August 5, 1994

Muslim Journal

"A Focus For The Healthy Unity Of Muslims In America"

Imam W. Deen Mohammed

Imam W. Deen Mohammed made this public address at the 1992 Annual Islamic Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, on Sunday, Sept. 6, 1992. From it he has prepared this article for Muslim Journal's readers. (A Reprint)

I have given you correctly what is in Qur'an and what is in the life of the Prophet (SAWS), and you are obligated if you want to be a conscious Muslim with your full mind alert and awake. Now if you want to have sleep in the southern hemisphere or the northern hemisphere or the western hemisphere or the eastern hemisphere of your mind, that is another story. A brother told me, "I can drive a long way in the road, for I can sleep in one eye and drive with the other." If you want to be asleep in half of your brain and only work with the other half, that is your business. But I want a full working brain (mind).

I want to compete with this White man and he's been doing it for so long and has gotten so far ahead of me where everything is his. Now I am working for (to compete in) his race. In order to do something to get part of it and establish myself and become competitive with the members of his race, I need to use every bit of my brain (my whole mind).

We want to establish ourselves in excellence for the Muslim life first of all. Then we do it for the good of American life, for the good of America's religious life. But we also want to make worldly contributions. We do not only want to get a piece of the world, we want to make "worldly" (material) contributions to the greatness of America.

Muslim-Americans — including African-Americans and other Muslims of America — a contribution from our excellence that we can produce out of the world and achievement for worldly excellence is what we want. I am not talking about the non-halal things. I am not talking about liquor or drugs or gambling. Whatever Allah forbids is forbidden and that is it. But money is not forbidden. Progress for finance, industry, and culture is not forbidden. Progress for commercial life is not forbidden. Become bankers and financiers and start financing for yourself. Finance your own mortgage and your own insurance. Don't you want that much money? I do. God says I have a part of that. It is waiting for me and has my name on it.

Lastly, brothers and sisters, we have to be committed to struggle. The more you achieve, the more strength you have to have and the more willingness you have to have to sacrifice and overcome trouble. People are going to envy what you get. When you don't have anything, nobody bothers you. And you are not important enough for the devil to talk to directly. The devil bothers you with the burden that is on you. The more you get, the more you will be envied and the more people will try to take what you have created and produced and carry it to their vaults. If they can't do that, then they want to destroy what you have established.

Allah says to us first of all be reverent, be regardful. Reverence the family ties. Be regardful of hell fire. Be regardful of the Day, the Last Day. Be regardful of things that are very sacred and very important in terms of determining the outcome for you, in deciding how you are going to end up. Allah also says be faithful, be patient, and be persevering, in patience. Some of us are patient but will not do anything while we are waiting. Be persistent and persevering though you are waiting. Keep working on what you are committed to until you realize what you are working for or hoping for.

God says also, "Struggle and form alliances." Muslims are supposed to be doing big things. And those big things must be supported by the first things, the most precious things. The most precious bond is your bond to Allah, your bond to the Qur'an and to the life of Prophet Muhammed. It is taqwaa that is most important. But God also wants us to form alliances and other bonds.

We have the term called "breaking bounds." You see the possibilities for you progressing financially or to gain some other way. You see the possibilities of reaching up to a certain point in a certain business and then it stops. You do not see beyond that stop any progress for you further. I understand the language of the Qur'an to tell me that I am not to accept any boundaries for my progress as long as I am obeying Allah. We have to be boundary breakers and break through boundaries.

Isn't that what democracy is all about? It is about knocking down barriers that are not justified and breaking through boundaries. Be committed to break through boundaries and extend bonds, bonds that offer you better life and better opportunities. I formed a bond with the Muslims of Chicago and I formed a bond with the Muslims of the United States of America. I don't see them (firstly) as members of any race or ethnic group. I see them as my brothers and sisters in this religion. And I have positioned myself to explore the possibilities for me realizing a better life in America by joining hands with them. That's the disposition I take.

Many of us are coming into that disposition to see that we are Muslims belonging to one international Muslim community. In this community we are one family, and this family has the best possibilities for realizing a sense of family and sense of family excellence even more than we could realize with our own flesh and blood relatives — mother and sister, son and father. So I am dispositioned and committed do extend my hand as an Islamic brother to my Islamic brothers all throughout the land of America and the world.

We are going to work together, brothers and sisters, for the interest of establishing Islamic Muslim life on this continent of America. Not only that, we are going to test this freedom. We are going to test this democracy. We are going to test their claim, just as the civil rights movement tested their claim. They (the civil rights advocates) tested it until they (people of America) had to deliver on "their" promise. We are going to compete for leadership in these United States of America.

The law of this land allows for everything to be redone, even the Constitution itself. It says that if the people determine that the Constitution itself is not serving their noble aims anymore, they are allowed by

the (provision) Constitution to abolish it and write another one. So we are going to test this democracy. We are going to clean up America if God blesses us to survive and do it. And I do believe that is Allah's Will.

We will clean up America. We will establish righteousness in this continent. Righteousness is the rule. The fear of God is the rule. Respect for decency is the rule. And everything else that breaks the rule is out of law (lawless) and out of order and should be condemned. That is what we hope to establish on this continent.

I am not saying that we are going to impose Islamic life on anybody. We have history to show that that was not the way of the Prophet, and that was not the way of his blessed followers, and it is not the way of the Muslims.

Spain was ruled by Muslims for about 700 years, and the Jews and others were allowed to keep their religion and progress religiously and also worldly under Muslim rule. We have many other examples. We have India which itself was once under Muslim rule for 800 years. For 800 years Muslims ruled in Asia, in India and did not try to extirpate or uproot or do away with Hinduism. The proof is that the Hindu Society is still there and giving the Muslims hell. They are not treating the Muslims as they were treated by Muslims.

Believe me, this excellent way of living and this excellent way of treating people by Muslims eventually is going to reach more and more minds of people on this earth, and Islam is going to become the dominant membership throughout the world. It is fastly becoming that. And people are going to welcome Muslims into leadership of their society, just as the Spaniards welcomed Muslims into the leadership of Spain.

Thank you very much and let us pray for forgiveness and guidance always. And God be with you. As-Salaam-Alaikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh.