April 13, 2001

Muslim Journal

Responsibility: A Critical Concern for a People Pursuing Business Establishment

Imam W. Deen Mohammed

(Imam W. Deen Mohammed gave the following address in Washington, D.C., at the CPC Distributors Conference on March 11, 2001.)

I greet you with the greetings of all Muslims on this earth, over 1.25 billion now, with As-Salaam Alaikum. We praise G-d, who is the Lord and Sustainer of all the worlds, and who has made everything that we can see with our physical eyes for our own benefit – not for Him.

G-d says that whatever is in the skies and whatever is in the earth, that He has made it all to be of service to His Khalifah, and that first Khalifah was Adam, the first of the prophets. He is not mentioned as a prophet, but as our first father. G-d says that He has made everything in the skies and in the earth to yield its benefit to the man He created, so that it would be useful and beneficial to all the descendants, the children of that man. That means all of us.

ALL OF CREATION SERVES MAN

When we look at the vast creation of G-d, just try to imagine that G-d says to you that all of this is made for you. If you recall the story of the creation of Adam, G-d said to the Angels before He told the man that He made all of this for man, He told the Angels: "When I have breathed into him of My Spirit, then you make your submission to him." G-d ordered the Angels to make submission, to yield to the man He was making.

G-d said to Satan, the only one who rejected the man – called Iblis at that time, and was the leader for the rest of the Angels, "What is the matter with you that you don't accept the human being that I have made with My Two Hands?" Be mindful, it says "with My Two Hands."
Then G-d says of His Two Hands, that He has everything in the control of His Two Hands. It means that He has Two Controls, and everything is in the hands of His Two Controls. That is in the Qur'an.

This vast world that we see in the sky and down here, including ourselves, G-d made it with His Two Hands. So G-d used both His Controls that He used to make the creation and the world and the human beings. So man must be very special. The Two Hands that control everything were used when He made the human being, man. Again, He made the human being to benefit from the whole of His creation, from everything that He has created.

THE POTENTIAL IN MAN

We live in a time when we see the reality of that capacity or that potential in man. This modern civilization, the West, given its start by Islam, by Muhammad the Prophet, the Qur'an and the thinkers who heard the message of Qur'an and who heard the Prophet's preaching’s and became scientists, they gave the West – the United States and Europe –its start.

Now, look at what the West has done. The West focused on the sky and brought useful things from the sky to us. They send spaceships to visit different bodies in the heavens and they bring materials from the surfaces that they visit. They are studying the atmosphere and environment in the sky. So they are really doing what G-d invited man to do, when He created the first man, Adam. That is to make good use of all that He has created.

We know the sun's energy is harnessed to reduce the cost of heating certain facilities. With gas prices up like this, I hope they will study it more and bring me some of those reflectors and I'll put them in my house to bring the gas bill down. So everything is working in accord with what G-d has revealed, and that is what we should realize.

PEOPLE WAIT FOR MIRACLES

People are waiting for miracles. They'll say, "If they can show us some miracles like Moses' people witnessed, maybe we will believe in G-d. Only if we could see the Red Sea part." That is only child's play to what is going on today. I don't want to see the Red Sea part. I want to see how to make the television to show a human being in my living room, when he is on the other side of the world. I'm looking at him and hearing him speak just as though he is in my own living room. That is a bigger miracle to me, than the parting of the Red Sea.

That is speaking as a common sense man. If I speak as your Imam, I will say something entirely different. One addresses your psychology –the parting of the Red Sea addresses psychology. But I am talking about science and technology and they are about the biggest miracle I know of in these modern times.

SOME ASK TO SEE G-D

Why have I gone to that extreme to address you for a few minutes? It is because that is where you should start. When you wake up and open your eyes to the outside, G-d shows you a big world with the eyes He created for you. You will see the sky and it is unlimited. Science, with all of its powerful telescopes, cannot see the end of this world.

So the greatest scientist, with the greatest help that science and technology can give him, is in the same position that you and your little boy and little girl are in, when you and your little boy and girl step out of your doors to look at this world that G-d made. You can see what you see and they can see what you see and beyond that, but neither the scientist or the common person can see the boundaries or the limits of this creation.
Some of us want to see G-d, but it isn't possible to see the end of what we are looking at. We can't see the end of what we can see, but yet we want to see G-d. Now once you are free of this like I am free, you are going to make a difference on this earth.

G-d says to us in the Qur'an, "No sights can catch Him." He says in another place, "Look at My creation and tell Me what flaws you see, what mistakes do you see in it?" This isn't talking to a fool. G-d would not invite a fool to examine His Works. So a lot of you all, the question is not meant for you. Some of you don't have the brains to know the difference between the flaw and the sign.

THE NEXT LIFE A NEW PERCEPTION

The wise look at what you call a flaw and see it as G-d's Sign. When you get the whole picture, there are no flaws. It is a perfect creation, and you can't improve upon it. To show you how wonderful this creation is, G-d says that in the Next Life – when we get the new life – we will look at it and say, "This looks like or resembles what we were in before."

G-d is telling you, "My creation is good enough as I created it. You just need to be awakened in a new perception of it." Then you will have heaven while you live, in a life that will be eternal without sickness, without trouble, without worry. All of that will be gone. Would you believe that I am already in that? I'm not affected by sickness or by troubles. G-d has given me a protection inside here. No trouble or sickness can get inside here.

This body could be burnt alive, but inside will not be affected. G-d knows that, and G-d has made me like that. It took more than 55 years to make me like that, but I am like that now. Thank G-d. So I am already in heaven, and I know that when this is gone and nothing is left, it won't affect what is in here, because it is not affecting it now. Praise be to Allah.

So let us see the big picture first. We don't have time to bring us from Day 0 to the present time in 2001, March 10, so we will just make a quick trip and know that I am leaving out many important scenes from then to now. The next scene we want to see is the world market of today.

THE WORLD MARKET

The world market not too long ago was determined mostly by what you could buy on the market. It was determined mostly by the industrial nations. Now it is not. You can buy products from the Third World in your most attractive or strongest stores that you have in Washington, D.C., in Chicago, in New York City, in Los Angeles. We can go to the market place and buy products from small developing countries and even from those countries that are not even yet identified as developing countries.

I was surprised when I bought an item of clothing and got home and looked to see where it was made and it was in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is not a country that you look for manufacturing to be there. But Saudi Arabia has opened its doors or borders to business people and working people, and they have come to Saudi Arabia and established their businesses from nearby or surrounding countries, as well as those a far distance away, like Asia, Europe and America.
We have a brother in our community with a spice line or seasoning, and his product is sold in Saudi Arabia. You can buy caps in our stores here in America and it will be made in Bangladesh. We have now what the business world is describing as a global market. This is a new change in business.

I was strained when I visited Red China with the U.S. Chinese Friendship Group. But I was interested to know, "Can we come here, too?" The Hon. Elijah Muhammad had already turned me on to our obligation to think big and try to work for big results. I am there. I have never seen a time in my life when I was not aware of our interest here as a people – not as individuals, not as temples or mosques or schools, but as a people. I have never forgotten that interest.

I am there in China and I am thinking the way I have been conditioned to think. I am conditioned to think for us as a people. So I asked someone in the marketplace, still Red China at the time –mainland China. I asked, "If one of us came here, could we purchase here like I see this White man from the South doing?"

That was many years ago and America and China were not on friendly terms. But here is the White man from the South, I think from Georgia, there purchasing. No law was preventing him from buying from Red China and taking it back home. So I said to him. "Could we do that too?" The look in his eyes told me, "We would much rather have you here than to have him here. They are not yet our friends. But we have no problem with you; you are our friends. We like you Blacks." It was not us as Muslims, but us as Blacks.

COMMITMENT A VIRTUE

Many soldiers have experienced that overseas, where they did not blame their economic problems or war – military problem – on the African Americans, though we were over there serving the United States of America. Everything that I say is not my thinking, but I want to expose these things to you.

Any citizen who goes abroad fighting in the United States Army should be blamed like any other citizen who is fighting in the war. We are not to be excused for anything. You could have gotten shot over here if you said you didn't want to go. So then you should stand up for your flag over there. That is my belief. I believe in being a loyal citizen, even if it is in a dung house, until we can make it a clean house, I'm going to fight for the dung house, until we can get the house we want.

If I commit myself to something, I have to go all the way. I can't betray it. We are talking about the global market. Red China is in a much better situation now with the United States, in terms of their relationships. We are in a much better situation now to do business with Canton, if we want to. But we don't have to go there. There are so many markets that we can go to, and we have some very good friends.

Don't think that our friends are only Muslims. The Hon. Elijah Muhammad said something, and I don't think he knew anything of what I am talking about right now, although he may have. I think he was looking at Mr. Fard, his teacher who told him, the one we used to call Savior or god in the person, that if he would follow what was given to him, it would put our people who followed the Hon. Elijah Muhammad in heaven at once. Good homes, plenty of money and friendships in all walks of life.

FARD WANTED US TO COMPETE

I know that was said to attract us and to hold us, but let me tell you something. The man who told us that was not interested in money and clothing and physical homes. He was interested in freeing our minds and our souls to be independent in our own thinking and in our own souls to go and compete in this world.

He wanted us to be removed of everything that made us doubt our own selves. He wanted to remove the stigma of Negro and Nigger and Black in a negative sense and make it positive and work for us and free us to go and compete in this world with all other people. That is what he wanted, and he achieved it.

It is very difficult to understand, when you are looking at just one thing he said. But if you look at everything he said, you will see a logic. The logic is saying that it is more important on what is in here than what is out there. If you can make what is inside of you right and free what is inside of you, then you can compete with anybody out here in this world.

I am convinced that we can compete with anybody out here in this world. If our hunger to prove ourselves, to prove our own worth stays with us, maybe not in my time or maybe not in the generation of the youngest ones here but in time – 100 years or 200 years from now – if we don't lose this hunger and remain decent minded and innocent hearted, we are going to become equal to the best and maybe better than the best that exist on this earth. It is in us and has been put in us.

Slavery burned it in. The Hon. Elijah Muhammad's teachings reinforced the best that we wanted. He reinforced that, in terms of our belief in ourselves and what we can achieve. It was belief in our own selves. The Hon. Elijah Muhammad made that a deeper impression on us, a much bolder impression on us.

It is in my blood and in many of you and it is not going anywhere. It is in some of our people who don't call themselves Muslims, who have been touched by what the Hon. Elijah Muhammad and our works have done in these United States. The Hon. Elijah Muhammad impressed some other places too, for he went outside of the United States with his teachings before he died.

That impression is not going to leave us. It is going to make us a giant of a people. You insincere ones will only be tortured. The flames of Paradise for us will be the flames of hell for you. The more we progress, the more you will be tortured. It will remain that way.

To be continued