One Must Have the Courage and Spirit of Imam W. D. Mohammed

WITH ALLAH’S NAME THE MERCIFUL BENEFACTOR THE MERCIFUL REDEEMER

April 24, 2011 (EASTER)

ONE MUST HAVE THE COURAGE AND SPIRIT OF IMAM W. D. MOHAMMED TO ATTEMPT TO LEAD OR GUIDE HIS FOLLOWERS…
INTELLIGENCE IS NOT ENOUGH!

We are told that Prophet Mohammed’s community was traveling and they stopped to take a rest and some how they overslept. Even Bilal, the one who was assigned to call the prayer, slept through the prayer time and Prophet Mohammed (pbuh), himself had to wake all of his followers up and admonish them for oversleeping when they should have been up, alert and on their post spreading the revealed word of Al Islam to all who have not heard or understood it. So it is with this community of Imam W. D. Mohammed’s. We as a community and especially it’s leaders cannot afford to sleep while our people (Muslims and non Muslims) hunger for insights and information as it relates to the mission that we as believers have stepped up to the plate to advance and propagate. Every Khutbah, every conference, every Taleem, every meeting or gathering of Muslims should be a forum or an opportunity to educate and advance this community towards it’s noble goal. At no time do we have the luxury of idle talk or unrelated instructions. Every word, every sentence, every utterance must be a step towards a deeper understanding of our leader, his mission and our obligation to fulfill this awesome mandate that we have chosen to give our lives for. If we go to sleep on this mission, only the one who woke us up initially is capable of reawakening us and putting us back on the path of G-d.

So to be successful we have to not only know our subject, we have to know and have a strong sensitivity for the concerns and needs of our “subjects”. To teach a class on war referencing all of the successful experiences that you have had being in the Army when the class is populated with Vietnam combat veterans and not take into consideration what might be lurking in the minds of these professional soldiers is to be naive, insensitive, uninformed or just plain fearful of controversy. What ever the reason or excuse, this teacher or professor has failed to address the most significant concern consciously or subconsciously dominating the mind of his/her audience. All of the hypothetical or theoretical models one might express will never and can never override one’s personal experiences. With the above in mind we, the children of slave ancestry, know the consequences of politically correct theoretical patriotic revisionist so-called history on the plight of our African slave parents as taught in the United States Schools. History excluded/ignored the prevalent and demanding facts leading to our sick and decrepit condition in America today.
So if ever one should be sensitive of the current prevailing conditions that his audience is experiencing we, the children of slave ancestry, should be. It is not a crime to be enthused and proud of one’s own accomplishments or experiences. But to allow yourself to be lulled to sleep by your own success–to the exclusion of what might be on the mind and in the hearts of your audience when your job is to be a drum major for the community or your audience–is derelict to say the least and renders the speaker or teacher inadequate as a qualified community leader.

For nearly three years I have listened to many, many excellent Khutbahs delivered by some very excellent Imams of this community, but very few have seen fit to take the second part of that Khutbah to seriously address one of the most serious and pressing problems underlying the perceived or real lack of progress in our community today. I’ve heard every excuse or reason one can think of for not addressing this subject during Jummuah: it’s not important, it’s a personal problem, it’s a family problem it’s not our concern. Yet when I travel around and across this country I can’t take two steps without someone stopping and asking me: What’s going on with the probate case? How’s your daughter? Or stating: “I become sick whenever I reflect on how they treated the wife of Imam Mohammed after his passing etc.” Over and over I hear Imam after Imam quoting from the Qur’an “…the unjust killing of one individual is as if you killed all humankind” but never having the courage to acknowledge what is obvious and blaring in their very eyes and mind, that this also applies to how any innocent person is persecuted–including Imam Mohammed’s young innocent wife who was unjustly abused by Shirley Muhammad and her children.

Recently in Atlanta, Georgia, one of this communities’ most learned and outstanding Imams gave a Khutbah on Marriage while side stepping the above mentioned clear admonishment from the Qur’an. This Khutbah was the opening salvo of a conference which followed where this subject, Marriage, would be further spoke on and explored (for a slight cost, and CD’s and DVD’s on sale afterwards). Though I was not present in Atlanta I was able via of modern technology to listen to every word that this talented speaker spoke to the public audience who attended his Jummah khutbah, or lecture. As I listened to him I said to myself: this young man is quite gifted and talented. I found his words warm and enlightening. His use of the English vocabulary was very impressive and his use of the Arabic language to drive home his points was done with a strong sense of clarity. If I were to give him a grade on what he did present I would have to give him an A plus. I was not only impressed by the technical aspects of what he had to say, I was Impressed by the report he made on the wonderful and exemplary circumstances that he personally is experiencing in his own marriage which is a plus for this community and the African American people as a whole.

Despite the fact that I found no fault in what this model and excellent teacher said or did in his khutbah on marriage, I did find concern in what he did not say. I asked myself is it possible for such a talented and learned person not to know of the vicious attack that was made upon the wife of Imam W. D. Mohammed after his passing and that this matter is presently in probate court costing tens of thousands of dollars and threatening the very foundation of this community? Is it possible that he is not aware that his leader’s wife was put out of her marital home before Imam Mohammed’s body got cold? When the speaker told us that marriage is what G-d wants for us to have and how badly he feels when he sees those who do not have that relationship, can he speak these words to people who have gathered because of the work of Imam W. D. Mohammed and his (the speaker’s) great and wonderful delivery being the blessing derived from Imam Mohammed’s teaching and inspiration? Can he stand and say these things without empathizing with his leader and his (W. D. Mohammed’s) marriage? Is it possible that he has forgotten that Imam Mohammed chose a wife and introduced her to this community and all of those wonderful things that he (the speaker) is extolling about he and his wife that Imam Mohammed had established the same for his wife before it being ripped from her…could he have forgotten this or doesn’t he know this? How can a student of Imam Mohammed stand on the foundation of Imam Mohammed using the wisdom of Imam Mohammed have the audacity to take for a subject and workshop “marriage” and totally ignore the wife of Imam Mohammed, the first lady of the community that this speaker claims to represent, as if she and this terrible attack upon their marriage doesn’t even exist?

Can you picture a resident of Haiti or Japan giving a speech on the beauty of the weather, climate and the geographical conditions of these countries and not once reference the terrible tragedies and dilemma that these people have and are suffering as a result of an earthquake, hurricane and tsunami? I don’t think so. This reminds me of the old slave master after beating the hell out of his slaves that he worked from sunrise to sunset, wanting to tell the likes of Fredrick Douglas how well the slaves sing or buck dance. Any one who can make a speech as excellent as this speaker and take for a subject the “Beauty of Marriage” while standing on the shoulders of Imam Mohammed and using the insights of Imam Mohammed and not once reflect on how Imam Mohammed and his wife’s marriage has been and is being treated by some of this community the very moment while he is speaking is fooling himself when he thinks he is qualified for leadership in this community. Now, in my humble opinion, if entertainment and a feel good exchange was the goal, he succeeded. But if accepting the serious responsibility towards furthering the courageous and unflinching honorable direction that Imam Mohammed set us in was the goal, he failed.

You, the reader might be saying, “you’re attacking this man”, and I would say no… I’m trying to help this man be all that he seems to want to be. I’m merely turning the light on him because this same man has done excellent work in other phases of this religion. No Muslim in the community of Imam W. D. Mohammed who is worth his salt should ever dare give a Khutbah and a seminar to the followers of Imam Mohammed on marriage, extolling all of the wonderful blessings in it today and not recognize and express in some way a concern for what transpired at the passing of Imam Mohammed and the disrespect that was heaped upon the marriage of Imam W. D. Mohammed and his wife Khadijah Siddeeq Mohammed. Any one who violates that should be asked the same questions that I am asking this speaker… for the good of this individual and the good of the community.
I bring this subject up today because this same outstanding Imam has continued down the path towards offering his vision and guidance for how we as a community should plan to go forward (CD’s and DVD’s again on sale afterwards). And again for some reason he brings to the table some very scholarly ideas and concepts that could really help this community, but missing again is what appears to be is this brother’s fear of stepping all of the way up to the plate.

For example, recently, in the City of Philadelphia this same brother decided to share with his audience of Muslim followers in association of the leadership of Imam W. D. Mohammed what he perceived was a plan by which this community can go forward in the future while either ignoring or not being courageous or perceptive enough to see one of the major impediments–if not the major cause–for why such subject is even necessary to be considered. Power and politics? Who wants it? Who has it? Who should have it? I could be wrong but I don’t remember Imam Mohammed saying this.

As I conceded earlier, this Imam is a highly intelligent, charismatic Imam, who I believe loves this community and wants the best for it; however, to attempt to read an academic treatise of sort constructed at his educational level to an “earthly community” of mostly moderately educated believers, which is in itself a challenge at the start shows that this person is either naive, insensitive or uninformed.

To justify my comments I followed his recommendation and I listened to all of the nearly 3 hours of commentary that he advanced, though some of it had to be transmitted subconsciously, as I found myself doing what perhaps many found themselves doing, dozing. Considering that he also suggested that perhaps the subconscious audience may gain more than the conscious one, under that law and reasoning, I/we heard and got it all.

In his favor he must be congratulated on being concerned and attempting to offer a solution for what he perceived as a “crisis”. Critically speaking, he should never attempt to go beyond the unexplored when it comes to attempting to communicate the kinds of difficult and sensitive issues that he believed needed to be addressed. What I mean by that is, Imam Mohammed never attempted to deliver this type of “lecture” to the greater community until perhaps the last two years of his life where he would read verbatim to his audience. And when Imam Mohammed did this type of lecture he never went beyond 50 minutes if he went that long. However, this stouthearted patron spoke for nearly 3 hours and didn’t flinch when he insisted that we should sit there and listen to every word that he was going to say. So for one of Imam Mohammed’s students to believe that he could hold the interest, focus and intellectual curiosity and analytical scrutinizing attention of a non academic, unsophisticated diverse group of lay people who have not even yet concluded that we even have a problem, nevertheless recognize a possible solution, is a bit presumptuous on his part to say the least, though he is not to be condemned for being concerned but seriously questioned for leaning on his own understanding in his attempt to guide Imam W. D. Mohammed’s community.

In conclusion, there exist many highly intelligent men and women in this community who can hypnotize you with their speech and dazzle you with words, but for anyone to believe after 33 years of listening to and studying under the sincere divinely guided heart and brilliantly inspired mind of Imam W. D. Mohammed that we need to listen to 3 hours of what one of Imam Mohammed’s students think we should be doing in order to go forward, when I and all of the sincere believers can tell you directly from Imam Mohammed the key in one or two sentences, they are only fooling themselves.
The key is this: Follow only the divinely guided leadership of Imam W. D. Mohammed into properly understanding and following Allah’s Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in: “loving Almighty G-d Allah with all of your heart and soul and loving for your brother what you love for yourself.” This will develop UNSHAKEABLE TRUST, FAITH AND LOVE in and for one and another and from these two we being in the mind and spirit of Imam W. D. Mohammed as a G-d Fearing Courageous Islamic Community can REMAKE THE WORLD. “Kalass”, The matter is decided, nothing else needs to be said.

Your Brother
Muhammad Siddeeq

P.S.
I will not be selling any CD’s or DVD’s on this writing to help you better understand what I just said, contact me and I will mail you a copy FREE OF CHARGE.