First Sunday Lecture Series, Dec. 7th 2003: "Researching Our Faith and Supporting Business Life in Our Neighborhoods"

(Imam W. Deen Mohammed gave this public lecture at his First Sunday Lecture Series. The next will be held on Sunday, Jan. 4, 2003, also at Home-wood Ramada Inn, 17400 S. Halsted Ave., until fur-ther notice.)

G -d is Greater. We I —greet you with peace, As-Salaam-Alaikum. We thank the Lord Creator of the Heavens and the Earth for our life and for our presence here today. We appreciate your attendance, both here and in our radio listening audience.

We are meeting here every first Sunday of the month. And the purpose of these meetings is to build our life up — stronger, better, richer, with G-d's Help. This is not a meeting to convert someone to religion. We are not meeting, I repeat, to convert some-one to religion. We are meet-ing to save our life and to build our life up.

My understanding of reli-gions, of Scriptures, make me to know that the people who are accepting responsibility for the life of man on this earth — the nations, the United States of America, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia and many others — all have an interest in serving mankind. And some of them influenced by their religion have an interest in saving the life of mankind for the purpose revealed in Sacred Scripture.

What is between the human person and his true nature or her true nature blocking or making it difficult or impossible for the individuals — males and females — to establish their life as nature would have it estab-lished or evolved is being rejected today.

We are living in a much different world. We used to live in a world where most of the members of the public in the United States of America and of other parts of the world believed in Authority, even if they didn't obey it. They were conscious of some power, gov-ernmental power or some authority over them that they had to respect or to obey.

They also knew that to dis-obey or disrespect that authority meant they would have to accept serious conse-quences. That consciousness is not existing anymore. The majority of the people are not living with an awareness that there is an authority over their lives. Not even G-d. I repeat, they are not living with an awareness of an authority over their lives.

This tells us that somehow, we have been separated from our true nature. The true nature of the human being is to relate to the world that all human beings come from the earth. All of us like all other living things come from the earth. The earth gave birth to us. This is in Scripture, and all that I am going to be say-ing is in Scripture.

We read of orphans. Civi-lized society tries to take care of the orphans and to find suitable parents for orphans. But in a more serious way, practically all human beings on this planet today have become orphans.

Now the immediate thing that may come to your mind is that the family life is in
bad condition. There is no respect for parents, and in many homes there is no respect on the part of parents for their responsibility as parents.

But I am talking about something a little deeper than that. We are children of the earth. G-d says in Scrip-ture that we were made from the earth. And G-d says that the earth supports us. That is in Sacred Scripture, not just in one religion; it is in more than one religion. But we are not in a situation anymore to get the benefit that G-d intended for all human beings to get.

When man began to make progress on this earth, he saw himself in a relationship with the earth, with the land. The first history of man's develop-ment on the planet earth is the history of man as a hunter, as a farmer seeking food; he was forced to seek his food. Having this relation-ship with the earth developed agriculture and businesses.

A whole way of life evolved, a community utilizing the products from the earth, not only for food but also for clothing which came from the farmer and the agriculture, and homes to live in — whether it is a building or the material that made up tents or a grass hut.

Then came more sophisti-cated homes later with tim-ber to make beautiful wood homes. He also worked with stones and made stone build-ings and structures. All of this came from the earth.

So when you think of how the earth has provided for us our living and for our improvement on our way of living and then see how your children are coming up with no strong sense of the value of the planet earth to mankind, it is very serious.

I am here to tell you today that we can look for solutions here and there and every-where, but until we deal with our natural life — its nature, and how it would behave if it were not man and his world between man and his nature — until we deal with that, we are not going to make very much progress.

Most of the nations are nations that had a past. That past was a natural past. They developed upon the earth. They became conscious of a higher purpose for them-selves working with the material environment, utiliz-ing it to improve their exis-tence and to provide for the generations to come. Most of them came that way.

But some of us, and there are two groups I am looking at now — Blacks or people of African descent living here in America and other groups that had a past and are now minorities too in this country and have become so spiritual, that they live only as spiritu-al beings.

I don't mean that they don't eat food and have material things. You can consume more material things than a materialist, but if your mind and your spirit are not that of a community man, you are still spiritual. You haven't evolved as a social communi-ty person yet. Man is to evolve as a social community life.

Man got to where he is in the road of progress in civi-lization because he valued family, he valued husband and wife relationships.

He valued sharing a rela-tionship with his wife and his children and passed his inter-est on down to his children, so they would make improve-ments on that interest. They would rest in their graves knowing that they are having a better life, because of their children being better pre-pared than they were.

That interest to have gener-ations to become better pre-pared than we are is gone, too. Most of us don't have that anymore; we have thrown up our hands and given up. The material world kills us, if we are not con-scious as social community people.

Just wanting to eat and have material comfort will destroy your spirituality and you will become empty of your true spiritual nature, empty of your true soul.

Those who are conscious and alive and living with their right nature are foreign-ers on this planet. The world, the way it has been planned and the way it has been going and the way man arranges his priorities, if it were done without media showing it to us everyday on television, etc., maybe it would not have the total bad effect it has on us now.

If we were just left alone at home with our families with-out television, without news, with no one telling us what was going on in this big world of man, I think we would find interest in one another. We would find interest in the wife, and the wife would find interest in the husband. And children would find interest in each other and respect par-ents. The family would be drawn together more strong-ly. And man would be in his true nature.

"How come he is not talking about religion? How come he is not quoting scripture?" It is because you have not seen it correctly, and it is time out for the way that you have been seeing it.

With G-d's Help, we can take our own interests into our own hands and make a good life for ourselves, indi-vidually and collectively. And collectively is more important than individually. Whatever we plan for ourselves individ-ually, without respecting the social community, will fail.

You will not live to have it passed on to your children. It will go away with you; it will be lost with you. But if you work, not just for yourself but for the social community, then what you invest will live. That is why G-d tells us that we are one family - all people are one family, from one ancestry.

He tells us that so that we will have a sense of bond. "I am bonded to others. I'm con-nected to others."

And we will have a respect and interest and love for oth-ers. If we have a respect and interest in how others fair while we are working to make ourselves a nice home, a nice environment, nice con-ditions, we will be making conditions that others will benefit from.

You cannot work with oth-ers in your heart and build something that will deny them or exclude them. You don't have to do it conscious-ly. We don't have to con-sciously plan our community life in Markham or Harvey or Chicago or wherever we are to help others. If we will just have others in our hearts, then what we build will be good for everybody. That is what G-d wants.

We are orphans, and we have to be connected back to our true parents. The true parent is the natural person that feels the existence on this earth is an existence with the material world, itself, an existence with the land that produced food, clothing and shelter.

Man's manhood needs man to know himself as a product of the earth, evolved or born out of the earth, to work the earth and to use it for himself and for the benefit of others. Your manhood needs that.

If you will accept that that is your purpose, that is why you are existing, you will become a better person for yourself and for others -especially for your family. And you will become produc-tive.

There is no such thing as one race being inferior to another, of one race produc-ing and another one can't. What has happened is one race is protecting its race, and the other race is not pro-tecting its race.

So whether you are Span-ish or African American or whatever, if your race is doing bad or poorly and you are depending on other nationalities or ethnic groups for everything, it is not because you are inferior. It is because you have been made more of an orphan than they have.

So you Christians in the audience, if you are serious about being and staying Christians, tell your preach-ers and teachers in religion to help you find yourself. Because if you are not man-aging family life and having success at that and you are not contributing anything to your neighborhood or envi-ronment - you are just living on others who are doing that - you are lost from yourself.

The saying goes: "Whoever has known himself has known his G-d, his Lord." Think about that. Man did not come to know the cause for his existence and The Great Creator called by dif-ferent names, he did not come to know that by seeking to know that. He came to know that by seeking to know what is he or she or the family to do with their life on this plan-et earth or in this material environment.

The more he worked to know how he could produce and prosper, the bigger his mind got. He took on bigger concerns and interests, and that expanded his mind. It made him then want to know, "How is the sky kept in an order like that? What are the bodies up there? Are they only light or is there some-thing else up there?

So in working to make his life and his family life better brought so many things of interest into his hands and the interest became so big, that it just opened up his mind to the whole universe.

Then he began to search creation, and as he searched creation, he became a thinker. And the thinker became a seer, and the seer became a prophet. And the world became much bigger and much greater.

Now we are living at the end of time. Some people think that the end of time will be when the earth is blown up. Why should the earth be blown up? It hasn't done any wrong.

We speak of this continent that we live on now, the Unit-ed States of America, as the New World. The New World Order is all over, but we speak of this part that we are on as the New World - North America and South America.

And we see here a. new way of living. It is not like it was in Europe. This is the Ameri-can way of living here. So the old world is gone for the American citizens, and we are in a new world. The earth stays as it is, but how we live on it changes according to our own spirit and interest.

So G-d is not telling you the earth, itself, is going to be destroyed. It means that the way you perceive the earth is going to be destroyed. The way you see the earth, the earth in your mind, is going to be destroyed. And the envi-ronment that you made is going to have to change. For some of you on this planet earth, your whole environ-ment is going to have to be erased - total destruction, and it will have to be made all over again to respect the life that Mother Earth gave birth to.

Mother Earth never gave life to somebody freakish, like most of the people we see on television. Mother Earth birthed natural men and women, industrial minded people, workers and produc-ers loving to come home after a day's work, to socialize and love one another and enjoy one another's company. They go to sleep and wake up feel-ing safe and secure in a home of human beings.

Now right in your own fam-ilies now, you don't know if you are going to wake up with a human being or with an alien that may come at you with a hatchet or knife or gun. We are lost; we all have become orphans. Where is our father, our First Father?

It is written: "...Unless the children's hearts be turned to the father...." You are think-ing that it means turn to G-d, but no, that is talking about your original nature, your First Father that G-d awak-ened to do His Work on this earth and in this earth and to produce for generations to come.

"... Unless the children's hearts be turned to the father..., the father's heart be turned to the children, G-d said He will smite the earth with a curse." I want you to know that it is smitten. We are living under a curse.

But we can save ourselves to live again. We are here to help you, if you need help. We can show you how to have life again.

There is no such thing as one race being inferior to another, of one race producing and another one can't. What has happened is one race is pro-tecting its race, and the other race is not protecting its race.

So whether you are Span-ish or African American or whatever, if your race is doing bad or poorly and you are depending on other nationali-ties or ethnic groups for everything, it is not because you are inferior. It is because you have been made more of an orphan than they have.

So you Christians in the audience, if you are serious about being and staying Christians, tell your preach-ers and teachers in religion to help you find yourself. Because if you are not man-aging family life and having success at that and you are not contributing anything to your neighborhood or envi-ronment - you are just living on others who are doing that - you are lost from yourself.

The saying goes: "Whoever has known himself has known his G-d, his Lord." Think about that. Man did not come to know the cause for his existence and The Great Creator called by dif-ferent names, he did not come to know that by seeking to know that. He came to know that by seeking to know what is he or she or the family to do with their life on this plan-et earth or in this material environment.

The more he worked to know how he could produce and prosper, the bigger his mind got. He took on bigger concerns and interests, and that expanded his mind. It made him then want to know, "How is the sky kept in an order like that? What are the bodies up there? Are they only light or is there some-thing else up there?

So in working to make his life and his family life better brought so many things of interest into his hands and the interest became so big, that it just opened up his mind to the whole universe.

Then he began to search creation, and as he searched creation, he became a thinker. And the thinker became a seer, and the seer became a prophet. And the world became much bigger and much greater.

Now we are living at the end of time. Some people think that the end of time will be when the earth is blown up. Why should the earth be blown up? It hasn't done any wrong.

We speak of this continent that we live on now, the Unit-ed States of America, as the New World. The New World Order is all over, but we speak of this part that we are on as the New World - North America and South America.

And we see here a new way of living. It is not like it was in Europe. This is the Ameri-can way of living here. So the old world is gone for the American citizens, and we are in a new world. The earth stays as it is, but how we live on it changes according to our own spirit and interest.

So G-d is not telling you the earth, itself, is going to be destroyed. It means that the way you perceive the earth is going to be destroyed. The way you see the earth, the earth in your mind, is going to be destroyed. And the envi-ronment that you made is going to have to change.

For some of you on this planet earth, your whole environment is going to have to be erased - total destruc-tion, and it will have to be made all over again to respect the life that Mother Earth gave birth to.

Mother Earth never gave life to somebody freakish, like most of the people we see on television. Mother Earth birthed natural men and women, industrial minded people, workers and produc-ers loving to come home after a day's work, to socialize and love one another and enjoy one another's company. They go to sleep and wake up feel-ing safe and secure in a home of human beings.

Now right in your own fam-ilies, you don't know if you are going to wake up with a human being or with an alien that may come at you with a hatchet or knife or gun. We are lost. We all have become orphans. Where is our father, our First Father?

It is written: "...Unless the children's hearts be turned to the father...." You are think-ing that it means turn to G-d, but no, that is talking about your original nature, your First Father that G-d awak-ened to do His Work on this earth and in this earth and to produce for generations to come.

"... Unless the children's hearts be turned to the father..., the father's heart be turned to the children, G-d said He will smite the earth with a curse." I want you to know that it is smitten. We are living under a curse.

But we can save ourselves to live again. We are here to help you, if you need help. We can show you how to have life again.

Thank you. Peace be unto you. As-Salaam-Alaikum.

(Q and A Session con-cluded the First Sunday Public Address by Imam W. Deen Mohammed)

Q: As-Salaam-Alaikum. I have a statement and a question, Imam Mohammed. The statement I would like to make is I really want to thank you for the salutation you have on your Message of Concern.

I think it is a statement of peace, when you open up with respect to man's Cre-ator. It takes away the argu-ments of what do we call Him. It gets to the point of common ground, and I think it is a genius of a statement.

Imam Mohammed: Thank you, sister. And thank Allah. Allah is with us.

Q: My question is that in the first surah revealed to Prophet Muhammed is the statement, "G-d taught man the use of the pen, that which he knew not."

I wanted to get your thoughts on that ayah. I wondered if it meant the written word of revelation or is it the gift G-d has given man to progress and record his history?

Imam Mohammed: When G-d says that He created man from a small life germ of blood adhering or holding on to itself, and that He taught man and taught man what he was not before knowing. And He has been most generous, giving man more than he could use. He has been most generous with the human being.

When G-d said this, He was not unaware that man had to struggle with his mind and with his nature and experience things and grow to study what he was involved in or with and eventually became educated and an author of scrolls, of books, of publications, etc.

G-d is not unaware of man's history; you know that. But man is unaware of G-d, and that is why G-d put it that way.

G-d created man; he did not create himself. I was speaking to someone recent-ly, whom I was not sure he believed in a G-d or not. I said, "There is a cause and an effect. There is a cause that produced you. And for every effect, there is a cause before that effect."

So whatever caused the world to be is responsible for us and the world. Not only for us to have access to the world or to be able to use the world, but it is also responsible for us to be able to use it as we do.

The One Who did all of that is the One responsible for cre-ating the human brain. We didn't create the human brain. We didn't create the five senses, the human intel-ligence, etc. We didn't create the things that this human intelligence has to relate to, in order to have life and growth and progress.

There is the First Cause. Now man should never think that he is the author of his works. The Author of his works is his Creator. The pen that writes, will the man pick the pen up and put it in the museum and say, "This pen wrote 10,000 books." No, he will say the man wrote 10,000 books, because the pen was in the hand of the man. The man was doing the writing.

So we are nothing but pens in the Hands of our Creator. That is all we are. We are nothing but tools and instruments in the Hands, in the Control of our Creator. By Hands, we mean the Controls. We might not know that, but that is a fact. Everything that He has made, you utilize it and benefit from it and enjoy it and see how it works for you.

There was a Cause that created all of that. You didn't plan it, though it is waiting on you.

And don't tell me you don't have faith in the unknown. There is not a man or woman alive who hasn't experienced something that they could not explain thoroughly. It is still unknown; you don't know it all yet completely. So believe in G-d and give G-d credit. That is part of that problem of being an orphan.

You don't know your true nature. You don't know your true beginning on this earth. So you don't appreciate The One Who designed it. You forget Him and you forget Him so much, until He just gives up on you and says, "Well, they prefer death, con-fusion and destruction, more than they prefer what I cre-ated them for. So until they get whipped by their own doings, I won't be giving them special help anymore."

I believe G-d has cut us a loose, we African American people, because we have become so forgetful. We don't remember our parents who were waiting for freedom, so they could be better and more productive human beings. So they could present themselves in a more beauti-ful life, firstly to their Maker and then to the world of mankind.

They had a strong belief that there was a G-d that didn't like the way they were being mistreated and that slavery would be over one day, if not in their time then in the time of their children to come. They had a strong relationship with the First Cause, the Lord Creator.

But we got to partying and celebrating freedom and for-got all of that. And now we are cursed. But we can be saved and we know how.

Q: I have a question regarding the structure of a masjid that will possibly help us advance ourselves. That is regarding the rotation or the term for an Imam. Not so much rotation but term lim-its. And the reason I'm ask-ing that question is .because-1 think our condition of coming out of Christianity and the way that the preachers would preach to his congre-gation; they were up here when they would teach the subjects down there.

I was told that many of them would come to people's houses and eat before the children. I'm thinking that conditioning in us sometimes affects our local masajid. And sometimes our attachment over a masjid or center or to that position becomes so great that, I believe, subconsciously we begin to act in that manner toward the believers in general.

So my question is, is there some kind of structure that can be built into bylaws that would rotate the Imams out?

Imam Mohammed: Yes, that has something to do with it, I'm sure. I share your concern. But it would be unIslamic to put in the bylaws or put into the legal language of the organization that the Imam is to serve only for a given period of time.

You can say that, but you have to add to that - after serving for one year or two years, three or four years, whatever the time period is. I don't think it should be more than four years. And then a vote of confidence in him (the Imam) should be taken.

And any leader who is not willing to have his members, not only those who he is see-ing every Jumuah, but also those he drove away come back and participate in a vote of confidence, it is some-thing wrong. I don't want to be a leader of the people who just do what I say, no matter what I say.

Q: When you say a vote of confidence, sometimes for our ratification, there is nobody there; you have one person.

Imam Mohammed: That is why I said he has to be willing to have those come back who he drove away, or who lost faith in him, didn't see enough happening, so they stopped coming.

Q: A lot of times, they don't find their way back home.

Imam Mohammed: I understand. At least make a try. If I say I want to divorce my wife and I say I can't find her, I have to put it in one of the papers. Put it in one of the papers, if you're going to have a vote, so you reach somebody.

Q: As-Salaam-Alaikum, I hope that the audience will be patient with me, for this has been troubling my soul. I've made efforts to write a book. No one has written a book definitively on the human level concerning our community, as Allah (SWT) would have it.

I have been around since 1957; you and I have known each other for years. I really have a tremendous memory for the transition and travel-ing with Minister Farrakhan for 21 years, as well as Muhammad Alt. I have made attempts to write a book, but I don't have funds.

I used to be a thousand-aire, and now all I have is air and I'm grateful for that. I don't have an attorney to go over a contract. I believe this book will do extremely well. I'm a communicator, and people have said, "You need to write a book."

I believe this book will gen-erate a sufficient amount of income. I don't have the dis-cipline to do it on my own, and you know I am a gener-ous man. That's why I don't have anything.

Imam Mohammed: I know you very well. I can say, "That's my friend." But I want to tell you something. I don't have any of your money in my pocket. Somehow it didn't reach me.

Also let me tell you what will help us right here in this situation. Moses was the chosen leader of a people who were oppressed, and they couldn't live under their oppressors. Moses was cho-sen to take them to indepen-dence and freedom, so that they would be under their own authority.

Moses was guided with the help of the wise man who also was guided by G-d, as we know. He was guided to see how to make the new society work. Moses couldn't do everything. He had cer-tain skills. He was a builder in the house or in the land of Pharaoh, but he didn't know many things.

So he was guided with the help of another wise man in his day to give responsibili-ties to others who had knowledge and skills.

He said, "You metal work-ers, organize. And you scribes, organize." So he began to organize all the knowledge and skills and gave assignments to those who had the knowledge and skills.

Q: I want to say that I'm happy to be one of your fol-lowers. I thank Allah (SWT) for guiding me to you. I was asked a question and I do not know whether I gave a correct answer or not. So I'm going to ask you the question and perhaps you can give me the best answer, so I can relate it back to the person who asked me. How was the world repopulated after the flood?

Imam Mohammed: That is the story in the Bible, but it also is in the Qur'an, the Sacred Book of the Muslims. The human being is a crea-ture of reason and a creature of concerns. These are two important parts of human life.

We can think, reason and question things, examine things, analyze things, look for how to improve things by this examination of things. But we also are creatures of concerns. Sometimes, we give our life to concerns so much and not enough to rea-son.

Then the concerns "flood" the life out, and the whole society begins to be support-ed by concerns and not by reason or good sense. That was Noah's flood. We have one going on now.

Q: This is a two-part ques-tion or statement. First I want to say there is a great concern that this community is not responding to the pri-ority of education. And I observe that you are teach-ing the children every Sun-day.

So I sense the need that you are giving the message to us that the learned people and the people concerned about this community surviv-ing must at least begin to establish a conscious effort of education for this community.

The second thing is, when you were talking about the earth, it brought to me the fascination of how we do saj-dah, how we make our pros-tration. We go to the ground and we say, "Glory to the Lord, The Most High." Could you explain the sajdah posi-tion, what benefits come from that beautiful prostra-tion? You said we're coming out of the earth as a part of our environment.

Imam Mohammed: I thought it was one, the question about education and the ritual of bowing down on the earth in sajdah as in prayer. We are acting out what is in both Scrip-tures, the Bible and Qur'an. Both say that man was "something not worth being mentioned." He was just roaming the earth like other animals. He had not been enlightened.

Man was living as a sav-age or living selfishly and saw himself as important. He was living in his self-importance but was not con-tributing much of anything to the human family but trouble.

So G-d inspired some among them who were wor-thy and who had not given themselves to self-destruc-tion or to the destruction of others, some who were peaceful souls, loving souls, and He gave them guidance, enlightenment, and they came into great productive societies.

The fact that it happened that way needs no more sup-port for us to believe it than what we see in this present world that we live in right now. The great nations that are leading the world now are nations that believe that G-d revealed to man, and man accepted the Message that G-d revealed to him.

There is no nation con-tributing much to this earth, to our future, except that who believe in Scripture and believe that G-d communi-cated to man and that man is to live on this planet earth.

G-d says to us, "When they leave off prayer, they lose their society.'" Their world comes to an end. "Never did a people come to their end, before first leav-ing off prayers, forgetting prayers."

So when we pray, we are acting out what Scripture says. That G-d made us from the earth and gave us intelli-gence and guidance to satisfy our hungry minds. And we stood up. Standing is the position in prayer that means establishment, not establishment for individuals but for the community.

Q: When you were talking about the earth, it brought to me the fascination of how we do sajdah, how we make our prostration. We go to the ground and we say, "Glory to the Lord, The Most High."

Could you explain the saj-dah position, what benefits come from that beautiful prostration? You said we're coming out of the earth as a part of our environment.

Imam Mohammed: The standing position in prayer means that you are begin-ning as an established peo-ple with established commu-nity life. Then you acknowl-edge G-d, remembering Him, as He has guided us to remember and acknowledge Him. Then you put your hands on your knees, like all babies do.

Though we were walking, standing on our physical feet, in our minds, in our intelligence and in our expectations, there was no more than the hope of babies - just to have food, clothing and shelter, to play, have sex and go to bed, wake up and repeat the same the next day.

So we are saying to G-d, "You found us just like those animals that walk on fours, and You lifted us up from our knees." So you praise Him and raise up from your knees and say, "Surely G-d hears whoever praises Him." Then standing again, you say, "G-d is Greater."

Now you go all the way down to the floor, and you do what the person is address-ing this question to, you put your forehead, your nose, your palms, your feet and knees, your toes in front of your feet on the ground -eight spots touching.

You touch the ground with eight places, and then you come back up and say, "G-d is Greater."

Then you repent, because you have gotten enlightened. You have returned to Mother Earth and accepted the order for your life that G-d created and you say, "G-d forgive me, have mercy on me. Now I know my mistake. I see the light now."

You ask for forgiveness. But when you don't see your sins, how can you ask for for-giveness? So you return a second time and put your head down touching all of those points again, all eight of them. Eight and eight are sixteen - Sweet Sixteen.

Now you are free. You have repented your wrongs after being enlightened, and you returned to the pattern that G-d created for you, acknowledging Mother Earth.

Now if that doesn't speak to education, what does? It is acknowledging that this world, the earth that G-d made is what gave me what I have in my mind.

I submit in my mind to the Reality that G-d created. The nose stands for spirit. This creation inspired me. Man is inspired by the marvelous creation of G-d.

Q: This is a question that has been on my mind for a long time. Knowing how busy life is, I wonder how to estab-lish it for myself and also wondered how to express it.
How do we begin to estab-lish the Arabic term "khashi," humility, prayer noting that there are many things that enter our minds?

Imam Mohammed: Per-haps it is discipline. And most of us have concerns that have the power to enter our minds, even though we are in prayer in the Presence of our Lord.

The way to develop the dis-cipline, so that nothing comes in, is to keep your focus on what you're reciting. Do not let your mind come off of what you are reciting. That is very difficult.

I don't think there is an Imam who has not had this happen to him, where his mind for a split second has left what he was doing and he had to come back to it.

And just in that little amount of time, you can for-get the next stop in the disci-pline. That is why the audi-ence, the congregation, is obligated to bring our atten-tion to it. If the Imam forgets something, the congregation is obligated to bring his attention to it.

I know of nothing that can help you or improve your con-centration, except just con-centrating on every word in every step of the salat.

Q: You gave me permission to make a comment, and ask a question. So I'm making a comment. I am a social work-er, and I'm out of New York. There is a group of us who came together with a dream, under your inspira-tion, and we have a social human service program in New York. We work with fam-ilies and children.

I just wanted to say to you that I appreciate you and thank Allah (SWT) for this group effort and the energy generated coming from this concern. Coming together simply gives us an inspira-tion to move forward.

I do believe and under-stand, "So shall it be in the end as it was in the begin-ning." It is already beginning, Imam Mohammed. Because I know I feel like you, and I know there are many people who feel like you.

And that is the energy. So we won't lose. We are already winning. We are going to stay with you, and we're going to win.

Imam Mohammed: We are proud that members in our association have done that. You are going to see more support for that.

Q: I just want to say, Broth-er Imam, it is an honor for me to be a student and a fol-lower of Imam W. Deen Mohammed. My question is on the Qur'an.

Allah (SWT) says, "Approach not the orphans' property, except to improve it." And I see you as the one foremost in improving the orphan's situation and restor-ing him to his inheritance. I see you as a teacher connect-ing us back to what we should be connected to.

Now in connection with that, would you please describe what it is to be an excellent student and follower of Imam W. Deen Mohammed now and in the future?

Imam Mohammed: To devote yourself always to the work that G-d assigned to man. And that is to take care of family and utilize the material environment that He created. And share not only what you produce, but share also your knowl-edge with others who yon can trust with your knowl-edge.

Always try to be your best in spirit, your best in mind, your best in your physical works or acts. Muhammed. the Prophet (PBUH) said: "The believer, whenever he endeavors to do a thing, he tries to perfect it." He tries to do his very best, no matter how small it is.

The Prophet gave this illus-tration. "If you are the one who is given the charge of sabiha, for slaughtering the animal the way Muslims slaughter," the Prophet said, "sharpen your knives and try to do it the best."

He was actually encourag-ing the butchers to be real skillful, to do their best when they are butchering. And it goes for anything. If you wash the bath tub, do your best.

Q: I thank Allah (SWT) for you. Brother Imam. I have a lot of questions I want to deal with. But I will ask about the point you made about "... until the children turn to the father and the father turns to the children, we will not have peace."

You have children who have resentment and pain because the father did not turn to them. And you have fathers who have abandoned the chil-dren.

They have excuses, by say-ing the children are so rawdy and acting ignorant. And they have no time to deal with that, so he goes off some place else.

What positive role can you play - mothers, grandmoth-ers or any concerned family member - in this relation-ship?

Imam Mohammed: The reality for us is the same. I have learned from others who had the experience of suffering because of their loved ones. Our loved ones don't know that sometimes we suffer their life more than they do.

They are in it and facing that. But because we love them a little bit more humanly than they love themselves, we suffer more than even they suffer.

Sister, sometimes you just can't do anything for those closest to you, your own child, your own mate. Some-times it is your own mother or your own father. You can't do anything for them.

Sometimes the people who get the best results are those who they do not even know. Strangers can help them more than we can.

Don't feel bad. Allah (SWT) will give you Paradise, in spite of all the trouble that may surround you. G-d can put you in the Paradise. You just go and find another child who will accept that love.