SAVE YOURS DAY

February 22, 2020 

A MUSLIM PEOPLE OF AMERICA: RACE, HUMANITY, MUHAMMED THE LIBERATOR, AND THE ISLAMIC-AMERICAN DESTINY 

Public Address by: 

Imam Earl Abdulmalik Mohammed, 

National Representative of Imam W. Deen Mohammed 

Leader of the People of Imam W. Deen Mohammed

As-Salaam Alaikum, and that is Peace be on you. 

We are thankful and appreciative of your presence here today to witness this occasion. We are grateful to G'd, Highly Glorified and Praised is He. We witness that nothing is deserving of our worship except Him. He, that is the Almighty and Renowned. It is known by the witness that is in our own human nature and in our ability to reason with the aid of everything in this created world, that nothing can be compared to Him, that nothing is like Him, and that He has no partners or rivals to His Authority. He is the Lord and Creator, and for Him is everything in creation and for Him is the Command over it. These are also words from our Holy Book, the Qur'an.

We witness that Muhammed the Prophet is G'd's Messenger. He is the final Prophet in the line of Messengers and Prophets that includes Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, peace be on all of them. He was a human being in all respects. No divine being with divine nature, no Angel, a flesh and blood human as were all of the Prophets. Allah says in the Holy Qur'an of him that he is mentioned in the prior Books, those Books in their pure form are what now Jews and Christians refer to as the Law and the Gospel or the Old and New Testament of the Bible. So, we recognize as a strong matter and condition of faith that we who respect the revelations from G'd, the Revealed Books, belong to a special kinship of faith. We are more together in true faith than we are apart, if we are understanding correctly. We believe also that G'd has a Plan and Purpose for all life, and that His Plan and Purpose extends over man's planning.

All peoples of faith have language to describe this Truth. It is only instigators who keep us at odds. The people of faith, no matter if they are identifying as the followers of Christ Jesus or Moses or Abraham, peace be on them or Muhammed, the prayers and the peace be on him, they know we have more that we share as a vision of what human society should be and can be on this earth than we have cause for difference. When more of us act in this commitment we can silence and remove the instigators' influence. This is why it is increasingly important that you hear from us in public. It is important that the media hear us and the political establishment and the academic establishment and the economic establishment know that we recognize that we are living in the time of the Day of Religion.

Physical, social, and moral forces are compelling us to see that we have one, single global existence that brings together every nation on this earth in common cause. The Ancients spoke in their records of wisdom of this reality coming into the conscience of man in graphic conclusion. That these forces would overwhelm man's sense of comfort no matter what his station. We are living in this time now. Our late leader, Imam W. Deen Mohammed, using language from the Holy Qur'an referred to it as the Day of Religion. A day of conclusion and commencement. A completion and a beginning.

We would like to acknowledge all of the dignitaries who have joined us today from the public of this great American city, Cincinnati and this state of Ohio. We appreciate these outstanding accomodations here on the campus of the University of Cincinnati. I spoke on this campus many years ago when I was the National Representative of Imam W. Deen Mohammed. I remember that very fondly and I hope that I will be able to visit the students here again soon. 

 There are many special cities in this state, Dayton, Cleveland, Columbus and I am sure some of you who are present today come from those cities and their surrounding areas. I have my own personal affection for Dayton, Ohio. It is the birthplace of my father, and perhaps some of my family members from Dayton are here today knowing that I was expected to speak here in Cincinnati. I spent many summers with my grandparents in Dayton and the nearby city of Richmond, Indiana. This was the city too, where my father was introduced to the Temple of Islam and its teaching in those days, in the 1950s, under the leadership of the Honorable Elijah Mohammed.

He was introduced by my grandmother's sister and her family, my Great-Aunt Charlotte who joined the Temple with her husband. My grandparents were a tremendous influence on me and my development as it relates to Islamic knowledge and identity. Both sets of them had strong ties to Cincinnati. The Temple in Cincinnati was the 5th one established under the first teachers and leaders of the Temples of Islam or Nation of Islam as it came to be known, behind Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Washington, D.C. This city and its members qualifying to be the 5th Temple or Mosque in our history has its special significance, and if the local people, our local community here in Cincinnati invite me back soon and regularly for a public meeting, I will share more of the meaning of that significance as it was taught to me and as I understand it.

I would like to acknowledge our leader here in Cincinnati, the Imam of our masjid or mosque here, Imam Terynso El-Amin. I am sure many of you are already very well acquainted with him. He is an excellent leader with a great future ahead for leadership in the public of this city as a representative of the religion of Islam and the Muslim community. He has my confidence and I will be depending on him to represent our interests here and in other cities too. I thank Allah for him and for his very special wife, who also has a beautiful story of Muslim identity in this city. I am also very thankful for his supporters, especially brother Samuel AbuBakr who has assisted Imam Terynso and has also sent me many messages of sincere and strong support. These are wonderful people working in the spirit of faith and human community peace and cooperation. These are the types of persons we want in the public view. These are true representatives of Islam.  

Praise be to Allah. Obviously, I am not able to be with you today though it was my intent. I had thought to have two of my daughters, Emani Karimah Mohammed and Hajar Chiara Mohammed present this address to you today. They are both very skilled public speakers and they are the granddaughters and great-granddaughters of our late leaders. I thought the occasion was such that they would be excellent in my absence. They thought better than me and they did not want to be present here without me. They preferred to hear me deliver these words. One day soon I will bring them here and others of my children to witness these important occasions with me and introduce them to you. 

Speaking on my behalf today, speaking these words, is my representative Imam Ibrahim El-Amin. I am dependent on him for many things. He is an outstanding young leader and I will be relying on him much. You have met his mother, Sister Lari Hayat Dawan who is from Cleveland, who is our Chief of Staff for our Muslim-American Ministry for Human Salvation offices in Southern California. You, who are with me, will be seeing Imam Ibrahim quite frequently especially when I am unable to be present with you personally. I know he will deliver this message I have for you today just as I have given it to him.

I would also like to acknowledge and thank all of our MAMHS team of workers and the courageous support they have received from our People in many cities throughout this country. They are a fantastic group. I am grateful to Allah for them. They have insisted on having the life of Islam in community as taught by Imam W. Deen Mohammed, and they recognize that I am the successor of that tradition. They recognize and support that I am teaching in and with that Tradition, and that I am the leader Imam W. Deen Mohammed pointed to that would help us continue moving in this blessed direction.  

What is this Save Yours Day? The Honorable Elijah Mohammed would be speaking of who he referred to as his savior. He would be speaking about what a Savior's Day looks like. This is his language. This day is a recognition of the Muslim African-American identity and all that is associated with the contribution that has been made to America and this world because of those who have embraced and lived with that identity, built that identity, and the teachers who have explained and demonstrated it.

What is the savior? I know you may be asking this. It is not a "who." The savior that the first teachers were pointing to is that which they believed is the savior for mankind, if you will follow their reasoning. In the language of Islamic teaching it is referring to the Mercy and Healing that comes for man's benefit. It cannot be seen as a human being. It is not created matter. It is Guidance for that human. It is the Guidance that directs man to his purpose. It is the Guidance that saves man for his purpose. This is what "saves us and our families from a fire that is fueled by men and stones."

This is a verse from the Holy Qur'an. It says "Save yourselves and your families from a Fire that is fueled by men and stones." Men and stones. Humans and their erroneous ideas, their erroneous guess-work, their ideas straying from the mark that are a self-made, self-imposed ball and chain preventing their success. G'd wants for us Success, not error. And any He guides will never be astray. And any that refuse Guidance will always be astray.

Mr. W.D. Fard, spelled F-a-r-d and pronounced Faraad -he had many names he used all for a specific reason. This is not the situation to speak on all of that, but it is important to know that all of his names figured into his strategy to reach the black people of America with a message. He was the teacher of Elijah Poole, and Elijah was his devout and obedient student. Mr. Fard used language and made suggestions that he was treating as strategies to get the African-American people to see something. What did he want them to see? Well, what was he looking at himself? In the only photo of him that he authorized, you see him giving devoted attention to something. It is not a photo of his face looking at the camera or the photographer. It is a photo of him holding the Qur'an and devoting his attention to it. This is all I will say about that today. 

We have a big subject and I want to do it justice. "A Muslim People of America: Race, Humanity, Muhammed the Liberator and the Islamic-American Destiny."

Beginning this address I want to speak for awhile here of our late leaders and their strategy and thinking to get us where they knew was the only destination our souls would be completely satisfied with as a people who had been under the state of a general denial of our humanity. This fact may be something that has been forgotten by most. It is hinted in many ways still. That the black people of America are something less than human. Not quite human. Ethnic. Exotic. Be-lack. Lacking something of the general nature of humans. A negro people. Negro, the Spanish word for black.

Be-lack means something in the minds of the English-speaking world that it does not mean in truth. This was the issue. This was the central matter of concern which settled deep in the minds and hearts of Marcus Garvey, Mr. W.F. Muhammad, the Honorable Elijah Mohammed and Imam W. Deen Mohammed, and perhaps Drew Ali. I will concede to other presenters to mention during this month others who are of our great benefactors. I am speaking of the great benefactors of the African-American people. The great teachers who left their record to help us get to the destiny.

I will not speak today of those we hear of most commonly, at least not at any length. No, today belongs to a certain type that wanted us to have our place alongside all of the great Peoples of history on this earth. They didn't just want us to have a place at the American table in the American reality. They wanted our meaningfulness to even extend beyond the American reach in this modern world. They wanted us to have an eternal place as a People contributing to the excellence of all humanity on this earth and in every important discipline upon which humans depend for enlightenment and progress.

They wanted that we have a self-concept that would even outlast America, or that America could re-fashion itself upon. It is not on celebrating blackness. Let's dispense with that now. Blackness is not the issue for Save Yours Day. Human worth in human identity that saves human communities for their true human purpose is what we have in focus today. This is what "saves yourselves and your families from a fire that is fueled by men and stones," quoting the Holy Qur'an. The true human picture that G'd created, with its assigned purpose as G'd intended. 

Our late leaders, the leaders aiming and focusing the Islamic destiny in America, had as one of two primary objectives to lift the burden of race language ambiguity from the African-American people. This was the first objective, and the second was a natural consequence of the first. The second and overriding objective was to point us, the black people of America, to a new, satisfactory identity that would tribute and hold superior a true human identity above a race-consciousness.

America's race consciousness is more myth than fact. It is more falsehoods than truths. Race in America is an artificial language, an artificial construct. It oppresses every group it touches. The overriding objective of our late leaders was to cancel America's race language and perspective in its manifestation as a heavy weight and chains of burden on obscuring for African-Americans an enjoyment of the natural human existence G'd intends for man. There was the issue of a psychological slavery that the first teachers of the Nation of Islam took up as a central issue that was the direct result of a chattel or physical slavery that even now troubles us to the point where we repeat and perpetuate 'slavish' attitudes and behavior.

The Honorable Elijah Mohammed and his teacher were appealing mostly to the damaged psyche and conscience of the black people of America. Damage devised and supervised by a diabolical super-ego system of influence. This is what a Save Yours Day looked like for them. The Save Yours Day was the public annual setting to treat the problem of artificial race language in the reality of African-American life, and to introduce a new identity and to show and prove the benefits of that new identity. This is not to say that there were not errors in their language. I will leave to others to dwell on the errors.

G'd is the Best to Know, the Best to Guide, the Best to Judge. Nothing is outside of His Knowledge, or beyond the Reach of His Plan. These are the Holy Qur'an descriptions that He has revealed, and I, and you, would not know these things except that they came to us by way of these late leaders I am referring to, and these processes that they set our minds upon. What I am saying to you today requires reflection and study. We will publish it and leave it for the record that our thinking continued in me, the successor to Imam W. Deen Mohammed. I will not go before my Lord's Throne and be asked by his Angel "What was your response to your condition?", and not have an answer that "I, and those with me, continued in this Path, to live it and promote it with sincerity and determination according to the truth that Allah is our Lord, Muhammed is our Prophet, and al-Islam is our Religion."

Continuing now. Much of the language of the late leaders 'shocked' African-American people to look again at the super-ego language of oppression, or at least to begin the process of dealing with it in our rational minds, and not be intimidated in looking at it. The language addressed even the notion of being 'fearful' to address our mental and moral condition, and eventually our spiritual and economic condition. The language challenged black people to directly confront white authority at every point of its manifestation in black community life. In personal habits. In personal choices of food and overall diet. In employment. In leisure interests. In spiritual devotions. In political matters. In the need to establish social, educational, economic, and spiritual institutions that are maintained without the interference or management or permission of whites.

The late leaders were deliberately and consciously provoking our attention to the matter of freeing ourselves from a slave mind. A slave mind. How do you address a mind that has been enslaved? It is one thing to address the physical restraints, the legal restraints, the social condition. It is another thing entirely to address the most damaging part of race in America. That one race is inferior by nature, and the other is superior by nature. To address it they had to use startling language. Eye-opening, soul-stirring language. I mean 'soul-stirring' in as literal a way as possible.

I do not want to necessarily mention specifics or details of that language. The reason is that it was a device, a tool, an instrument, with which to influence our thinking as a People to reach beyond the bad circumstances. They did not want attention on the instrument as much as they wanted attention on the purpose for its use and the desired outcome. The outcome was Muslim-American identity, and that is what we are acknowledging here today in this Save Yours Day event.

We are celebrating the success of our late leaders in their strategies to get us to this place where we have Islamic life and access to Islamic guidance so as to build for ourselves a beautiful existence in this world on our own terms, and without the supervision of the white race or any other group. We are supervising our own human community trajectory according to universal principles that all other Peoples have had access to. With Islamic identity we have Freedom. And this was the beginning for the complete life that includes also Justice and Equality.  

Do you know that the current members of the Nation of Islam under Minister Louis Farrakhan will be required to study what I am saying to you now? Do you know that when Minister Farrakhan gets this, he will require his student ministers to study it? I am telling you what I know. How do I know? We are the only ones on this earth with this mind, who see most clearly what the Islamic destiny is for America. If any others know it, they know it because of us. We have taught it. This is the language and reasoning of the Guided-Reformer, the son of Clara and Elijah, and the one invited by Fard - the Imam of al-Islam, Warithuddin Mohammed.

Minister Farrakhan cannot get to this except through us. In order for that following to continue to grow, it must have this understanding. This is no criticism. This is respect and love. I respect him, and I respect and love the innocent and sincere ones in his following. I would not be saying this except that I know that he will recognize the importance of what I am saying to you, even if many of you do not know how to understand its importance.

All in all the language of a civil rights movement did well in the Courts appealing to idea of justice in American law, and in calling attention to the inhumane treatment of black people in a general sense. But the damage to the black people's psyche was a lingering, festering malady of the soul. This was the sickness, the virus, of a super-imposed fear needing an expectorant to aid natural urges to forcibly remove it. In the mind of Mr. W. D. Fard the only way for the African-American internal, mental and moral systems to heal was by the cleansing agent of the original Nation of Islam's biting language. It was a cleansing-shock to the systems of black people, and to the white people too. It was powerful, bold language in the old America.

That is exactly what they intended - to shock us into a new perspective on our circumstances with a new, different, thought-provoking, behavior-prodding language. The objective wasn't just language though. Language was the vehicle. The objective was Islam, and in the emphasis of these great teachers that meant Freedom, Justice, and Equality. I want to note here that though the language was to many -shocking, it was never immoral or vulgar. It was never spoken without sincerity or conviction. It was spoken as Truth, and it was presented as Principle because it was pointing to and intending an honorable destiny on a sure footing in America. In this country that had denied us.

It is here that this problem for what took us away from what G'd intends to serve all human life occurred. It is here that the issue must be addressed. It is here that it must be reconciled. No promise, no invitation, no guarantees coming from anywhere else, coming from any other nation on this earth including African nations, can be fully appreciated by us in our souls, until this situation is addressed to our soul's satisfaction. We must establish ourselves with a view on prosperity for every legitimate need in our human life alongside every other ethnic group in America.

And we must confront, head-on, the reason we have not enjoyed an independent, established life. We must confront what is lacking in ourselves. This was the Truth of the language of our late leaders—to question why we were not our true selves and to demand from ourselves what must be done to restore ourselves to our proper human status. That required a pushing away from white authority and pushing away from the promises of American democracy. Our condition demanded a new vantage point, and the 'shock' of Nation of Islam pronouncements gave the black people that much needed perspective adjustment.  

So in speaking of the language of the Honorable Elijah Mohammed in his manner of directly addressing America and white authority, even the Civil Rights People led by Dr. Martin Luther King were 'in shock.' So much so that Dr. King warned the white establishment that if they didn't heed his approach, then there was a very real alternative in the Honorable Elijah Mohammed's following that would have to be acknowledged. Now, Dr. King was reacting to language, not the works of the Temple of Islam members. And this is the point. In order to really understand and appreciate this history we are highlighting, you must understand the language in the context of the circumstances and in the context of the aim and objectives of the late leaders.

You cannot see us now, properly, without appreciating the aim in the teaching of Mr. Fard and the Honorable Elijah Mohammed. You will think that we have abandoned our devotion to Islam as Freedom, Justice, and Equality, and gone off on some spiritual trip. I can see how you might think that if you have been looking at us for the last 10 years or so. I think some of us, maybe too many of us, have tripped-out. But that spiritual tripping-out is error. It is not Islam in its proper sense, and it is not what our late leaders were aiming for. It is nothing but fear on the part of unqualified leadership class that could not handle the responsibility the son of the Honorable Elijah Mohammed, Imam W. Deen Mohammed, left for them to carry forward. Most of our Muslim leaders disqualified the legacy they had been given by having not deeply considered where we had come from and where that historical legacy was pointing us to. They missed the whole thing, and that is why they are not here today.

The vehicle of language to jolt the African-American conscience to believe and move forward upon the principle that asking for, even demanding, recognition of civil rights from the white race was not the same as accepting responsibility to build a life for yourself in spite of the oppression policy of white authority. G'd entitles us to all He created us for. We know this by nature. We sense this. The child, who is just beginning to experience the world, will sense if he or she is being mistreated. The baby, having no trained language of protest, will scream out for the responsible party in their lives to remove the filth from their bottom. So, all human beings have the natural sense of what is proper respect for their dignity.

As a stimulant to provoke the mental and spiritual energies of the African-American People, our late leaders of the Temples of Islam referred to the whites as a race of devils, and would at the same time admonish blacks for not acting more assertively on their 'superior' human status. In other words, it was not for an inferior 'made' man -the white race, a devil people, made by the black man, to be the superior over the 'created' man who was the 'Owner, Maker, Cream of the planet." This was their language. It was no doubt, a shocking language to a black man and woman whose natural self-esteem had been decimated by the white world.

It was intended to send a thunder-clap and lightning-bolt into the black people's reasoning and awaken us to understand that you will not have justice or equality under a civil-rights movement or the passing of civil-rights legislation until you accept that you are free to think through your own circumstances and plan a life for yourselves. Civil Rights has little meaning if you are still struggling with the notion that the white race is the god on earth. You will have civil rights but you will be still asking the god-race to provide for and protect those rights for you. Now you would be very superficial if you thought that this was the only value in the Nation of Islam teaching at that time. Speaking of the white race in this way was a very small part of the appeal of the Honorable Elijah Mohammed's message. He wanted the destiny for us.

I must say here that the language the Honorable Elijah Mohammed used was not Islamic language as we know it now. And yet, the Honorable Elijah Mohammed was not a man who was intending to make errors. What he understood the religion to be, he was straight and sincere about. And this is what has protected us in this time. Don't think that Imam W. Deen Mohammed abandoned his father. That is the biggest lie ever told on him. We have inherited the sincerity of the Honorable Elijah Mohammed's teachings. I am not speaking of the details of his language to describe whites, that in many ways was justified just on the face of its logic. I am speaking of his aim, his objective. Allah, the Most High acknowledges sincerity even simultaneously as He does not accept errors.

There is no inconsistency of logic in Islam. Good is accepted with innocent and sincere intentions. Errors are never accepted. Allah says of Himself that He is Good and He accepts the good. The Honorable Elijah Mohammed's sincerity was accepted, the good of his works are accepted. The proof of that is the blessing of understanding that came with his son, Imam W. Deen Mohammed, that I am presenting to you right now. Even though he has passed away, may Allah grant him the Mercy, I am still his National Representative. Yes, indeed. And if somehow he could be with us right now at this meeting in Cincinnati, he would not accept to address this audience today. He would not speak. If you were to try to get him to speak he would only point at me and nod his head in approval. 

Let us continue with this subject now. What is the state of black people in America? This is what the Honorable Elijah Mohammed would be asking of us. This is what Imam W. Deen Mohammed would be asking of us. Your soul demands that you ask this question of yourself. You cannot save yourself unless you ask this question. If you are not prepared to ask it you know you are suffering from an advanced sickness and you are too afraid to deal with that sickness. I am speaking for the soul's interest today, at this Save Yours Day. You cannot trick the soul. It registers everything. You can trick the mind, but not the soul. You can rationalize your reality, but you will know the truth of the matter in your soul. You will be shaking your head at the falsehood you have made for yourself. Your true thinking and behavior will reflect in the health or sickness of the soul.

So, what is the truth? You are drinking alcohol; ingesting all manner of intoxicants; smoking cigarettes; eating foods not good for your health; behaving indecently in public spaces; chasing after the wrong kinds of men and women; justifying criminal thinking in your behavior toward each other in your neighborhoods and rebelling against good in your life; you aren't responsible for a school or hospital in your community; you don't own a grocery store or restaurant or clothing store or gas station anywhere in walking or close driving distance from where you live, and you are still believing that the white race is a god-race who will provide all of these needs, and still crying out to the boss-man Jesus and expecting that he will come down off of the mythological cross and change your condition. This is not a mockery. This is serious business addressing a horrible condition of the soul of too many of the African-American people. 

This may not be the condition of many black people but it is the reality of too many. What is the truth? It is that we are more and more oppressing ourselves with bad choices and bad behavior. I am not only speaking of the less-educated among us. I am speaking too of the leadership class of our People. We are telling ourselves lies about our reality. Our reality, not in terms of what is possible, but in terms of what we are committed to, is a lie that only a drunk person who has an altered state of mind would believe. Let me tell you, if our People would just accept the Islamic discipline to forbid ourselves all intoxicants, no alcohol, no marijuana, no self-medicating escape mechanisms and pharmaceuticals, we will instantly become a stronger people. What nation can be held up and remain productive that is made up of a population of regular marijuana smokers?

It may not be the physical marijuana plant you are smoking or the physical liquor you are drinking. It may be the false notion of security you are feeling in your borrowed American-dream identity. It is the intoxicant of the middle-class black family existence where you pretend that you are comfortable, but know in your soul that you are still dependent on the white establishment and that you have no real plan to deal with that dependence except that you point to it as the cause when you are feeling certain that you are failing yourself. That is why you need a drink. To escape the reality of an artificial existence.

You may excuse yourself from this truth by saying that I am oversimplifying. You are drinking heavy wine. You are smoking the marijuana of the American middle-class dream and the high is making you see an unreal existence reclining on your superficial achievements that disappear before your eyes with every puff of smoke that dissipates into thin air. Those smoking that intoxicant will be forever a declining People, never to be strong. I know this will hurt many. But, even in spite of your advanced degrees and higher incomes and impressive job titles, you are still crying out in 2020 that "Black Lives Matter."

America decides that marijuana should be legal to use and now you are ready to get into the legal drug trade. You are a slave of the white world still. You still have to convince yourselves and the white man that your life matters. Your language says that you are still, yet, an un-established People. Who are you crying out to? You are still crying out as if you believe that another man is superior to you, that in order for you to feel good about your own existence he has to recognize that you matter. You are unconsciously treating him as if he is the owner of all knowledge and resources.

This is not the less educated, the deprived of our people crying out and acting this way. No, these are the children of the middle class African-Americans. They are crying out because the strategy their parents used to get to freedom has not satisfied the demand coming from their souls. Their souls want more than freedom. Their souls want establishment. And since their souls cannot be tricked like the mind can, and it has not yet been satisfied that it has achieved a true establishment, they are crying out to the white world in the only language they know. Islam does not accept a false reality.

As Muslims, we have to be in touch with all of our senses, and we must engage this world with our senses working and fully intact. Our prayers of obligation cannot be performed if we are under any mental burden that distorts our conscious mind. Islam does not permit an intoxicated response to any obligation. The Qur'an says "Do not approach the prayers with a confused mind." 

If our People will accept the Islamic teaching that G'd is Ar-Razzaq, The Provider, and that He is Al-Ghaani, the Independently Wealthy, and that He is Al-Maalik ul-Mulk, the Owner of all that is to be Owned, and you approach your human life as G'd's obedient slave and not the white world's slave, then you will have the free mind to compete for your place in this land and in this world. Too many of us know that we are not responsible for supplying our basic needs in these neighborhoods where we live. We are expecting others to own the dry cleaners and the grocery stores and the restaurants. And we frown when one from our people makes an honest effort at it. We criticize the effort: "Oh, I am not going to that grocery store. They don't have any of the name brands."

Too many of us are still looking at the White House and expecting a Savior to appear, an Emancipator. Well, let me tell you the Great Emancipator was on this earth about 1450 years ago and a Light was with him that lights the way for all humans to true emancipation. He is Muhammed and the Light with him is the Holy Qur'an -the Savior of mankind. And this is where our late leaders wanted to take us. They wanted the Islamic potency in our lives. And I am not speaking of any Arab religion, as some of you Afrocentric extremists want to spread, especially on these college campuses. Not all, but most of you who have Afrocentrism as your religion misrepresent the dignity of our African Muslim ancestors and the beauty of what they produced for their own populations and the contributions they made for the advancement of humanity.  

So, we are making the point that the late leaders wanted to get us to a place in our thinking that we have still not fully accepted. We are still looking around for the comfort of white authority's recognition. And they are looking at us and thinking, "You all have had these great Teachers and Leaders, why don't you accept their wisdom and advice and act on it?" You are not being honest with yourselves if you are not looking seriously at Islam and Islamic identity. If you are a black man or woman in America and you have not given a serious consideration to studying what the religion of Islam offers you, you have cheated yourself.

I know for some of you this is painful to hear. You do not want to think that you have cheated yourself. It is easier to think that someone has cheated you. No, you are cheating your good future if you do not take the time to consider the teaching of the Holy Qur'an. It is the Healing and Remedy for the cause of the pain, and the Mercy that points you in the direction out of the painful existence. It is within your grasp, if you will accept it. This is the Freedom to think your way out of America's false race-language construct. You have to claim it. You have to understand that it is your inherent property. It is not for America to give or take. It belongs to you as a natural human being. So, here is the Honorable Elijah Mohammed, a man with a third-grade education, telling the white world that you have no right on this earth to deny any human being. And if I am able to free my people to think, well then they will not need to ask you to unshackle them. They will unshackle themselves!  

"You will not be equal to the white man until your get equal knowledge." 

The pronouncement of the Honorable Elijah Mohammed. What is he talking about here? Justice. Freedom, then justice, then equality. This is the pathway from slavery to establishment. This is the pathway from oppression to becoming a People standing on their own credits and delivering to the world knowledge intended to advance human society. 

This is the teaching of a clear mind, a clean heart, and an honest soul. These are not the words of intoxication. No intoxicated fog had descended on the mind that spoke these words. These are not words of invitation to an escape into a contrived, weakened existence. These are not words expecting failure. These are not words inviting dependence on another's sense of good-will, or fearing another's bad-will. These are words of strength, courage, and commitment. This is a courageous, confident intellect speaking. These are words compelling black people to pursue not only a sense of Freedom, or freedom from physical restraints. These are words to commit black people to compel themselves to what is required to compete in this world, and to accept responsibility for society and advancing this world. These are words that define the purpose of Freedom.

Free-dome. Free the dome. Free the ability to think for yourselves, so as to become the productive vessel G'd intended. Our ancient forefathers in Africa weren't intoxicating themselves with false realities so as to escape responsibility. No, they were searching this material earth, and the skies above, challenging their intellects to understand what G'd had put within human reach and the benefits that were to be derived from it so as to bring about the life in society G'd intended for man to have.

The ancient Greeks who many point to as the original point of special enlightenment responsible for the foundations of Western ideas of democracy and civilization were all students of a knowledge base preceding them in Africa. In fact, if you study closely it might appear to you that they were even worshipping their African teachers. If you look at what they preserved in their myths and sciences that the Greeks derived as lessons from their African education you might come to the conclusion that they saw the Africans as above humanity. There is nothing worthy of worship except the G'd That Created everything, Gave it its nature, and then Gave it Guidance. There is no other god, except a false, illegitimate one that man has raised up to oppress other men. But, one thing is certain, the ancient Greeks did not have a race problem. They had no problem preserving the fact that their teachers were black Africans.  

Isn't this the true Justice? Justice is the opposite of oppression. Justice checks oppression and disqualifies its logic. If my people are the cause for bringing comforts to human life by way of my free intellect mating, bonding, connecting with the natural world, and all of these systems that function in society so that human beings can have an honorable existence have come about because of my intellectual straining, then who will oppress me?

So, here is the Honorable Elijah Mohammed teaching black people and black leaders that your emphasis is off-center. You are wanting to convince the white world that your life matters, and you are busying yourselves with having your rights respected, but if you will pursue acquiring and acting on the knowledge that holds up this world then you will be sharing responsibility for advancing this world and no force will be in your way obstructing you because your knowledge is required. The modern world will not function properly without what you are responsible for, and what you have brought to serve mankind. Isn't this the true Equality?  

How do we come to this awareness? How do we come to this disposition of mind? How do we come to this discipline of spirit? The Honorable Elijah Mohammed and his teacher were focused on something. 

G'd says in the Holy Qur'an that "they follow the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, who they find mentioned in their Books, the Law and the Gospel. He commands them to the highest standards of excellence, and forbids them notorious, indecent behavior. He makes lawful for them what is good and decent. He prohibits them what is shameful and undisciplined. HE RELEASES THEM FROM THEIR HEAVY BURDENS AND THE RESTRAINTS AROUND THEIR NECKS. Then those who believe in him, honor him, help him, and follow the LIGHT that is sent down with him, these are those who are successful." 

We are not giving any credence to those who abuse the sincerity of the Honorable Elijah Mohammed by saying things of him that he said of himself in error. Those who want to discredit him for making errors should repent their own errors. These words quoted from the Qur'an were not from him. These words quoted from the Holy Qur'an were revealed to Muhammed the Prophet, the unlettered Prophet, the Messenger of Allah and the Mercy to this world. And the Qur'an is the Light sent down and with which Muhammed brings mankind to his true freedom. Freedom to think through the schemes and find the destiny G'd intends for all mankind.

With the Qur'an he releases man from that which has burdened him. He releases man from that which have been chains and neck-restraints, enslaving populations including the black people of America. This is not a reference to only physical restraints. It is more directly a reference to 'schemes' of oppression to prevent human beings from realizing the fullness of human life in the interest of serving an elite few. The Qur'an offers a logic and explanations of Faith and Purpose for man that when taught properly free the intellect of man from all would-be oppressors. Even the oppression of believing that man is or could be G'd.

 This is what Mr. Fard had in focus. This was his intent. To introduce an identity for the black people in America that would link them to the Light that Guides all mankind. This was the Savior for the black man and woman of America, and the Liberator who it came to who demonstrated its teaching in society as a protection against schemes that weaken human populations and a foundation to build human society upon is Muhammed the Prophet. 

When we look at the Honorable Elijah Mohammed's statement "You will not be equal to the white man until you get equal knowledge" we can conclude that with Islamic identity in America we have our destiny in focus as a Muslim-African-American People. He said "If you will accept Allah will set you in heaven right away." How? Why? Because the Holy Qur'an is not equal knowledge. The Holy Qur'an is superior knowledge! And we know of its superiority because of the teaching of Imam W. Deen Mohammed which I have delivered to you today.  

Thank you. We pray that Allah Help us, and that we qualify for His Help. As-Salaam Alaikum.