Reprinted from the Muslim Journal 12-9-05 to 1-6-06

Human Survival In Progress: Part 2

Imam W. Deen Mohammed

(Imam W. Deen Mohammed gave this part of his First Sunday Public Address on Oct. 2, 2005, after the close of the first hour broadcast over his Worldwide Radio Broadcast, also from the Homewood Hotel, 17400 S. Halsted, Homewood, III. Everyone is invited to the next First Sunday Address on Dec. 4, 2005 - see advertisement below. This part of the Lecture is given in excerpts.)

You should realize that Allah, through the son of Elijah and Clara Muhammad, has given you gifts.... Why you? It is because you are the ones who had the courage to break your bonds with the White world or with "The World" and leave behind you your previous idea of what you should worship, your church life and then follow patiently and in good spirit the new leader who told you:
"We are living in the end of times. This world's rule is over."

And you remained. You had the faith in him, and they say faith can move mountains. Certainly, not accepting Jesus Christ as god was a mountain. And your faith moved that mountain.

For many poor souls from Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, to stop eating pork chops that they hardly got but once or twice a year and to stop eating chitterlings and knuckles in greens and other stuff, that was certainly a mountain. That faith the Hon. Elijah Muhammad gave you also gave you the strength to move that mountain.

I can go on naming things that were strong and monumental in your life, that you had to leave behind you and cut loose. And you did the job, because you wanted to be where the Hon. Elijah Muhammad said we should be.

That was powerful, and I don't think that is the doing of a man. It can't be the doing of man. Man does not have the power to affect human life like that. Mr. Fard's language that he gave to his student, the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, was G-d's Intervention in the world's rule over Black people. G-d intervened.

G-d said, "This is too much for them. The Satan, the Adversary, conspired to make this world and this life for them. And he obligated Me (G-d speaking) by using My Name on their religion and using My Name to make people think that I approve of their wrongdoing - even the enslavement of a people."

Yes, they did. They slipped it in very quietly, and some churches spoke it out loudly, that we were the descendants from Ham and that we are the cursed Canaanites. In the story of the three sons of Noah, they say that we are the ones who are silly, fickle and not given to respect serious matters. That is how they labeled us. That is how they stamped us.

The other two brothers, when they saw their father Noah, one turned his head, because it was so hurting to him to see his father drunk or affected by liquor or wine and left exposed in the nude. He felt so bad, seeing his father in that state, that he turned his head from his father and kept going.

Isn't that the behavior of many people? That if they see a shameful thing, it will hurt them so bad in their hearts, that they just turn around or turn away from it and keep going? It's too much for them to deal with.

Then Ham looked at his father and laughed. Isn't that the behavior we find in some stupid people around us; they may be in someone's own household. And the old mothers would tear a hind side up.

She'd say, "You won't be laughing, when I get through with you. You won't be laughing at important things!" My mother was so fierce, she only had to hint that she was coming after us.

I will acknowledge the truth, that the good, rich continent we call Africa gave birth to great kingdoms. This is history. Once they were the masters of the whole known world -Africans from Ethiopia and Africans from The Sudan. And there is evidence that they hid, that Africans from more of the interior of Africa and the southern part of Africa achieved great feats and became a mighty people.
They were the ones who brought their sciences northward, enabling the Egyptians, Ethiopians and Sudanese to benefit from them.

The Sphinx, that great monument by the Pyramids of Egypt, is called by the Arabs in the Arabic language, Abu Hal - or Father of All the Surroundings.

His body is the body of a lion, the master of the jungle, the one that puts fear in all the creatures of the jungle.

The lion has a tick, although he can roar and his voice is powerful. But he has been given by nature a wisdom; he digs a big round hole and hollers or roars into the hole. And it vibrates the earth for a distance.

The sound is terrifying. It magnifies the volume of his roar many, many times over. The animals are so frighten by his roar, until they just start getting out of the way.

We know the Roman Empire was a power based in Rome. Rome is not that big, but it had colonies, governments under the main government all around the known world. So much so, they used to brag that "all roads lead to Rome."

Now here is a Sphinx with the body of a lion and the head of a typical African, not one mixed with other blood. It was a typical African with broad nose, thick lips and nappy hair.

When the Western world began to come into power and got mighty with the invention of uncommon weapons, it was able to conquer people who had not come into that kind of possession or power. So France through Napoleon brought his fleet right up to the shores of Africa and brought his soldiers and his cannons all the way up to the Sphinx.

When he saw that Black man sitting up there and didn't know how that Black man had accomplished what he accomplished, didn't know how he made paints that wouldn't deteriorate and to last for thousands of years, still looking beautiful and fresh on the walls - I saw this myself.

There were brooms and dust pans and nice designed furniture and chairs, that if you brought it here today, people would want to buy that furniture - this I saw. It was made at least 2000 or more years ago.

Napoleon was envious and jealous and asked, "How did they accomplish all of this?" They were told that Africa was a land occupied by black beasts and black demons.

Their bosses would tell them that to keep them out of Africa and to keep their egos strong. They didn't want to hurt their own psyche. They had gone into Africa before and already found out that it was a land of science and great achievement for human beings.

But they knew if their common people were to hear that, it would dampen their spirit and do damage to their psyche. It would hurt their ego so much, that they wouldn't be any good to themselves or anybody else.

Now just think what slavery was designed to do to our spirits!

Napoleon turned his cannons on the Sphinx. You will find this in history. The evidence is still there with the chipped nose. Do you think that if it had been a White man's nose, Napoleon would have shot it with his cannon? He shot it in hopes that no one would recognize that it was a typical African nose.

The blunt nose and blunt mouth were too much, so Napoleon couldn't leave the Sphinx like that. Mick Jagger has big lips like a Black person, but he doesn't have a big blunt nose. Now if you find both of those in the same face, that is too much.

Isn't G-d, in His Wisdom, worth us studying and making a note of? That is why Allah says in the Qur'an, "Think, for surely thinking profits you." It brings you gains. "And thinking (reflecting) on G-d is the greatest of all powers." It is the most rewarding of all exercises, of all activities - thinking on G-d.

He will connect the whole existence for you and show you the unity of His creation and also the purpose of you in it. Keep thinking on Him. But you can't think of Him on Jesus. We tried that for a hundred or more years, and we are still in the soup line, on welfare and feeling down hearted.

That is why He told Muhammed to think. But He didn't tell him to think without giving him direction. He said, "Read, in the Name of your Lord, Who created." So He connected Muhammed with the external reality. He connected Muhammed with objects outside of his own life, even the stars in the heavens, the trees, the rivers, the mountains and all the heavens above. Everything.

He connected Muhammed with that, when He told him to "read." And He revealed to us through Muhammed by way of the Angel Jibril that He is going to give us a field to work in. He said the expanse of this field to work in is as the expanse all of the Heavens and the Earth.

You need at least one hour to be silent and just think on what I have just said. I have thought on it all of my life, and I continue to think on it. The field to work in that He has prepared for us - how big it is, how wide it is, how extensive it is - is as the skies and the earth.

That is an invitation to the human beings that He made, to engage with your mind, with your intelligence, with your moral nature, with your spirit this massive creation, this massive universe. You are to engage it with your brain.

"I have created you to engage the world that I made (G-d speaking). And I have created the world that I have made to engage you. And I have created you to benefit from My world, and I have created my world to benefit from you.

"So if you all become mated - your intelligence mates with My created world - you will reproduce your life as mating with your wife.

"And you will produce for your community and the human society flesh and blood children from your mortal body, but utility in the form of science and education, industry, etc. And your life will be improved and advanced and multiplied over and over and over."

This is the wonderful news, and that is why the Bible is called "Good News." It is because Jesus came to open up to the people what I am opening up to you right now. But they robbed him and pretended that they killed him. They pretended they crucified him, and they admit that they robbed him.

You ask, "Where is that in the Bible?" They hung him naked. That is enough to tell you they robbed him. Wasn't he a great ruler of honor and respect in the eyes of the people? Does he look like that on the Cross? No.

What is this trying to say of Jesus Christ? That they robbed him of his culture. He was sent into the world with a religious culture to give to the people to dress them up.

The Hon. Elijah Muhammad spoke about dressing you up in a new clothes, in a new and beautiful life. They robbed Jesus Christ of all of that.

How was that achieved? They fabricated a story and presented a lie as the truth and said it came from G-d about Jesus Christ. And they directed your attention from the real thing to the plans of Satan.

That is how they robbed him from what he brought to address the people in a new culture and new life.

Let us look at how G-d helps the people, not just us but people before us, all the way back to the first creation, Adam, himself. How did he help Adam? He helped Adam by calling his attention to the world of many valuable things and of great resources - trees aplenty.

The man in the jungle is running around about the trees, but all he knows about trees is what the birds know. Sometimes, he doesn't know what the birds know and will only do what a dog will do. He will never think of the tree as having any value.

But Adam was not that kind of man. G-d did not make that kind of man; that kind of man had lost his Adamic life. Adam was created with an intelligence and a free intellect, and he had the nature and the desire to benefit his intellect by engaging everything within his sight.

So G-d helps people by connecting them back with what He connected their father, Adam, to - the natural creation, nature. Then He helps them by revealing to them Messages that are written by Him in the created things or in everything that He has made.
G-d says, "There are Signs in that that is above you and also in that in the earth, as well as in yourselves, too." What word is used? It is the same word that is used for sentences or passages in the Qur'an - Ayat.

G-d speaks away from the Qur'an and says to us, "In the sky you observe and in the earth you observe, as well as in your own selves, are Signs," and He uses the very same words that describe what is on the pages of Qur'an or that designates passages or words or messages from G-d in the Qur'an.

G-d is saying, "Before I revealed to a human being who needed to give you My Word from a human mind, heart, spirit and mouth, I had already spoken to you with everything I did on earth, in the sky and between and in you bears My Words, My Message to the human soul and intellect."

G-d says, "There are many Signs to back up all that is being revealed. But how many pass by the Signs never giving them any attention?" As the Bible says, "Heedless, paying no attention."

G-d helps us by feeding our intelligence, by feeding our brains and minds and by broadening our vision. He sharpens and broadens our vision, so that we perceive more and come to know more.

Can we overlook true education? No. True education is the main instrument that G-d created. You ask, "How did He create education." You think on it. The main tool, main instrument, main means for helping us is "correct education."

Look how soon the Muslims who followed Muhammed, the new Messenger and new Prophet on this earth, came into knowledge and sciences and the ability to build higher institutions of learning and became the leaders in the world for doing that. It happened very soon.

Historians who write about Muhammed the Prophet say that he is alone in that kind of achievement. That no human being on this earth in the history of man had ever achieved so much in such a short period of time. That is what they say. Isn't that the promise in the Bible, when Jesus was born? "Behold, I come quick." It does not take long.

You can read Scripture and lose something. But if you read it from cover to cover, from the beginning to the end, you will see that nothing remains the theme as long and as constantly as vision, perception, seeing. In the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis, with Adam, the question of him seeing correctly comes up: "Oh, don't fear G-d. Listen to me and your eyes will come open."

The strongest urge in human life is to see the Light. If I see the Light, I will see how to move, how to get around. I can feel more secure. So it begins with seeing. And the New Testament at the end of the Bible also begins with seeing: "And the blind man rejoiced that he had been blessed by Christ, peace be on Jesus Christ, to have his blinded eyes open."

It is seeing. Seeing is perception. Seeing is having the ability to grow into understanding and to envision a better existence for ourselves. That is what G-d created us for.

G-d told Adam to dress the Garden. The Garden was beautiful; it was a Paradise. But it was missing the human contribution to it. So the human comes and produces and puts every other creature to shame.

The beaver can cut logs and build him a home in the water. The bee can make a beautiful air conditioned home to live in; this is science. The bee's home remains cool, keeping a constant temperature. He builds it with wax produced with his own body, and what he digests produces the wax.

There are other creatures I can name to show you what they can do. But when you go out and look at the natural world untouched by man, nothing is done so big that it readily gets your attention.

The Empire State Building readily gets your attention. The lion will look at that and say, "Whoa, it's time for me to retreat." And the ants can actually make roads under the ground with his industry. But he cannot make something to get the attention of all eyes, like man has done.

We know man's creation of pollution and all the bad news. But I am just talking about his ability, whether he has caused problems or not.

Man is given superior, super ability over all of the other creatures created by G-d. When you look at the Bible and in other Scripture, it tells you of man's ability and capacity to produce. And G-d influencing him and instructing him is for him to be productive and produce in an abundance of goods.

G-d inspired him to do that. At the same time, G-d is promising that "the blinded eye shall see." After the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, you should be able to interpret that for yourself.

It means the uneducated shall be educated. And their future does not depend on their masters. But G-d will reveal to one of the uneducated and make that uneducated the new leader and the new light for the world.

That is exactly what happened in the time of Muhammed the Prophet. G-d took a man not educated in Scriptures and not knowing the world of the Christians and Jews, not even interested in it. He was a man raised up among idol worshippers, but he, himself, was never influenced to follow their life. He kept the excellence of human nature.

G-d called Muhammed, and the first word He said to him was "Read. Read in The Name of Your Lord Who Created. He created the human person from a clot or mount of blood adhering or holding itself." Then He repeated it the second time.

He said, "Read." Twice G-d says to Muhammed, "Read." "And your Lord is Most Generous." He was going to give him a lot more than he could even count.

"The One Who Taught the human being with the pen." What pen? It was the pen of His Creation. He taught him with the pen of His Creation and with the ink of Created Processes.

Then He says, G-d Himself, "If all the trees on earth could be converted into writing pens, and the seven seas multiplied over into ink, all the trees would be used up and all the seas would be used up, before you use up the Words of
G-d."

That use to just be fascinating and attractive. But now it is science in my head and in my heart. It is science. Muhammed the Prophet said to his followers, "Do you know what that is?" His followers were always patient and had the respect to wait on him to say what it was.

Perception is the theme from Genesis to Revelation. Perception is the theme from Surah Al-Fatihah to Surah an-Nas. Allah was first introduced to Muhammed as the Creator, not as Allah.

If there were not a plan to work against man's intelligence, so that the majority are eliminated, excluded, taken out of the race, out of the competition and out of the reward, then G-d would not have designed Scripture the way He designed it. He designed it in that way, because there is an enemy of mankind, of human kind, stepping out ahead of you all the time.

This enemy will create a picture of the world for you to benefit him, the enemy. So G-d has to counter the messages of the enemy by giving you Messengers and Prophets from Himself, to expand your vision, so you can see clearly in this world of darkness. So he said "Read" twice.

G-d is addressing the bad conditions that were prophesied in Scriptures that came before to the People of the Book, Jews and Christians. It said darkness was spread all over the world and nowhere to find the light.

It says a man came upon a little book and picked it up and couldn't read it. So he went to someone who could read letters or print.

He asked them, "Read this for me, please." The person said, "I'm sorry, I can't read." He was illiterate like he was, if not to the same degree. He comes to another and asks, "Read this for me." That person said, "I can read the letters, but this is sealed." What does seal mean?

Seal means locked up. You can't get out of the lock up, unless the authority who has the key comes and opens up the gate to let you out.

Seal means it is locked up, by the way the language is composed, by the way the knowledge and its meanings and expressions are composed. It is locked up against
all but those who have the key for unlocking the knowledge. There is one who can unlock the literary piece to bring out the knowledge.

Industrial man, the son of Adam, calls a creature in the water "seal." Why? It is because normally, it is a creature that is black like midnight. And it is a creature that is slick and smooth and just slides through the waters. So it is a "Seal." The one who sealed it is too smooth and too slick for you.

God helps us by freeing and expanding our vision and our eyesight and our perception of reality.
 
Blindness in Scripture refers to ignorance, that we are just not properly informed, not properly educated or not educated at all. It is talking about those who are blind to the life of Truth that G-d revealed for all people.
It also says in the Bible that there will come a famine that will spread all over the world. It says it will not be a famine of food, but a famine of hearing the Words of The Lord, a famine of hearing the Words of G-d.

Jonah was on the boat sleeping, and G-d had given him a mission to go to Nine-va. This is addressing every human being, men and women. The servants of G-d everyone have been created with a nature to serve G-d on this earth.

Do you think Muhammed wasn't serving G-d's Purpose, before G-d called him? He didn't know Islam and he didn't know how to read Scripture, but he was already living the human excellence that G-d gave him. He didn't have to fast for 40 days, because he kept the good life intact.

G-d said he had lived among us 40 years, and that is a lifetime. Life of the common man is 40 years, not 40 calendar years. It is until his nature and what he needs to survive in G-d's Creation comes into his conscious.

Universal is 4. There are 4 mountains and 4 portions of birds put on 4 mountains. And there are 4 winds blowing on dry bones, bringing them to have flesh and live again. G-d has given every creature its provisions in 4 measures.

You didn't have to wait on a Prophet to get that; He created you with that. The Constitution guidelines that set the pattern for the growing Constitution of these United States says everyone has inalienable rights.

Don't say, "Our Messenger." He is Allah's Messenger. We didn't send him, and we didn't give him what to preach or what he delivered. We are not the Sender. So he is not "your Messenger." He is your Prophet.

What is the difference? A Prophet is a warner, warning against things to come and opening the eyes to things to come, a seer into the future. That is a Prophet. That ability also is in you, as it is in every Prophet. It is a common property of human creation. That ability is a property of my own nature.

So if he manifested that also in himself, then he is "our Prophet." He was a human person just like we are. The ability is in all of us, but it came out in our leader, Prophet Muhammed.

Muhammed looked at his people suffering and didn't know the religious way to search Scripture to find answers. But he was moved in spirit to go away from his people, his countrymen, and go up in a mountain by himself and find a secluded opening in the mountain. He went into the mountain and sat there away from all the people.

He poured out his pain and suffering, and G-d saw him in that state. Muhammed didn't know who to call on. He didn't say, "Allah" or "Moses." He didn't say "Jesus." But he knew in his nature to go away from his people, and not to go down but to go up, so he would have a better view of what was around him.

He ascended up the Mountain of the Light, as it is called. This began to feed his mind, and his mind became broader and broader. His soul was humble by nature; it wasn't an arrogant soul. The more he saw, the more he humbled himself.

G-d saw him in that state and spoke to him, saying, "Read."