1983-February-25

A.M. Journal

Infiltrators: How To Identify and Combat Them – Read Quran

Imam W. Deen Muhammad

Editor's Note: Following are excerpts from a Jan. 30, 1983 address delivered by Imam W. Deen Muhammad at Masjid Omar, Kansas City, Mo.

LET US look at reality, not only here but all over this country. Any time you come together to do some good, you're going to have problems. Especially if you're going to make your good spread. If it's just going to be your private good, maybe you'll last for a while, maybe you'll last until you die. But if you are doing good and you're committed and you're going to pass that good on to others so it will grow in numbers, you're in trouble.

If you want to get together and do some wrong, you're in the best situation even the good people won't bother you. But if you want to do good, you're in trouble.

We have to understand that, and that's the price that the righteous must pay in the world. We must pay that price. Accept to pay it!

I KNEW people wouldn't like me when I made a stand and when they knew what I stood for. I knew they wouldn't like me. I knew I was going to have a whole lot of enemies. The more people knew what I represented, I knew the more enemies I was going to get. But that's the price I accepted to pay. That's the price all of us who want to do good have to accept to pay.

People aren't going to like you. People are going to make trouble for you. People are going to try to undermine your work. They are going to try to make you lose faith in each other. They try to break your trust. They do anything to defeat your effort. We have to accept that.

WE DON'T HAVE to have the CIA, the FBI or the intelligence office of your local police department, you don't even need that. There are people out there in the society who will give you enough hell without those agents.

On top of that you have bad elements in the government — some Catholics are so prejudiced against the religion that they will sacrifice their time and even their life to see this religion stopped in America -and Protestants who will do the same. Then you have some other Islamic groups that will do the same because they don't want to see me grow either.

I'm not going to name any, but there are some narrow-minded Islamic groups that will work to defeat you too because they don't want to see you prosper either.

We have to understand that we have enemies coming at us from all directions, who will do their best to undermine us.

A LOT OF MUSLIMS are not satisfied with my leadership --I'm talking about Muslims of the world — but the majority are. I do believe the great majority of Muslims on this planet love my leadership, they thank Allah for my leadership, but we have enough who are hateful and jealous and dislike us enough to make trouble. Some of them are here in America, and some overseas too. We have to understand these things. We have to accept reality.

Don't think that everybody who comes to you in this name or in these clothes is your friend. It may not be the case. Your friend is the one who is truthful, who is open. Anybody who has to work with you behind closed doors, anybody who has to tell you something secretly in your ear, you shouldn't trust them.

The person who comes out boldly before the community and lets them know I'm your friend, I'm a friend of this community, those are the people we should be inclined to trust. But those persons who stand behind, in the back but never want to be seen up front, who claim to be with us, but are whispering things in our ears — don't trust those people!

I don't care who they are. I don't care what kind of clothes they come in. You can't trust people like that, you see!

WE HAVE MANY masajid all around the country, and all of our masajid are going to be visited, our enemies are already there. Every masjid is infiltrated. Believe me.

RIGHT NOW, I'm talking to people who are not here to help us, they are here to hurt us. They are here to see that we don't progress. That's their purpose, that's why they're here. They are working for somebody or some agent or some agency or they are just part of the group of prejudiced people who are against Muslims — they're here just to see that you don't prosper.

EVERY MASJID has them. Don't think your masjid is going to be any different. We're talking to some of them right now, here. They're here in case there's an opportunity where they will be able to take that advantage to set us back. That's their only purpose in coming.

We have to accept that, but we don't want to become paranoid, alarmed to the extent that we're going to say, "I'm going to find him." No, don't try to find him, forget about him; just know that he's here, but don't worry about him. Hope he keeps coming, maybe he'll hear a khutbah that will change his heart one day.

Accept that he is here and he is a troublemaker, here to see if he can upset you or take you back or throw a monkey wrench in your operation.

SOMETIMES THEY just ask a question behind a good talk. They don't like to see the good spirit remain. We had a good talk, the spirit is high, good -- everybody's going home in a good spirit. "May I ask a question, Brother Imam? What about so and so and so...?" just to throw a damper on the good spirit.

If you read the history of the people who worked against Prophet Muhammad, the kinds of things they did, they were able to come in and pretend to be Muslims.

The Holy Quran says they would come in and pretend to be the best of the Muslims, they would establish that they are the most enthusiastic Muslims. They would say, "Let us go in among them and establish ourselves as the most enthusiastic Muslims — and then at a certain time, let us just quietly withdraw — and then that will make everybody wonder and will break the community of Muslims."

The Quran tells us of this scheme they use and there are many, many other schemes and tricks they use to hurt a community, make you doubt, make you not trust the community.

BE AWARE of the many schemes they work. Read the Quran more. You have it in English -- Abdullah Yusuf AH a good translation, Pickthal, another good translation. Read it in English. Don't wait until you learn Arabic. Some of you will never learn Arabic. You'll die trying to learn Arabic.

So keep trying, but in the meantime, read the good English translation. Read it daily! Don't wait until Ramadan. Read it daily, become more acquainted with your Holy Book so you will know the tricks that the world pulls to set back the good work of the righteous.
(To be continued)