Aug. 25, 2001
Q: Brother Imam, we want to thank you for giving us this opportunity to interview you on the Hajj. Over the years, you have taught us to look deeper into concepts -religious concepts and other concepts. Is Hajj like that? Does it have surface meaning but also a more powerful and deeper meaning that those without insight are likely to miss? Would you explain?
Imam Mohammed: As-Salaam Alaikum. I think the meaning that is most important is not deep, it's plain. It's plain and easy to grasp by ordinary minds. But it's the meaning that I think most of us miss. That meaning is the one given by the learned scholars and Imams. This obvious one says that Hajj is the unity of mankind, especially in Islam. Islam is a model and should be the model of Islam for mankind, for all people. It is the Unity in the humanity that G-d created when He created our first parent, Adam, Peace be upon him. The meaning is Unity and Oneness for humanity under G-d. The Hajj is a return to your innocence -your purity — your original spiritual mental and social nature that G-d created us in, when He created the first people (or man).
That's the life that G-d wants us to return to. That's the real meaning of Hajj. It's a struggle — it's a struggle to unite humanity. You know that humanity is divided. Divided because of power, greed for power, greed for wealth, greed for the material world, and also sometimes for no other reason than "my family is all I care about. Don't bother me with yours."
Q: In 1967, you made Hajj when the rest of us were in the Nation of Islam and you met Maulana Maududi. You were a young man, in your early 20s. A lot has changed since then. You met him on Arafat. Tell us about Arafat and its importance and the importance of that meeting with Maududi.
Imam Mohammed: Arafat gives the Muslims a chance, the leaders and the common man, too, if he is interested in having some responsibility or some role in society. Arafat is an opportunity for him to come and hear the most learned leaders in Islam. They will be Imams, They'll be educators. They'll be political figures, presidents, kings maybe. They'll be doctors and lawyers — all the professions - all the important professions will be represented there at Arafat during the Hajj.
That gives us a chance to benefit from each other's experience — knowledge and faith, too. When a man of extraordinary strong faith speaks on politics or economics or social life, that man also communicates his strong faith to you — even though his language is the language of his particular profession or field.
So I know that a person or a weak battery can get charged up, get pretty strong just being here to hear what the good leaders are saying. I was there once when Maulana Maududi was there. I learned that he was there because I could hear them saying: "Maulana! Maulana's under such-and such tent!" Then someone said "Maulana Maududi" and that rang a bell! I said "Wow! Maulana Maududi!" I recalled reading some of his books from my father's library. So I said, let me find out where he is. While I'm thinking that, someone came; "Brother Wallace!" I said, "Yes." "Maulana Maududi wants you in his tent." And they came and got me and took me to his tent, and I met him and sat right near him.
He said this: "We have to be very aware and careful that we do not try to guide the Muslims in America — assist them, but don't try to lead them." That's what he told me on Arafat, with the tent full and they were all outside the tent. He was very popular with the Pakistanis and the Indians. He was of Pakistan and of the Indian people.
Q: Now we have celebrated Eidul Adha here for many years. Tell us about celebrating the Eid in Mecca. What's it like and also making the Eid Prayers while we're there?
Imam Mohammed: Eidul Adha in Mecca is much different from Eidul Adha away from Mecca. And it's simply because Eidul Adha is celebrated on the 10th day of the Hajj. It is the climax, the highlight of the Hajj, the meeting on Arafat, according to Muhammed the Prophet or the Rites of Hajj. In Mecca, in the Holy Precincts, you are experiencing the difficulty of Hajj and also the wonderful blessing of Hajj with many Muslims from all over the world -celebrating the sacrifice of Abraham (PBUH) on Eidul Adha. You celebrate it with all those whom you unconsciously but strongly feel a bond with now, because you went through this together. And the crowd is oh so many times magnified, and the celebration too is so many times magnified! So I think that's the difference.
The difference is you are there and you have gone through difficulty and you have received many blessings. Now you are celebrating with so many Muslims from so many different faces and dress and languages, etc.
Monday, October 10, 2016
Strive for Community Life
2005 - Thank you, Sis. Sahirah, International President of this great women's international organization. We are very proud of them. They dignify all of us with their service to humanity, especially to the women who need their services, who need their help. And we know that if you help a woman, you help many.
Prayers and the peace be on our Prophet Muhammed. That is the traditional salute to him. He said to one who was asking him how to share himself with this mother and father, who had become of old age and both of them needed his help. He was asking the Prophet how was he to share himself with his mother and father.
The Prophet said to him, "Help your mother." The man was still waiting for more from the Prophet. The Prophet again said, "Help your mother." And then he said, "And help your father." So the emphasis is on the mother, and the mother is symbolic of the collective group, the family, the community, the congregation. We have a sign in the House that we turn to when we worship in prayer, in congregation and prayer. The House is called Ka'bah, and Ka'bah means "connection." And G-d says to us in our Holy Book of the House that we call Ka'bah, that in it are blessings for many people. For Muslims all over the world, it is a sign.
It is a sign that scholars in Islam say is the Fifth Pillar, a sign of the unity of all mankind. It is the Fifth Pillar or fifth essential in the practices of Muslims. And there are five of those essentials.
The First of them is to witness that there is One G-d, Who is responsible for everything, bringing into existence everything that exists. That is The Creator, and we witness that He is One. And we witness that Muhammed (PBUH) is His Messenger. Second is Prayer, to worship that One. Once we acknowledge that He is G-d, we should worship that G-d.
Third is to give in Charity. Fourth is to Fast, to restrain ourselves for G-d. G-d says in an inspired Hadith (saying of the Prophet), "Fasting is for Me." He says, "Let the fasting person know who sincerely fasts in the month of Ramadan" - that's the Fast month for us - that "the breath of the fasting person with G-d is like the best perfume in the nose of the people." That is how much G-d loves one who fasts for the sake of obeying G-d, having a disciplined life and obedience to G-d.
And the Fifth and last of those fundamental practices is to make Pilgrimage to visit the House.
Life is all about making connections. To have life, you have to make the first connection. That's what the President in the New England area has just done about two weeks ago. She made the connection, she and her husband who is an Imam I have known for some time. Although I have never had any personal dealings with him, I feel as though he is my personal friend, Imam Dawud. May Allah bless this union with all the joys that you all want and expect. Ameen.
So life is all about connections. And then G-d wants us to know that even the forming of life in the body of our mother and her body, the forming of life is connections. He gives us the water and the thickening of water adhering, water trying to hold firmly together. Blood is forming together, adhering, and then the fetus lump; the flesh now has formed and is holding. And it goes on to bone forming in the flesh. Then Allah says He covers the body with flesh, and after that there is another creation. So G-d wants us to know our two creations. We have one creation that's flesh, special flesh, human flesh. It belongs to the animal world, but once the human spirit comes into it, it shouldn't be animal anymore. It should be human.
He wants us to know we have two creations. Then we are created all over again, and that's the human person inside the body. Religion, not just Islam - but the great religions, are all about acquainting us with the life inside the body, that second creation. It is the true life and G-d says of that life, He formed you in your mother and He formed your picture and made it most excellent in your mother. When the baby is delivered, you see a beautiful baby girl or a beautiful baby boy. And we see a picture and want that picture, that new baby. We've got to have that picture. G-d said he formed all our pictures in our mothers. He made your picture most beautiful, most excellent, the most handsome one. That's the human spirit and the human personality that G-d wants us to have in common with each other.
We should have one human spirit accepting all people in the family of man or human family. We should have one basic spiritual nature. It's all about respect. It's all about giving, struggling, striving. Muhammed the Prophet (PBUH), when he was concluding his mission, he said many things. But one thing he said because he was persecuted and had to fight to free religion. He said G-d ordered him to fight until the religion is no more persecuted, and the people are free to worship under G-d. This is Qur'an. This is the Word of G-d through Muhammed, the Prophet (PBUH). He said to the people - he didn't say "no more wars," but that's what I think he meant. "After this is only Taqwa and Jihad." Taqwa is a word we use for sacred respect. It is translated as fear sometimes, but it means sacred respect.
The fear is the fear to break that respect, to lose that respect. And G-d says, "And fear G-d." But it also means give G-d the respect that G-d is due. And, "All of your close family ties begin with mom and dad." Muslims, like Christians, are supposed to hold the life of family sacred. And anyone who violates the family commits a very bad sin. Whether it be an outsider, an enemy of the family or a member of the family, when you violate the respect we should have for family, it is a major sin. G-d has placed nothing before family, except Him. He also says, "Close family members who have close family ties have first rights in the Book of G-d," In America, I learned when I was a child that charity starts at home and spreads abroad. Take care of family first. This is both Christianity and Islam.
Life begins for human beings in Heaven. The person who loves G-d doesn't worry; if G-d says their life begins in Heaven, that's good enough for them. They are not going to get pencil and paper and try to figure out things. We can see that life starts in Heaven every time we look at the little baby that mama delivered; that's that heavenly life. The baby comes here with a spirit that has not been changed. The world can change. Mom and dad can change. But that baby comes here with a spirit, the same spirit that G-d gave the first baby that was put on this earth, that existed on earth or in Heaven. G-d wants us to know that He is going to guide us. He is going to put us in circumstances that are going to be too much for us. He says the creation of Heaven and earth is a bigger creation than that of man.
Why does He say that? He says that, to tell all of us that the human being is not able to manage this material world, that we have to be supported upon, without the Help and Guidance from G-d.
We know that in the story of the beginning of mankind, a kind of a Genesis in Qur'an, G-d said there was a rebel in the Heavens that we call Iblis. The Christian language would call him Satan; the Arabic word or Qur'anic word is Shaitan. There was a rebel among the Angels. His name was Iblis, and he did not accept that man should be made a khalifah in the earth. Khalifah in the earth means one responsible for rule or authority that human life should have in the earth. Iblis did not accept that; he didn't like that and was not a true Angel but one of the Jinns.
Angels are made of Pure Light. Jinns are made of fire. Jinns are made as passionate creatures. When Iblis did not accept G-d's Will, G-d said to him, "Get you down from here, all of you." Because of what this Jinn did, man also was sent down for human life, sent down from Heaven to the earth.
"Get down into the earth, into life. There, you will find all of your needs, and there you will die, and from there you will be raised up again." G-d is saying that man's life is to be lived on earth in the community of people, human beings. Man is not an Angel. He has angelic qualities; he can serve in the role of an Angel; he can even behave as an Angel, which is rare. Man's description is human, not Angel.
G-d said, "If the earth had been populated with Angels, He would have sent you an Angel as a Messenger." He didn't. He sent you a human person, Muhammed the human mortal, as he is called in the Qur'an. G-d is telling us that we have to accept to live in circumstances that we have on earth. We have to have G-d's Help to manage, because without G-d's Help, it is too much for us.
We don't have to tell too many mothers in the ghettos that. She knows it's too much for her. Her children turn to the street, and she can't call them back. There is nothing she can do about it but just see her children go the way of the streets. She can call everybody and not get any help. Everybody comes, but hardly ever anybody can help. Her children are gone.
That's because the world is a bigger influence than human influence. If we let the world and the circum-stances in the environment that we have in the world, if we let those circumstances and that environment go against human life, then we lose our children to that life, that Pope John Paul II, who has passed - may G-d have him in Paradise and Peace, Ameen - "the Culture of Death." He called that cultural influence we have in the street that is negative and against human decency, and these are his exact words, "the Culture of Death." So G-d wants us to have leaders who have the faith and spirit that they can manage circumstances in their environment and influence the environment, so the environment supports the human life that G-d wants for us.
Muslims are not only obligated to take care of their souls - yes, we are - but those of their families as well. G-d says take care of your families. "Save yourselves and your families from the Fires of Hell." Those fires are not just burning below the surface of the ground. They are burning wherever we are, and many of us are better than six feet below the surface of the ground. We think we are walking on the ground, but we are not. We are more than six feet under, and the Hell Fires are leaping all over us.
We want to be able to manage circumstances. We can't do this alone; that's why G-d wants us to be a community. G-d says, "You are a community."
He doesn't want us to be anything but a community. The congregation is supposed to be the congregation of the community. The Muslims are a congregation. Congregation means coming together, holding together. He could have used another word, which would make you want to think of comparing yourself to some other community. But He said, "... And you are the Best Community evolved for the good of all people...." We want to strive for community life, and we want to have our community life in the way that G-d guides us to have it and to have that community life welcome all people. We are family. Humans are family. So we have to welcome all people who belong to the family of human beings. Welcome them and see no differences.
When you come to lie point where , ou meet them and you become friends with them as good persons and you come to the point that you've forgotten that this person belongs to another race, you've forgotten that person belongs to another religion, you become friends, you welcome each other, you live with each other and go places with each other, greeting each other "hi" and "how is your family," asking about each other's relatives - when you reach that point, you have joined and have successfully come back into the family of mankind as created by G-d. And you will be in heaven. Muhammed, the Prophet (PBUH), our Prophet, the Prophet of the Qur'an, made faith a condition of love and made faith also a condition of getting into Paradise. He said, and I am quoting him word for word, "Never will you enter Paradise, until you have faith. And never will you have Faith, until you practice loving one another."
In the beginning of the Nation of Islam around 1931, we have the records saying that the teacher of the Nation of Islam came from overseas and began teaching in Detroit, Michigan, where the first Temple was established. And the first chapter of this great International League of Muslim Women organization was established too in Detroit. The Nation of Islam, as I knew it - I was born in 1933 and remember 1943 and 1953; that's 20 years. All of those years, if you met a member of the Nation of Islam and you told them you were a member, they automatically accepted you as their brother and sister and you could feel that love.
We had love for one another. That's what was strong among us, that we had love for one another. We lost that during the change, when we stopped thinking about G-d so much and started thinking about ourselves - getting money, Black Power. All that took it away. We lost that genuine love we had for one another. Over recent years, the past 10 years at least, I see that love growing again. And the International League of Muslim Women is really a great haven of love for one another. That, we feel. And you are helping us grow that love back. You are helping the community grow that love back that we lost. We are getting it back. We have to understand, too, that we need special efforts like the International League of Muslim Women, special organized efforts. People should look for coming together. People should look for those of similar minds, when you want to do things, when you have a need that is not being fulfilled, it's strong in you and you want to do something about the situation.
Look for those who have your kind of thinking, your mind. Look for those in whose mind is the same fire burning, burning for something special. Then you group with those of like minds. You should group together and have your leader. When people come together, the leader manifests. The one who is best qualified will be known, and you'll have a leader.
This is how we want to multiply productive work. We want it to multiply. Let's not stop the work of the International League of Muslim Women. Let's find out what's the need in our community. Let us say, "Hey, I'm not going to wait for Imam W. Deen Mohammed to say 'shazaam' and create this. "He is not superstitious; he doesn't believe in that kind of magic. I'm going to do something like these women have done, like Sis. Sahirah Muhammad." Praise be to Allah. We thank Allah for her and all these great sisters. Don't forget to identify with the "striving for," and today we are still the "striving for." If I remain the leader, I'm going to be the leader of the "striving for." When you get rich, I'm going to retire and will ask you for money. But I will always be the leader of the "striving for."
I think that is what Muhammed the Prophet (PBUH) meant, when he said he was offered two ways to go. He was offered to travel through the mountains, and he was offered to travel through the plains. He said he chose to travel through the plains. So identify with the "striving for" firstly, right at home in your community.
Identify with the "striving for," and let us test our leaders, when they come before us to lead us. Let us see if they have love and compassion for the "striving for," not the "lazy for." See if they love and care to serve the needs of the "striving for." If they do, then they are the leaders who we want and they must show us by their actions that they love human beings, that they love people. That they are not just working for the dollar or working to pay their bills. That they are working because they love people and want to see the whole life better, not just one life or some better - but all the life better. Then we should support them. I'm saying this because we live in a time when most of us have lost our human life. We are in human form, but we have lost our human life and are subject to have show-off leaders and people who are promoting self-interest, first and last. Those people will deceive us and themselves. All of us lose, when we accept such persons as our leaders.
So in my conclusion, we want to keep Taqwa and Jihad. Keep the Sacred Respect that G-d wants us to have, for G-d first, but also for human relationships, especially those family ties and all things that He, G-d, has made sacred. Then we want to always identify with people who are striving for a better life. Thank you, and Peace be unto you. As-Salaam-Alaikum.
Prayers and the peace be on our Prophet Muhammed. That is the traditional salute to him. He said to one who was asking him how to share himself with this mother and father, who had become of old age and both of them needed his help. He was asking the Prophet how was he to share himself with his mother and father.
The Prophet said to him, "Help your mother." The man was still waiting for more from the Prophet. The Prophet again said, "Help your mother." And then he said, "And help your father." So the emphasis is on the mother, and the mother is symbolic of the collective group, the family, the community, the congregation. We have a sign in the House that we turn to when we worship in prayer, in congregation and prayer. The House is called Ka'bah, and Ka'bah means "connection." And G-d says to us in our Holy Book of the House that we call Ka'bah, that in it are blessings for many people. For Muslims all over the world, it is a sign.
It is a sign that scholars in Islam say is the Fifth Pillar, a sign of the unity of all mankind. It is the Fifth Pillar or fifth essential in the practices of Muslims. And there are five of those essentials.
The First of them is to witness that there is One G-d, Who is responsible for everything, bringing into existence everything that exists. That is The Creator, and we witness that He is One. And we witness that Muhammed (PBUH) is His Messenger. Second is Prayer, to worship that One. Once we acknowledge that He is G-d, we should worship that G-d.
Third is to give in Charity. Fourth is to Fast, to restrain ourselves for G-d. G-d says in an inspired Hadith (saying of the Prophet), "Fasting is for Me." He says, "Let the fasting person know who sincerely fasts in the month of Ramadan" - that's the Fast month for us - that "the breath of the fasting person with G-d is like the best perfume in the nose of the people." That is how much G-d loves one who fasts for the sake of obeying G-d, having a disciplined life and obedience to G-d.
And the Fifth and last of those fundamental practices is to make Pilgrimage to visit the House.
Life is all about making connections. To have life, you have to make the first connection. That's what the President in the New England area has just done about two weeks ago. She made the connection, she and her husband who is an Imam I have known for some time. Although I have never had any personal dealings with him, I feel as though he is my personal friend, Imam Dawud. May Allah bless this union with all the joys that you all want and expect. Ameen.
So life is all about connections. And then G-d wants us to know that even the forming of life in the body of our mother and her body, the forming of life is connections. He gives us the water and the thickening of water adhering, water trying to hold firmly together. Blood is forming together, adhering, and then the fetus lump; the flesh now has formed and is holding. And it goes on to bone forming in the flesh. Then Allah says He covers the body with flesh, and after that there is another creation. So G-d wants us to know our two creations. We have one creation that's flesh, special flesh, human flesh. It belongs to the animal world, but once the human spirit comes into it, it shouldn't be animal anymore. It should be human.
He wants us to know we have two creations. Then we are created all over again, and that's the human person inside the body. Religion, not just Islam - but the great religions, are all about acquainting us with the life inside the body, that second creation. It is the true life and G-d says of that life, He formed you in your mother and He formed your picture and made it most excellent in your mother. When the baby is delivered, you see a beautiful baby girl or a beautiful baby boy. And we see a picture and want that picture, that new baby. We've got to have that picture. G-d said he formed all our pictures in our mothers. He made your picture most beautiful, most excellent, the most handsome one. That's the human spirit and the human personality that G-d wants us to have in common with each other.
We should have one human spirit accepting all people in the family of man or human family. We should have one basic spiritual nature. It's all about respect. It's all about giving, struggling, striving. Muhammed the Prophet (PBUH), when he was concluding his mission, he said many things. But one thing he said because he was persecuted and had to fight to free religion. He said G-d ordered him to fight until the religion is no more persecuted, and the people are free to worship under G-d. This is Qur'an. This is the Word of G-d through Muhammed, the Prophet (PBUH). He said to the people - he didn't say "no more wars," but that's what I think he meant. "After this is only Taqwa and Jihad." Taqwa is a word we use for sacred respect. It is translated as fear sometimes, but it means sacred respect.
The fear is the fear to break that respect, to lose that respect. And G-d says, "And fear G-d." But it also means give G-d the respect that G-d is due. And, "All of your close family ties begin with mom and dad." Muslims, like Christians, are supposed to hold the life of family sacred. And anyone who violates the family commits a very bad sin. Whether it be an outsider, an enemy of the family or a member of the family, when you violate the respect we should have for family, it is a major sin. G-d has placed nothing before family, except Him. He also says, "Close family members who have close family ties have first rights in the Book of G-d," In America, I learned when I was a child that charity starts at home and spreads abroad. Take care of family first. This is both Christianity and Islam.
Life begins for human beings in Heaven. The person who loves G-d doesn't worry; if G-d says their life begins in Heaven, that's good enough for them. They are not going to get pencil and paper and try to figure out things. We can see that life starts in Heaven every time we look at the little baby that mama delivered; that's that heavenly life. The baby comes here with a spirit that has not been changed. The world can change. Mom and dad can change. But that baby comes here with a spirit, the same spirit that G-d gave the first baby that was put on this earth, that existed on earth or in Heaven. G-d wants us to know that He is going to guide us. He is going to put us in circumstances that are going to be too much for us. He says the creation of Heaven and earth is a bigger creation than that of man.
Why does He say that? He says that, to tell all of us that the human being is not able to manage this material world, that we have to be supported upon, without the Help and Guidance from G-d.
We know that in the story of the beginning of mankind, a kind of a Genesis in Qur'an, G-d said there was a rebel in the Heavens that we call Iblis. The Christian language would call him Satan; the Arabic word or Qur'anic word is Shaitan. There was a rebel among the Angels. His name was Iblis, and he did not accept that man should be made a khalifah in the earth. Khalifah in the earth means one responsible for rule or authority that human life should have in the earth. Iblis did not accept that; he didn't like that and was not a true Angel but one of the Jinns.
Angels are made of Pure Light. Jinns are made of fire. Jinns are made as passionate creatures. When Iblis did not accept G-d's Will, G-d said to him, "Get you down from here, all of you." Because of what this Jinn did, man also was sent down for human life, sent down from Heaven to the earth.
"Get down into the earth, into life. There, you will find all of your needs, and there you will die, and from there you will be raised up again." G-d is saying that man's life is to be lived on earth in the community of people, human beings. Man is not an Angel. He has angelic qualities; he can serve in the role of an Angel; he can even behave as an Angel, which is rare. Man's description is human, not Angel.
G-d said, "If the earth had been populated with Angels, He would have sent you an Angel as a Messenger." He didn't. He sent you a human person, Muhammed the human mortal, as he is called in the Qur'an. G-d is telling us that we have to accept to live in circumstances that we have on earth. We have to have G-d's Help to manage, because without G-d's Help, it is too much for us.
We don't have to tell too many mothers in the ghettos that. She knows it's too much for her. Her children turn to the street, and she can't call them back. There is nothing she can do about it but just see her children go the way of the streets. She can call everybody and not get any help. Everybody comes, but hardly ever anybody can help. Her children are gone.
That's because the world is a bigger influence than human influence. If we let the world and the circum-stances in the environment that we have in the world, if we let those circumstances and that environment go against human life, then we lose our children to that life, that Pope John Paul II, who has passed - may G-d have him in Paradise and Peace, Ameen - "the Culture of Death." He called that cultural influence we have in the street that is negative and against human decency, and these are his exact words, "the Culture of Death." So G-d wants us to have leaders who have the faith and spirit that they can manage circumstances in their environment and influence the environment, so the environment supports the human life that G-d wants for us.
Muslims are not only obligated to take care of their souls - yes, we are - but those of their families as well. G-d says take care of your families. "Save yourselves and your families from the Fires of Hell." Those fires are not just burning below the surface of the ground. They are burning wherever we are, and many of us are better than six feet below the surface of the ground. We think we are walking on the ground, but we are not. We are more than six feet under, and the Hell Fires are leaping all over us.
We want to be able to manage circumstances. We can't do this alone; that's why G-d wants us to be a community. G-d says, "You are a community."
He doesn't want us to be anything but a community. The congregation is supposed to be the congregation of the community. The Muslims are a congregation. Congregation means coming together, holding together. He could have used another word, which would make you want to think of comparing yourself to some other community. But He said, "... And you are the Best Community evolved for the good of all people...." We want to strive for community life, and we want to have our community life in the way that G-d guides us to have it and to have that community life welcome all people. We are family. Humans are family. So we have to welcome all people who belong to the family of human beings. Welcome them and see no differences.
When you come to lie point where , ou meet them and you become friends with them as good persons and you come to the point that you've forgotten that this person belongs to another race, you've forgotten that person belongs to another religion, you become friends, you welcome each other, you live with each other and go places with each other, greeting each other "hi" and "how is your family," asking about each other's relatives - when you reach that point, you have joined and have successfully come back into the family of mankind as created by G-d. And you will be in heaven. Muhammed, the Prophet (PBUH), our Prophet, the Prophet of the Qur'an, made faith a condition of love and made faith also a condition of getting into Paradise. He said, and I am quoting him word for word, "Never will you enter Paradise, until you have faith. And never will you have Faith, until you practice loving one another."
In the beginning of the Nation of Islam around 1931, we have the records saying that the teacher of the Nation of Islam came from overseas and began teaching in Detroit, Michigan, where the first Temple was established. And the first chapter of this great International League of Muslim Women organization was established too in Detroit. The Nation of Islam, as I knew it - I was born in 1933 and remember 1943 and 1953; that's 20 years. All of those years, if you met a member of the Nation of Islam and you told them you were a member, they automatically accepted you as their brother and sister and you could feel that love.
We had love for one another. That's what was strong among us, that we had love for one another. We lost that during the change, when we stopped thinking about G-d so much and started thinking about ourselves - getting money, Black Power. All that took it away. We lost that genuine love we had for one another. Over recent years, the past 10 years at least, I see that love growing again. And the International League of Muslim Women is really a great haven of love for one another. That, we feel. And you are helping us grow that love back. You are helping the community grow that love back that we lost. We are getting it back. We have to understand, too, that we need special efforts like the International League of Muslim Women, special organized efforts. People should look for coming together. People should look for those of similar minds, when you want to do things, when you have a need that is not being fulfilled, it's strong in you and you want to do something about the situation.
Look for those who have your kind of thinking, your mind. Look for those in whose mind is the same fire burning, burning for something special. Then you group with those of like minds. You should group together and have your leader. When people come together, the leader manifests. The one who is best qualified will be known, and you'll have a leader.
This is how we want to multiply productive work. We want it to multiply. Let's not stop the work of the International League of Muslim Women. Let's find out what's the need in our community. Let us say, "Hey, I'm not going to wait for Imam W. Deen Mohammed to say 'shazaam' and create this. "He is not superstitious; he doesn't believe in that kind of magic. I'm going to do something like these women have done, like Sis. Sahirah Muhammad." Praise be to Allah. We thank Allah for her and all these great sisters. Don't forget to identify with the "striving for," and today we are still the "striving for." If I remain the leader, I'm going to be the leader of the "striving for." When you get rich, I'm going to retire and will ask you for money. But I will always be the leader of the "striving for."
I think that is what Muhammed the Prophet (PBUH) meant, when he said he was offered two ways to go. He was offered to travel through the mountains, and he was offered to travel through the plains. He said he chose to travel through the plains. So identify with the "striving for" firstly, right at home in your community.
Identify with the "striving for," and let us test our leaders, when they come before us to lead us. Let us see if they have love and compassion for the "striving for," not the "lazy for." See if they love and care to serve the needs of the "striving for." If they do, then they are the leaders who we want and they must show us by their actions that they love human beings, that they love people. That they are not just working for the dollar or working to pay their bills. That they are working because they love people and want to see the whole life better, not just one life or some better - but all the life better. Then we should support them. I'm saying this because we live in a time when most of us have lost our human life. We are in human form, but we have lost our human life and are subject to have show-off leaders and people who are promoting self-interest, first and last. Those people will deceive us and themselves. All of us lose, when we accept such persons as our leaders.
So in my conclusion, we want to keep Taqwa and Jihad. Keep the Sacred Respect that G-d wants us to have, for G-d first, but also for human relationships, especially those family ties and all things that He, G-d, has made sacred. Then we want to always identify with people who are striving for a better life. Thank you, and Peace be unto you. As-Salaam-Alaikum.
An Islamic Formula for a Successful Life
1988 Los Angeles - When it comes to a whole lot of people, a whole group, the masses, black, white, green or whatever color, when it comes to these big groups of poor people, they will point out the fact, but they don't point to the fact until after one of the poor have already called the attention of one of the members of his own lot to the problem They weren't talking about the poor self-esteem of blacks, until (Marcus) Garvey, Frederick Douglass before him, Drew Ali, and many others did and especially the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, they weren't talking about it until they made the point, that the black man has been derived of a comfortable self-image. That he has been told lies about his own individual human worth. And that has to be corrected if the black man is to meet the challenges of the modern times, and competitive world society. It was members of our lot that told us before the social scientists, the so-called learned Western scientists came out and began to make an issue, to get help for the problems.
And believe me, no matter how sincere these people are in education, in the social fields no matter how sincere they are, they can't do but so much. Their ability to help the masses, is greatly limited. They will spend on individual problems, but they will not spend significant amounts on satisfying the problem of the masses. And if they start to spend to correct t he malfunction in the masses, (and I'm not talking about blacks only) now, the masses-the uneducated, the un-established, the uprooted, that's who I'm talking about. If they spend they will not spend, and if they spend, there will be right away, a counter-movement against their spending. And that movement will be secretly spending to undermine what they are trying to accomplish. I said 'secretly': you won't be aware of what's happening. All of a sudden you've got freedom that you didn't have before; all of a sudden they are promoting liberty on your part that you didn't have before, you didn't dream of, you were even afraid to think of, telling you that you can freak off, and do whatever you like. That's to take the masses away that need help, that come to them.
Now, I'm not telling most of you anything; you know this. But, sometimes you have to be reminded, that the masses are an unwanted lot, they are only wanted in servant roles, and if there is no need for them in servant roles, they are regarded as a burden on society. Now, am I saying this to excite you, to rile you, to make you become dissatisfied or angry, with the Establishment? No! I am saying this to get you to see that you must be responsible for yourself, and whatever help comes to you accept it, if it comes from clean hands, accept it, be grateful to God and be grateful to your fellow man. But don't depend on that — for great help comes in seasons, but you have to live throughout the year. And my religion tells me, that I should direct my attention to a blessed tree, whose fruit comes in every season, and that isn't the world. The world's fruit is seasonal. You remember the seasons of (President) Kennedy, and the season of President Johnson, and now you are in the season of President Reagan. So you know something about seasons don't you? And I think the Christians say, there are those who can read the face of heaven, but can't read the signs of the seasons.
They can look at the sky and say it's going to rain, they see the clouds up there, and they believe most likely, that those are rain clouds, so they say it's going to rain, and they see the winds blowing the clouds, they say it's going to be fair weather. But they can't look down here where everything is happening all around them, and say hey, it's winter in June (laughter).
It is important to know that Scripture will focus on man as an identity, which is the answer for the identity conflict and identity burden. The Scripture focuses upon man's identity as universal man, as common man. Now we know our identity differs depending on the interest we give ourselves to. We even identify a person as a mailman, but that identity of his is not as important, not anything consequential as his identity as a creature who is a member in the material universe, and has a role, a purpose and a destiny, in that reality. That definition is much more significant, much more important for the human sense of well-being, sensor of direction, sense of purpose in life, than the simple identification of him as a mailman. But the mailman — that's an identification, isn't it? He's a mailman. See, some of us think that the identity that the traffic cop wants is the important identity; he's Negro, he's black, you're burly, or you're frail. 'I'm black and burly or I'm black and frail; I'm black and homosexual, I'm black and gay,' whatever. I'm not making jokes; I'm very serious. Those are the silly identities that we live with. Tm black and female, I'm black and masculine.' An ape is masculine — more masculine than you. He'll take your pants down. That ape is bad, tough, real burly. So that's not the identity that you should be proud of.
I'm on my topic, "Islamic Formula for a Successful Life." The first step towards being successful is to see yourself, for the moment you see yourself, according to the Prophet, (PBUH), you know your God. How can man know God and not know himself? You have to know yourself first, and you know yourself by looking at yourself in the cosmic reality. "Oh, what is he talking about, cosmic reality!" Look. Matter is continuous, there is a continuity to matter. Matter has a unity, matter has a sameness, matter makes up one family of matter. Stars and all the bodies and things in the universe; you are a citizen of the universe. You were a citizen of the universe before you became a citizen of Africa, or a native son of Africa; you were a citizen of the universe before you became a citizen of the United States; you're first a citizen of the universe. Your identity begins in the universal reality, and that's where you find your essence; that's where you find your nature. God says He made man and patterned him on the pattern which He made the universe. I hope we understand it as I go on.
Allah says, with the Revelation given to Muhammad the Prophet (PBUH), speaking to the Jews' stiff-neckedness, their stubbornness. that God revealed to them, that they should enter the door prostrate. You can enter the door prostrate, if you are ignorant and have been misguided, you can enter the door, prostrate, if the right picture is presented to you. What do we mean by prostrate? The Christians say it in a different way. They say. 'you cannot enter unless you come in as little babes.' God created first for us, the cosmic reality — stars, heavens, earth, all of this combined is one great endless, material reality. Now, maybe you can't be as philosophical as I can be. I heard a white man brag once, and he wasn't a high-class white man; he was a common white man — a common white man, of thought and principle, and he said in my presence: I believe he said it in my ears, but he wasn't looking at me.
I sensed he just wanted me to hear what he was saying. See, sometimes a man can look at a person, and can pretty well guess what kind of mind is in that person, and when you sense that a mind is in that person that may hear something that other minds won't hear, and you've been wanting to tell some black man that, the white man will tell that in the ear of that man, that he thinks will listen. So this white man said, 'the white man has great imagination, and that has accounted for his success.' That's what he said. You'd be surprised how help comes to people, from unexpected places.
Now, I agree with that man. Great imagination; imagination that strains itself to comprehend unreachable boundaries of this real environment, not imagination that sees what it can do unreal. See, the fools have great imagination too, but they stretch their imagination to see what they can do that's unheard of, that's unidentifiable, that has no place in the continuity of reality. They want to do something that's freaked way out, that's way-out. So their fiction is not appreciated by the critics of fiction, and they wonder 'how come, you see how they do us, man? Now you now the black man can write, man! The heavy prose, all the great fiction that we write, man. when do we get any recognition for our popular books, the popular fiction of our writers, man?' Your fiction is fictitious' It has no real reference! It's not a message of the truth' in strange apparel! It's just strange through and through! We need to know these things, so we can get our life into our own hands.
So dear beloved people, when talking about self-image, the importance of self-image for a healthy sense of well-being, the bigger picture i> the situation for the smaller picture. If you put a small picture in isolation, you are in trouble. But if you take the small picture and put it in the framework of the lug picture, now you've got a relationship, now you've got reality connected. Now you've got some way of defining the limiting definitions. See, the black man just keeps on going with the definitions of black. 'Yeah, black is beautiful, man.' Now, that's some light stuff to say about your identity as a race. Birds are beautiful — that's not a racial classification. 'Well, we needed that to come back from the negative things t he white man.' Well, all you can do is 'tit-for-tat".' He hit you on the shoulder, you hit him on the shoulder? That's child's stuff. He calls you ugly, don't try and prove yourself beautiful. He calls you ugly, try to prove yourself wealthy, or try to prove yourself wise; go for a bigger victory. He calls you ugly, don't go for that little shallow victor, that he's trying to influence you with, go for a bigger victory.
He'll say. 'you niggers are sure ugly,' you say, 'keep quiet, brothers, let's see if we can show him we're sure wise.' Because he'll let his daughter marry an ugly wise man, and while we are on this facet of the puzzle, you have to understand this, that all white people are not beautiful. Now, they know that. When the white man thinks of himself as the ideal race, with the idea of beauty and all that, he's aware, that some of his people are hideous. He knows that some of his people are so ugly that if he met them at high noon, he would be afraid. He knows that! But lifting himself up. as the ideal picture of man's beauty, has influenced you to think, that he ain't ugly! Sure, white people are beautiful, but white people are also ugly, with all their straight hair. A straight-haired orangutan doesn't make him beautiful. But some straight-haired blacks think that they are OK, that they are beautiful just because their hair is straight. Some are so ugly that they should be apologizing every time they see somebody. But his hair is straight, so he's not even conscious of it — he doesn't even know he's ugly.
And some old brainwashed victim of the white man's psychology, from the women, she'll be fine, she doesn't see anything but his straight hair. She'll have a baby and the baby will be born bald-headed, and ain't nothing there but the orangutan, and she's ashamed for people to come over 'and see my baby' because she married a head of hair.
So in order to work safely with any concept, you've got to see that concept in it> reality. And it is the cosmic concept that has given birth to every other concept— every animal, every plant, human being, body, every stone, every crystal. forms in the concept of the cosmic world.
The white man has that understanding; he makes fiction and he pictures his heroes as cosmic heroes. They don't have United States citizenship. They've got a citizenship in a cosmic galaxy. Now you tell me that hero's concern is as small as yours? No, your narrow picture of your identity makes you very small. Allah says, 'O man, think not that your reality is bigger than the external reality.' He patterned man's life and His reality on the order of the universe. You have universal disciplines in your nature, in your being by nature, and it is those universal disciplines that account for your well-being. If you lose those universal disciplines, you will lose your sense of well-being.
So we need the big picture in order to identify the small one, to find the place for the small one, the value of the small one.
We need to know the role of matter cosmic reality in order to appreciate the role of man. And Allah says the heavens, the stars, the moon, all of those things glorify God. all of those things conform to His purpose, all of those things conform to His will, all of those things follow the nature and aim that He gave them. And for that reason, they remain; their function is preserved for them, while man is constantly losing his function as the excellent creature that God created him to be.
Racist views of ourselves did not come to us from common, natural man. It came from man who gained the feel, the insight, the feel to confuse reality, and pass on pride to the fools that he himself pretends to buy, but does not buy, but only-sells it. If you think racist America was able to achieve the greatness that America achieved in the last hundred years, you are yourself ignorant. It was not racist America that achieved that, no; they used racism as an excuse to keep you out of the competition, to keep you fighting them in a battlefield of nonsense. "What the heck difference do it make if you white or I'm black" or "I'm superior because I'm white - white is better than black" and then we're going to counter, "I'm black and I'm better'n you." "Your skin burns in the sun; mine doesn't. You get sun rash, I don't." And when they come back, they talk about you.
And believe me, no matter how sincere these people are in education, in the social fields no matter how sincere they are, they can't do but so much. Their ability to help the masses, is greatly limited. They will spend on individual problems, but they will not spend significant amounts on satisfying the problem of the masses. And if they start to spend to correct t he malfunction in the masses, (and I'm not talking about blacks only) now, the masses-the uneducated, the un-established, the uprooted, that's who I'm talking about. If they spend they will not spend, and if they spend, there will be right away, a counter-movement against their spending. And that movement will be secretly spending to undermine what they are trying to accomplish. I said 'secretly': you won't be aware of what's happening. All of a sudden you've got freedom that you didn't have before; all of a sudden they are promoting liberty on your part that you didn't have before, you didn't dream of, you were even afraid to think of, telling you that you can freak off, and do whatever you like. That's to take the masses away that need help, that come to them.
Now, I'm not telling most of you anything; you know this. But, sometimes you have to be reminded, that the masses are an unwanted lot, they are only wanted in servant roles, and if there is no need for them in servant roles, they are regarded as a burden on society. Now, am I saying this to excite you, to rile you, to make you become dissatisfied or angry, with the Establishment? No! I am saying this to get you to see that you must be responsible for yourself, and whatever help comes to you accept it, if it comes from clean hands, accept it, be grateful to God and be grateful to your fellow man. But don't depend on that — for great help comes in seasons, but you have to live throughout the year. And my religion tells me, that I should direct my attention to a blessed tree, whose fruit comes in every season, and that isn't the world. The world's fruit is seasonal. You remember the seasons of (President) Kennedy, and the season of President Johnson, and now you are in the season of President Reagan. So you know something about seasons don't you? And I think the Christians say, there are those who can read the face of heaven, but can't read the signs of the seasons.
They can look at the sky and say it's going to rain, they see the clouds up there, and they believe most likely, that those are rain clouds, so they say it's going to rain, and they see the winds blowing the clouds, they say it's going to be fair weather. But they can't look down here where everything is happening all around them, and say hey, it's winter in June (laughter).
It is important to know that Scripture will focus on man as an identity, which is the answer for the identity conflict and identity burden. The Scripture focuses upon man's identity as universal man, as common man. Now we know our identity differs depending on the interest we give ourselves to. We even identify a person as a mailman, but that identity of his is not as important, not anything consequential as his identity as a creature who is a member in the material universe, and has a role, a purpose and a destiny, in that reality. That definition is much more significant, much more important for the human sense of well-being, sensor of direction, sense of purpose in life, than the simple identification of him as a mailman. But the mailman — that's an identification, isn't it? He's a mailman. See, some of us think that the identity that the traffic cop wants is the important identity; he's Negro, he's black, you're burly, or you're frail. 'I'm black and burly or I'm black and frail; I'm black and homosexual, I'm black and gay,' whatever. I'm not making jokes; I'm very serious. Those are the silly identities that we live with. Tm black and female, I'm black and masculine.' An ape is masculine — more masculine than you. He'll take your pants down. That ape is bad, tough, real burly. So that's not the identity that you should be proud of.
I'm on my topic, "Islamic Formula for a Successful Life." The first step towards being successful is to see yourself, for the moment you see yourself, according to the Prophet, (PBUH), you know your God. How can man know God and not know himself? You have to know yourself first, and you know yourself by looking at yourself in the cosmic reality. "Oh, what is he talking about, cosmic reality!" Look. Matter is continuous, there is a continuity to matter. Matter has a unity, matter has a sameness, matter makes up one family of matter. Stars and all the bodies and things in the universe; you are a citizen of the universe. You were a citizen of the universe before you became a citizen of Africa, or a native son of Africa; you were a citizen of the universe before you became a citizen of the United States; you're first a citizen of the universe. Your identity begins in the universal reality, and that's where you find your essence; that's where you find your nature. God says He made man and patterned him on the pattern which He made the universe. I hope we understand it as I go on.
Allah says, with the Revelation given to Muhammad the Prophet (PBUH), speaking to the Jews' stiff-neckedness, their stubbornness. that God revealed to them, that they should enter the door prostrate. You can enter the door prostrate, if you are ignorant and have been misguided, you can enter the door, prostrate, if the right picture is presented to you. What do we mean by prostrate? The Christians say it in a different way. They say. 'you cannot enter unless you come in as little babes.' God created first for us, the cosmic reality — stars, heavens, earth, all of this combined is one great endless, material reality. Now, maybe you can't be as philosophical as I can be. I heard a white man brag once, and he wasn't a high-class white man; he was a common white man — a common white man, of thought and principle, and he said in my presence: I believe he said it in my ears, but he wasn't looking at me.
I sensed he just wanted me to hear what he was saying. See, sometimes a man can look at a person, and can pretty well guess what kind of mind is in that person, and when you sense that a mind is in that person that may hear something that other minds won't hear, and you've been wanting to tell some black man that, the white man will tell that in the ear of that man, that he thinks will listen. So this white man said, 'the white man has great imagination, and that has accounted for his success.' That's what he said. You'd be surprised how help comes to people, from unexpected places.
Now, I agree with that man. Great imagination; imagination that strains itself to comprehend unreachable boundaries of this real environment, not imagination that sees what it can do unreal. See, the fools have great imagination too, but they stretch their imagination to see what they can do that's unheard of, that's unidentifiable, that has no place in the continuity of reality. They want to do something that's freaked way out, that's way-out. So their fiction is not appreciated by the critics of fiction, and they wonder 'how come, you see how they do us, man? Now you now the black man can write, man! The heavy prose, all the great fiction that we write, man. when do we get any recognition for our popular books, the popular fiction of our writers, man?' Your fiction is fictitious' It has no real reference! It's not a message of the truth' in strange apparel! It's just strange through and through! We need to know these things, so we can get our life into our own hands.
So dear beloved people, when talking about self-image, the importance of self-image for a healthy sense of well-being, the bigger picture i> the situation for the smaller picture. If you put a small picture in isolation, you are in trouble. But if you take the small picture and put it in the framework of the lug picture, now you've got a relationship, now you've got reality connected. Now you've got some way of defining the limiting definitions. See, the black man just keeps on going with the definitions of black. 'Yeah, black is beautiful, man.' Now, that's some light stuff to say about your identity as a race. Birds are beautiful — that's not a racial classification. 'Well, we needed that to come back from the negative things t he white man.' Well, all you can do is 'tit-for-tat".' He hit you on the shoulder, you hit him on the shoulder? That's child's stuff. He calls you ugly, don't try and prove yourself beautiful. He calls you ugly, try to prove yourself wealthy, or try to prove yourself wise; go for a bigger victory. He calls you ugly, don't go for that little shallow victor, that he's trying to influence you with, go for a bigger victory.
He'll say. 'you niggers are sure ugly,' you say, 'keep quiet, brothers, let's see if we can show him we're sure wise.' Because he'll let his daughter marry an ugly wise man, and while we are on this facet of the puzzle, you have to understand this, that all white people are not beautiful. Now, they know that. When the white man thinks of himself as the ideal race, with the idea of beauty and all that, he's aware, that some of his people are hideous. He knows that some of his people are so ugly that if he met them at high noon, he would be afraid. He knows that! But lifting himself up. as the ideal picture of man's beauty, has influenced you to think, that he ain't ugly! Sure, white people are beautiful, but white people are also ugly, with all their straight hair. A straight-haired orangutan doesn't make him beautiful. But some straight-haired blacks think that they are OK, that they are beautiful just because their hair is straight. Some are so ugly that they should be apologizing every time they see somebody. But his hair is straight, so he's not even conscious of it — he doesn't even know he's ugly.
And some old brainwashed victim of the white man's psychology, from the women, she'll be fine, she doesn't see anything but his straight hair. She'll have a baby and the baby will be born bald-headed, and ain't nothing there but the orangutan, and she's ashamed for people to come over 'and see my baby' because she married a head of hair.
So in order to work safely with any concept, you've got to see that concept in it> reality. And it is the cosmic concept that has given birth to every other concept— every animal, every plant, human being, body, every stone, every crystal. forms in the concept of the cosmic world.
The white man has that understanding; he makes fiction and he pictures his heroes as cosmic heroes. They don't have United States citizenship. They've got a citizenship in a cosmic galaxy. Now you tell me that hero's concern is as small as yours? No, your narrow picture of your identity makes you very small. Allah says, 'O man, think not that your reality is bigger than the external reality.' He patterned man's life and His reality on the order of the universe. You have universal disciplines in your nature, in your being by nature, and it is those universal disciplines that account for your well-being. If you lose those universal disciplines, you will lose your sense of well-being.
So we need the big picture in order to identify the small one, to find the place for the small one, the value of the small one.
We need to know the role of matter cosmic reality in order to appreciate the role of man. And Allah says the heavens, the stars, the moon, all of those things glorify God. all of those things conform to His purpose, all of those things conform to His will, all of those things follow the nature and aim that He gave them. And for that reason, they remain; their function is preserved for them, while man is constantly losing his function as the excellent creature that God created him to be.
Racist views of ourselves did not come to us from common, natural man. It came from man who gained the feel, the insight, the feel to confuse reality, and pass on pride to the fools that he himself pretends to buy, but does not buy, but only-sells it. If you think racist America was able to achieve the greatness that America achieved in the last hundred years, you are yourself ignorant. It was not racist America that achieved that, no; they used racism as an excuse to keep you out of the competition, to keep you fighting them in a battlefield of nonsense. "What the heck difference do it make if you white or I'm black" or "I'm superior because I'm white - white is better than black" and then we're going to counter, "I'm black and I'm better'n you." "Your skin burns in the sun; mine doesn't. You get sun rash, I don't." And when they come back, they talk about you.
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