1987-April-24

Muslim Journal

Sacred Life Connection: Part 3

Imam W. Deen Muhammad

(Editor's note: The following article is adapted from an address delivered March 22, 1987 at the McCormick Inn in Chicago, Illinois.)

During the time of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, his companions, followers, helpers and the Khalifahs, Women realized not only freedom, but also dignity and respect, which is something the women of America have not yet realized. She may sense a great amount of freedom, but she can't sense a great amount of dignity and respect. In this society, she's used as something to satisfy the lust of low-life men, with money or without money, with sense and without sense. When she's pictured in the media it is to sell some commodity. She's there all lustful as a temptation. She's being used as a slave of commercialism, and the great respect that she's entitled to is thrown away. She's treated as a sex object for the lust of lustful men, to tempt them to buy an article that they perhaps wouldn't even notice if the appeal hadn't been made to their sexual lust. We have to understand that.

A Savage Society

A society that will make it popular for a woman to publicly show her breasts, curves and give the illusion of even her private organs to viewers is still a savage society, at least in one dimension of human life.

So don't feel too proud, woman, of your freedom in America; the man is shrewd, he uses you as a tool, and tells you, 'you're free.' The freedom that he's given the woman has been freedom that he exploits. Right now women are still making less than men for the same job.

Not For Black Men

Now, this is not for black men. Your hope for employment is with your woman. You don't have a job. The majority of us don't have a job and aren't prepared for work, and much of it is not our fault. We've been outwitted, tricked.

There is something else that we should be aware of, and that is, Muslim greatness and the greatness of the Western world. Many of us are not aware that achievements of Muslims made possible the achievements of the West, particularly in science.

The West was oppressing the intellect of the masses, their women and neglecting their intellect. They had gone off on some trip thinking that they were God and that man should exercise that godly potential or force in him, and that he should exercise it so that he will grow more and more into his God-image. They were so fascinated by that thing, that they neglected the good life that God intended for man on this earth.

And it was the Muslims directly motivated by the Scripture from God called Qur'an, the Last Book, the Last Revelation, and by Muhammad the Prophet, peace be upon him, his teachings and his life, who entered enthusiastically into the field of scientific research and improved upon what had been put aside, ignored and lost, from the great worlds of science that had lived before the Muslims, especially the Greeks.

Muslims Revived Science

Muslim's revived those sciences, and involved non-Muslims and non-Arabs in that work. Because of that, the spark for that kind of regeneration, reached Europe and brought about what is known in history as the Renaissance of sciences and culture. Algebra and the numbers that we use today called Arabic numerals: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine; all came from that great, great excitement of the intellect started by the Qur'an and the great leadership of our Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, and his noble Companions and followers.

We can't go into all the details; that's not the purpose. The purpose is to put the matter straight, to do justice where justice has not been done. You'd be surprised at how many connections in language, knowledge, the sciences and the discipline that we brag about in the West, go back to Muslims and the great age of the Muslim people.

The Strength of Savages

The worse of the Europeans had fallen into savagery and the qualities and attributes that they prided themselves in, and glorified, were the strengths of the savage. That's why Richard the Lionhearted, had a sword that stood almost as high as he stood. They had to have muscles to even lift it. He had something that didn't have to be sharp; he'd just hit some bodies and he'd break them in two. He had the taste of the savage. There is a book written by Richard Allen, called Nationalism and the Fertile Crescent. In this book he mentions how during battle, Christian forces met with Muslim forces, and the Christian soldiers noticed that the Muslims were neat and clean even on the battlefield.

They said (he quotes some of them) that these people take time to shave, wash, bathe, and to scent themselves. The writer says that "much of their refined life was influenced by contact with Muslims on the battlefield." On the battlefield, he said, because there wasn't hardly any opportunity at that time, for any other kind of meeting together, where they would have an exchange of information, knowledge or influence each other's lives.

Muslims Were Established

Also, we should understand that Muslims were established for centuries, as the leading people on this earth.
Now, how long has America been established?
How long has the United States been at the top?
Not as long as Muslim Spain was on the top. Muslim Spain, according to Western authorities, was on the top for five hundred years.

Many other writers, especially Muslims, say six or seven hundred years was the life of that great cultural development and birth of excellence that took place in Spain under the leadership of Muslims from North Africa.

Many Were Black

And at that time many of them were as black as most of us in this audience. The people who brought that great culture to Spain were Muslims and also as black as many of us in this audience or most of us in this audience.

We know the mixture of the races has been increasing, with time, especially in those parts of the world that were inviting intruders to come in and rob the land of its mineral resources and values, and dominate it and use it for strategic bases, etc.

So the lands attracted such people and they went in there as they came into us.
Do you think all this white blood we have in us was our doing? The same thing happened in Africa, too, among Muslims.
Many of the whites that went to Africa left their blood over there, and the physical features of the people have been changed.

The Sudanese

The Sudanese that we see today are black, but they are not as black as they were when they were at their peak. They were blacker when they were at their peak and had great sciences and were impressing the world with their culture, civilization, fine laws, and great teachings of civilization and discipline. When they were their heyday, of cultural excellence, they were physically blacker than they are today. Since that time, the blood has been mixing and mixing and mixing.

Al-Islam and Africa

A writer of a book called "Democracy and Race,"; it might be "Race and Democracy, "by the name of Boaz wrote back in the 40's about the achievements of Africans under Muslim influence; Africans who were converted to our religion.

He points out their achievements in his argument against racism, and the oppression of black people in America, at a time when there was still segregation, discrimination, and white fountains and black fountains in the South, and the same kind of humiliation for us in the North, disguised in another way; many times in the same manner.

This writer wrote about the excellence of the Africans, who were influenced to be converted under Al-Islam. He said that their great history and remarkable achievements occurred upon their contact with Muslim Arabs and the religion of Al-Islam.

He mentioned Askia the Great, and many others. He mentioned Ghana, Songhai Mali, of all these places, and he documents the facts that he presented. He says any white who believes that blacks are not capable of the same kind of achievements that whites are capable of, should take a look at what blacks did in Africa, in the 16th and 17th Centuries, under Muslim influence.

A Shame

We need this kind of thing to be brought out, to clear the air. It's a shame that the African-American is given black studies on college campuses but this great information is played down, and the black man comes out of there, wearing dashikis, bones, and glorifying the primitive man, the semi-savage in his history, instead of the excellent, civilized man, the Muslim man of Africa.

We know that some Africans, like the people of Ghana and a few other places in Africa, especially Egypt, and Sudan, had their period of great history before Al-Islam's advances in science. But history cannot recall for those people of Africa, any achievements to equal what they achieved under the influence of the Qur'an and Muhammad, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.

The White Man Is Guilty...

Now, the first thing we'-d like to say, is the white man hid that fact. He played down the truth and kept from reaching black students on the campuses.
That white man is not innocent. He is guilty of being so afraid of a free negro, that he will lie before he will allow him an opportunity to come into his freedom.
He will lie about the fact of his own past and the facts of the history of the black man. He will lie about it, ignore it and play down the greatness of the man in his past life as a Muslim.

Boaz also — and we must be aware of this — brings out the point, which is very shrewd — I know it from my own experience as a young man going to the movies and looking at cartoons and reading funny papers, in this country — that the way they present the African man to the world makes the world think that most Africans live in jungles, and hunt as a jungle man, when it's only a small part of Africa, now and then that is typical of that kind of life.

Most of Africa is not a jungle of hunters with bows and arrows and spears; it wasn't that way then and it's not that way now.
You should be aware too, that although we made great progress along the road of putting down or burying the hatchet as they say, making amends about the lies that we've told on each other, especially the lies the Western world has told on Muslims, still a lot of progress is yet to be made.