1986
IWDM Study Library
Self-Awareness
Atlanta GA

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Proud atheist, you may change your mind and join me and become a dope fiend, believing in G-d. I'll tell you one thing, this dope don't hinder my performance. I still work well on the job. I still can think over the family matters with no problem. See, it ain't like the dope the world offers you. This is a dope that makes you function better. Woooo! Lord have mercy! I'm going to hurry up, get through. I need another fix. That's one way of looking at the promise of Allah, the promise of the hereafter, that no matter what happens to me in this world, if I carry out my duty, if I work hard to please my Lord, I may make mistakes too. Allah didn't say, oh, you won't get it if you make mistakes now. No. He say you can make mistakes over and over again. You can make so many mistakes until your mistakes pile up as big as the earth. He says, I have the capacity to forgive all of it.
All Allah wants from us is that we don't give up. Don't give up to sin. You may sin but don't give up to sin. So that's one way of looking at it. That's the first way of looking at it. But there's another way of looking at it. Allah, wants us to be a people concerned for the future, a belief in Allah's promise that's not here now. Its coming down the line, down the road somewhere. That's a belief in the future. And there's a practical way also to look at belief in the future when I work, not to pay my bills this month, but to get myself in a situation where I can feel that my bills will be paid for this year.
And if I can improve my outlook on the future and my commitment to improve the future for myself, one of these days, I hope to look for my whole lifetime and say I got this covered for my lifetime and also my children will have a good situation. They'll take up behind me where I'm leaving off and they'll have their bills paid too. Oh, I think you mixing that up. Well. let's see what the prophet has to say. Peace and blessings be upon him. The prophet says, live in this world as though you are going to die or live forever and live in this world as though you are going to die today.
What is that telling us? That's telling us don't become attached to the things of the world. Be prepared to die today and leave it all, but don't be foolish and neglect your share of this world. Work as though you're going to be here always. Because even though you're not going to be here always, if you work as though you're going to be here always, you'll leave things better for your children and for other people who will live behind you. If that's not a good belief, if that's not a good belief, I don't want to think about belief anymore. I'll just forget about belief and think about something else.
So we have to live with a view on the future. We have to keep future in view. It is better for us to keep future in view than to keep today in view. That's what Allah is teaching us. It is better for us to keep the future in view than to keep today in view. Now we know we have to look at the day too. We have to look at today to see what demands are on today, by the future. The future makes demands on today, but we don't know what the future is asking of us, if we don't see ourselves and our situation today.
So G-d says, (Arabic) seek the abode, the future abode that Allah has for you, but do not forget your share of the present world. That's the balanced religion, that's the balanced religion, that's the religion that fires up the enemies of man to live a whole life, to not just live on the spiritual side but to have a balanced life, a balanced growth. Now we know, again, I repeat, we know that the future ends are the best in terms of quality and also in terms of quantity. But G-d says to us, do not neglect today. The prophet says, live as though you're going to live forever and live as though you might die today.
That's the balanced religion. And Allah says in the Holy Book that this is the (Arabic), the midway community. (Arabic). It is the midway community. By midway. It means that it does not go to spiritual extremes and it does not verge off from G-d's path into material extremes. It is the midway. Now, it doesn't mean that we shouldn't devote ourselves to occupations that are considered material, to banking, to industry. Certainly you could make 40 hours do that, do that full time. Nothing wrong with that, but watch over the content of your Muslim life. Don't allow your involvement there to take you off center and make you become in your concern blind to the balanced life. Don't let it make you a materialist, or materialistic person. You can work full time in the field of materialism. That doesn't mean you're going to come out a materialistic person.
(That's) why we have to have people working in all fields and the Qur'an is what will keep us protected. The word of Allah and the sunnah of the prophet. Don't leave yourself along with that word of Allah. You float right into the twilight zone and all kind of crazy things come out of that zone. Allah, most high says, (Arabic) "Do you not see, oh men, speaking to all of us, do you not see that Allah has brought down into your service for you to manage and get utility out of it, what is in the sky and what is in the earth?"
And then He has increased His favors on you. His favors that are both seen and unseen." Dear beloved Muslims, this is plain, clear. I will make comments, but if you're alert minded, I don't have to interpret this. ........... needs no interpretation. What comes out of the sky for us? Water, sunlight, sun energy to grow our crops and for many other purposes, nitrates and other things of value come down from the sky to us. Even stars fall and some of them don't burn out and they bring us a message of what's up there that we did not know. Say, hey, well this is material just like our own earth. Here is a rock. There's other worlds up there, there are other worlds up there.
So many things come from out of the sky. Lightning. And what did the curious fella do? He sent his kite up to get some utility from the lightning and the result is we have now electricity. So what did Allah send from the sky. He sent us electricity from the sky. Will you agree to that student? I know we have some students here, general science, Clara Muhammad School, Morehouse. So tell 'em students, am I giving that straight? All right, so Allah says do not, you see that He has made a service to you. He have made subservient. He have made it to be in your management. That's what subservient means. Subservient means He's put it into your management.
You couldn't get it into your management without Him. He created it and not only did he create it, He created your mind to perceive it. He created also signals to help your mind. He created it then He created your mind to perceive it. He ordered your mind to perceive it and He also created signals in it to help your mind. Without His signals you couldn't have got it. Do not you see that He have made subservient for you what is in the sky and what is in the earth and have made it to give you abundance, rewards both seen and unseen.
Now the electricity was always out there, but we didn't see it, did we? But when that fire was jotting about in this funny kind of motion, it finally got somebody's attention enough to work with it and try to see what's happening there. How come that fire goes dashing through the sky in those jerky motions and then at a great speed just suddenly change its direction. That's something isn't it. That mighty speed, it changes quickly. Shoot, you'll be running out that way forever. Go that way. That's enough to get a curious man's attention. Now, it didn't have to be a white man, it could have been a black man, but your circumstances wouldn't allow you to think about the lightning. There was too much lightning striking on your behind.
I hope you all miss me as much as I miss you. I just love to be among the Muslims. Yeah, this is my home. But you know its a time when a person who's been at home with the family has to move out and it hurts the person to leave If he's a family man, it hurts him to leave. But if there's a calling out there that warrants him leaving and he's a conscientious person, he has to go. Now what I'm referring to here now is not my leaving the African-American Muslim community and you are the African-American Muslim community. Don't let nobody tell you're anybody else. There may be other small groups of African-American Muslims, but you are "The" African-American Muslim community.
Praise be to Allah and may He forgive the honorable Elijah Muhammad all of his sins because we want him in paradise. Because he's so beloved, he's so beloved and so dear to us. We believe his intentions were pure and the misconceptions that he was left with about our religion, we think Allah will forgive him for those misconceptions in light of what he did. The sincerity and in the light of his last minute support of me, a son that had already theologically with him, I think he have earned admission into the paradise. I know one thing, he has earned the respect of the poor striving African-American man and any of us that don't respect him, we are out of our senses. And I know old people called me the hypocrite. I was on the radio program and this so-called follower of the honorable Elijah Muhammad said he's a hypocrite. He wasn't even a Muslim when he was with his father and he said some terrible outrageous things and I replied, I can't understand him. He either has a terribly warped, mind or a terribly corrupt heart. I couldn't understand it. I know some will say, and it's a good question, say, well, if your father has that place in your heart, how come you didn't tell us that when you started out in 1975? You would've went to grave with my father.
I had to first help you to get yourself attached to this religion that will sustain us. Accomplish that first. He was pulling you out of the fire of America's hellish situation that they created for us and I had to pull you out of the fire of your passion for Elijah Muhammad to get you on the path of Al Islam. Now do as much for me when I die as I'm asking you to do for the honorable Elijah Muhammad, give me justice too. So Allah is saying to us that He has made His creation to yield utility for us.
This is my religion. This is no voice coming out of secular world. This is Allah's voice speaking to me in the religious world, in the Muslim life telling me that He made what is in the sky and what is in the earth to yield into my management, utility. Now if we are not challenging a good competition for the Western scientific world, it's because we've been sleeping and haven't been awake to what Allah says to us in His book. And when you see this for yourself, you are going to enter into big competition with not only the American white man, with the Russian white man, with the African black man, with everybody that's trying to do something to go forward. You are going to be a competition and that's what we want. That's why when we invited you, we invited all colors because if any color, sit here and listen to what I'm saying, he knows that this ain't no black prescription. This ain't no white prescription. This is no Chinese medicine. This is all for everybody and it's as accessible to one race as it is another. Ain't no conditions here that you have to go back to Africa and then come to this religion.
He has made this utility for us. Some of it's seen, some of it's apparent, some of it is seen with our eyes and some of it is not apparent. It is hidden. So there's a material reality and also it's hidden reality. It's utility. We have to study it and find access to its utility. Allah has given us signs, He'll help us along the way if we will only believe. There are men with so much money, with so much wealth, with so much security in the material world that you depend on them. You seek your protection at their feet. You seek your livelihood at their feet. You depend on them guaranteeing you and your children a future life.
And you don't know they were men of trust. They had to trust something. They trust the person that passed on to them, that outlook on life. They had to trust something. They trust the field of work that they're in. They trust the promise that that field presents. If they didn't have trust and faith, they wouldn't have gotten what they got. We, the limited faith, think of faith as something just for religious people. No faith is not only for religious people. Ain't nobody out there doing anything without faith. You have to have faith. So we know now, Allah says He has created worlds that you know and worlds that you know not. That message came from Allah by way of the angel Jibril to our human Prophet Muhammed, the most excellent man.
Yes, the most excellent man. Muhammed, Rasulullah, the most excellent man, the perfect man. The complete man. Me at my best. Now who wouldn't follow himself at his best. I'm happy to follow myself at its best. And that was demonstrated in the Muhammed, the Prophet to whom the Qur'an was revealed. So He has created worlds that we see and worlds that we did not see. Since that time man has found the world of microorganisms. Back then we had no knowledge. There was nothing on the record, nothing written, nothing said about the world of microorganisms. But Allah has said before, man found the world of microorganism that there are worlds that you can see and worlds that you see not. So they went and they started looking in the environment to see if they could find some help from the creator in reaching with their eyes the world Allah says, you see not.
So they found the glass that could enlarge an image and they improved the glass and improved the glass until finally it got telescopes and microscopes. Now we have visible proof of the world that we could not see when Allah said, there are worlds that you see and you see not. Now that Lord has also said to us in Qur'an, the Lord before Jesus Christ was Lord, that's our Lord. That Lord has said to us that He has made utility for us and that utility is seen and it is not seen. We shouldn't stop because man has found some of what Allah told him was around here. We should still be students with scientific curiosity and don't let the white man lead this interest.
Why should the Western man, the white man lead this interest? It is time for the African-American to come in this interest not as a follower, as a leader. And it is the Qur'an that will express your imagination. It's the Qur'an that will give you the courage and the belief to faith to go into that field and say, white man, it ain't nothing but a matter of time before I'm going to lead in the field of science. You're intimidated. You're intimidated, because you live in the white man's world. His world intimidates you because he got ahead of you and he built his world and made it fascinating.
He made it to strike awe in you. He made it to stun your spirit and just drop as a rag, your whole mental energy because you didn't do this and that you had to have him take you by the hand and show you into his world. And now you are working behind him and beside him and you don't think you can work without him. But Allah, with what He has provided makes a new mind, a new man, a new spirit, a spirit for doing not only what the white man has done but a spirit to do more.
Whoa, whoa. Hold me here Lord, just for a little while longer. Now, we have now our attention on a powerful energizer and don't think it will not materialize. I'm going to walk away from here and I may see you next month, in the spring, in the summer may not see you no more than next year this time, but when I come back I'm going to find that energy growing into visual form. Oh yes. When I told you about 10 years ago that our future as business people is not in centralization, its not in one headquarters controlling everything that's happening in business all over the United States. It's not in captains and lieutenants managing from Chicago what is happening all over the United States. I told you that our future in business is seeing the white man not as our master but as nothing but another man and getting out here competing with him.
There has come a time when you have to stop seeing the white man as your slave master. We were taught the white man with our slave master. Well he ain't supposed to stay our slave master and I told you the way to go is to decentralize. All of you work like hell, work like beavers, work like ants in your respective places and the work will be scattered out so much the CIA and the FBI and the police department will have to spend too many tax dollars to watch what you're doing. Now that was almost 10 years ago and you've seen the energy materialize. It has materialized in the form of small businesses and big businesses now by the Muslim in Atlanta. Not only Atlanta, Dallas, Texas. Even in Chicago. There's a group of brothers there called Dock's. They have Dock's Fish and they have about five or six fast food fish places there that compete, not only compete. Long John Silvers tried to put their place across the street from one of Dock's fish places. It's about to dry up. It's been there for two years or more. It cannot get Dock's Fish off of 87th street.
You know how come, Lieutenant Roger Shabazz ain't bothering it. When people are left free to produce for themselves with their own resources, you are going to have the best situation. Say, well that belief sounds like the free enterprise system. Oh, the white man got it from the Qur'an. That's where he got it from. He got it from the Qur'an. Show me a book that has more support for the free or the political. Show me a religious book that has more support for the free enterprise system than the Qur'an. Produce it. Produce it. Whether female or male, give to them what they earn, give to them the measure of their earnings. Right now that's an advanced idea here. Women should get equal paper, equal work. Oh shoot, all they had to do is read the Qur'an 1400 years ago.
Allah says in the Qur'an, don't control commerce, but leave it free so that the traffic of money and business will not be tied up into the hands of a few. That's the Qur'an, and I can go on and on. I didn't come here to teach you Qur'anic economics, not today. Now, the idea in growth without restriction that's in the Qur'an also. See Americans, a kind of economy, has also this principle, that growth shouldn't be restricted unless it becomes an evil such as some monopolies became, but growth shouldn't be restricted. Just like some of you all want me to have a paycheck or check to pay me or pay to check me and I refuse to let the white man check me. You know I ain't going to accept that no newly born black Muslim check me.
He ain't got his diaper off yet. He going to check me or give me a pay to check me. No, you wasting your time. You in for a great disappointment and I'm trying to soften the blow to you today, but it'd be hard when you already got everything set and have spent a whole lot of energy on giving me that pay to check me and then you find out that it ain't working. Oh brother, Imam, we're going to see that you have a hundred thousand dollars a year to work with. You going to see that I have that with what? Oh, with your publications. I'm going to see that you have what you deserve to work with and I am going to get justice for my output and I'm going to get control of my resources because I see myself as more trustworthy than you.
That's right. Shouldn't we put the best forward? Shouldn't we trust our precious things with the most trustworthy one. So I don't want no crooks competing with me for my resources. You don't have any rights to 'em. What I give you is charity and the holy man, he shouldn't talk like that. The holy man should say, I'm going to help you realize more from your resources. Well, we've got to wake up, we've got to wake up and do a little better. Allah has given us resources both visible, seen and unseen. Let us not see all of this great wisdom for our growth on this earth and then go back into the same old non-productive mind and way of behaving.
When we see these things, they should make us change for the better. As a student in class, I would listen to my teacher and when I got an indication of where I should be going to be more successful as a student, I didn't pass that by. I didn't pass that over. I dwelled upon it. I left the class with it on my mind. I carried it with me wherever I was going and I kept it with me until I could realize benefit from it. And if you are successful as a listener here today, you will do the same.
Don't be full of play and foolishness. That retards your senses. Yes, it's good to be in touch with nature. Before I knew that what Prophet Muhammad said about dogs, that they should be kept out of the house, I had a dog that couldn't be kept in the house. So if he was nice enough I would've had him in the house because I loved the dog, but he just couldn't be disciplined for the house. So thank Allah, he couldn't because it kept me from being guilty. Well, I wouldn't have been guilty because I was done it in ignorance, but it even kept me from doing it in ignorance, from having a dog in the house. But we had to keep him outside. We built him a nice little house and everything turned the door away from most of the wind and put it so the fence could help keep the wind off of him and then made it so comfortable. Put some rug in there we took out the house, and blankets and pillows and stuff. We made him a nice little place out there.
And then I decided to get cats. Cats, cats are different. So we started having cats and I noticed the behavior of cats. Not only that, I noticed behavior of dogs too. Good behavior. They have many fine points, many fine attributes, although they're nothing but what we call low animals. We call 'em low animals, but the lowest animal is a human being that's being animal instead of a human being. That's the lowest animal now that's one you can't even keep in the yard. I started having cats, started having cats, and I noticed the social discipline, the social excellence of the cats. They want the best.
I had a nice carpet on the floor, wife asked me to buy. Okay, yeah, you know our situation, we ain't like the white man. The white man says, "what color you want, darling?" Now not all white people, but a lot of them catching more hell than some of us now. Things have changed for them too. In fact, they never were all rich or encompassed. Always was some poor whites, you know that don't you. Always were some poor whites or wherever. So we then got a small throw rug that was more or better quality than the carpet and we put that on the carpet and that cat chose to rest on the throw rug.
Later on she bought a fine pillow, big nice fine pillow and put that on the floor and it was a little better quality than even the floor rug. We came in there and found that cat up on top of that pillow and I thought the cat was reaching me somehow by mental telepathy and was trying to tell me, look, whatever you want for yourself, I'm going to claim it for me. Now, I finally made him stay out of the house during the good weather and let him in only during the bad weather. See, I had to teach him the difference between cat provisions and human provisions.
But I admired him. I still admire that cat. He got a high place in my mind, high place in my estimation. He's something else. And then I noticed, noticed that the mother cat, she would let the young ones eat and she'd sit back and they eat everything up and she'd go hungry and hope that she'll get a chance next time. Then I noticed the male cat, he would watch the females and wait till she got through eating and then he'd eat, and sometimes she would eat and wouldn't leave nothing. Then I noticed the mother cat letting the big old son cat, bigger than her. I felt like taking a broom that beat him up bad.
She let that big old sucker just eat up all that good food. I put down there for her and him and she said, well, that's my son. So I had to come in, into the cat family and help them establish justice. So I didn't say meow, I just took the broom handle and hit that boy cat and said "get on away from here and let your momma eat." Now this brings us to another concern. Time is flying. Yeah, I didn't know that time has passed like that. We'd be away in a few minutes and about a half an hour, inshaAllah, we'll be gone. Another concern. And that concern is really a concern that has occupied the energy of many, many African Americans over these centuries we've been in this part of the world. Self-awareness.
That should be our first awareness. When a baby comes here from his mother, it's aware of itself before it's aware of his mother. Right away it is aware that it needs protection and soon it's aware that it needs somebody or something to give it food and et cetera. So it is aware of itself first. Then it meets the mother and becomes aware of momma and later on its awareness grows and grows and grows. So when people are lost, its natural for them to want to know themselves. Success at that has been poor. What is the proof of it? The proof of it is self-awareness (is) supposed to bring about the circumstances for you being more successful.
That's what self-awareness should do. It should give you the circumstances for greater success, but instead of it giving us the circumstances for greater success, we reached the point of diminishing returns. When our people were made slaves and the slaves born in slavery, he said, oh, I don't think G-d who made all the skies and all that I see, intended for me to be in this situation. He began to become aware of himself as a creature of G-d. And later on that awareness, because some of them had the courage to tell the master, (they) said, well, you may deem me to be so unimportant, so worthless, but I don't think the G-d who made the heaven and earth intended for me to be in this situation. Some of them had the courage to tell the master that and they began to require better treatment. Some of them even demanded it. Some of them lost their lives because they demanded it. Some of them didn't care. They knew they were going to die and still demanded it.
Yes, Nat Turner and many others. The circumstances at that time when Nat Turner rebelled, the circumstances was slavery, slavery. Emancipation hadn't come, the proclamation hadn't come. After that came another concept of self-awareness. Somewhere later in our history we began to give ourselves to the interest of self as a race. The first interest was not self as a race. It was self as a creature of G-d. Will you agree with me? There's history. It wasn't self as a race, it was self as a creature of G-d. The next awareness was self as a race. That awareness brought us to black power, black consciousness, and finally black power.
We came into that kind of self-awareness and took the same route that the white supremist took. Those are the Caucasian people of the white, so-called white race. They look like white people. I live with whites I guess under the pants, if not above the shirt. So they're white. I go along with it, they're white. So the racists among the white people, they took that path. They went from their occupation with themselves as a great people as a race, and they carried it to Arianism and finally to Western style Arianism white supremacy. We went the same route. Not all of us, but too many of us, and we influenced the state of all of us. Now it's hard to talk to an ordinary audience, to a general common audience of our people and tell them sensible things about race consciousness. If we don't come with the same kind of emotional stuff that they have been used to, many of them will turn their ear off. Some of them will even get up and walk out on us. Not that any of you all will walk out on me today. I'm not saying that no, that's not the point that anybody walks out, these people just tired and never know what's going on. It ain't my business.
Now what we want to talk about for a few minutes is the nature of self- awareness in the life of man. Self-awareness should begin right where it began for our slave ancestors in the situation of slavery. They went to the right place. They had to correct self-awareness. The white man said they were cheap, black, inferior humans, and they looked out at the universe and thought on the universe and thought on the one who did it, and they thought on the white man, they looked at him and they thought on him (and) said, well, yeah, he's in a better situation. But one on one, I'll whip his tail. I'd have him saying, yes sir to me if the situation was different. That's what some of our strong bucks had going on in their mind, going on in their minds. So finally one of 'em started thinking on that and he said, it's just these circumstances that were in that account for our state, our bad state of existence. G-d didn't intend that for us. He intended us to have the same freedom, the same dignity that the master has, and they began to rebel.
That was the right situation for coming into self-awareness. That's the first step in self-awareness. We have gone off track. We need to read the Qur'an and come back to that self-awareness that our ancestors found in the situation, in the circumstances of slavery. That's the message that Allah brings to us for self-awareness. He says that I created all that you see in the heaven and earth and I created you and I made you in the most excellent model or mold and you all have descended from one ancestor. None of you have a superior origin over the other. You all descended from one ancestor and it didn't say Adam, but we recognize that it's Adam. But his name is not as important as his identity. His identity is (Arabic).
The one original human personality, the one original human nature, the one original human personality. From that one original human nature and personality, Allah created a mate for him, for it and spread from the mate many men and women. He said He caused the whole earth to be populated with men and women from that original human mate and personality. So that tells us without any doubt that Allah is saying we all are equal. If that's not enough, Muhammed the Prophet said in his Farewell address. There is no address of his more major, more important, more critical for us if we want to stick to what he wants, than that farewell address. But a man tells you, I may not see you again. I may not see you next year. I may not see you again at the major gathering like this. And then he begins to speak to you on issues. You, with your common sense should recognize that what he tells you represents the most important concerns. And he told them to stick to Allah, to stick to the Qur'an, to stick to his sunnah, to his way of living the religion. And he told them also at that same time, at that same great mass gathering, he told them that there is no superiority of a white over a black, no superiority of a black over a white, no superiority of an Arab over a non-Arab, and no superiority of non-Arab over an Arab. The only superiority is in how you perform before your Lord.
So if we want to gain by self-awareness, we have to go back to the first step in self-awareness. And once you come into that step, right, oh, you're ready for progress. You're ready for progress! Our people had no problem progressing, once they came to that idea of self-awareness. They eventually got the respect of all conscientious people, not only in the North but also in the South. Many slave masters say no, he is an intelligent human being just like I am. I can't treat him as though he's abused. He's my slave. But I don't treat him like no slave. He doesn't call me master. I make it possible for him to have decent clothes. I've given him a job that goes along with his qualifications.
He goes out and he make business deals for me. He negotiates sales for me. Don't you know, some of the slave masters had slaves that they allowed to go and negotiate sales for them. This is history. In fact, one of them were a Muslim. His name is Omar Ibn Sayyid. He was like a secretary and a businessman for his master because of his ability and his master was humane. His master was civilized and recognized that he shouldn't treat a human being like a brut,e like he's a brute. And one of the Western writers wrote about this and in his book he said, this book is called The People Who Walk in Darkness. "The People Who Walk in Darkness Have Seen a Great Light." I can't recall the author right now. He's got a name that sounds German. I can't recall the name right now. Anyway, in this book he says that the master asked the slave Omar, he asked him, he said, I'm going in the area of your people. He was going overseas. He said, is there something you would like for me to bring to you? And Omar Sayyid, said, yes, bring me a Qur'an.
Some of us don't know that some of the slaves were allowed to keep their religion because they fell into the hands of more civilized masters. He said, yes, bring me a Qur'an and his master told him under one condition. He said under one condition and that is that you also accept the gift from me of the Bible. So Omar Sayyid, he accepted that. He said, fine, I accept that. So his master brought him a Qur'an from overseas and also brought him a nice fine new Bible. And this is all documented. Omar Sayyid, because since I've said this in the community, one of the brothers went and did the study himself, and he found down here in the south, in North Carolina, he found evidence of this person's existence and proof that he was doing that work. Now he, having with him a Qur'an in the Bible, began to do a comparative study of the Qur'an and the Bible. And he wrote on the Qur'an and the Bible. And some of this script has been preserved even to the day. We have an Islamic heritage.
Even though slavery cut us off from all past traditions, tradition and heritage, if we as free people now realize that we should have a place for Africa in our hearts, because Africa is our heritage, we should have a place for Africans in our hearts because they are from our motherland. They are our brothers. They are the brothers and sisters of our ancestor. We have one common ethnic ancestry in them, a national ancestry in them, whatever you want to say. But after all, it's mostly or no, it is really cultural, cultural more than anything else. But if we can find an ethnic origin and we say these people belong to our line, our lineage, and therefore we should, there should be a place in our hearts for them? After the white man has worked hard, I mean the oppressive white man, the oppressor, have worked hard to keep the truth of our Islamic past from us, and now that it has come to us, I don't see any reason to hold us back from building Mosques, Islamic culture in America to show not only the American white man, but to show ourselves, to show ourselves that we are not foolish. That just as the Irish, just as the Chinese, just as the Italian, just as all these other people who come here from other ethnic backgrounds and other ethnic past, we care too about what we had before you gave us this.
Why there are African Americans who go back to Africa and they bring bones, and primitive rituals to America (and) say, we're going to preserve this. We once had this. Kwanza, what it Kwanza? Yes, Kwanza. I think it's called Kwanza. They got a holiday of Christmas, now it's called for Kwanza. And they go back and they bring nothing but really primitive stuff. But what I mean by primitive now, I mean an effort by the African man that did not bring him on the plane of high civilization. They bring that here and they try to encourage Africans to identify with him. I mean American blacks or African Americans here to identify with that, to cherish that, to preserve that. We have a religion that President James Madison recognized.
We belong to a religion that the Moroccan's identify with, in, and the Moroccans have been respected by the United States for I don't know how many generations. They have been a friendly partner, a friendly partner with the United States for I don't know how many generations. We belong to a religion that many among the white elect, among the white intellectuals say is responsible for making possible the birth of science, the rebirth of science in Europe and all over the Western world. If that is our heritage, I can't understand why there is not more interest on the part of African American intellectuals in preserving this history by building museums in America to show African American Islamic heritage by building Mosques in America to show the past religious life, have a sign of the past religious life of many of the African American people here presently. I can't understand why we don't move in that direction.
Why there are Buddhists who will pay and devote money and even start the project to bring a Buddhist temple to America, to Los Angeles or somewhere and build it up and show you the Buddhist temple. And they don't have to be Buddhists, but they're Chinese and they identify in the past of their Chinese people. You don't have to be a Muslim to have an appreciation for Islamic past. You know your circumstances since slavery, you know your circumstances in slavery. You don't have to be a Muslim to appreciate African American Islamic heritage. You should be spending some of your Christian dollars on preserving Islamic American, Islamic heritage for the African American man. Yes, that's good sense.
That's decency by yourself, decency by yourself, decency to yourself and your people. And the fact that we are not moving in that direction is proof that the white man still have us in some form of slavery. It may not be physical bondage, but he still has us in some form of slavery. If he didn't, we would be doing more to recognize the glory of ourself and our past. You let Budweiser tell you about your great Islamic leaders. Yes, I see the picture of Muslims in their Muslim robes. Budweiser showing it to us. But reverend Bud Wiser, he won't wise up.
Look, you people call yourself Muslims. What I'm looking at right now, you call yourself Muslims. You will never be respected by the immigrant Muslims as long as you remain passive before the great, great demands on you in America as a Muslim. I shouldn't be preaching this by myself. You all should be preaching it everywhere you are. And not only that, you should joining me and encouraging me and say, Brother Imam, we are going to have to bring this issue before the Congress. I shouldn't have to be the one to tell you this. Once I point to the matter, you should be encouraging me. You should be pushing me, saying, Brother Imam, we're going to have to take this to Congress and tell Congress that maybe the reason for low African American esteem and low performance on the part of the African American community has something to do with us being completely oblivious of our past Islamic excellence. And to correct it, we want to have Islamic cultural centers showing artifacts and proofs of our Islamic past and our Islamic excellence, put in museums throughout these United States made available to the poor downhearted, low spirited black man in the ghetto.
But instead they introduced something they call black studies and try to hide, play down the role of Al Islam and end up making nothing but people who believe in animism, give them the inferior thing from their past. The hidden myth efforts of their ancestors. We shouldn't tolerate it. The people who migrate here from the Western world, all of these European American national people that came from Europe, Irish French, all of them, they have places to hold for them their past excellence. I'm driving along the expressway. There's the Polish Cultural Center, Chinese Cultural Center. I'm looking for the African American Cultural Center. I haven't seen it yet.
We have an effort inside of the impressive building that the honorable Elijah Muhammad secured when he was here. That has been the place for our Masjid, Mosque there on Stoney Island. We have stopped calling it a Mosque and we calling it Cultural Center because it's really too expensive for a Mosque. The prophet told us how to get the work of Mosque going fast. You don't put a whole lot of money into it because it holds the people back. They can't keep going with the dawah for looking at the gold. So he built the Mosque, first Mosque for the Muslim, the Kuba Mosque.. Very simple, very simple, plain and simple buildings, four walls, roof, plain, simple buildings. So he said for us the idea for a Mosque building, you don't make it an elaborate place. Don't compete with the Catholics and others in building cathedrals. But the Muslims flipped off course and they started competing with the builders of Christian cathedrals and they had to build something more elaborate and richer than the best Christian cathedral.
They got off path, they got off course. So we have that big fine rich looking place there that's making us look ridiculous. We can't hardly pay our rent. Some of us on welfare, most of us don't have any jobs and we're holding our meeting in something that the Rockefeller family ought to be having. Big old place, the ceiling so high, you look at a thousand dollars worth of gas bill going up in it in one day, almost in January. Yeah, you turn the heat up one day in January, you look at it's almost a thousand dollars going up into this cathedral to heat the dome.
So I said, well, we can call it the cultural center. And I felt that if we really work on making it a fine cultural center, Muslim culture, ethnic culture center that we would get support for it from even the non-Muslim. It hasn't happened yet. We haven't really built it up yet so that it could be seen and attract support from outside of the Muslim community, but I believe that's possible. And we could have a fine cultural center there on 73 51 South Stony Island, in the south side of Chicago, Southeast side of Chicago. In fact, I wish that's all we had there. I wish we'd leave the lake shore.
We shouldn't be that close to all that water. We should go on inland. It makes more sense when you go inland, you find people that's trying to establish home life, family life, trying to establish business life. Over there where we are, the people are just playing in the water. So the first step in self-awareness is to see yourself in the order that Allah made, not to see yourself in the order that man made. The order that man made is class system, color conscious system, racism. Don't see yourself in that. Don't think race before you think human beings.
Think human beings and see your great value in the world of the human being. And no matter what your situation is as a race in a racist atmosphere, don't let that help hinder you. Don't let it hurt you at all, but move forward to advance the recognition, the validity and the respect and recognition for your human excellence, for your human value in the world of human beings. And if you do that, you are going to be working along two dimensions of interest, your personal interest and also your interest in helping other people. But if you just think race, you do what our race is doing now, working as individuals, caring nothing about the collective concern, working as individuals to race and get ahead of each other.
Now I'm not saying all of us are in this shape, but this is the shape of the African American or black community here. The shape of the black community in America is just that. There is not the presence of the collective concern in the collective effort, but each one is trying to race to get ahead of the other. If he can't do it lawfully, he will do it illegally. It's terrible. That's because our mind has come into the wrong situation. Situate our mind back into the reality that G-d made. Don't come into the mess that the white man has made and then let your mind form in response to the mess that he has made. Withdraw from that mess. Let every great mind have courage to withdraw from the circumstances he found himself in before he could do a great thing.
That first step is to see your human identity. Allah shows us the human identity in Adam. Was Adam a Muslim? To be a true human is the first step in being a Muslim. Adam was a Muslim. He didn't belong to some other religion. He was a Muslim. He had the Muslim nature. He didn't have the Muslim systems. The Muslim system of religion came with Prophet Muhammed. He had the Muslim nature. And for that reason, the learned Imams, the learned scholars, the only members of the Ulimah, they tell us that all of us are Muslims in our nature and they make such statements based on the Qur'an, the Holy book and based on the sunnah of the prophet and their interpretation and understanding of it. They say all of us are Muslims in our nature.. And do you know what I'm hearing from many Muslims abroad? Now I used to hear it from just one or two, but now I'm getting it from many. I just heard it. I've heard it first from Jordanian and I heard it then next from an Indian, a Pakistinian. And then I heard it from Egyptian. Lately. I heard it from an Iranian. You know what they're saying? That in spite of the condition of the African-American people, they are the people on earth today that are closest to their natural Muslim identities.
You are not in the system of Islam that Allah revealed and established. No, but you in your human makeup, you are closer to the real Muslim in his nature than most of the people on earth today. Now that's hard to see looking at the condition of the majority of our people. But when you come to know them personally, you can see it because when they get the pressure of the fast, burdensome world off their back, oh, they say, no, you sleep in my bed. You don't have anywhere to stay tonight? Sleep in my bed. You don't have no food here. Come here. (They) say honey, you ain't got no food?
Take some of our butter. Take some of our flour. Do you want my wife to fix your dinner? How you going to go home? Oh wait, I'll take you home. And we had that kind of sense before Elijah Muhammad. Now he must have had it before me. No kin to the family at all, but see, a child destroying himself? Child, you shouldn't behave like that. Who's your mother, where you live? I've heard that from our women. Who's your mother, where you live? If I knew, I would tell on you. You shouldn't be behaving like that. I know your parents don't want you behaving like that. The collective concern.
See a stranger, never met him before. Embrace him. First day, first hour, the first minute. A stranger, embrace him the first day, the first hour, the first minute meet him and you say, oh, he's all right. Embrace him. Take him home with you, right? Well see, that's your Muslim nature. That's your true human self, which is your true human identity. I mean your true Muslim identity in its nature. But upon that nature should illumine a vision of how we should advance that nature and build a great society, great civilization. For that purpose. Allah revealed the Qur'an. He says, and He has patterned man on the pattern that He made when he created the universe.
Upon that pattern, he has given us the religion. It is the religion of the original nature, Deenul fitrah, the religion of the original nature, the pattern upon which he patterned man when he made the universe. Even if you don't believe you have a inheritance, an inheritance or inheritance coming from Africa, the cause of what your ancestors had before you came to American slaves or before you were brought here as slaves. Once you know the idea of this religion, you perceive the logic, the teachings of this religion, you being in a situation that you are in a beautiful Christian religion, a beautiful gospel but blocked against you because it's too Caucasian, its too white, racially speaking. African American people, you'll never get up to compete with white America In Christianity, because the white man that accepted Christianity was a white man that accepted white supremacy.
And his design on the world is also to be found in the Bible. He situated himself in a position of advantage in the world. He situated himself in the position of advantage in the Bible. The original man is white, but black in his heart. Adam was a man doomed to sin. He couldn't avoid it. He had to sin and all of his children had to be sinners. But they give you Adam as a white man, but his heart turned black. The same theology tells us that Satan is the black angel. And then along comes the solution to the first problem. It is the white man born without a father to be savior of all people.
Oh, don't you all believe Jesus was born without father? Yes, we certainly do, but we don't say he's savior to redeem all men because Adam sinned. We don't make him the savior for all men because his nature was right and Adam's was wrong. No, our unity is first in Adam and then our unity is in Abraham. And lastly, our unity is in the Umma of Al Islam. Lailaha illaah Muhammedur rasoolallah. And we accept all of His prophets. And we believe that they came from all colors, from all nations, from all racial make. That's what we believe about them. The problem cannot be corrected. You cannot make Christianity work for non-white people. It can't be corrected because there's nothing in Christianity that corrects it. There's no help in Christianity for the situation. Maybe if Jesus would be quoted in the Bible as saying there's no superiority of a white over black, no superiority of a black over white, no superiority of a Jew over a non Jew, no superiority of a non Jew, over a Jew. Maybe we would have some help. As salaamu alaikum.
Kabi Kabi Allah act. I be witness. There's no G-d but the law. I be witness that Muhammad his apostle this time. The Muslims, we have some announcements. Those that are traveling, we know you combine your prayers in the area. Those here in the city, we do have the facility set up to make to us of prayer. Shall our please make you prayer? Let me say this, handle the law for the beautiful afternoon and I feel energized handle the law. The Muslims future is so bright. Someone told me said, all Muslims should wear sunglasses. Long white box.
The MAM's book, African-American Genesis, is on fail. What you have just heard is on. Brothers are able to give you exactly what has been said out there for a modest price. That's food outside to refuel. Refuel yourself spiritually. Make your prayers. Halal products, your meats. All your meats are halal and your fruit. To help the sister Clara Ham School, I would like to acknowledge those brothers and sisters that helped us, especially here in Atlanta. The I MAs in the city. Okay, I shall, I'm Lake 'em. We need that attention. We need you to, in Shallah hold briefly and in Shallah will be two or three minutes. It is the conduct of the Muslim to keep your seat and show that respect. And I'm going to call you to that account. It is Muslim conduct to hold your seat and not get up and exit and run all over.
The place in Shallah will be a couple of minutes, but I would like to acknowledge those guests that we have. I would like to acknowledge those people who helped us put this in Shallard, this program together. The Iams in the city, brother Il Lan, IAM, Jamil, ELAM, IAM Fleeman. Elam mean the believers. We had a lot of help from the Christians. We had a lot of help from the radio stations in bringing this into reality. So handled it. Lord, thank the believers, those brothers and sisters, the brothers from Found call helped us pass out flyers helped us bring this effort into a reality we have here. A very special treat in Shallah. After everyone takes a break, make your prayer and come back. But we have a beloved brother, beautiful scholar, a fighting Muslim fighting in the Jihad Fe Beah. And that is Brother Ed did that. He's going to be here in just a little while in Shallah to talk to the Muslims. When we heard that it was possible for him to be a part of this DIR effort, the IAM automatically offered that hospitality, the facilities, everything that we could do to be here. Make him welcome. Welcome my brother.


