Muslim Journal

December 3, 1999

Imam W. Deen Mohammed's Public Address at the 1999 Annual Islamic Convention - Part 1

We are planning for our future, and G-d has blessed us with His Guidance. The people of faith, all of us, have been blessed with His Guidance. We look for miracles; are there any more miracles? And there are miracles all around us, although we are not really thinking of those things as miracles.

It is a miracle in my mind that the people of faith have survived the troubles of this world. That civilization has survived barbarism, savagery. To me, these are miracles. That the people of faith are now having more charge of this world than the un-G-dly.

The un-G-dly have no place at the controls of the world. Communism was threatening the world of faith, to convert the world of faith to materialism and to a belief in materialism. But communism died the death of the disbeliever. And now its people are returning to faith after 70 years of being dominated by Communism, materialism, Marxism. To me, this is a miracle.

The Muslims in the territories that were once under Communism have returned to their mosques, to their places of worship. Christians have returned to their churches, to their places of worship. And others are returning to their places of worship, after being dominated for 70 years by those who said, "Forget about G-d; it's all about materialism."

Wake up! The day is here that we have been looking for. We should wake up and see it. This is the day of religion. This is the day of religion, when religion prevails over the un-G-dly people and their un-G-dly ideas. I am here, the son of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, enjoying comforts and great respect from people of the various states and leaders and from the business establishment and from the media. Why? Because I stand for G-d and G-d's way.

Nothing can explain the place I have now in your hearts and the place I have
now in the world, except my obedience to G-d and G-d's way. I am not a college graduate: I am not a wealthy man. I have no credentials that would impress you that much. So what is the answer? I have followed the way of G-d and I have been sincere. And G-d has rewarded me. Look at the sun shining on us.

We plan for our future, knowing that the future belongs to the conscious people. The future belongs to the regardful people. The future belongs to those who have respect for things that should be respected. And we want to be the friend and the co-worker for all the people who have that kind of makeup in them.

We don't care if they call themselves Jews, Christians, Buddhists or whatever. If they have that kind of makeup in them, we want them to know we are their friends. We want to befriend them and we want them to befriend us. We need to work with them against those who are un-G-dly, against those who have no respect.

We are here in the city of Philadelphia, a city that my father sent me to, to be a minister, to replace a minister who was here in 1958. Our first child, Laila, was born here in Philadelphia. She came back with us for this Convention for two reasons. Naturally, she is a Muslim and is with me and you Muslims. She came back to attend the Convention, but she came also to visit the city of her birth - Philadelphia.

When my father sent me here, he said: "Son, I am sending you to Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love -Number 12!" When he said "Number 12," I was lost. I understood everything, until he said "Number 12." I know 12-10,11, 12,13. It is just a number, and it took me years of maturing as a student of scripture to really register fully what he was saying to me, when he said "Number 12."

Twelve represents the universe, the whole world. We have 12 months in the year; 12 signs in the heavenly wheel; 12 disciples; 12 represents the universe. He was saying to me, "Son, I am sending you to where your soul wants to go." Because my soul wanted to be with humanity, and my father knew it probably before I did.

That I wasn't satisfied just to be called a Black man. I wanted to be a human man. I wanted to be a man with all men. I wanted to be a man after the likeness of my father, Adam, the first man. Not in his fall, but in his bright shining form. I wanted to be a man like that. I wanted to be a man with all men, so I wouldn't have to worry in my soul about what was going to happen to all of us.

Because I know if some of us want to dominate others, then all of us have cause to worry. And I had no desire to dominate anybody. G-d has always blessed me to have a peaceful heart, a peaceful soul, to want to be just by everybody, fair by everybody and never wanting to do any wrong. I thank Allah for making me like that and keeping me like that.

G-d wants us to know our life, our existence, the beginning and the end or the conclusion of things, so that we will live with respect for what G-d established as life for human beings. And at the same time, know the path of our progress, the path of our development, and what will be demanded of us as we live year by year, generation by generation.

G-d created us as one human type called Adam, that father type or original pattern upon which all of us have been formed, the first human life that G-d made. And we know that as we begin to grow and multiply and produce, there is going to be demanded of us a uniting of effort, a working together as one.

G-d made us as one, and as we grow and demands increase upon us, we are going to have to live and work as one. We have lived to see our world become one living room, for all of us on the many continents - Asia, Europe, Africa, America. We have seen all the men and women around the world and our children put into one living room now, that the Africans called the village and we are calling now the global village - one village.

We can't escape each other. We have to see each other and television will make sure that happens. If we make a mess in one part of the world that is going to affect another part of the world, the media will let us know it. Television will show us that mess. So we can't hide anymore from one another. We can't create problems for one another that won't be discovered for 50 years or for 100 years. That use to be the world.

The world today is not that anymore. If we make a mess for each other that is going to affect the other, we are going to see it right away. So we have to live together, and this is G-d's plan. G-d says: "Man's community was once one community, the community of our first ancestor."

G-d is telling us that to let us know that we have to prepare ourselves once again tb live as one community. It doesn't mean that we are going to become one political body or one national body or one nation. No, there are going to be many nations. It doesn't mean we are going to become one cultural body. No, it means we are going to become one in our respect for humanity, for the excellence of man created by G-d.

If we don't do that, then we won't have a place in the future - except the place in hell suffering miserably in this life and in the next. G-d is greater; Allahu Akbar.

(To be continued)

"G-d"
"We are not the first to make this change, to recognize the word dog in the reverse reading of the Name is distasteful. Many Jews agree. We favor such Jewish sentiments and share the concern."
Imam W. Deen Mohammed, Sept. 30, 1998