04/11/1998
IWDM Study Library 
Africa to America: Lost Identity, Contributions and Disservices to Identity Oakland CA
By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
The following lecture titled From Africa to America: Lost Identity, Contributions to Identity, Disservices to Identity was recorded Saturday, April the 11th, 1998 at the Oakland Marriott City Center in Oakland, California. The lecturer is Imam W Deen Mohammed, Muslim American Spokesman. And now, Imam Mohammad.
IWDM:
As Salaam Alaikum. Praise be to Allah. We say Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Al Amin, The Praise and the thanks is for G-d, the Lord Sustainer of the Universe. He cares about all of His creation, and especially His human creation. We witness that He's One and deserving of complete obedience from all of His creatures, and that Muhammad, to whom Qur'an was revealed, Muhammad, the son of Abdullah, is His servant and His Messenger, and he is the one mentioned in the Torah and in the Injeel as G-d has revealed in Qur'an, as a liberator who will break the bonds of slavery, free the people from all forms of captivity, who would take from their backs the heavy yokes, that weighed them down and break all the bonds of slavery, free them from all forms of captivity. This is Muhammad the Prophet, and that has already happened with the message of the Qur'an, and the message of Al-Islam.
Enlightenment came to the world again, firstly on the Peninsula of Arabia, the land of the Arabs as it was called, and then to the known world in a relatively short period of time. And Western historians acknowledge that it was the message of the Qur'an, the message of Islam, and those new thinkers that brought on the enlightenment for the West that we call the Renaissance, the revival of interest in the sciences and civilization. So, this is the Prophet who brought freedom to the intellect of mankind. If you can free the intellect, the whole job of freeing people is done. But as long as the intellect is enslaved, then the job of freedom is not done. So, G-d knew how to free the slaves from the bondage to others other than G-d, and that was by enlightening their intellect, by awakening their minds, their intelligent minds, enlightening their minds, so that they would have enlightened intellects. And that is the way to free people from all forms of captivity. All forms of captivity.
As a people, we have been free on the pages of history for over a hundred years, but again, as a people, many of us are still slaves. Not slaves to a white man in the south on a plantation, but slaves to ideas, slaves to influences, slaves to appetites, slaves to our own small thinking that won't permit our intellects to have freedom and therefore our souls can't enjoy a sense of freedom because our minds are not yet free. This is at the bottom of the identity problem for African Americans. We have an identity problem or identity crisis because our intellects are not free. Our minds are not free. Our thinking is not free. More specifically, our rational thinking is not free, and that the condition, that is the condition for us being free.
Our rational thinking has to be free, and the rational thinking cannot be free until that thinking is in touch with and responding to and not conflicting with the nature created by G-d, or your real true self. The nature created by G-d or your real true self. I hope we have time for questions because this kind of topic, it can be helped a lot by exchange between myself and you. We should have some kind of exchange. Muhammad the Prophet was obviously a human creation, blessed by G-d or protected by G-d and preserved by G-d in his human purity and in his human excellence. Muhammad the Prophet, Peace be upon him, didn't have to be converted to good behavior.
His behavior was always excellent behavior. Before he was called to be a Prophet, his behavior was excellent behavior. This is history and also this is Qur'an. This is history, I repeat, and this is also Qur'an that Muhammad did not have to be called to good behavior. He was already in good behavior. He didn't have to be made a good person. He was already a good person. He didn't have to be converted from superstitions. He never believed in superstitions. He never followed superstition. He didn't have to be converted from idol worship. He never worshiped any idols. Here's a man without Revelation found to be in the human condition that G-d wanted for all people. You'd be surprised how revealing that is. You're looking for something to excite your intellect.
You'd be surprised how revealing that is in the history of man as an evolving life. That's the testimony directly from the Creator himself, that no matter what the world does to blind the mind, the intellect, confuse the senses of the human being, G-d's creation is so powerful, it can survive it all. So, there was one soul on this earth that had survived it all and was in the condition that G-d wanted it in, and then G-d selected that person that He had protected, created, and protected for the purpose. He selected that person and made that person the universal liberator for all mankind.
Yes. This is bigger than you all imagine it to be, much bigger than we imagine it to be. I mean, Islam, and the Lord says in the Qur'an that they make no just estimations of this. We have to wake up a lot before we can see the big picture, the wonderful value of the Qur'an the Revelation from G-d to Muhammed and Muhammed, the model person, the model human. If you could study scripture, not just the Bible and the Qur'an, too, if you could study the world scripture, you would see that what has engaged the people, mind, what has invited their minds to come, and look at something, and devote their mind to something more than anything else has been the condition of man and the belief that man can rise above conditions that hold him down or hold him back. This is what turned people to G-d. They believe that G-d said that no. G-d doesn't want us to be like this. G-d created us to be better than this.
That G-d made us to be better in this or we have angels. We have gods that are better than this, and if we could get help from those angels or help from those gods, even the polytheists had an idea like that, that his condition should improve, said we could get help from these angels or help from the gods or from the stars, whatever they believed in. We can be better than this. We could have a better condition for ourselves than this, so this is the timeless struggle of the human soul and intellect, the belief that life can be better. And where is the help- To find it and turn to it so that life would be better. Identity. So, on the outset, I want to make it clear to you that identity problem can only be solved if we return to our original identity. Original identity. And the original identity for everybody that's human is human identity.
Simply that, human identity. And you may say, "Well, all of us have human identity." Well, just keep listening please. This is special day for Christians this Sunday. I don't know how I go to sleep and just let them invite me everywhere but home on these special days, even on my birthday, somebody planned to keep getting me out of my home on my birthday, so I'm kind of working on it consciously now to keep them from having me come out on all these special days. Sometimes we need to be with our family on these special days. Oh, Imam said he'd like to be with his family today. I didn't say that. So we would like to expand greetings of Peace in this day, this season, spring season of Holy celebrations for Jews, who I'm sure have observed the Passover; for Christians who have fast the Lent, 40 days of Lent, and are observing Easter, and for Muslims who have observed the celebration of Al Adha, the Eid Al-Adha, the day of celebration for Muslims who participated, that is who made the hajj, and for those at home, too, we all join them in the celebration. The 10th day of the month of the hajj, pardon me. The 10th day of the haji, the celebration of the victory for the hajjis, and if any of you all made the hajj, we'd like to congratulate you on your visit to the Holy Precincts, and to G-d's house in Holy Mecca, venerable Mecca, and to salute you Hajji and Hajjah.
For us in America, perhaps the problem of identity is greater than for any other people in America, I know. I would think around the world, but certainly for all the people in America, if we could look at the problem of identity in them, we'll see that ours is more serious than any of theirs, but people of all colors suffer some identity problem.
Don't think they don't, but we just have something that occurred in history that keeps us aware of our identity problem, and the need to improve upon our sense of identity. We have something that occurred in history, and that was slavery. We were separated from Africa and we were enslaved in America. And we have more generations behind us that were slaves than we have before us that are free, that have been freed. The biggest portion of our life in America is told in the history of our enslavement. So, it's not something that happened 1,000 years ago. It's not something that happened so far back. We can't get a clear picture of exactly what happened. This is something that happened relatively recently in the history of man in America. Not to speak of man in civilization or the man in the history of civilization, but man in America. It's something that happened fairly reasonable fairly recently.
Some of us have living relatives right now who were children in slavery. Yes, right now. Yes, so that is why I think we are more aware of the problem than most people, but believe me, most people I meet Europeans or whites. You say whites. I don't like to say white and black because that language is charged, and it's just to keep us thinking of each other as enemies, so I don't like to even use the language white and black. We have European people who are suffering identity crisis. I meet with them and travel in airplanes, and different other places, and we get in a conversation. I say, "You look Irish. What's your nationality?" And it opens up a conversation and they reveal to me that they have an identity crisis. So don't think we the only ones, but we the only ones within an identity crisis that won't let money come into our pocket, won't let the bank account build up, won't let the performance in school get better.
We have an identity problem that's affecting us, that's hurting us when it comes to progress in a real world. But for them, it's not that serious. They'll think about it, and they'll quickly take their mind off of it, and get right back to the matter at hand. They have no problem just living with reality, but we do. We have a problem living with reality. I'm a student of psychology. I've been a student of psychology for I'm sure 40 years. I'm a student of psychology. I haven't gotten formal training at a university or College or something, but I'm a student of psychology, and I think I'm a pretty good one. I'm a pretty good educated student of psychology, so I tend to, I think dwell more on our identity problem than most African Americans, than most African Americans, even those who write books on the identity problems for African Americans. I don't think they have studied it as long and as deep and as thorough as I have studied it. I read their books and their books are not that serious to me. They're not that serious. They're hitting and missing and not hitting often, but I hit almost every minute. I'm hitting.
Yeah, yeah. Almost one hit per minute. Yeah. Yes, lost identity. Lost identity. Isn't it something to take note of that The Nation of Islam got so popular in the African American life here in America? It still is very popular because of Farrakhan, a very, very great charismatic, magnetic speaker. And very intelligent, too. Don't underestimate him. He's intelligent, sharp witted, a thinker, an educated man. He has college training in his background, so it's still very popular in the African American, The Nation of Islam. And it's noteworthy that The Nation of Islam's teaching dealt with identity problems. Yes, it did. It asked the question, and what is my own self? It's a question, so the teacher obviously who taught The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Mr. Fard, obviously, he saw us with an identity problem needing to have the question answered, who am I or what am I?
And he thought to solve it by starting you off in a new history of your life, a new history of your life or our life. I put myself in there. A new history of our life beginning with him coming and starting our brains to work again are new in a different way from that thinking that he came to do away with, and he asked the question, What is my own self? And he answers it. My own self is a Righteous Muslim. Now, the reason why you still have an identity problem is because you haven't yet had it cleared up in your head what a Righteous Muslim is. Yes. If any of you all still got problems, you're still looking for yourself is because you haven't had it clear in your head yet what a Righteous Muslim is. Once it's clear in your head what a Righteous Muslim is and you accept that you are one, you have no more identity problem. You have no more identity problem.
So, the problem began when we were taken from Africa, this problem, the major problem that we had, not that the problem itself began. No, I'm sure Africans over in Africa right now. Many of them have identity problems. I believe they suffered very serious identity. In Africa. Because, after all, they didn't name themselves Africans. That's something most of you don't think about. You don't know and you who know, you don't think about it. They didn't name themselves Africans. Outsiders gave them that name. It was the new movement for conquest by the western man that gave names to big areas and then gave names to small sections in the big areas. Renamed the globe, renamed the geography, the geographical community was renamed by Western conquerors.
Asia didn't get his name from the Asians, but the majority of the Asians were calling themselves a word that well is translated Asia, but it's not Asia in their language, it's not Asia. That's American. That's English language, and the whole land came to known as Asia because of Western influence. People were satisfied to call themselves by certain regional names, and those regional names were enough for them, good enough for them. And they all shared the big land together and they had their names as regional names or local names, tribal names, et cetera, and that was enough for them. The Egyptians never called themselves Africans. They never called themselves Egyptians. Are you all hearing me okay out there? I don't want to get too close, and I don't want to start singing again. You know I was singing when I came up here.
Yes, so Egyptians never called themselves Egyptians. I mean, Egyptians, and certainly they never called themselves Africans. Those names were imposed upon them. Right now, Egyptians do not call themselves Egyptians. They call themselves by the same name they've had for thousands of years. They call themselves Misrej. Misrej. An Egyptian, you ask him, what are you? What is your nationality? What are you? He'll say, "Misreji." He doesn't say Egyptian, Misreji. Now if you ask him, "Well, what is the name of the continent here that you all share together?" He will say what the Western world told him, "Africa." He'll say Africa. When we study the maps of Africa, we find that there was a time when Africa was not on that land. The word Africa is not on that land. Who needs a name on the land? Strangers.
They need a name. The local people don't need a name. They know the name in their local towns, but a stranger need a name for the place he's going to, so it was the strangers who put Cush on that map. The land we called Africa once, C-U-S-H. That name was on that map, not Africa, and the strangers called it the land of Cush, the land of Cush. There are still some ancient maps surviving that have Cush on the whole continent of Africa, not Africa. Cush is on the land, not Africa. You know what the word Africa means? Just what the white man thought it was. Highly sexed, can't control the sex appetite. That's what Africa means. Highly sexed can't control their sex appetite. From the word Africa, you get aphrodisiac and a whole lot of other words. This is nothing new to some of you out here, but I'm sure to most of you sitting down there, this is new to you. You thought a black man had put the word up there. Huh?
You thought it meant black god or something? Yeah, I guess it does mean black god. Black god of the zinc of the potency pill or something. Yes. So, this is what we should know, so how are we going to arrive at our true past when even when we think about Africa, we are using a language that didn't come from us. So how are we going to arrive at our true past going through the avenues cut out by the same people that you resent having influence in your life now? That's a white man. I use the term because that's the way you see it. I want to speak to that mind you got. That's the white man. You see the white man is the one that's making all the trouble for you now, and then you go and you pick up a term, you think is yours. It's his, Africa.
So how are we going to overcome all that? By coming back to our originality, our originality, and our originality doesn't necessarily have something to do with a particular land. Our originality has everything to do with the life that we belong to. What life form we belong to. Black people? No, that's not a life form. That's a life, not a life form. What life form we belong to? The human life form. That's the form you belong to. We belong to the human life form. If we can come back to the originality of the human life form, we can solve all identity problems. If you have a seed and it's the seed of an apple, you look at that seed, it doesn't look like an apple. It doesn't at all look like an apple. But, out of that seed comes apple, so that seed has apple in it. Apple is in that seed.
That's the very good description. G-d says, and He's created us like plants. This is not just the Qur'an, this is other scriptures, too. Go back to plants to compare, to study the evolution or the life of people. So, if you could see what is truly the seed of human life, of human life in its true form, human life like that apple seed is the seed of apple life in its true form. If you could see the seed of human life in its true form. You look at it, you don't see your picture. Just like we can't see the picture of an apple in an apple seed, but if you being an intelligent creature created by G-d to use your brain and to understand processes, occurrences, occurrences and processes, you've been given a brain to then understand that and to follow that logic.
Then just like we can follow the logic of an apple seed, put in the right environment, in the ground, in the right environment will spring up a tree, and in time a blossom, and in time an apple. You'll follow that logic. You can follow that logic. That ain't a puzzle in your head. If it is, it's because you got some stuff in there, and while you wrestling with some stuff while I'm trying to talk to you. Get that crap out of your mind and empty your head first, and let's talk. Yes because I'm going to open up for questions pretty soon. I want to hear what you got to say. Yes, so if you can follow that logic, you should be able to follow the logic. Here is the human seed. The human seed is this life I call human stripped of all of its accumulated identities.
If I can strip it of all of its accumulated identities, I will end up with the human seed, and then you'll be able to see how this seed took on accumulation, accumulated forms to become you. Now if you want to get you back, put that seed in its right environment, in its right thinking environment because you are a thinking creature. Not only the philosopher said that, G-d says that of us. We are thinking beings, females thinking beings, males thinking beings. This is the Qur'an. So, our, I would say most essential, most essential description is thinking, being, and science comes up with the same answer. What are we? Homo sapien. What does it mean? That's Latin, isn't it? In English thinking beings, Homo sapien thinking beings. And G-d says, And the thinker is not like the female.
"Al dhakir kil unta". And the thinker is not like the female because the female has been created to receive, give a space, a place for the thought to come in, and find rest, and have development. The female. And the male has been created to eject the thought into the protected confines that the female has been provided with. Huh? Yes, so "Al dhakir kil unta", The male is not like the female or the thinker is not like the receptor. Isn"t it wonderful? Lost identity, that's what we are addressing in this time now, lost identity, but we can easily come back to the bare form before other forms grew upon it or put on it, and we come up with thinking, sensitive, emotional, rational human being.
Scripture describes us in three essential forms. The scripture. The thinking being described in three essential forms. We are firstly thinking beings. If you're not a thinking being, you're not a human being. Understand that if you're not a thinking being, you're not a human being because that's the true description of a human being. A thinking being. First is the compulsive self, are the passionate itself, or the amorous self, and of that self G-d says in the Qur'an, "Surely that self comes by corruption." Listen. Comes by corruption. That self develops by corruption. When you study the history of man in his rise from savagery or ignorance to civilization, you see that it's his passionate form is what has thrown him into corruption.
His passionate form is the thing that threw him into corruption. It doesn't have to, because G-d hasn't given the passions of nature to be corrupt, but it's prone to, it's subject to be corrupt. Not that it's of a corrupt nature. No. G-d created it good. Everything G-d did is good, as the scripture says, but it's subject to be corrupt, so the passion itself, when a young... You want to see civilization? You want to see the trials, and tribulations, and victories for civilization? You don't have to go back and read all those books. Watch the development of any child. Any child from infancy to adulthood, and you will see the theater presentation of the history of civilization. And that's why the Qur'an goes back to, "Remember when you were a baby, when you were born, and had no sense of your own, you had no control of yourself, and then G-d blessed you to survive, and you reach old age, and you become weak, feeble again.? So, G-d has given us not only the history of man in a calendar kind of narration, but G-d also gives us the picture of the evolution of human life from infancy to adulthood. Puberty is supposed to be the worst years, the worst years puberty, those teenage years, the most trying years for the individual. If they can survive passions, sex drives, et cetera during those teenage years, most likely they'll be very successful for the rest of their lives, but most of us can't even survive those years without a lot of help from others.
We are destroyed by our own passions. So, you can see that the trying state for life is because of the intensification of passions. "Oh, I love that girl so much. I don't want to think straight". Yeah. Now, I'm putting it in a child's mouth. But there was a grownup who sung it, said, "If loving you is wrong, I don't want to be right." A grownup sang that. You see, in America. Yes, so we know these trying times, these trying states for man, the passions. The passions. So, G-d says of that passionate self, my passionate self, that it is subject to corruption. That it comes by corruption except for those on whom G-d has shown His Mercy. And what did he credit with his success, with him being protected? The Mercy of G-d? Because they asked him.
They said, "Is that also true for you?" He said, "Yes." That he too was saved only because of the Mercy of G-d, and G-d put it in the Qur'an. And Joseph, the impeccable soul, no defect, no corruption in Joseph. He had survived the house of his terrible brothers. None of their influences changed the good perfect state of his soul. Then he was put in slavery, put in the hole in the ground to be sold to the caravans and put in slavery, then put in prison, and through all that, he kept his good soul then freed and honored by the ladies of the house of Pharaoh, even by the big lady.
The big lady that mean like your first lady like Hillary Clinton. In those days, it might have been a little bigger than Hillary Clinton because I don't think the Democratic society we live in will permit the lady to be as big as they permitted the lady to be. We kind of keep her down to normal size. And they were so enamored, they were so fired in their passions by just the sight of Joseph, just the sight of Yusef, the Prophet, Upon him be Peace. And the big lady wanted him so bad to be her man. She accused him falsely of desiring her. But scripture reveals to us that he was never taken out of his true form by the ladies. And G-d says of his success in retaining his innocence, his purity, "Ila Man Rahim Allah". That it doesn't happen except G-d gives Mercy to that creature.
So, he's protected by G-d's mercy. To get our identity back, we have to be protected by G-d's mercy. We need G-d's mercy to come to us. Then we can have our identity back. Now, I imagine that different students of scripture, different scholars that is, would translate that differently. They might not translate it as I'm going to translate it to you right now, but I'm sure that I can find some who will come up with this translation, I hope. G-d is firstly to be known by us or by human beings who want to find G-d, as G-d the Creator. Listen G-d the Creator. That's the way we have to know G-d. If we know G-d in other names, we may not find G-d unless we are given a book of Revelation. Something from Prophets, some Messengers of G-d. We may not find G-d, but man without Revelation can find G-d if he tried to search creation with a innocent soul to find what did this?
What caused all of this? And that's how early Prophets or Messengers of G-d came to G-d, and that's when G-d responded to them in their search. When they started to search for G-d with that discipline. See, I know these things, these marvelous things that I'm watching and looking at, myself included, has an explanation. There's a cause. Something brought this about, and they start to ponder. They start to wrack their brains to strain that intelligent thoughts, imagination, to find what is behind all this. What is the cause that produced all of this effect? That's the meeting with the Creator. That's the road for the meeting with the Creator. Now, when you study scripture, I repeat whether it's Bible or Qur'an you'll find that the great grand major meeting of man with his Maker was the meeting of man with his Creator or his Maker.
That's what it is, so now we want to have our true self, true self, my true self. We have to find the true self in the same way that man found cause for the effect. We called it whole material creation of the universe. So, you study yourself that way, study yourself that way. I'm a creature able to think able to do things that other creatures can't do. Nothing in the inanimate or in the animate world has the freedom and the ability that I have, so I'm special. Don't be afraid to say that, that you are special. There's nothing in the animal kingdom that can do what you can do. Nothing in the animal kingdom with the freedom of movement that you have. Nothing in the animal kingdom or in the plant kingdom with the creative powers that you have. You are a creature with creative powers. They can only live with what exists. You can create upon what is created. You can create more things.
IWDM:
You can even create yourself a new form of existence. The roach can't do that. The ant can't do that. None of the animals can do that. Only you can do that. G-d has created you. Or if you don't believe in a G-d, something has created you with the power to create upon creation. You are able to take creation and then create upon creation, new creation, even a new creation for your own existence. If you want to be a songbird in a cage, you have the creative powers to do that. You can make yourself one big seven-room songbird house, and you can put yourself on a swinging swing and swing up there, and people come visit you. They say, "Hello." And if you can't drop egg, you'll swallow one and drop it. You have that ability. No other creature can do that.
IWDM:
You have been given the power of imagination and the power to create. No other creature is given that. So then study your own creation. This is what Allah invited us to do. The G-d that made us. He invites us in the Qur'an. He said, "Why don't you study your own creation? Study your own creation and see how you have come to be what you are." I've done it for many years. I'm still doing it. It's fascinating. I find it most rewarding. I haven't given it up, although I don't have an identity problem anymore, but I'm still engaged in the study of creation. We go to Africa and we find ourselves there black skinned people on that land. Now those black skinned people in their human identity that's original for them as mine is for me. They are no different than I am. You don't need to call them African and me American. We are not African and American. We're human.
IWDM:
I'm only American because I have put clothes on my original humanity that you identify with American life and history. And he's only African because he has done the same or we have done the world has done the same to him. But in our bare-naked reality as creatures created by G-d, we are not African and American. We're just human. Now, that's where you have to start to get your identity back. That's why when Prophet Muhammad received Revelation from G-d. G-d didn't tell him, "You an Arab. Learn all about your Arabism or learn all about your Arab identity." No. G-d brought to him the single identity for all people. "You are human, and tell them you are human just like they are." Say to them, "I am a human just like you." "Bashirun Mithlakun". "I am a human mortal being just like you".
That's the common meeting place for all the people of earth. We want to meet for unity? Let us meet in our original human identity first before the world made us American, and African, and Asian, and whatever.
Lost identity. I think I've shown you how we can get that identity back. Now, we can go to the land of Kush, we can go to Ghana, Timbuktu, but the land of the pharaohs searching for identity and we are doing nothing but going far away from our identity. Because your identity is not necessarily seen in those cultural pictures, because it is a more abstract picture. There's no camera that can take the picture. It's abstract. It's transparent.
Okay. Thank you. Yes. So my true picture cannot be taken by a camera. It's an abstract picture. Transparent. It has no colors. My true picture is seen in my true and most important, and most significant, and most valued, most vital life in activities. So what is my most vital life activities? Firstly, my thinking process. My thinking mind. Can you see my thinking? No. Only if I put it in concrete for you. You can't see it until I put it in concrete for you. Yes. So you can't see it until I put it in concrete for you, then you can see it. I tell you I feel good, I feel bad, can you see my "feel good" until I put it in concrete for you to see it? But can you see my feel bad before I put it in concrete? No. It's transparent.
If I feel inspired; I think I'm going to get a great point. You can't see that. I have to tell you about that. You can't see that. I tell you I'm in love with my children. You can't see that love unless I tell you about it. I tell you hate what hurts my children, you can't see that hate. And I do, I hate what hurts my children. Whatever hurts my children, I just instantly hated it. Instantly. But I don't think any child is supposed to be hated. No matter how bad a child is, you're not supposed to hate that child. A child can be improved. That child has been hoodwinked and overcome by abuse from the blows responsible for the bad form it is in. Never. A child cant be blamed for the bad form it is in. Especially coming from a bad environment, circumstances, et cetera. Not the child. You can only blame the child when the child refuses to accept good intelligent help, that is recognizes as good intelligent help.
Yes. So we don't see the essential life we call the person. You can't see that unless it expresses itself in or through concrete. One concrete, the first one is my physical body I have here. I don't know how they view Allah, but I'm pretty basic. I'm giving my children a new sense of reality. I let them know that this flesh and blood body is their container. I can see the thoughts in the bottle, see the candy in the box, see you in your body, you gotta to talk to them. So, your body is your package. Your body is your container.
The only difference is that you have life and your body has life, then this body is like an instrument. You can speak through your body. And they understand it. They have no problem. And if that's them, I want you to know that all of them are not on the honor roll. And one young girl, she's an Olympiad in her school. Every year for the last three or four years she has been a super performer. I don't chase, I don't pressure them or anything. I just drop a germ of reality and they pick it up.
From Africa to America. The separation from their life history, lost history. Lost connection with history or the time calendar for our history. A break, a break, lost identity. Now, we're in America and they've given us a sense of identity. What sense of identity did we get from slavery? You're a slave and you've been created to be a slave. You were made to be a slave better than that. That's natural for you. That's your natural place in the order of man. Slave. This is the language of slavery. This is the language of slavery.
The slave obviously didn't believe that, because he has deep in his soul an awareness of him being more important than the status that he was offered as a slave. So, something in him and her, we were made to be better than this. We were created for better than this. And this process begins now in the slave. For the first time a condition has been brought about, the life of slave person, male or female, to make their intellect come on, to make their intellect strain to come up with answers for the peculiar circumstances that they find themselves in.
But they had no reference, in Africa, that they could go to. They were separated from Africa. The only reference was in the land they found themselves. They decided to use references from the white man's logic to support the urge in their soul for more recognition to them as creatures of value. Of value. So this process now begins for discovering my identity. My pressure on the society that contained me because then to alter their language to accommodate me and to check me, so they come up with the language in the constitution of these united states, that they said, ..." I am three fifths of a person.
Now, after all that pressure they put on them to be recognized for what G-d made us, that was the answer they came up with. Okay we will give you three fifths of a person. You're three fifths of a person. If you fractions ...

Questions and Answers
Speaker:
Right here. The question that I'd like to ask Brother Imam is about the three fifth human person. Could you clarify what those five parts would be, that they consider to be a whole man?
IWDM:
I understood the question, yes. The human being in his core is the human life. And human life is perceived as being, as far as the life that can register. What is happening is perceived to be essentially our five senses. So I don't know which two of those five senses that they said we were missing, but I think I'm understanding exactly what they were thinking at that time is that we don't have the senses that's necessary for perceiving and understanding the world reality. But we do have in us the ability to develop. So the three senses that they say we do have means that we have in us the necessary life for developing into a full human being. But we didn't have it at that time. We were missing two of those senses for developing into a whole human. So in other words, we have the spirit to be human, but we don't have the intelligence to be human. That's what they were saying.
Speaker:
Asalaam Alaikum. I wanted to ask you to expound on the issue that I run into a lot. I talk to a lot of non-Muslims and we get into very good conversations on religion and they often bring up the Prophet Jesus, Isaa. I find myself defending, but I want the best defense and I am asking your for a recommendation. A lot of times they ask me why I'm not a Christian and I tell them, I don't need to be a Christian because as a Muslim. I believe in all the Prophets and all the books. And but they argue with me about him being the Son of man and then they argue about the Trinity. And I don't know if I'm correct, but if there's a better way to say it. But when they speak about the Trinity, I tell them, well there's still One G-d.
I said, and the proof of that is in the head on our body. But on that head, there are entities that serve that one head. And I believe that, and I told them that was the way I saw it, that in our physical form we have eyes and nose and ears and mouth, which serve the head, but the head makes the decisions and that still is the entity of the One G-d. Get into that a lot and I just wanted to find out from you if there's any way you recommend that we discuss, because there's a lot of people, a lot of people like Allah (swt) say in Qur'an, they want to convert you to be Christian. And no matter what you say, they just keep dragging it on, want to make you be a Christian.
IWDM:
Yeah. Yes, I'm aware of that. But Sister Halima. I think you can handle it. Yeah, I meet with them and I think you can handle it. Yeah, you are not at all doing a bad job. You're doing a very good job.
Speaker:
I had one thing I wanted to ask you to clarify that I haven't been able to get an answer from others on the Hadith concerning, I read it about the individual who was an artist and he was drawing the figures of humans. And I read it, but I wasn't really clear on it because being an artist myself, I have stopped drawing figures of human years ago. But I still enjoy being an artist. But I want to know, I want to understand that before I go back into my talent of art.
IWDM:
Yes, yes. Drawing human figures as to contribute to the field of medicine or treatment of the body is okay. But to draw human figures as simply as art is not okay. According to our Prophet, we are not to have the... That comes from pagan life history. They were fascinated by the human body and they put the human body everywhere. Even in the holy places, they have naked human bodies all in the ceilings of some cathedrals. And this is because of, they were fascinated by their own form and thought that their form was the form of G-d. That really, that form is also the form of G-d. That G-d and his spiritual reality, it's real in physical reality, in our shape, in the image of God is spiritual reality.
So that idea took them far off course, and it gave them a culture through which they could continue the expression of their pagan culture, to continue to be expressed through the new culture. And this is something that Islam is against. So we shouldn't be drawing human figures just for the pleasure of drawing human figures or just for pure art. We should only do it to contribute to a health and science part of science. And science is okay. Medical science is okay, but not as entertainment art is not okay.
The time for prayer is 1:15, I think we... What time is it? It's 1:15. We'll make this the last question and then we'll have, Imam Rashid Shabazz if he's here, come forward to make the call, okay?
Speaker 3:
Asalaam Alaikum Brother Imam. I'm hearing some Muslim brothers from other communities that are going around saying that they believe in the second coming of Christ. Now, I remember back when your leadership first began, back in the early seventies, you identified our community as the body Christ. I don't know if that's what they're talking about, but do you know anything about that? And can you expound on that in any way?
IWDM:
Yes, yes. Well, the body Christ, in my understanding is the Christian congregation. The congregation that believes in Christianity would be the body Christ. Well, originally the body Christ would be those people who followed Christ Jesus, Peace be upon him and what he delivered to them as it was delivered. Now we know what they have today Muslims don't believe that what Christians have today is exactly as it was given by Jesus Christ. the Prophet, Peace be upon him. So according to the language of the New Testament, the body of Christ are the members that follow Christ, that are One in him, One in him or with him, and as One with him, they make up the body of Christ, only the congregation. That's all it means, the congregation.
Now, as far as a belief that Jesus Christ, Peace be upon him, is we're going to return. We have to accept that too. We do believe in the return of Christ Jesus. But how are we to understand it? That's the thing, how are we to understand the return of Christ Jesus? According to Scripture, who is Christ Jesus in the first place? He's a human person, yes. But more importantly for identifying him, he's a Prophet of G-d, a Messenger, a Prophet of G-d, and as a Messenger, Prophet of G-d, who is he? Who we to understand him to be? And again, scripture says that he's a word from his Lord, a word- W-O-R-D. He's a word from his Lord and the Scripture also says that he's a spirit and a spirit and a word from his Lord. Now I believe that Muslims should be looking for the return of Jesus in the Qur'an and in the life of Muhammad. And in the Ummah of Muhammad. Yes, now that's the only help I can give you right now and that's enough. Takbir! Allahu Akbar.






