bad habit. Look at your superstitions. Look at what you wish for. Now, if I don't look at my people in that situation and address the condition of my people, am I following the Prophet? How can I follow the Prophet If I'm going to say I can't see black people? Hell, I see black people. There they are right before me. And not only do I see black people, I see a reminder of our face in the world order. And if I don't address it, then I'm not following the Prophet. Some crazy, so called Muslim, black man too. A lawyer, supposed to be smart. He criticized me talking about, "Hey, he's not teaching the religion right." He shouldn't be addressing the black. He got to forget about the blacks. He should just teach the religion and stop talking about black people."
That's crazy. That's crazy. Well, if I'm wrong, Moses was wrong. If I'm wrong, Moses was wrong. Moses looked at the condition of the Hebrew, he talked about the Hebrew. And he challenged Pharaoh. Now, we are not in the time of that situation. We don't have the Pharaoh and the taskmaster. "He's back there with slavery and Bill Bow and those boys." We have come past that time. We in the time now, the Exodus, and none of you all will come out but a few. But still the situation is the same. Yeah. You're going to condemn me for addressing my people's problem. You're going to condemn me for looking at blacks and seeing them that they're black. You're going to condemn me for telling my black people that look, "Your situation is not what G-d approves. G-d did not intend for you to be in that inferior stage."
You going to condemn me for that? Then condemn Moses. Moses saw one Egyptian catering to the wishes and lowering his human worth and dignity to an oppressor who was an Egyptian. He couldn't bear it. Not only did he work with his mouth, he had to work with his hand. Huh? He took his hand and knocked at me. Hey, that's my brother. I say, "That's what he said." He said, "Hey, that's my brother." You don't treat another human being like that. And Moses is a Prophet. So, they want me to pretend that black people, they don't exist. The problems of black people don't exist. "Oh, just read the Qur'an and pretend that black peoples don't exist and the problems of black people don't exist." That's crazy. Don't any of you Muslims buy that. There's a tendency on our part to escape the burden of responsibility.
We either got to go to one extreme or another. We got to condemn the world and live all to ourselves and we the only ones right. We got to have somebody to hate and put down or we got to go to the other extreme and say, we don't have any problems. "We don't have any problems. Brother Imam, we don't have any problems. We free now. We got the Qur'an and the Sunnah now Brother Imam. All we need is to make salah and dhikrs and have taleem. That's all brother. We free now." Yeah, you free now. You are free now to address these problems with Al Islam and get results. Whereas yesterday you were not free and had nothing to apply that would be effective, because you were not free. Even your idea of Christianity would not permit you to be free. Don't you know the white man freed us physically?
And even now freed us politically. But still our idea of religion serves to keep our resources locked up against us. Serve to enslave our better resources. Not for all of us, but for too many of us this is true. As I said earlier, Christianity is a religion that helps you escape from the world. That helps you escape from the world. For most people who believe in Christianity, most denominations, their religion is an escape from the world. There are few denominations that I'm aware of and I'm sure you are that don't fall under that description. But most of us are not in those denominations. Most of our people in those denominations that offer religion as an escape from the world. They go to church once a week or maybe every night to escape the world.
They believe that the world is not in their hands, will never be in their hands, that they shouldn't have responsibility for it. That they're just here until G-d calls them. And they should only have Jesus as their company and they suffer in the world until they go to heaven. That's their mind and make up. That's their belief. So, believe me, we who are Muslims, we have come into a great situation. We have a religion that says, the words of the Prophet. First, I should give you the words of the Allah, and the Qur'an. Highly praised and perfect is He. He says, "Seek with the means, extended to you, the hereafter, but don't neglect your share of the world." "Wa la Tanza, Lasibiqa, Min Al Dunya."
And do not neglect your share of the world." Now I'm telling you, if anybody believes in that religion and accepts that plain, that's plain talk. A lot of us don't think G-d make plain talk. The Qur'an, one of its titles, one of its descriptions is plain message, plain talk, plain message. That's one of its names, one its titles. Plain talk, plain message. You see, there we go. "G-d, oh G-d doesn't make plain talk." That's plain talk. Go after the hereafter using the means that G-d has availed you, but don't neglect your share of this world.
The scholars in this religion, the Imams in this religion who are qualified for the name, they know that that obligates Muslims to involve themselves in the betterment of the world and also prepare for the hereafter. They know that. They know that they're obligated to prove their worth and their qualifications for advancing the good of the world, and at the same time advance their preparedness for the hereafter or for G-d, to meet G-d in the Day of Judgment and Day of Resurrection. They know that. It's to give a just treatment of spiritual values and wordly values. Of spiritual values, of spiritual concerns and material concerns. That's what G-d has intended it for. All right, I know you can go through the Bible and somewhere you can find something there. But the Bible, if it's got two lines, two verses or two pages advancing that idea, it's got oceans and oceans of water to wash it out.
But our Qur'an on every page, it quickens the intellect as well as the soul, as well as the spirit. It quickens both the intellect and the spirit. Both the intellect and the spirit. Our Qur'an is balanced. In fact, in the opening of the words of the Qur'an, "Bismillah. In the Name of G-d." What is to be said about G-d? "Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem." In the very opening words of our Holy Book, there is the balance. He's is Ar-Rahman, He's responsible for the benefits you see and recognize. He's Ar-Raheem, He's responsible for bringing in what you do not see and what you do not recognize. And both His activities are a mercy to the people, a mercy to the world. Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem.
Under the chapter titled Ar-Rahman, what is G-d talking about? He's talking about the material values, the material beauty, the material values, the treasures that are in the seas, the great utility that are in the earth and in the seas, et cetera, right? He's talking about the great wisdom that have made it possible for man to do marvelous things. He's talking about His great gifts to man, to prepare him for a great life on this earth, huh? Yes, under the name Ar-Rahman. But Ar-Raheem is there too. He's Ar-Rahman and He's Ar-Raheem. He's mercy and is merciful in attending the needs of man in this present life, on this earth, and He's merciful in preparing him for things that are unseen. All right. He's merciful in redeeming him after he'd lost. After he had failed in the world. He's merciful, He redeems him. He redeems him. He's Ar-Rahman, Ar-Raheem.
There's much to say, but I promise to put a limit on the time that I would speak and looks like that time has come. I got 10 minutes over the time that I said, past the time that I said I would be speaking to you, and I got 20 minutes left in that grace period that I asked for.
Audience:
Yes sir.
IWDM:
So, if you don't mind, I'll round this up in 10 minutes of the 20 minutes that I have in the grace period. Thank you very much. Now, don't think that they have any time on limit on me. That was my own volunteer. I volunteered to put that limit on me. He told me, "But Imam, we got five hours." So, they said, "We got five hours." So, I told him, "No, we are not going to use up all that time. It's not necessary." Now, I want to sum this up by reading a few quotes from Qur'an that I hope will be left on our minds, most of us know them, but we need to write them deeper. We need to impress upon ourselves more that these are guiding principles. These are insights, these are wisdoms to help us better the state of our lives.
Allah says, " There can be nothing for the human person without his striving and his striving shall produce." So, G-d tells us, this is plain. G-d says, "Oh, you're sitting there. You're waiting for something to fall out of the sky and change your situation to make good fortune for you?" G-d said, "Nah it ain't going to happen that way." You will not get good production, good results in your life without you making a strong effort. "Sa'ah" means a strong effort. Sa'ah does not mean any weak effort. You know, the movement of the snake on the earth, the word for his movement is the same word. The snake, "Ya'Sah". The snake, "Ya'Sah. In the scriptural language. The snake, "Ya'Sah". We walk up on our legs. This is much more...


