1987-May-15

Muslim Journal

The Inherent Spirit And Character Of People: Part 3

Imam W. Deen Muhammad

"Black" is not a satisfying identity. A more satisfying identity is "black American;" we need more than just "black," "black" is only a color. African-American, is an even more satisfying identity. Why?
Because it gives us existence before the American situation, and we are entitled to that just as other minorities are entitled to an existence. There are the Irish-Americans, Jewish-Americans, Polish-Americans, Italian-Americans, Anglo-Americans and Chinese-Americans.

But we've gotten locked into something or somebody has maneuvered us into something intentionally or unintentionally and we now call ourselves "black" and it's not satisfying.
"Black" may satisfy the need for the present situation, but when you're using "black," you know it satisfies us and we want to distinguish ourselves from the "white" man. But it leaves something orderly; but' that's not the situation you have to live with, you're not going to address the "white" man for the rest of the day or week, or the rest of your life; I hope not.

We have to live with ourselves when we're not thinking about the "white" man, and "black" isn't enough. I'm not thinking about no white man and I'm in my house, and Laila looks almost white, and Wallace looks African, and the children are all different colors. Some of you have all black & the color is consistent, all of your children, the father, mother, everybody's black, consistently black, but that's kind of unusual now for us in America, we are those different colors, but we've become a "black" — sometimes I have to look at Laila — I say, "Laila, don't think we are leaving you out." So it's not a satisfying identity.

And I'm sure that "white" is not a satisfying identity for all European descendants. They are not put in a situation where they have to have that. They are identified by the country where they originated, the land that they originated; Irish, Spanish, whatever, and so it is for the Asians. So it is for everybody but us.

And that's what keeps us black, and I didn't put no quotes on that black. That's the one I'm using; that's my term. And that's what keeps us black. That's the term that you can find in the dictionary — look it up, and when they give the racial definition, just ignore that; I'm not talking about the racial definition, but read all the definitions other than the racial definitions, and that's what I'm referring to when I use that term just then — black, and all the other meanings attached to it.

Void In Life

Yes. Don't you know we feel a sense of void, we feel a void in our life? Don't you feel a void? What is a void? Something that's supposed to be there but ain't there. That's a void. So don't most of us feel a void in our life? Yes. Most of us have a big black hole, don't we? A big, black hole and it's really tense; you know the scientists say, they try to explain the beginning, the origin of the universe and some have advanced a theory that this universe started from a black hole or a black hole is what regenerates it, that all the matter energy is some compressed, so pulled by its own gravity, inward, that it becomes a black hole in the space.

But in that condition is the compressed energy that will one time (because it's going to keep going in upon self), and at one point it's going to become too much pressure to hold and it's going to explode and (then it's) the "Big Bang" creation of the world all over again, right?

The "Big Bang" comes and all that energy and matter, it just explodes out in form of light, fire and worlds of matter, and the world is created all over again.
So we need a "Big Bang" for the "black" man. Let's look at some more terms now.

We looked at the term God says "I'm going to make jaahirun, I'm going to make," and we looked at the word God says "I'm going to create," and we said God is saying to us two things, that He made us, and also that He gave us our identity; in creating us, He gave us our identity.

Satan Is Disturbed

Now, let's look at what satan, the adversary is disturbed about; let's see what disturbs him.
He says, "I will not make obeisance to a mortal." A mortal — is he a mortal? Is satan a mortal? He thinks he is but he is not. Are the angels immortal? They think they are but they're not. Not immortal in the sense that they have no beginning and no ending, that they exist forever. No, God created the angels, God also created the jinn that came out of the jinn form and became Iblis, the devil.

So they don't have an eternity, for themselves, now they are temporary creatures, and they are in the scheme of God just as we are; we're proper mortals, we are mortals proper. When we say mortals, we think of life and death, living and dying, and these kind of characteristics are ascribed or associated with angels and the devils. We don't think of the devil as living or dying. So that's the difference, and they have no permanence, except that God gives them life and existence.

So he says "I will not make obeisance (submit to a mortal) that you created from potter's clay"; okay, so what does he have a problem with? He sees characteristics of us that God is giving recognition to as being inferior to his own; he sees the mortal in his mortality as an inferior creature to himself. There -are many things I'd like to say at this point, but we don't have the time and this may not be the place.

Now, he also has a problem with the fact that God created him. He says, you created him, from potter's clay, so he has a problem with the fact that God created him from potter's clay.

Now, he would like to create the people himself; Satan wants to create the people himself, he dislikes that God creates, because when God creates, He gives identity and Satan doesn't like us in the identity that God gave us. He wants us in the identity that he gives or he makes. Now, he doesn't like that we are like potter's clay; potter's clay is pliable, agreeable, it agrees to be formed by the former.

He doesn't like that in us; he sees that as a condition in the creature that is to be despised, because he is rigid — Satan is stubborn, he is a defiant one, he defies an influence coming into him, he will not allow himself to be influenced, he throws off all influences; he will not be molded. And then he says, "of dark mud fashioned into shape." Look at the order they are giving it in — "of potter's clay," and you know potter's clay is fashioned by the potter; then "of dark mud fashioned into shape."

Clay And Infant

In Arabic language there is a word for clay — "taqil." And there's a word for baby having basically the same characteristics, the same letter formation — "fithn" — just a slight change in pronunciation but it's the same essential construction of the word; no letter has been changed, only the pronunciation of a letter has been changed. One means "clay," the other one means "baby." So they have preserved in their language all of these centuries and all these other years, that when you are talking about clay, or your point of view either — "You stupid. Thought you were a black Jew, going down there and convertin' to that Muslimism. Nigger that's what's wrong with you, you too gullible." Yes, they come at you like that, right? But don't think that's the real Satan; that's his messenger.

Again, when we look at these two words "potter's clay," 'potter's clay" is more elementary, isn't it? 'Potter's clay' is more elementary than mud. By elementary, I mean, it's simplified, there is not too much in 'potter's clay.' When you break it down scientifically, you come up with just a few things. But when you break 'black mud' down scientifically, you come up with a whole lot of stuff. It has acquired matter from its environment mixing it with its original clay, so now it's not just clay, but it's a mixture now . of many things that it has acquired in the process of living in its environment over a period of time.

So Satan looks at mortal creature, in his mortal identity of mortal self, and he despises it. He looks at him in his agreeable nature, his agreeable spirit, in his tendency to listen, and be convinced that he sees it as an inferior condition in the creature. He looks at the mud, the alter, what is translated by one translator as "dark mud altered," it has been changed, it is not as it was originally. And we know mud is a combination of earth and water, or soil and water. So here is the water in it, and he despises this creature that has water, in his makeup; he says "I have no water," (now I'm saying "I have no water": he's saying it but not in those words); he said, "you made me of fire, and fire does not have water."

Natural Man

And he boasts that he was made of fire, and he says "you made me before you made him, and you made me of fire," in contrasting the two creatures. So he's showing what he despises in the creatures that God makes; he despises the growth of the creature, that has come about from him being influenced by his environment. The creature has allowed himself to be influenced by the environment, his makeup to be influenced by his environment, his contact.

You know the devil can have a contact with an African, and he doesn't change. The devil can have a contact with a Frenchman, a European man, and he won't change. But the human being, if he has a contact with an African, he comes away with some of the elements, some of the ingredients of the African in his mud. He has a contact with a European, he comes away with some of the ingredients of the European in his mud.

So here is a creature that is growing with pride and circumstances. Well. Don't forget now that we are trying to point to the fact that God made us with a
specific form and a specific identity, and that human form and human identity. Human form and human identity as our Creator intended it.

Baby Nature

It's not the humanity that we might find in Gambia, it's not the humanity that we might find among some of the humanists nowadays, it's the humanity that we see in the newborn baby, the thikrl, the thikrl, the clay, the babe. It makes me feel good. You know, I've never saw any newborn child be a creature of the devil; although, these crazy movies draw a creature of the devil in the womb before it is born. This is Hollywood, the child in the mother's womb (abdomen) before it is born, in there making all kinds of devilishment; coming out with eyes throwing green rays at you. I never saw a baby come into the world like that. All babies come in the world speaking the same language, baby language, having the same spirit, baby spirit, having the same attitude, baby attitude, having the same disposition, humbleness.

Now let us go from the soul of Muhammad; I want to come closer to a time, to the soul of Dr. Eric C. Lincoln, a "black" man, and please put those quotes there again, a highly respected man among the (unclear) and also among the scholars of today, especially those who write on the life of "black" people, and (unclear).

Dr. Lincoln says, that none of you addressed, addresses that he made before an audience of distinguished men in the field of education or learning, he said, "I believe that the black people of America who have Islamic gened memory." How can that be explained; how can a gene have a memory? Well, people who study science of human forms, they know that the genes hold also memories. The baby bird that is born, in a few months or weeks maybe, will be ready to start a home or start a house and that mother bird will know how to make that nest; she doesn't have to be taught it, it's in her gene memory. She knows how to.

It's genetically clocked in her genetic makeup to know how to make a home or go get the straw, take it to the tree, place it properly, mix it with mud, make a nest. It might have to be taught how to fly, but when it comes to making a home, she does not have to be taught how to make a home.

That's something, isn't it? That she has to be shown how to fly. The mother bird takes off from the nest and shows her how to fly, she is the only life out there in the air, to show that baby how to fly; she doesn't go anywhere, she doesn't get any food^ she'll go out there in the air, she jumps off the support, that she's got the baby on she'll fly around, and come right back to the baby.