1978-October-20

Bilalian News

Historic Atlanta Address: Part 4

Imam W. D. Muhammad

With the Name Allah, (In the Name of God) the Gracious, the Compassionate

As-Salaam-Alaikum

Here's another point that needs some attention. There's a lot of talk about the Equal Rights Amendment. The women have to be equal with the men.

I'm for equal rights amendment. I want to see every woman get her rights, but I'm for preserving masculinity and femininity. I don't want to see femininity lost from the women. Our little children need to be exposed to the fine feminine qualities so they can feed and grow on those fine motherly qualities.

I don't want a woman taking on my image. Growing muscles in her eyebrows, looking like she works at the U.S. Steel Mill. I don't want my daughter to drive a mail truck and sling 150 pounds of mail in a bag, destroying her feminine figure. I don't want to see that.

I love the mothers. I love the wives. I love the daughters. I love what Allah has made them. Allah has given them a quality that we appreciate in women, a quality we love, a quality we cherish, a quality that has fed us and has reached our masculinity. If they become all masculine, where will I get that feminine quality for my life?

Every male has some feminine qualities in him. Where do you think we get these feminine qualities? We get them from our mothers. The tenderness, the caring nature, the delicateness: every male should have a balanced amount of that in him. You think a man is a sissy because he is a strong man and humbles himself and speaks sweetly to the weakling; He handles the helpless delicately. No! He's not feminine. He's masculine. But he's a balanced man because he had a mother or a sister or some woman to feed him the feminine quality.

If our women lose these feminine qualities, where in the heck will we get this balance in our nature? We want women to stay women, we want men to stay men. We need your feminine qualities for our own development.

It's a shame what the devil is doing to the society. "Equal Rights Amendment —'do your own thing." I can't do my own thing, I have to do what is right in the eyes of God for humanity. You can't do your own thing, Sister.

Don't let this devil fool you and make you think you have some sacred rights over your own body — you can go and have an abortion without letting your husband know. No Muslim sister will think of aborting the life that her husband has a share in.

"I can't do what I want to with my own body," you say. Can the banker say, "I can do what I want to with my own bank" when he has my investment in it? Your body is your bank, Sister, but I have invested some money there. Don't you shift my account around without letting me know.

What is the devil telling the women, telling young girls? "You don't have to get your parent's okay (for abortions)." Who is the burden going to be on? It's going to be on the parents.

If that child has a baby and wants an abortion, she should come to her parents. The court ought to say, "You are a minor, your parents are taking care of you. Though that is your body, you go and consult your parents."

But, no, the intention of the devil is to dismember the precious, vital connections of the society so that the society will be thoroughly fragmented. The head and neck will not be together, the brain and heart will not be together, the feet will not be together, the whole body is dismembered and he can play with it at will.

We are Muslims, let's not give in to the devil. Every time he says, "Woman, you have an independence." You say, "Allah, bless me to read your Quran and to follow your guidance. I have no independence but what you have given me."

Allah will try us. We say we will accept good leadership if we get it. Allah will try us. We say we are tired of being on the bottom, we want to go up; Allah will try us. We say we are tired of being divided, we want to unite; Allah will try us.

Dear Sister, young Sister, don't go and have anything done to your body without telling your mother first. Tell the devil with his television, his media, and all his means of reaching your ears and eyes — tell him to go to HELL!!

They attacked me in Gary because I said, in Al-Islam the man is allowed the right to discipline his woman. I told them in Gary that the man is not deprived of his manhood in Al-Islam. The only superiority we have over the woman is in terms of our wealth and most of us don't have that. The only bit of that superiority left is in terms of these muscles AND WE'RE GOING TO KEEP THEM.

We're going to use these muscles in obedience to God. We are not going to become savages and brutes brutalizing our women. No! If any man becomes a savage brute and brutalizes his woman, I expect for you to ignore the law and beat his butt, and I will go to jail with you.

Anybody that tells a grown man he has no superiority left as a Bilalian in the ghetto, except his muscles, and whenever his wife is arguing with him, defying his instructions, ignoring the Word of God, refusing to allow him his rights as a man and as a Muslim, that he is supposed to restrain himself and act like God never put any superiority in him — I say, "Go to hell."

In Gary they jumped on me with all four feet. I say four feet, they have four feet, I have two. They jumped on me because I said that our religion allows us to strike the woman lightly.

Not to break her bones. Not to give her blood clots or a black eye or a busted lip. No! No Muslim wants to do that to his wife. It's the non-Muslims that do that to theirs....

But we don't want the Sister to forget that she still has a man around and this man is not a woman, he is a man.

Does the judge come down and give the fullness of the law? No, only when he can't get around it. As long as he can give you a mild sentence, he will, but if you force him, ignore his rights, he might give you the fullness of the law.

Now the fullness of this man in this regard is striking her lightly or a little bit. I don't have to do that, that's my right. I'm allowed that. Every time I get into an argument or a dispute, I don't have to hit the woman. I don't ever have to hit her if I don't want to, but it's my right.

"Oh, Brother, what is this? The Imam is turning these crazy men loose on us." No. The Imam is only following the instructions in the Quran. I'm not turning any man loose on you, but I'm letting the man Know and letting you Know that he has that right as a man.

If you can beat him, that's his problem. Don't come to us, Brother, and tell us you got a whipping trying to execute your rights. Shame on you. If you can't whip her, then you either made the wrong choice or you failed to develop your manhood.

The man that will give blow for blow to a woman, that's the weakling. He hits her, she hits him. He hits her, she hits him — that's a weakling, yes. Any woman you have to give blow for blow to, that's a woman you're not supposed to strike.

Mothers know. When a child gets so big he thinks he can handle his mother, and when she strikes him he tightens up like he is going to strike----"Boy, it's time for you to find you somewhere to stay" —that's what you say to that woman.

When you strike her and she, "Uhummm!" Say "Hey woman, it's time for us to part 'cause you are stepping into the wrong sex role."

A real man that knows his power won't abuse a woman. And when woman sees that kind of man, she respects him. She knows he's not going to brutalize her, but she knows he's not going to let her brutalize him with her ugly nasty attitude or ways. She respects him.

That's in the nature of the woman. It's in the nature of the man. Our women aren't natural when they're walking around showing their muscles and wolfing up in the man's face. That's not a woman's nature.

I want the sisters to back me. The old society of devils is doing its best to set us all against each other because they know — two heads are better than one, even if one is a mule head. They want to keep all of the heads divided against themselves. But if we can stand by each other — not because your husband said so, because God said so — Almighty God said your man should be respected in his masculine role.

When you go out with your man, Sister, don't treat him like he's your little boy, even if he allows you to do it. Obey God, respect your husband.

Don't let a man come up to you and ask you a question while your husband is right there. Don't, say a thing, pretend like you didn't hear him. Make him ask your husband the question.

When business people come to your house and your husband is there, let him meet them. Don't you go.

If your husband will not go that's a different matter, but as long as he accepts to go to the door and meet the public, you let him go.

Somebody comes into your house — no matter who it is — and your husband is there, let him do the talking. I don't care if he can't talk, let him ask you to help him.

If he can't talk and he needs you to help him, let him call you. "Honey will you come here and help me talk to this man, I don't know the proper language or the terms, will you come here and help me explain myself to this man."

Then you are respecting your husband. Your little son that sees that, and grows up with respect for both of you. That keeps him out of jail, keeps him out of crime, keeps him from killing himself and others.

The reason we have all of this crime and death and problems is because you don't present the right image of mother and father to your children.

Brothers, God says if they fail to follow what He has ordered, if they act un-Muslim like, leave them in the bed alone, go find a place. If you don't have another bed, sleep on the floor in another room. Let the wife sleep by herself.

If she doesn't come around, you have to use a little stronger medicine. If she wolfs at you and disrespects you and embarrasses you in the society or before your children, God says you can strike her a little bit.

If you strike her and she strikes you back like a savage, don't leave the bed, leave the house until she can prove that she can be a civilized, decent woman, respecting the rights of her husband. If she doesn't prove it, stay away and get a divorce. Get rid of that terrible problem.

Why didn't God tell the woman, "If your husband behaves unrighteously, leave his bed"? He didn't have to tell the woman that, she's been doing it ever since Adam and Eve. She knows what to do to you. If you don't act like she wants you to act, she leaves you in that bed by yourself. But you don't have the sense to tell her, "My goodies are just as good as yours."

Why does God allow us to strike the woman a little bit? To save us from brutalizing the women. This society conditions us to be brutes. They tell a man he's not supposed to strike a woman. And what does this do? It makes the man abnormal, hostility builds up in him, hatred for the establishment builds up in him. He's trying to obey what he thinks is the standard for a decent man.

After a while the threshold breaks and he can't hold it back any longer. He doesn't strike her a little, he knocks her gums down her throat; hits the woman and breaks her teeth.

This is how this society conditions men: ties up their manhood and makes it burst, and when it explodes, the woman is the victim. In the Muslim society, you won't find women going up to the police with a busted eye, or broken limb. They don't brutalize their women, and they have the right to strike them lightly.

Who knows the better, you or God? If you are a Muslim, accept God's way. Abnormal, sick society — parents are not supposed to whip their kids.

"Are you still using those old backwards methods? The child is no animal, don't hit the child, talk to it." Certainly, talk to it, and when the talking stops being heard, get the switch.

My mother used it on me, and I thank her for it. I love her for it. She talked to me and when she thought I wasn't hearing, she put something on me that I could hear. When the ear stops hearing, see if the skin hears.

If the skin doesn't hear either, you have to try something else. Don't kill the child. No. If you see whipping doesn't correct him, don't be brutal, find some other method. Maybe depriving them of something that they like to have will work, but don't let this society tie up your hands and say you can't strike your child.

Children want to know that they have protection over them. If they don't feel that they have strong supervisors over their lives, they go nuts. They keep knocking and keep knocking trying to get a supervisor to answer the door, and if no supervisor answers the door, they go nuts. If you wonder, why your child keeps getting worse and worse, it's because you won't stand up and be a supervisor.

Children know they can't make it in the world. They know this world is too big and new. They want to know that there is somebody who has been around longer with more experience that's going to check them if they get going in the wrong direction.

If you don't do it, you are just sending your child into more and more crime, violence, misery. Let's not follow the world, let's follow the guidance of God.

Let us make a pledge right here and now that we are going to preserve the Islamic dress for our women and for our men. The women, because of the Western society, think that the restrictions are just on women. The devil has always been after the woman to use her as a tool to defeat the man. The devil hasn't been trying to strip the man of his dress, but the devil has been trying to strip the woman of her dress. He has used her as the sex symbol and a tempter to sin.

Couldn't they have used the men as a sex symbol and a tempter to women? Certainly. We have the same weaknesses. Man has weakness for the woman. Woman has weakness for the man. The devil could have undressed the man and had him walking around all nude and vulgar looking to excite sex in the woman.

He could have done that, but the man is the head of his family, the backbone, the muscle of his society. The devil wants to tear down the man, so he undresses the woman to tear him down.

Now Sisters, are you going to follow the devil or will you follow the way that Allah has shown us through Prophet Muhammad? Wear your long dress all the way down to your ankle. Don't put on anything tight that shows your bust or shows your buttocks. Don't show your figure. Don't show anything that you know will excite lust in the man. This is the Muslim way.

Brothers, we don't have to tell you to put your clothes down to your ankle, the devil still allows us to dress down to the ankle. But I have to tell you to stop wearing Spiderman pants. You can walk down the street and see the print of the man's sex organs. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.

If I pass by you, I hope I have something hard like a steel bar my hand. I'm going to make a mistake and hit you right in the groin. Dress decent when you go out. Brothers. Make sure that your pants are not fitting so tight that they show the print of your body.

That's the devil who wants to bring the mind of the men and women down to that level so you don't even have the dignity of an animal. The animals have a social order and they are busy raising their children, taking care of their young. They keep their social order, they have sex, but their sex is regulated. No animal I know has sex on their mind 24 hours a day but the human animal this Western society has raised.

The hottest animal walking the Earth — rabbits and others things with no mind on sex, but man can't walk unless it's sexy. Everything he does has to be sexy.

He can't sell an automobile unless it's sexy. Everything has to have sex in it. The music is sexy, everything is sexy.

So where is your mind? It's on level lower than the animals. It's not that it's filthy. I don't see sex as filthy. Sex is not filthy, sex is a very primitive human expression. There is nothing in our sex activities that raises or lifts us above the common animal.

That's the sin. to put a man's life in the grip of that inferiority. To put a man's life in the grip of that primitive level and keep him there 24 hours a day. Make him work on his job for his groin. Make him bank money for his groin. Make him study and become educated for his groin. Form the man's whole life to his groin. That's a DAMN great sin!

That's enough to make the whole society rise up and tear down the T.V. stations, blow up the radio stations, tear up the record makers.

I'm not telling you to do this because this society is insane. They wouldn't get the message. They will think you are crazy. You don't go to the insane person demonstrating the things that appeal to their intelligence, so don't do this. If the society were sane, we would be acting sanely to tear down the stations, blow up the record making houses. It's a shame what they are doing to us.

When your little daughter begins to show maturity, when her breasts begin to show, give her a long dress, down to the ankles.

"Oh, the Imam, is sure going to extremes now. Most of us ain't going to be able to take this. We can't do this." You can do it! You know it's the best thing for you to do. You know you should do it. You have the strength to do it, do it!

When the little girl begins to show the woman's figure, put her in the woman's dress right away. Then when she gets 18 and 19 there won't be no problem.

If you let her go out there and display her guns, try out her weapons on men to see if they can be shot down, pretty soon she's going to shoot, and it's your fault because you let her go out there and get the experience, learn what her guns can do.

Tell her right away: "Honey, you are developing for marriage and motherhood. This is not for those boys on the streets, this is for your future husband. If you want a man to stay with you for a long time, darling, unwrap the package for him on the marriage night and tell him, 'This is your gift, it has never been unwrapped before'. "

"But, these men don't respect-----" you say. Don't tell me. There are a few men that don't respect this, but the great majority of the men and boys take pride in knowing that that woman didn't give herself to any other man before them, and these men are not so quick to divorce that woman. He's not so quick to jump up and leave that woman because he can't bear the thought of another man sharing what he had first and by himself.

Let us put the Islamic life in America. Let us establish it. Let its roots go deep. The only way we can do this is to live it all the way.

Don t go out and say. "I don't have a virgin." My wife wasn't a virgin." If your wife is a Muslim, you have a virgin because Allah says, "Whatever happened before conversion to Al-lslam is wiped out."

I don't care what that wife did before she became a Muslim, if she's a Muslim now and lives the life of a Muslim woman, she is a virgin. She's your virgin wife and I don't care if she has been carried through the mill and twisted all out of shape, if that woman is a good Muslim, if you are a good Muslim man, you will get the pleasure of dealing with a virgin.

Allah can put youth back into your woman. Allah can give her back youth and vigor. Allah can give her back virginity. I'm speaking from what I know. The house broke down on me and I got myself closer to Allah. My woman got herself closer to Allah and when I looked at the house, it was brand new.

Let us save the generation. Let us be supervisors in the lives of our children and our weak people.

Allah is the perfect being. Allah is all righteous, truthful — no imperfections in Allah. Allah is Supreme and Perfect without any imperfections.

Oh Allah. Make us of those who purify themselves and of those who repent, and guide us in your path. Amen.

Peace be to you
Your brother in service to Allah.
Wallace Deen Muhammad
(To be continued)