09/05/1999
IWDM Study Library 
National Convention Philadelphia, Pa

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
...Created everything and human beings and He cares about His creation, all of it, and He cares about the human beings, the family of human beings, all of us. We are His dependents. He cares about all of us. We are planning for our future and G-d has blessed us with His guidance. The people of faith, all of us, have been blessed with His guidance. We look for miracles. Are there any more miracles? And there are miracles all around us, but we are not really thinking of those things as miracles. It's a miracle in my mind that the people of faith have survived the troubles of this world, that civilizations have survived barbarism, savagery.
To me, these are miracles that the people of faith are now having more charge of this world, this earth than the Ungodly. The Ungodly have no place at the controls of the world. Communism was threatening the world of faith to convert the world of faith to materialism and a belief in materialism. But Communism died the death of the disbeliever and now its people are returning to faith after 70 years of being dominated by Communism, materialism, Marxism. To me this is a miracle.
Muslims in the territory that was once under Communism have returned to their Mosques, to their places of worship. Christians have returned to their Churches, to their places of worship. And others are returning to their places of worship after being dominated for 70 years by those who said, "Forget about G-d. It's all about materialism." Wake up. The day is here that we've been looking for and we should wake up and see it. This is the day of religion. This is the day of religion, when religion prevails over the Ungodly ideas, the Ungodly people and their Ungodly ideas.
I'm here, the son of Elijah Muhammad, enjoying comforts and great respect from people of the various faiths, leaders, and from establishment, the business establishment, from the media. I am enjoying great respect from them. Why? Because I stand for G-d and G-d's way. Nothing can explain the place I have now in your hearts and the place I have now in the world except my obedience to G-d and G-d's way. I'm not a college graduate. I'm not a wealthy man. I have no credentials that would impress you that much. So, what is the answer? I have followed the way of G-d and I have been sincere and G-d has rewarded me. Look at the sun shining on us.
So, we plan for our future and we plan for our future knowing that the future belongs to the conscious people. The future belongs to the regardful people. The future belongs to those who have respect for things that should be respected. And we want to be the friend and the coworker of all the people who have that kind of make up in them. We don't care whether they call themselves Jews, Christians, Buddhists or whatever. If they got that kind of make up in them, we want them to know we are their friends. We want to befriend them and we want them to befriend us. We need them against those who are Ungodly, against those who have no respect.
We are here in the city of Philadelphia, a city that my father sent me to, to be a Minister, to replace a Minister that was here. In 1958, our first child, Leila, was born here in Philadelphia. She came back with us for this Convention for two reasons. Naturally, she's a Muslim, she's with, me with you, Muslims. She came back to attend the Convention. But she came also to visit the city of her birth, Philadelphia. When my father sent me here, he said, "Son, I'm sending you to Philadelphia." He said, "The city of Brotherly Love. Number 12." Now, when he said number 12, I was lost. I understood everything until he said number 12. I know 12, 10, 11, 12, 13. I know 12. But it was just a number.
It had took me years of maturing as a student of Scripture to really register fully what he was saying to me when he said, Number 12. 12 represents the universe, the whole world. 12 represents the universe, the whole world. We have 12 months in the year, 12 signs in the wheel, the Heavenly wheel. 12 disciples. 12 represents the universe. He was saying to me, "Son, I'm sending you where your soul wants to go because my soul wanted to be with humanity." And my father knew it, perhaps before I did, that I wasn't satisfied to just to be calling myself a black man. I wanted to be a human man. I wanted to be a man with all men. I wanted to be a man after the likeness of my father, Adam, the first man, not in his fall, but in his bright shining form. I wanted to be a man like that.
I want it to be a man with all men so I wouldn't have to worry in my soul about what's going to happen to all of us because I know if some of us want to dominate others, then all of us have cause to worry. And I had no desire to dominate anybody. G-d has always blessed me to have a peaceful heart, a peaceful soul, to want to be just by everybody, fair by everybody and never wanting to do any wrong. I thank Allah for making me like that and keeping me like that.
Now may I have my little umbrella I brought, that cap? My daughter has my cap. Tell her bring my cap, please. That sun is hot on my head. I need the cap. That's not a symbolic message. That's real. I need the cap. No, no, please. No attention to the cap, now. The cap has finished its job. It's cooling my head.
G-d want us to know our life, our existence, the beginning and the end, or the beginning and the conclusion of things, so that we will live with respect for what G-d established as life for human beings and be all, at the same time, knowing the path of our progress, the path of our development, and what will be demanded of us as we live year by year, generation by generation, what will be demanded of us. G-d created us as one human type called Adam, that Father type, that original pattern upon which all of us have been formed, the first human life that G-d made.
And we know that as we begin to grow and multiply and produce, there is going to be demanded of us, a uniting of effort of working together as One. G-d made us One. And as we grow and demands increase increased upon us, we are going to have to live and work as One. We have lived to see on this earth, our world become one living room for all of us on the many continents, Asia, Europe, Africa, America, on all the continents. We have seen all the men and women around the world and our children put into one living room now, that the Africans called the village, the Global village, we are calling it now, the Global village, one village.
It seems that we have just been put into one village and one living room. We can't escape each other. We have to see each other. Television will make sure that that happens. We are going to see each other. If we make a mess in one part of the world that's going to affect another part of the world, the media will let us know it. Television will show us that mess. So, we can't hide anymore from one another. We can't create problems for one another that won't be discovered for 50 years, that won't be discovered for 100 years. That used to be the world. The world of today is not that anymore. If we make a mess for each other, that's going to affect the other, we are going to see it right away. So, we have to live together. And this is G-d's plan.
G-d says man's community was once one community, community of our first ancestor. And G-d is telling us that to tell us that you have to prepare yourself to live again as one community. It doesn't mean we are going to become one political body or one national body or one nation. No, there are going to be many nations. Doesn't mean we're going to become one cultural body. No. It means we are going to become one in our respect for humanity, for the excellence of man created by G-d. And if we don't do that, we won't have a place in the future except the place in hell, suffering, miserable, in this life and in the next. G-d is greater. Allahu Akbar.
Righteousness. We expect righteousness of any people who say they are religious. We expect at least a respect in them for righteousness. If they say, "I'm a religious person," then the first thing that come to my mind is that they prefer a life of righteousness over a life of sin. A life of righteousness. But we vary as to how we state the meaning of righteousness. We need conditions to survive. We need certain conditions that G-d wants us, that put in us originally, and G-d wants us to keep. We need those conditions to survive.
Righteousness. What is righteousness? In our Holy Book, the following is stated in the Qur'an of the meaning of righteousness. Quote, G-d says, "Remember, We made the house a place of assembly for all people and a place of safety. And take you the station of Abraham," Ibraheem, we call him in Islam, the Prophet, the second Father. "And take you the station of Abraham as a place of prayer. And we covenant with Abraham and Ishmael that they should sanctify My house for those who compass it round and use it as a retreat and bow and prostrate yourselves therein in prayer. And remember Abraham said, 'My Lord, make this city a city of peace and feed his people with fruits, such of them as believe in G-d and the Last Day.' He said, "Yes. And such as reject faith for a while, will I grant them their pleasure?'"
We wonder, how is it just that the wicked, the wrongdoers, the criminals, the mean people, the oppressors, how is it that they seem to enjoy the pleasures of life and the pleasures of the world? While we who are trying to obey G-d and be righteous and faithful and good at heart are suffering so much because of their wrongdoings? We wonder about that, don't we? Well, G-d says that He made all of this for us, for the faithful, for the doers of goods. But He have also granted that the wrongdoers enjoy it for a while.
You know, I don't care how long your life is believed to be. You say, "Oh, how long am I going to live, 100 years? How long am I going live, 70 years? How long am I going to live, 70 million years?" You don't want to think that after 70 million years and one more year, death. You don't want to think about that, that all of that's going to be erased and you're going to be nothing, gone forever, nothing anymore. None of us in our souls want to believe that. All of us in our soul want to believe that there's a higher life, a higher form of life. We want to believe that there's eternity, that G-d is a just G-d. Why did He make me fall in love with Him and then He's going to cut me out so I can't remember Him? I'll be dead and gone and I won't be able to remember Him.
That's just like a beautiful woman with all of her virtues making me love her and then telling me, after so long, "You're not going to have me anymore. You're not going to even be able to reach me." That wouldn't be right. That's not my G-d. I believe in eternity and in my soul I want a life that will live after everything else has passed away, of the material things, of the material nature. That's what I want in my soul.
So, G-d is satisfying me. I don't know about you, but G-d is satisfying me. I used to wonder, "What's going to happen to the KKK who did those evil things to us? What's going happen to those who killed little Emmett Till in Mississippi?" I used to wonder, "Will they drink and have a party and party and party and die a natural death and not have to face the Court of Justice?" I used to wonder. Now I don't wonder anymore. You might have laughed to the end of your life, but you're going to wake up in another reality and pay for your crime.
So, G-d says, "Such as reject faith for a while, will I grant them their pleasure?" Isn't that a just G-d? He gave you a free mind. He gave you freedom of choice. No, He's not going to take it away from you. Oh, G-d gave me freedom of choice. I want to jump in the fire. Okay now, this might be the last time you make any jump. I still want to jump in the fire. Okay now, this may be the last time you make any jump. I still want to jump in the fire. Okay now, this may be the last time you make any jump. I still want to jump in the fire. He hears nothing and he jumps in the fire and it's finished, jumps no more. Says, but soon, G-d's speaking on. But soon will I drive them to the torment of the fire, an evil destination, it is indeed. That's Qur'an Chapter 2, verse 125 through 126.
Continuing these words from G-d. G-d says it is not righteousness that you turn your faces toward East and West." We have to give up this superficial idea of what piety and righteousness is. We have to give up this superficial idea. Oh, you are religious, huh? And the average one, when he says that, he mean you are not real, right? Well, let's see is righteousness real. Let's continue to read what G-d has revealed. "But it is righteousness to believe in G-d and in the Last Day and in the Angels and the Revealed Books and the Messengers of G-d, to spend of your wealth out of love for G-d, out of love for Him, on your kin, on your near kin", take care of the family. On orphans, take care of those who are the young children who are deprived of having the parent, a father, a mother, or one or other, or both.
The needy and those who are children of the road. The homeless have no place to go. They're just in the road, on the road, in the streets all the time. And spend for those who ask, for those who ask, the beggars, we call them. For those who ask, spend for them, give them something. And for the ransom of slaves, captors of war, oe slaves who have been enslaved by richer, powerful masters. Spend for their freedom from slavery. To be steadfast in prayer, this is righteousness. That's what we're talking about. G-d gave us this, to the Muslims in Qur'an, or to any people who will accept it. G-d gave us this definition, definition of what righteousness is, what piety is, what righteousness is. And to practice regular charity. Don't just give when you got a lot. Feel an obligation on you to keep giving, whether you got a lot or a little.
My mother used to tell me, she used to send me to the Temple, it wasn't called a Mosque back then. She used to send me to the Temple of Islam. See, we have been a people in transition ever since we heard the first word, Muslim. We've been a people in transition. Called Temples of Islam. My mother said, "Son, see, I'm giving you a nickel." That was way back then, it was back there, a nickel. "So, I'm giving you a nickel." She says, "When you get to the Temple, you ask them to let you donate and give that nickel in charity." And I would do it. My mother taught me charity as a little boy, the size of my son who's here now. He's nine years old. And it stayed in me. It stayed in me.
Sometimes person approach me and they look like they're alcoholics, called wine heads. They look bad and pitiful. I don't say, "No, I'm not going to give you anything because you are not going to do anything but hurt yourself some more with it. Take another drink." I give them something. And I say to them, "Now, don't mistreat yourself." Now, if they do it, at least they got...help more than the couple of dollars I gave them when I told them, "Don't mistreat yourself," and they were ready to listen to it because they saw the $2 coming.
Continuing on the meaning of righteousness according to the Qur'an, the Word of G-d to us, "Fulfill the contracts which you have made," it also means a promise. Not only a contract. It means the contract, a business contract, an agreement that you made, a serious agreement, but it also means your promise. You promise, make a promise, keep that promise. That's righteousness. To be firm and patient, firm and patient, in pain, while having pain, you're paining, to be firm and patient in pain. The Christians know about this. To be firm and patient in pain, or suffering, or adversity. And throughout all periods of vexation, panic. When you're pressed so hard, you just can't control yourself, you want to panic. G-d says, "Be firm and patient." What in the world can keep me that way, firm and patient, except faith in something that I know to be bigger, more powerful, and in control of the things that are trying to make me come out of my peace, come out of my firmness.
That's G-d. If you perceive G-d correctly as having all knowledge, Omniscient, knowing all things, Omnipresent, present everywhere, closer to you than you are to your own self, yet far away from you than you can imagine, and yet as close to you as your own jugular vein, ah. If you perceive G-d to have power over all things, to be in control of everything, testing His human beings, testing you, you'll remain firm and thick. Like Abraham. They put him in the fire. They said, oh, finished with Abraham, and they opened the furnace and looked in there, and something had happened. He was cool. He was cool. G-d has power over the flames.
Allahu Akbar. G-d is Greater. Such are the people of truth, the G-d fearing. Such are the people of truth, The G-d fearing. Now, many of us readers will miss what G-d is saying here. What is righteousness? Righteousness is also truthfulness. Truthfulness. The righteous are the people of truth. And righteousness is faith. In the beginning, the definition of righteousness is, you believe in G-d, you have faith in G-d. So, it concludes with, "Such are the people of truth, the G-d fearing.
In these crowded days when our growth is crowding us out, fearing there will not be enough on this earth for all of us that the population is going to doubling about five years. We are fearing the end of things. Fear nothing that happens in this world, for G-d has charge over all of it. I'm not fearing what's going to happen, that we are not going to be too crowded. I know, if we are going to be too crowded, G-d is going to show man the answer. G-d is going to give man the answer. And when I say man, I mean man like was in the beginning of time. In the beginning of time, man and woman was One entity. And He caused them to separate and become male and female from one entity. They became male and female, and then He caused them to make, and from those two came all the people, the many, many millions on this earth.
Yes. But we believe in the conclusion of things, and we believe in following G-d's Light so that we will know how this world is going to be concluded. It's going to be concluded with us returning to Oneness. Returning to Oneness, Oneness. One G-d, One design One creation, One system of matter, One destination for all things perishable. And that Oneness protects our differences, and it protects our diversity. That Oneness is our protection. Keep with faith in One G-d, that's your protection. Believe that your human family is One human family of many families. The Black, the Brown, the yellow, the red of all other families, but One family.
And believe that in your soul you want the same thing for your children, for your future. If you want to satisfy the children that you have, go to any mother and ask any loving mother who's sane, what she wants for her children. And if you don't know, she will tell you. Because sane mothers, healthy minded mothers, they all want the same for their children. Likewise for fathers. Sane fathers, healthy minded fathers, they want the same thing for their children. So, shouldn't we than work all together for the future of all of our children? People seem to think that today we still have a big problem of race, that racism is a big problem. Well, it is a big problem, but it's much smaller than it used to be.
You'll still have the lonesome, frightened, racist going out to get attention from the media, so he can tell the world, "We are still here. We haven't accepted the order of the day. We are still around." Don't take that as a great disturbance that now we have to go back to the past say, "Oh, racism is still alive." As some of our politicians demagogues say, "Racism is alive and well." How can it be alive and well, it was sick to begin with? That tells me something about his makeup.
No, in times, in desperate times, you have to understand the desperation. With the world now, all favoring respect for humanity and the inclusion of all people in humanity, equal opportunity and equal respect for all the races, the Black, the whites, the Brown, the red, for all people. This is a very, very aggravating time for those who still have the mind of the white supremacist. A very aggravating time for them. They don't have any place; they don't have any honor on the stage of the world. So, it's very aggravating for them. They used to have the great nation of America, the great United States. They used to have the great United States tolerating the law of segregation, tolerating the Jim Crow law.
Well, it's raining on you. And I just saw a little girl stand up and she put up her hand. She's welcoming the rain. She's welcoming the rain. She's getting a cool shower. If this is the price we have to pay, what a small price. In fact, I'd like for my podium to be pushed forward to the rain. Can we push this podium forward in the rain?
Get the cords out the way. Take the cords out the way.
Now I feel better. Allahu Akbar.
So, we have to understand the times. And how the times have changed to favor humanity, and not those who don't believe in humanity. White supremacy has no faith in humanity. White supremacy separated itself from humanity, and pretended that none belonged to the creation of G-d, or none was worthy of the high place that G-d created for man, except the White supremacist. So that was a cruel lie put on them. Now that I'm free of that aggravating time, I don't have to worry that someone is going to take me out and lynch me, or enslave me again. "Oh yes, you do have a cause to worry." No brother, you are wrong. I don't even have to ask the government to stop that. I have enough brothers with me to stop that.
It ain't enough of them around to satisfy these brothers that's been training to whip somebody for a long time. I don't worry about that. I feel sorry for them. My heart goes out to them. Why? Because my beginning was similar to theirs. The man who came and introduced my father to religion gave him the same idea that they had. We were told that we were Black and supreme, and that Whites were evil and wicked by nature. That they were inherently bad and naturally inferior mentally to us. I'm giving you exactly what we were taught.
And now G-d has saved me from that and have given me peace in my soul. So when I see a racist still tormented by the lie that was told to him of his worth among human beings, it makes my heart go out to him. I want to grab him and hold him even in chains, long enough to teach him out of that misery that the world put him in. And I say the world put him in that misery. He didn't do it to himself. The world did it to him.
Our Oneness supports our diversity. Our Oneness supports our diverse cultures, our diverse languages. You know, we all from the different quarters of the world have our own languages, but G-d has made it so any of us can learn the others' language. So anytime we want to, we can declare for all of us one common language, and not do away with our separate languages. And that's what's happening whether we ask for it or not. The world is bringing us to a place where we going to have to be able to speak with each other. Speak freely. It is too close now. We're too close together. Time is not separating us, and distance is not separating us anymore. We are going to have to speak one common language. Naturally, the Muslims will say that common language should be Arabiyaa. "Allughtal Arabiyaa Ya Ahki". Excuse me. "It has to be that Arabic language, my brother", that's what I just said. And the English would say, "Why create so much of a problem for ourselves?"
Says English is already so popular, why don't we make English the language of the whole globe, the language of the globe? I don't care. Because G-d says the majority is going to hell anyway, I don't care. I can be in the majority, in the minority, doesn't matter with me. So, if the language of the world become Arabic, I won't be any more comfortable, because G-d says the majority are going to hell. So let the majority language for all of us be English, let it be Arabic, let it be Spanish. Let it be Spanish, I can speak Spanish pretty good already. I have a little head start. All a joke. All a joke.
The point is G-d is bringing us together. He says, "As you were in the beginning, so shall you be in the end." In the beginning you were the human being. He made you with the human soul He gave you, with the human and the soul that He inspired in you.
G-d, in you. Do you understand that? You're sitting there thinking that G-d is a billion light years up there away from us. You're right! More than a billion light years up there away from us. But G-d is also right there with you in your soul between your heart and your bloodstream. G-d is there between your mortal life and your heart. G-d is right there watching what is happening to you that is influencing you, and working on you, that's coming from outside of you, and watching what's developing inside of you. Yes, your heart, watching what's happening inside of you. And He's right there saying, "Well, he think he's gone. He think he's dead. But I'll wake him up and let him know that I was here all the time."
Yes, closer to you than your own jugular of vein. That's what G-d told Muhammad the Prophet, Peace be upon him. "Closer to you than your own jugular vein." And G-d said, "When my servants asked about Me, tell them I am near." N E A R. "Tell them I am near." So Baptist Preacher, you don't have to holler so loud. No criticism, just a little help to you. You don't have to destroy those lungs like I used to do when I was a desperate Minister for The Honorable Elijah Muhammad. You don't have to go home, can't talk to your family. So hoarse, you can't even talk to your family. Take two days to get those vocal chords back in shape. You can whisper in G-d here. Tell the congregation, "They don't have to call on Him too loud. He is near. He hears the thought that makes no sound." That's what G-d says in the Scripture.
Praise be to G-d. So let us not go to sleep and forget any of the bad things that occurred in history to set us back, or to destroy our humanity. But let us not step back in the past with those things to live back there with that dark and troubled time. Let us recall it just for the purpose of knowing how to avoid it in the future, as we march forward with more things favoring human life now than ever have existed since the world began, except when there was a garden. The garden that G-d placed man into in, but after the garden, after the loss, after the fall, after the man was put out. Well, brother, what about the Golden Days of Islam? If they were here now, brother, they might get the Holy Ghost. Now, that's not the coming of Muslims to get the Holy Ghost.
Well, they were here and saw the freedom and the privilege, and the freedom we have to speak Islam, in a Christian country, a country that's majority Christian, in a country with the history of this country. And they saw us now here preaching from a Black body, from a White body, Red body, any colored person preaching his Islam, getting this respect and this protection, the police will shoot somebody if they come in here to disturb this meeting if they have to.
If they were here to witness this, I say they'll get the Holy Ghost. They'll start speaking in tongues. "Halabulakallihi" This is the best day, brother. Thank G-d you're alive today. Well, this is not only a good time just for our diversity of cultures, and languages, and colors, but it's a good time also for our individual differences. And that's what the leadership have to respect. The right of individuals to their individuality.
It used to bother me sometimes. I wanted everybody to look alike. We were told that in myth, in the myth that was given to the Nation of Islam, we were told that one Black man, he got so dissatisfied because people wouldn't speak one language. And he wanted to make everybody speak the same language. So, he said, "Since I can't make them all speak one language, I'm going to destroy the whole world." So, he built a powerful powder, said more powerful than any powder that had ever been known before. Said it was a black powder, he didn't say it was dynamite, but he said it was a black powder. And he drilled a hole, one third of the way down into the earth, and he poured into that hole, this powerful powder. And he set it off. And he caused the earth to split. It wasn't called Earth then, it was called by another name, we were told in the myth. In the story, for the children, in the story. For the grownups, in the myth.
Yes. He said, when that part that was not called Earth, but our home for all of us, split, one piece of it fell so far in space from its orbit, and was caught in the orbit again. That part is the part we now call Earth. Said in the other piece it was shot off and it found its orbit. Again, an orbit. It's called the Moon. So, this is the myth that we were given of the Creation, the beginning of the Earth as we know it, and the Moon, as we know it. And it was all done because one mentally disturbed person wanted everybody to speak the same language.
So, brothers, leaders in this community, and leaders everywhere, if you can hear me, I would like for you to also give your attention to what I'm saying. People have been created by G-d to be individuals. No two individuals alike, so we are told in science. And we know that. No two individuals are exactly alike. We are different. And G-d says of that central place that is our direction in prayer, and our direction for Pilgrimage to the Holy House once a year. Hajj
He says, "All of you, turn your faces toward this Qibla." This central Qibla. Means central place for you to focus on, for direction in your life, prayer and Pilgrimage. He said in wherever you may be, you'll be brought all together. So, He told us, G-d is telling us, correction, not told us, He's telling us, G-d is telling us that if we have that as our focus for our unity, that our differences will not be a cause for us to be alienated from one another, or to separate from one another. That that common focus will hold us all together. And it is a protection for our differences. G-d says, "For each one of you..." I wonder how many Imams have really read and heard what they were reading, G-d says, "For each one of you is a direction."
"For each one of you is a direction. So, turn all of you, to this Qibla".
G-d wants to preserve your individuality. G-d is saying that, "I want all of you to be on the path that I have shown you, all of you to be united in the humanity that I created for you. But I also want all of you to get your individual blessings for yourself, on your own, by your own choice." Yes.
I go there to the great crowd of the multitudes. I go there and I see people from all over the world, all colors, all faces, all that. As Malcolm said, "The white, the blue eyed, everybody there." All there. And I see that many cultures of the peoples all there, the many nations, all there. The strong and the weak, the tall and the short, all there. The fat and the thin, everybody. The females and the males all there. And the female walking ahead of me, and I can't say, "Sister, get behind the brother." That would break the rule of the Hajj. I can't say that.
I can't say, "Let my Imam..." No, my Imam should lead the prayer. I can't say that, no. They all lead the prayer. Here everybody can pray. Could be a million Imams all leading whoever will follow him. You may look around nobody following you, but keep leading. Lead yourself. That's the place for it. That's the place. Lead yourself. Yes. What a wonderful sign, what a wonderful sign. And they're coming there with interests that's different from each other.
The interests of the Chinese may not be my interest. We have different interests, but we are united in One common interest. And G-d want us to have our separate interests, our separate differences. And then you have individuals who have their separate interests. There's the carpenter. There's the soldier. There's the General. The General. He's there too. The General of the Army, he's there. The banker, he's there. The garment maker is there, everybody there. The chemist, he's there. All there together, all having their individual interest and their individual aspiration. Or careers. Or professions. And they're accommodated there by the Lord of the worlds. There, we understand that we ask G-d to accept us in His presence and we want G-d to be there for us. Present there for us. You say "Oh G-d, Oh G-d, I obey you. I obey you". And we say when we... "Here I am. G-d, here I am." Isn't that wonderful?
So, brothers, leaders, if a brother walks in in a Nigerian outfit and you wear whatever suit you like, feel no different by him than you feel by the brother who comes in wearing your choice of clothing. We have individual taste, we have individual aspirations, we have individual choices. That's not going to disturb us. Maybe it's G-d's intention to take this United States of America and make it a model of what He wants the whole world to be. We see everybody coming here in their different dress. The Pakistanis, they don't come here and take off their dress, most of them. They come here and they wear their Pakistani clothing. And so it is for many of them. The African comes here and he wears his African clothing. So maybe G-d wants that this be the place for all of us to stand in our individuality, and at the same time, stand in our unity.
Isn't that beautiful? I think that's beautiful. I think that's what all of us should want in our hearts. This might be the day of the gathering, the great gathering of mankind. This might be the day right now, the great gathering of the mankind where we will stand before our Lord and those who are blessed to keep their souls as G-d created their souls to be, they will be rewarded. They will get the benefit of this time. You know, I used to think... You can still think anyway you used to think, anyway you want to think. But I used to think that Hell and Heaven were far apart, far away from each other. Until I listened to what G-d was saying. He said Abraham was put in the fire. But when they opened the door, it was cool for Abraham. Now, if diabetes was there with Abraham, he would've been burned up. But Abraham was cool.
You looking for Hell? Hell might be right where you are. Hell might be right inside of your body. And if you conquer the flames there, let faith cool it. You might rid yourself of Hell. Yes.
We have to believe in the conclusions of things. Everything is perishable. The world of science tells us that the sun even won't survive forever. That it's slowly dying. We don't expect it to happen in our generations. We can't even look, we can't even count into the future to say it's going to happen at that time in the future. The time is so far away, we can't measure it. But science says science has proof that it's perishable. It is not permanent. The sun is going to one day die.
But while it's living, what is the sun for us? What is the sun for Earth? A planet that belongs to the sun. It's our protection. It's our protection as a center. It's a center. And we are going around it held by gravitation, universal gravitation, held by universal gravitation because of our nearness to the sun. The balance is created where we are not pulled into the sun and we are not pushed far away from the sun. We are kept at a certain distance of safety. But of the sun was removed, we would be lost in the heavens, lost in the solar system. We would have no more family unity. We would be thrown helplessly into space. Isn't that a sign then that your soul has a sacred core? And in that sacred core you listen and G-d speaks. And as long as you respect that sacred core in the center of your soul, you will be protected to go freely in your orbit, roam the world. But stay in the law and under the law. Respect your center. That's a sign, brother.
Praise be to Allah. So, we believe in the conclusions of things. G-d says there's coming a time when He'll roll up the heavens like as if it was nothing but a scroll, as if it was nothing but a scroll. He'll roll it up. And He says again in the Scripture, "Everything is perishing, except the Face of G-d." Face of G-d will never be removed. But everything else is perishing-"Ila Wajula ", except the Face of G-d.
And G-d again says to us, "What is with you shall pass away. And what is with us shall remain everlasting." That's what G-d says. The invisible, the higher reality. Not only for the mystic, but also for the rational, practical person. The abstract is the higher reality. Right now, I'm speaking to you from this body that's a little overweight, and I'm working on it. I am speaking to you from this frame, from this physical flesh. But this physical flesh is no more for me than the trumpet was for Satchmo Armstrong. The trumpet of Satchmo Armstrong carried the beautiful music. The beautiful music, the beautiful trumpett playing, the beautiful communication from the artists to the audience. It carried it for Satchmo Armstrong. Louis Armstrong, great, great performer, entertainer.
This body is doing no more than that for me. It's carrying my communication to you. And no part of it will disobey me. While I'm talking to you, my lip tongue, my teeth are working, but also my eyes, my eyebrows, my hands, my feet. They can't stand still. My flesh quivers sometimes, my bones become rigid when I say something that strikes the bone. Whole body responding to the invisible that's working in me to convey something to you. And you are sitting there, and your body is like dead. You're not aware of your body. The invisible is communicating with the invisible. Yes. The higher reality is not the reality that the camera takes. Click, I got you. You didn't get me.
Yes, believe in the conclusions of things. G-d has created these things perishable, with a temporary life to test us and try us in our soul. That's eternal if we want to live with G-d, it's eternal. To test us and try us to see if we will latch on to the permanent. And if our thinking, if our rationalization, if our minds will lead us to conclusions that are good for us. Or will our bad intentions take our own minds astray. There's nothing wrong with your mind. Nothing ever been wrong with a human being's mind. There is something wrong with your intentions. Make your intentions right, your mind will go right. This is what we're told in Islam. Matters are judged by intentions. We have a plan for our future. The future must respect that a man strives hard for peace, that man strives hard for brotherhood. We are one family.
Get out of that stuff talking about blood is thicker than water. If blood is thicker than water, find me a people that's got water for blood. Where are the people that's got water for blood? All of us got blood in our veins. Not water for blood. So, if blood is thick than water, then that means all of us ought to be together like blood brothers, because all of us got blood. "Oh, but that's my family blood." Yeah, well you get hit out there by a car or something happen to you in a fight Saturday night, you ain't going to say, "Hey, where my relatives? I don't want no blood unless it's my relative. I want that blood."
Or you'll let a pygmy come up there and give you some blood. And I'm talking to a white man out there, my brother, white man. You'll let a pygmy come up there and you'll let Ku Klux Klansman come and give you some blood. Say "Here's a Klansman want to give you some blood, brother." "Oh, Mr. Klansman, thank you. Thank you. G-d bless you, G-d bless you."
Peace is a requirement in our life. Our souls have been created for peace. The conclusion of things must be a respect for peace. All of us have to have peace in our souls, if not outside. You don't have to have peace outside. They ask me, say, "How you doing?" Sometimes those who are suffering a lot, and they're my friends. They come to me and look like this, say, "Oh that Holy Man's suffering now. I heard what happened to him. He's suffering now. How you doing Brother Imam?" I hesitate because first I got to overcome what I know I'm looking at. I hesitate and then I say, "Oh, I'm doing fine." I say, "I got troubles. Plenty troubles." I say, "But it doesn't disturb my peace. Peace in my soul."
Yes, we have to respect a man that wants us all to work for peace. Peace for every nation. Peace for every people. Peace for every individual. If we want to be included in the world that G-d is forming for us, a much better world than the one we know about in the past. We have to be willing to embrace peace as a need in the life of every nation, and in the life of every people and every individual. And don't promote your happiness against another's happiness. Don't want to do that. Promote your happiness with respect for the others' happiness. Promote your peace with a respect for the other's peace. We are not going to impose our way upon everybody else. We can't do that and be Muslims. G-d created us different and made us have choice, different choices, different persuasions. And G-d says if He had wanted to make you one people, one community, He would have done so. He wanted this diversity. He wanted us to have freedom of choices to choose these differences. He knows the conclusion of things before we do, before we know it.
So, what is the great benefit now that the sons of one parent, the sons and daughters of one parent have now populated the whole Earth, and they have become different, speaking different languages, having different cultural choices or tastes. What is the great beauty in it now? if we were one family, one people, and we had stayed one people, we would have just worked for one national order and for one cultural design.
But now that we have become many nations with many different cultural tastes, we now benefit from the many millions of ideas of cultural designs. Why the table of mankind, the market table, the table of mankind is now so filled with so many varieties of wonderful things created by the people, the children of Adam. See how He multiplied our blessings? See how He multiplied our rewards by making us different? The rewards are multiplied and they are not just, He didn't send a Chinese in the way of Chinese life for Chinese to have his life all to himself. I eat egg foo young, I eat shrimp fried rice. I do, and love it. I eat vegetable chow mein, I eat it. I eat Pakistani red chicken and I love it. I eat the Turkish doner kebab. I love it. Oh, I forgot. I like your roti too, my Pakistani brother. But at home I got my Georgia taste. My greens, my beans, my rice, my southern fried chicken, smothered gravy. I got my sweet potatoes. "Oh, you the son of Elijah Muhammad, you eat sweet potatoes?" "Yeah and I suggest that you go back to eating them too, man. They good. They're tasty. I love them."
And they got more ruffage than white potatoes, so they better for my colon. Do I eat sweet potatoes? You bet I do. What I read in my Holy Book says, "You people trying to get out of the land of bondage and get into the land of freedom and opportunity, and you keep worrying your leader about are we going have lentil soup when we get there? Are we going to have some garlic, some onions? So the word came to the Prophet to tell them, "If you want those small things, go to any destination. You don't have to go to this destiny that G-d has pointed out for you. If you want those small things go to any destination. So, you want some brown rice, and you want some bean soup, and you want some, what is that other one? Bean pie. Bean pie. And some black coffee. What else is in there? What else is that?
Wheat bread.
Whole wheat bread. That's good, now. If you want that, I tell you with the wisdom of the Revealed word that was given to the Prophet who are faced with a people putting emphasis on those small things. You don't have to be with us to get that. Go to any place, you'll find it.
And some of us was attached to it so strongly till we thought it was more important to eat like we were told than it was to live like we were told. Some of us came out of the good moral life that we were told to stay in, but we still wouldn't eat pork. We still preferred brown rice and bean soup. We'd come in with whiskey still on our breath to a Muslim restaurant. "Hey sister, give me some of that bean soup. You got some bean pie, sister? Hey sister, get these sweet potatoes off my plate. You know we not supposed to eat these sweet potatoes." And he about to fall on the table, he so drunk. Took the trivial things and made them the great things and lost the real life. We don't want to do that. Come back home, please.
For Allah, G-d says to us in The Holy Qur'an: "And G-d does call you to abode of Peace, He does guide whom He pleases to a way that is straight". And again, G-d says to us, that was Chapter 10, Verse 25 of the Qur'an. G-d says to us, "For them will be a home of peace in the presence of their Lord. He will be their friend because they practiced righteousness".
Righteousness is not the possession of any particular religion. Righteousness is a possession of the various religions we call the Heavenly religions. Yes, righteousness. And we pray also and say, "O G-d, grant that I be entered among the righteous. Grant that I be entered among the righteous. That one day, when all of this is concluded, and you gather the people together, G-d, please don't put me with the wicked. Grant that I be entered among the righteous." That's our prayer.
So, what is this Islam? Righteousness. And righteousness is more than just a show of faith, a show of holiness. Righteousness is living with G-d in your soul, in the sacred core that G-d created for you, but also living with your brothers and sisters next door with the stranger down the street, with the Nation that speaks a different language, with the people that have a different religion. It's living with all people that respect a higher reality. Differences. We're going to have these differences. And Islam has prepared us to live with these differences, to live with differences of opinion. And to value the right to my own opinion. Muhammad the Prophet, Prayers and Peace be upon him. He said, "Everyone of you is a Rai." And they translated shepherd. But what is the literal meaning of shepherd in Arabic Language? It means one who exercise the power of thought and arrives at his own opinion or choice.
Yes. So, every one of you have that, and that's sacred. That's your sacred property. So don't be a slave to anybody. Let's do it. Don't listen to me and not use your own- mind. I'm talking to you now. I'd rather see you walk out here and say, I don't want Imam W. Deen Mohammed as my leader anymore. I'd rather see you do that and exercise your own mind, your freedom of choice, the freedom to think for yourself. I'd rather see you do that than to kill that in yourself and just sit there and listen to me like you are a dead dummy or something and go out and do everything I say without no mind of your own.
G-d loves us. G-d loves us. He wouldn't give us a limb to use and then fix it so you can't use it. Give me a right arm and I can only use a left arm. He wants me to use everything He gave me. And what's more precious than these arms is my thinking, my mind, my right to think and make decisions on my own. You do the same.
We all in the world and this world has become literally, now, our home, the home of all people. The earth that is. So let us go after our life. Let us strive and strain to perceive our life in its best order as G-d intended it to be. And let us go after our life together and separately. Because I want a dress maybe you don't want. I don't want your dress, sister. I want to clear that up. But all of us go after the dress we want. I'll go after my dress. You go after your dress.
But let us all go after our life that G-d created for us. Go after our life that G-d created for us. And let us know that the life of a drunkard is not the life G-d created for us. The life of a dope addict is not the life G-d created for us. A life of a person that loves violence, loves self-destruction is not the life G-d created for us. The life of bigotry, hating another people because they don't speak your language and don't walk your walk and don't talk your talk, don't look like you look, that's not the life G-d created for us.
Let's come back home to the center and become the baby all over again as the Christians say. "Enter in as little babies." "Enter in as little babies." Little babies come here and they are not prejudiced against anybody. Little babies come here, they're ready to speak any language you'll give them. They don't say, "I wasn't born to speak no Chinese." Just welcomes Chinese just as it welcomes any other language.
Let's return to that. Welcome a mother of any race just like it welcomes any other mother. As long as we keep our foolishness from it it will accept any mother, black, brown, yellow, red, it doesn't care. And will love that mother as it loved any other mother. And that mother can love that child as she loves any other child.
This is the one life that G-d created in us. And this is the one life that'll keep us and preserve us for the destination for the conclusion. And if we accept this, we will be included. But if we don't accept this, we are not going to be included in this beautiful world that's shaping. No, we will not be included. We'll be aliens. We'll be running around like hyenas. We won't have a place, not even in the amusement park unless we are caged. You can't have no hyenas running around an amusement park unless they're caged. Yes. So, wake up and get ready for the Day of Religion is here. The day of the Great Gathering is here now.
And another thing I want you to be aware of. Music, beautiful music will become monotonous. I don't care how much you love it. If they play that music for you all the time, it'll become monotonous. And you'll say, "Oh, I don't even care for music anymore." But because you are able to hear the serious music and the light-hearted music, the sad music and the happy music, because you are able to hear all of these different tastes in music, you stick to your taste. But if nothing was heard but yours, pretty soon you'll be tired of it. You won't even want it.
Likewise for different types of persons or personalities. Some of us, we are so loose. We are so loose, we just hate a person who's disciplined and organized. We hate it. "Hey, look at that stiff neck sucker there. Look a there." "Look at that artificial son of so and so and so." We hate him. Don't hate him. If all of us was loose like you, brother, the world would be lost. Have to be somebody organized, disciplined, serious about things.
And that's how our Shura should be. That's how our Council of Imams should be. you need a Council of Imams that shows the different varieties of personality. Don't have all the stern faces there or every member of the Shura got a stern face. So serious he can't even sneeze. He would rather die than sneeze during the conversation. No, you don't want anything like that. You want the serious one and you also want the loose one. You want the one never put his leg up on the chair while the meeting is going on. Say, "Wait a minute, I have a question." Don't say, "Hey, brother, we don't want you here. You're not disciplined." No, let him do that. It's the diversity that makes the pursuit of the unity peaceful and possible.
Yes. We can't get to our unity if we don't respect the diversity. Diversity of people and the diversity of souls. My soul is not the same as yours. Love the humorous person. Love the stern person. Love them both. And there's a place for all of us. Physical work, you need some humor. If you got to do a whole lot of physical work, you need some humor.
They had me working in the steel mill. I saw that I couldn't survive unless I started singing or something. I had to have some music to survive all that heat and all that hard work. Coming home, I had to take bath and still didn't get all the iron rust out of my skin.
Life is beautiful, but we have to respect it as G-d created it. Let's not try to make over something that G-d has made for us. Don't undo as we are told by G-d in scripture. Don't change the order that G-d has created. Keep the order that G-d has created.
Oh, this weather is Merciful.
It cooled you off and gave you enough time to feel dry again. Isn't that wonderful? And really, I could be wetter myself. I'm still hot. Some more water can come on me if it likes. Praise be to Allah.
Some are meek. Some are proud. Probably you know as the scripture said, "The meek shall inherit the earth." Don't think the Qur'an says something differently. Says that a different word is used, but it means the same. The meek shall inherit the earth, the meek, not the proud, the arrogant. But don't be disturbed by a person among us in the leadership that appears to be proud. That's his dignity. That's his pride. That doesn't mean that he's arrogant. The person who has pride and is arrogant, who wants to put himself over somebody else thinking that his worth gives him that right to dominate somebody, to push somebody else down, that's false pride. And that's proudness that will get us in trouble with G-d and will get us into hell fire.
But if we are dignified and we walk with dignity and we command respect with our pores, why man makes me want to jump out of my chair and click my heel and do that to that person. Something in me appreciates that. Even though it's not in me, I don't know. They must have put too much cotton on the bale or something. The bale must have been so heavy, too heavy for my ancestor. I might have inherited his problem.
Soon as I get up, I want to bend over. I don't know what it is. But as soon as I get out of the bed, I want to bend over like this. I said, "What is it? Am I that weak or is there something in my genes that make me want to bend over like that?" I don't know.
I have a funny thing with these ties too. They look good. I love them. The business look, especially when I'm in a business meeting. I love this. It makes me feel like I belong there. But every time I put one on my neck. I say, "Arg." So, I'm sure one of my ancestors was dropped from the limb, and that noose.... And I still got his problem in my genes.
And a lot of us got some problems in our genes. But I don't let the problem keep me from going to a business meeting. "Let me put this noose on my neck and go to this meeting." The conscience or the awareness and subconscious, the unaware behavior, the behavior that's automatic, like me moving my feet. I don't tell my feet to move. It's doing that. And I had to really think about it to realize that I'm still up here moving my feet around. It's happening without my knowledge or my control over it.
These two forms of power that moves us and have us doing things and expressing ourself, they work just like the feet. The left foot goes out and it gets ahead of the right foot. And to walk, I have to bring the right foot out and it gets ahead of the left foot. So, you know, the genetic life and the conscious life or the learned life operate the same. This is science. This is religious science. This is science. Secular science and religious science. I'm mixing the two together. Yes. So, they work like that.
And whatever I have of my first father, Adam, it's in me now. How can Adam be my first father and I not have him in me? So, my father, Elijah Muhammad is in me. His grandfather, I mean my grandfather, his father, Wali Muhammad, who was called William Poole, he's in me. My ancestors all the way back to Adam is in me. The Bible tells you that. The Bible tells us that. He's in me. So, I'm standing here now and you say, "Oh, where's Adam? Adams gone." Adam hasn't gone anywhere. Prayer. Adam is everywhere a human being is. And my father hasn't gone anywhere. He's everywhere his children are. He's in us, genetically speaking. Genetically speaking, he's in us.
Okay. So, from Adam, in his obedience, we have Wallace in his inherent righteousness. My inherent righteousness is the righteousness of Adam who was created to obey G-d in his obedience. If I want to say, "Who do I owe for my righteousness?" G-d, first of all. But who else do I owe for my righteousness? Adam, the first man G-d made. Adam. G-d created him like that. And I have inherited that.
So, we have inherited Adam. But we also inherit learning. Learning becomes, also, an inheritance. It does. Over the generations, we learn a lot. And learning becomes automatic for us. We do this knowledge; we obeyed his knowledge that men learn and it becomes automatic for us. It's clocked into our genes. So, see how the genetic life is progressed. It's not where it was a long time ago. The genetic life is advanced by learning that goes into the genes too. And it becomes the genetic life. Can you understand that? It's simple for me. It's easy for me. I don't know. Very easy for me.
Yes. For example, I learned how to type. I learned how to type the way I'm supposed to type, not the way some of us type, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. No, I learned how to use all five fingers, the whole board, all fingers on the board. I learned how to type. I sit down now and type, I'm not even conscious half the time. My eyes, seeing the words that I'm typing, not even conscious. I have clocked that into my genes.
Dancing. Look how the African American people dance. Hey, you had to learn that dance. You had to learn how to dance. You weren't born dancing. You learned how to dance. People came from Europe where all that snow, all that ice. Who in the heck you think want to go out dancing in all that snow and ice? So they come from way up there in the cold region where there ain't nothing snow and ice and they come and see you dancing. They say, "Look at those crazy people. Look at those crazy people. Oh, they're crazy. Their brains are not working. Crazy monkeys jumping all about and acting crazy." After about 20 generations, the spirit hit them and there's no more ice and snow around. Now, it's clocked into his genes. Some of these white folks dance so much like black folks, I say, "Hey, you got it buddy. You can teach some of us how to dance now." Yes, in time it's clocked into your life, into your natural life. In time it'll be clocked into your natural life and it comes out so freely and so beautifully.
So does wrong. If you practice wrong, it's going to come out. It's going to go into your subconscious. It's going to work when you are not even working your own mind, it's going to be working against you. If you practice lying, it's going to corrupt your whole life. You practice stealing, it'll corrupt your whole life. You practice cheating, envying other people, it'll corrupt your whole life. Whatever you practice is going to become you and it's going to dominate you. And when people try to teach you out of it, they're going to have a very difficult time because it's been clocked into your automatic behavior.
So, open your mind and use the most precious instrument that G-d has given you, the quality of your brain. Work it and use it so that you don't make wrong choices.
And if you're strong enough in your intentions, you can change anything overnight. We know of some drug addicts with needle tracks all up their arms, no more space on the arm, he went other places, shooting other places, shooting heroin into his veins. He heard a message that got his attention and made him want that message more than he wanted heroin. He quit heroin cold turkey, didn't even go to any institution. We have people we know, individuals we know, did that. Broke it cold turkey, left it cold turkey, didn't need the doctor, didn't need anything. All he needed was to hear something that hit his heart, struck his intelligence and made him believe in something bigger than the drug addict, bigger than the dope, bigger than the heroin, bigger than his fleet, bigger than his dream. And he didn't want to dream that dream anymore. He wanted the reality of the bigger thing that had entered his ears and touched his heart.
That should tell us something. That should tell us something. G-d has not left us defenseless. G-d has not left us helpless. We can overcome anything that's in the way of our humanity if we will just have faith in something bigger than these small things that bring us down, that bring us down and destroy us.
Another problem we have, especially the poor... Yes, this is Labor Day weekend. So, I have to respect you have to have some fun with your family too. So, I'm going to speed up here a little bit.
We let our problems get in the way of our intelligence and cause us to do something foolish. Some of us think that when you go to a nice hotel, "Oh, they're taking all our money. We poor. They're taking all our money. They got plenty of money. I'm going to take these towels. They robbing everybody to get what they got." Don't turn the lights on, or off, pardon me. "Let's go. Why are you standing back there? Turn the lights off for us. Leave those lights on. You crazy or something? Leave those lights on. They done already charged us too much for the room." "Oh, the water's running. I hear the water. I got to go turn the water off." Turn it off. It may flood the bathroom. They'll give us another room. They done charged us too much already."
Now, what we make the establishment pay, or pay for, it makes costs go up. And when costs go up for the establishment, it passes it on down to us. You know how come inflation is going down? One of the reasons why inflation is going down so much over the last years, last decade or so, especially over the last five or seven years or more, it's because people with a different mindset, people with a different training have come to this country in big numbers and they are not wasters. They have been raised to conserve, to protect. They won't turn the water on and leave it running. They won't waste energy. They don't waste the lights. So as a result, the wasteful are enjoying better economic condition for America because of them.
Now we want even better economic conditions for Americans, let the wasters stop wasting thinking they're punishing the establishment. We've been doing this for generations. And they keep getting richer and richer because they're passing the problem back to us who made the problem. And they're making us pay for it by going up on the rent, going up on the electric bill, going up on everything. So that punishes the poor. It doesn't hurt the rich that much at all. It probably ain't even hurting them at all. So, stop that foolish behavior.
My father told you to stop your foolish behavior. And I'm here. He's speaking through my genes. I'm telling you, stop that foolish behavior. Start respecting everything. Use good common sense. Use good business sense. And don't turn on people that you don't like, do wrong by them just because you don't like them. Don't envy the rich. Want to be rich as the rich without the problems of the rich. Don't envy them because of their wealth. Want to have their wealth and even more than that wealth, but without their problems. And all of them don't have problems. Many of the rich are responsible for us being in the good condition we are in. Many of the rich have shared their money and have helped to make laws come into place so we can be where we are. They have paid for the campaigns of good people to get into office so that we'll have better conditions for our own life, better opportunities, et cetera.
So don't be against the rich. Be against ignorance. Be against immorality. Be against child pornography. Be against drugs. Be against alcoholism. Be against violence and self-destruction. Be against these evils. These are the real evils.
And let us not have a problem nation that is plagued by class, rigid class distinctions where one class envy another and takes the other class for an enemy. No, the rich and the poor are not enemies. If they all want the same human destination, if they all want the same good human life for themselves, they are not enemies, they're friends. The poor are the friends of the rich. And the rich are the friends of the poor. And if the rich just don't stand in our way and give the aggressive poor an opportunity, we will relieve the burden on establishment. We will relieve the burden on the rich. We have a plan, a business plan, a plan to conceived by poor among us. A plan conceived to make us powerful in time, powerful economically so we can be more powerful socially and more powerful as a neighborhood, more powerful as a people. It will come in time.
G-d has rewarded our appetite for the spiritual life that we have now intact. He rewarded us for hungering for the spiritual life and in inviting the spiritual life into us. Now, G-d is saying to us, "Now, that you have your inside corrected, I'm going to give you the outside." And let us go get it.
Peace. Assalamu Alaikum and may G-d forgive us our errors, forgive us our sins, show us the way, have Mercy on us. G-d always. Ameen.


