1984-January-20

A.M. Journal

Imam Muhammad In Washington, DC: Part 2

Imam W. Deen Muhammad

I KNOW SOME of you are lost. But you weren't lost just now — you were lost a long time ago. I don't want to leave you lost. "Hair" is spelled h-a-i-r. In hair you have air: A-l-R. And you know that if you criticize a person — say he's got lots of air, or he's up in the air, or got a lot of air — it means that he's getting carried away. The air carries a lot of things away.

So when I said he let his hair get in his face, I meant he got carried away. The "super" white man got carried away and that is what messed him up. He thought he was Allah; that there is no Allah.

I guess he said it like Pharaoh said it: "Who is this God you're talking about? Ha, ha, ha. Let my skilled men build me a scaffold to the sky and let's see if we can look at Allah and see if He's up there."

The shite man in his arrogance has allowed his hair to fall in his face. We shouldn't have that problem — your hair shouldn't fall in your face. It wasn't made to fall in your face. Praise be to Allah.

I THOUGHT A TALK LIKE THIS WOULD BE GOOD FOR YOU TODAY. Sometimes all we need to do is to have a good fireside chat and reflect on the past and the present — try to get a better beam on the future. That's good for us. This is better than 50 hours on the couch with a "shrink."

The world is caught up in its own air. Right. That's what's wrong with the world today — caught up in its own air. They know these secret code words and they are always signaling. They made a movie called "Hair," just around the time or a little while after they came out with what they called the loose look. You know — let it hang.

White people used to braid their hair into styles. Now they just let it hang like a caveman to let us know that civilization is degenerating. Going into the caverns where they have no control over their air. The air is out of control. No discipline.

WHEN I WAS little, they told me to part my hair. I used to part it too, until 1 got suspicious. I said why should 1 part my hair and distinguish the right side of my hair from the left side of my hair? I didn't like it, especially the way they had me parting my hair. They had me part it on the left side. If they had had me part it in the center maybe I wouldn't mind, but it was parted way over here on the left side.

I said, now if you get me that far over on the left, I wouldn't know where to part my hair. So I stopped parting it. And nature started parting it. I got bald right here in the center. And I said well that's how it's supposed to part if it's going to part. It ought to part right there in the center. Praise be to Allah.

Now let me come to the concept in Quran -I'm going to the board here. Allah says in the Quran that He has created man from between the rib and the spine. Now think about the rib.

THE RIB is a bone — really a bone of several bones called rib — and it makes up the thing they call the "rib cage." Right? And it's holding your precious organs: the heart, the lungs....

The ribs are holding those vital organs like arms protectors of the vital organs.
They're curvy like the arms — protecting the vital organs -- and they're flexible. They open so you can get air. When you take in air, they expand and let you take it in. Once you take it in, you've got to let it out. So they collapse. They give in, go back, retract, whatever, so that you can let out the air — so you can let out that bad air.

So he walks around with his chest all poked out like he's somebody. You've got to let out that bad air, buddy; it feels good when you let it out. They say he died because he couldn't get his breath. Sometimes you die because you couldn't get the breath out.

Now the ribs are flexible bones protecting The vital organs. So they're symbolical of what? Care, compassion. They're symbolical of the ability on the part of a person to be flexible. Don't be so rigid.

GOD IS SAYING that we've been created from a rigid column and from a flexible one. If we can find a balance between the two -don't be extremely rigid, don't be too agreeable — that's intelligence. Don't be too rigid — coming in here forcing your ideas; don't give for anything — and don't be to flexible.

I want to get up: "Get up, dear." I want to lie down: "Well, lie down, dear." I want to go out: "Go out, dear." I want to stay in: "Well, stay in." "I want to go to college: "Well, go to college." I want to quit: "Well, if that's your choice, quit college, dear."

You are a rib that has broken connection with the column. That's wrong. Say hey -what the hell is this? Now wait a minute! You people have me going backwards and forwards with you. Something has to stop somewhere. You don't know what you want to do. You just sit yourself right there.

Somebody has to put the thumb down, put the fist down, and know when to let people who have no connection at all know they are out of touch with what should be constant and stable in their lives.

THEY USED TO have snake charmers who blew the flute, and the snake got up off the ground and straightened up. Just stands up — charmed. That's something. That's a superman feat. That's something that superman did.

I wish it could help me do something with Bilalians. A lot of you are down like wet rope. I try all kinds of means, but you won't straighten up. Now this column is up straight and if you look at this, all you have to do is put a tongue charmer out there, that's a snake. The collar, the brain — let's throw a tongue out there. Then you have a snake with a brain.

It doesn't have to be that big in relationship to that spinal column. But what we have here is a snake.

Man uses his imagination, looks at something and sees a snake. A kind of snake can expand its head and it looks out of proportion to its body. If you go to the zoo, you can watch them and see them. The tiny little head swells up, opens up into a big old head. And they can stand up straight. They can straighten their body out, especially a cobra, and stand tall and straight.

NOW DO YOU know what this part is? "Disc." When you go to the discoteque. Lots of music there to make your spine do just everything. They aren't doing it the way the old-timers used to do it.... You're going just like that, and the master with the music is saying look how I broke that nigger, look at these people. I break up their bodies and their minds.

Now you know a curve is used for many things. A curve is also used for flipping things. You've heard the expression, "It's a hook." A boxer knows a hook is a curved punch. You hook a man — a curve. And you have to watch out for the pitcher who can throw a curve. It waits right until it gets to the plate to do its act. too late for you to catch it.

AND SO THERE the Bible says: We made woman from the rib of the man. Now if you made the woman of the rib of a man and then use also the straight part of a man, then you've really got....

So the mind is straight and the mind also can bend. The mind is straight and the mind is also devious. The mind is elusive, sneaky, subtle, clever, etc.

What is God saying? He made you to be clever. He made you to be able to throw curves. But check that curve with the truth. Don't do anything in a subtle way. Don't use tactics unless its for justice's sake and you can prove you're honorable if you're caught.

Say yes. I did do that. And when they ask whether you knew you were doing something over his head, say yes, I knew I was doing something over his head.

Didn't you know you were throwing him a curve that he couldn't catch? Yes. I knew I was throwing him a curve he couldn't catch. But you don't know he’s Jahcub., ,

I hope you are following what I'm saying.

NOW IF I have enemies am I just going to use the spinal column? God says use your intelligence in a way that you benefit from both — the subtleness of the intellect and the straightness.

When you're structured right, when you start to grow out. you're going to meet the Jahcubite. Now don't try to be like him — you have to beat him, you have to fight him. You have to go to battle with him. You've got to use battle strategy with him.

ALLAH TELLS US in the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet to use battle strategy. You don't go out there and telegraph everything you're going to do.

Don't say, "Enemy—I'm getting ready to come into this town and I'm going to do such and such. My phone number is such and such." No you have to beat him. This world is subtle. It's a battle from the cradle to the grave. That's what it is.

What did Prophet Muhammad tell the people when he went to Medinah? No more running. No more migrating. No more going somewhere to find a place to live. God has blessed us with Medina to receive us and now this is our community, this is our country, this is our government. No more running,

(To be continued)