Excerpt - to purchase this lecture choose CD E100 and/or DVD F73
Peace unto all of you, As-Salaam-Alaikum. It is great to be together again, and Believers are always together, because our spirits and our hearts are one. I was coming here and was told to see what was behind me. It says, "WELCOME HOME!" And this is my home. I was born here. My mother said she brought me to Chicago in her arms; I was 11 months old. It is always good to be here in Detroit. This is where a new life began. African Americans came into a new life in 1930-1931, in this Motor City. I always think of Detroit as my home. Actually, I was born in Hamtramck, Michigan, and that is the same as Detroit. Detroit is so big,it envelops all of these small places like Hamtramck. I was born on Yemen Street, and a lot of Yemenites live in this city. I think they still live in this city.
Yemen is the place where the Lady of Saba had her kingdom. She is called Sheba in English. You have heard the story of Solomon and Sheba. This story is not forgotten, because it is in the Qur'an as well. The people of Sheba's kingdom were not called Yemenites by the people of old history; they were called the people of Saba. They were very progressive and great builders. A very prestigious magazine and popular on college campuses recently carried a front page story on the Ancient Yemenite people. Also many other Muslims came to make their home in Detroit and have lived there for generations.
No wonder Detroit is where we met Mr. Fard Muhammad or Mr. W. F. Muhammad, who introduced himself to the poor African American community of Detroit - called the Black Bottom. He invited them to come to "their religion." He called them "the lost people, who had been lost from their religion." He established the idea of the "Lost Found Nation of Islam in North America" and called it "in the Wilderness of North America" or the "Wilds of North America." He established that and named their places not mosques or masajid; he named them "Temples" after the order or design of the Shriners or Masons. They called their places Temples and until now call them Temples. Mr. Fard also designed a plan for us in North America and called them Temples.
He started here in Detroit and called this Temple No. 1. From here, Mr. Fard went to Chicago, and the Hon. Elijah Muhammad already had been selected from among the people here to be his assistant. So my father went with him to Chicago. And there together, they established Temple No. 2. Before Mr. Fard left America, they went to Milwaukee and they established Temple No. 3. Those three Temples were established with the Master Teacher. He was a Head Master in the Fiji Islands and in what is now called Pakistan, although it was not called Pakistan then. The Muslims had not yet achieved political independence and established the state called Pakistan. This was done in the early 1940s, and I am talking about in the early 1930s.
Mr. Fard left and went to Mexico, and after Mexico we don't know if he went back to England — he also came here out of England, or he could have gone back to Pakistan, then called India, his birth place. Or he could have gone to the Fiji Islands, a place where he gained a big following and was called Master G. He is still called Master G by his followers in the Fiji Island.
We should know these circumstances. We understand our own beginnings better when we know the circumstances belonging to that beginning. That is why I am talking about these things. This is Memorial Day, and this is a day that is very serious. We are supposed to call to mind the veterans that are alive and dead and who made the ultimate sacrifice to have this country safe and secured and protected.
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