(Reprinted from the Muslim Journal 4-18-08 to 5-9-08)

Life: The Final Battlefield - Part 2

Imam W. Deen Mohammed

(Note: This part of Imam W. Deen Mohammed's Public Address was given after the conclusion of the worldwide radio broadcast.)

ALLAH, THE BEST OF CREATORS

We witness that G-d is One, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the Creator of everything. He is the First of Creators, hence He says in our Holy Book that He is the Best of Creators.

We witness that. Science witnesses that, especially in the world of the artists. I have read the words of artists who say there is no art to match the art that is in the natural world.

We know that G-d is the G-d of humanity, the G-d of beauty, the G-d of excellence. He has put it in our nature, that we are inside inherently inspired to be better and better at what we do.

Some of us are blind to the direction that drive should be going in. So if we clown, we try to be our best at it. If we are tough, we try to be our best at something. Because it is in our nature to do that.

If we can just channel that energy in the right direction, all of us can have a wonderful community life. All of us should have a higher sense of purpose and existence. It is higher than the individual life and existence. The highest purpose for human life and existence is community life.

"EVOLVED" MEANS "RAISED UP NATURALLY"

Allah says you are the best community evolved for the good of all people. That tells us that if you are narrow and just want community excellence that will benefit you and your race, Allah is not with you.

But if you want community excellence that will represent the excellence of mankind and you want to share whatever you have that the others don't have that will help them, if they are sincere at heart, you want to share with them.

That is the community Allah evolved. Evolved means He raised it up naturally. When Allah says that you are the best community that evolved, He is saying that He brought you out of nature. You are evolved upon the excellence of your nature.

Allah is not giving us something that is not already in our makeup to have. He only is giving us something that He has already put in our makeup for us to want or to have.

So it is called the "Din al Fitrah," the Din of Original Nature in its best, its purity. The first Eid holiday is the Holiday of Fitrah, Eidul Fitrah. Isn't that revealing, that Allah established the religion upon Fitrah?

Then He guided Muhammed to establish for us holidays, and the first of the holidays in the Islamic calendar year is the month of the fast. The celebration of that fast is the holiday of Eidul Fitrah.

What is Eid? Eid is holiday or celebration, and what does it mean literally? Why are you having a holiday? Why are you celebrating? It is because I have returned to the nature created for me by my G-d. So that is what we are celebrating.

Eidul Fitrah comes before Hajj, although the Hajj has a bigger Eid. So what is that telling us? Again, it is telling us that G-d created us to have the right nature. And when we return to the right nature He created for us, we have an occasion to celebrate because that nature upholds the good life. It keeps the good life and promotes that good life, growing and increasing in value.

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ADAM'S GENERATIONS

Just the original nature does that. Adam, if you look in the Bible in Genesis and start with Adam's existence -that is the beginning of Genesis, of human life. Look at Adam's generations. They are called Adam, too. "He named them Adam in the day that He created them." That is the same Genesis that speaks to one Adam speaks to his generations also.

After Adam's generation, he has descendents. There is Abel who becomes the agriculturalist and he has Cain who becomes the industrialist. Although the way it is given, it looks like Abel becomes the shepherd where he raises animals and Cain becomes the land developer.

But the first stage for the land developer in the history of human progress and community life is farming. So they are separated like that.

From farming and sheep herding, he has children from those and they become iron workers, making musical instruments. All of this is in the Bible, and I am giving it to you straight from the Bible.

When I am talking, I am speaking from Scripture. Don't think I am giving you my words. I don't give you my words; I don't have any words. All of my words come from Scripture or from somewhere else. That is the way we all should be.

The first day I was on my welding job, my supervisor was responsible to show me how to start work, what to do. When the bell rang, he said, "Let's go to the work bench, Mohammed."

He was a big, tall, six footer, muscular but not fat and much older than me; he had white hair. He looked as if to say, "I know this young guy thinks he is looking at an old man."

He said to me, "One young man was talking to another man who was older saying, 'I got my training from here and there. And I learned this and that. And I know how to do this and that.' When it was time to work, the young man said, "Yes, I know this process here.'"

And the older man said, "Who taught you that?" And he had to think who taught him that. He carried him through six or seven questions like that. And at every question, he had to go outside of himself and think where he got his information from.

So the old man concluded, "You don't know anything by yourself, do you?" So the old man wanted to situate me first by telling me, "You don't know anything now. You are on this job and don't know anything." And I heard him.

He ignored my schooling, although I was certified as a combination welder at this welding school on the West Side of Chicago. It was known to train you in all the fields. It had a good reputation.

The point is that we should not brag. No matter how much you know, somebody else knows more. Never boast at what you know.

Never feel you know it all; none of us know it all. Allah says in the Qur'an, and it is meant for everybody but is said specifically to the scholars, "Above every possessor of knowledge is Allah, the All Knowing." Praise be to Allah.

CAIN and ABEL INDUSTRIALIST and SOCIALIST

Now getting back to how industry evolved. It started with the farmer and the shepherd, those who produced animals and those who produced grain or food from the earth. It went from that to ironworkers and those who make instruments for pleasure.

It comes up to today. Cain lives today. Who is Cain, today? Cain is the industrialist. Who is Abel, today? Abel is the socialist. See how they live? They haven't gone anywhere. But the work has evolved and progressed. It is no more simplified. It is industry, science and technology now.

Cain, was guilty of killing his brother - he killed him while they were at work and spilled his brother's blood on the surface of the earth. That means that he didn't kill a human being outright. That means the materialist socialized the socialist.

Instead of the socialist remaining in his own social life and science, the materialist became so big that he overcame that movement and brought that movement under material production and under materialism.

That is the killing of the shepherd and the killing of his brother. But in the Qur'an, Allah says He was feeling compassion on him because he was feeling sorry about what he had done.

And Allah caused a little bird to come where the blood had been spilled on the ground, and the little bird scratched the ground to cover the blood with earth.

The brother who was guilty asked, "Why didn't I have the decency to at least cover my brother's blood? That was the beginning of his repenting. It is a very beautiful story.

GIVE CREDIT WHERE IT IS DUE

A magazine is doing a special and I was interviewed for it. Although I was no where near being up to par for that interview, except in my spirit. I had help which was my son, Mohammed. He took care of me and came in and checked on me nearly every hour. He hasn't lost the good heart he has.

Khadijah was out of town with her family and called. My son told her I was not doing too well. So she told him to warm up some of the vegetable soup and give it to me and maybe that would help. So he did and brought it to me at my bed.

When he came back the next time to check on me, he said, "Khadijah called and she is the one who suggested that I warm up the soup for you." So I said, "That's my boy. That is Warithudin Mohammed's son."

The wrong one would never say that they got a call and was told to warm up the soup. I thank Allah for him. Life is not so easy all of the time; sometimes it is very, very hard.

So I went to the interview, and the questions were coming one right behind the other. Though I was not feeling like doing the interview, I was able to be as precise as the questions were, and we covered a lot of territory.

They are interviewing our association as a part of an article to cover African American Muslims, immigrant Muslims and the state of Black America on the whole. This special issue will not be out until August of this year.

ISLAMICA

The Gentleman promised me that he would send me copies right away. The maga-
zine is named Islamica, which I had not yet seen copies of. But I will try to make the magazine available to you here or at least introduce it to you here. I'll give you the information, and if any of you want to you will be able to subscribe to that magazine.

I want to tell you something surprising. I thought this interviewer was a Muslim from Jordan working for the press in Jordan. I was told he was from Jordan. But come to think of it, his business was not based in Jordan at all; his business is based in the United States.

He then told me that he was Jordanian but was not a Muslim in Jordan. He said he was not a Muslim until he met some brothers from my association. He said, "I am a convert, just like you are." I had to tell him, "I was born Muslim. You mean like the brother who introduced you to our association."

But here is a man looking like a Jordanian and is one and was not a Muslim but came into the faith through our association. The brothers influenced him to become a convert, and he is proud of that.

So he is sure qualified to write about us. He came the same way we came, although our road goes back to the plantation.

The Islamica interview with me was conducted by a Jordanian whose name is Michael Vincent Perrez. Sounds like he was in the French quarters, wherever he was over there. He had his wife with him and she looked like the same people he was, Jordanian or Lebanese. She assisted him and they worked together very well.

When he was getting ready to leave, I said something and in response he said, "Insha Allah." So I said, "Yes, Insha Allah." He had stepped out of the door and his wife looked back in and said, "Ma' Salaam." And I said to her "Ma' Salaam."

The Prophet said, "When one gives you a Greeting, give them one similar to that Greeting or better." She felt comfortable with "Ma" Salaam," and that is how I greeted her. Ma' means "with" and Salaam means "Peace." The expression means "Go in Peace" and it means "Goodbye."

I said that to say this. I don't believe she was converted to Islam like he was. It doesn't mean she is Christian or Jew. Some people have given up on religion and become neutral.

I knew a Lebanese who was Christian, Danny Thomas — a nice man, a likable person. He had a TV Show and articles in the newspaper. I met him once and he said at our parting, "Ma' Salaam." And I said, "Ma' Salaam." Danny Thomas was a good strong Lebanese Christian.

Now I want to share some more information with you on WD 40 or Mr. W. D. Ford Muhammad, who also was known by two or three other names.

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THE ARRESTS OF THE HON. ELIJAH MUHAMMAD

They arrested the Hon. Elijah Muhammad for what they called "contributing to the delinquency of minors" -just to make the charge sound real bad.

What the charge actually was for was him keeping the children out of public schools. He kept them out of public school, because his teacher told him to set up a school and teach his own children. That is what he did.

He spent some time in prison and was then let out. But they got him a second time not long after that, less than two years, on draft evasion charges and convicted him.

The charge carried another charge of "subversive teachings" to under mind the United States of America. The judge dropped that charge and only sentenced him for refusing the draft.

He would not accept to have a draft card, not to mention being inducted. He was sentenced to five years in the penitentiary without parole - five years straight.

When they were first arrested, they were arrested in Detroit. The leaders and everybody who went along with the leaders were put in jail - men and women.

About a year or so later, the same thing happened in Chicago. They were arrested, men and women, and put in jail, because they insisted on teaching their own children and having their own school.

The police confiscated the early lessons -- Student Enrollments, English Lesson Cl, Actual Facts and Problem Books. The FBI took copies of all of those things.

When the Hon. Elijah Muhammad was released from prison, he told us that the officer who cleared him for release told him, "Elijah, go on out and teach as you were before." The officer told him that.

He was going to do that, because he had been teaching in prison and made several converts in prison. One was a wonderful Minister, Minister Louis.

He turned out to be a very influential Minister. Everybody liked to hear him speak. He could inspire you and arouse you. He was educated and did not talk like a preacher; he talked like a professor. His major was in physics.

He had a nervous condition in his jaw from using so much drugs, but he would say, "Islam is no vain imagination or superstition. Islam is reality." We loved that brother and loved the way he taught. He was a teacher.

I bring this to your attention to say to you: What did Mr. Fard put into his esoteric, private, organizational teachings to make the FBI tell the police department to leave him alone and let him teach as he was teaching before?

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MR. FARD CAME TO SOLVE "THE RACE PROBLEM"

That should make it easy for me to tell you again, that Mr. Fard did not come into America just to help Blacks. He came into America to show America how to solve the race problem. And it was to show them that Blacks have less of a race problem than you. "You are that fallen Angel Lucifer. Lucifer is in you. You are that bright and morning star."

The Bible says, "Oh Lucifer, why have you fallen? It is because you have exalted yourself in the Heavens. And you would exalt yourself up to the very Throne of G-d and put yourself there as G-d." That is the Bible. You who know the Bible know that I am giving you the Bible.

Then Jesus comes behind that and says, "I know your Father. He abodes not in the Truth. When he speaks a lie, he speaks his own lie." That means nobody gave him the lie; he invented the lie. "You are not the children of Abraham. You are the children of your father, the Devil."

This is Jesus Christ speaking to the Gentiles. I will finish this shortly, insha Allah. And I do not say "Insha Allah" from habit. I say it from my conscience, "Insha Allah."

There was a sister named Dorothy something X and I gave her the name Fardan, before I even saw her. Some brothers were asking me for names for different ones, and I said to tell her that I think her name should be Fardan.

I was told she was a Catholic before she converted to the Nation of Islam, and I was told that she was a White woman. I knew she was not stupid or naive. She was a Catholic sister in the church, and I knew she would think about the name I gave her.

So I gave her that name "Fardan," which meant a person influenced by Mr. Fard. Finally, I met her in my office. She came to my office and wanted to speak with me. When I saw her, she said "As-Salaam-Alaikum," and I said the same to her.

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NATION OF ISLAM LANGUAGE COMING FROM THE BIBLE

Before she got started, I said, "You joined the Nation of Islam and you were a Catholic and a White person?" She said, "Yes." I said, "Actually, that was a concern for me and I could not understand that." She said, "I know I am not a devil."

And that was enough for me. She didn't have to say another word to me. I knew she was sincere and she was coming from the heart. She said, "I know I am not a devil." So how come a White woman will join a man who is calling all White people devils by nature? He said, "Every one that is born is a devil by nature."

But she knew how to look into language and how to make the connections. She arrived at that understanding by recognizing that Mr. Fard did not invent that language. He got it from somewhere. She saw that language coming from the Bible, where it said, "Lucifer was a bright star in the heavens."

Do you know the Black Stone in the Ka'bah has a lot to do with that same idea of a bright star falling from heaven? Abraham was looking for a spot on which to build the House for G-d. The stone fell down from the heavens.

Remember it was white in the heavens and it burned from white to red to black, and it hit the earth as black. Abraham took that as an answer from G-d, telling him where he should build the House. And he made that stone the corner, the most important place in the construction, in masonry as the cornerstone of the House.

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THE MOVEMENT AFTER JESUS CHRIST

It also is a sign of the movement after Christ Jesus in the leadership of his followers, that went from addressing social issues of the people to studying and dwelling on the hidden sciences in Jesus' teachings.

What occupied them more than anything was about how many "natures" there are, the three natures in one or human nature separated from divine nature.

That was the issue, and they argued it for three hundred years, going into the 4th Century. They were not able to settle this issue for the Christian population.

Finally, the Western Church under the Pope settled it, and they settled it like Peter understood it from the very beginning, when Jesus Christ asked Peter: "Peter, who do you say I, the son of man, am?"

That question tells us that Jesus Christ was telling Peter, "Begin your answer with this. I am the son of a man.... Peter, who do you say I, the son of man, am?"

Something will have rushed to your head real quick, "No, Jesus is not the son of man. He had no father. He is not the son of man."

That is true. But by genealogy, say there was no Joseph, and he is the son of Mary. Did Mary have a father? So he had a grandfather. And he traces his genealogy or life line all the way back to Adam. That is the Bible. The Bible says "Adam," tracing his genealogy back.

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SEPARATE SPIRITUAL LANGUAGE FROM CALENDAR LANGUAGE

If he came from Adam, is he the son of man or not? Did he have a father or not? All of us call Adam our Father, and he is a man. So we have to understand this and separate spiritual language from calendar language.

Spiritual wise, he had no father. And who is he? He is a Word and a Spirit from G-d. G-d created him. Word wise, he had no father, for G-d revealed him and thereby created him. So in Islam, we do not accept to say that Jesus Christ was born of a man. That is wrong and un-Islamic.

Jesus Christ in reality is not flesh and blood. Jesus Christ in reality is the Revealed Word of G-d. And the Revealed Word gives you a Spirit. Once that Word goes into you, you get a Spirit. And where is that Spirit from? It is from the Word. And where is the Word from? It is from G-d.

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MR. FARD HAD A SCHEME

G-d has given me all the help I need and more to make it clear, plain to you that Mr. Fard had a scheme, a strategy, to attract us to build up ourselves in a way that we would be happy and proud of our achievements in the Nation of Islam or as the Temples of Islam.

But when the circumstances would favor us coming out as citizens with full rights of citizenship, the intelligent ones and educated ones who could see light in scripture separated from the ink print, that eventually one from among us would lead us to the international Ummah of Muhammed (SAW).

That was the plan, but it could have missed before I came out of my mother. It was known that she was pregnant with me. Mr. Fard said, "If it be a boy, give him my name."

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THE PROMISE MADE TO FARD

After writing my name on the wall behind the door, and the door was close to the wall — if you closed the door, it would cover my name and you wouldn't see it. But if you opened the door, my name was in that space that the door would cover written there in chalk: Wallace D.

That is all it said, and that was one of his names. He told them to promise him that they would give me his name. And he told my father - now this was before I was born, so I had to get this from them - speaking to my father, he said:

"Promise me that you will raise him to help us in this work." He said "us." So he had sensitized my parents and sensitized me to grow up one day and accept the responsibility to help Mr. Fard and help my father.

He conditioned me to not fear prying into his language. This is the language of the man who asked me to help him. And because G-d blessed me with a sincere heart and with a pure heart, that is what has saved me.

And I was able to look into his language and come out on the path from the Temple to the Mosque.

As-Salaam-Alaikum.