With Allah’s Name, the Merciful Benefactor, the Merciful Redeemer

EDUCATIONAL CONCERNS OF IMAM WARITH DEEN MUHAMMAD

EDUCATIONAL CONCERNS OF

IMAM WARITH DEEN MUHAMMAD

SEDALIA, NORTH CAROLINA

APRIL 9, 1982

Brother Imams, teachers, principals of Sister Clara Muhammad Schools, Muslims, As-Salaam-Alaikum.  Praise be to Allah, Guardian Evolver, Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds.  I bear witness that nothing is worthy of worship except Him alone, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.

We have inherited a school that emphasized strict discipline for its students and for its teachers; it had it’s own code of behavior, and we are Muslims, we haven’t changed.  In fact, we are more Muslims now than we ever were.  So we are Muslims now in the true sense of the word, and we shouldn’t think that the past is completely behind us, or completely separated from us.  We haven’t severed ourselves from our past; only from the things that are not usable, the things that are improper and not usable.  Muslim discipline was perhaps reflected in the old days under the un-Islamic concept, more than it is reflected in some places where there is Islamic concept, but not the Islamic discipline or the Islamic code of behavior.  So we should realize that and as we go about trying to improve our schools, our elementary and secondary schools, we should rid ourselves of that emotional sensitivity that we have from the past, where we either go to the extremes in trying to give credibility to something of the past or go to extremes in an effort to discredit the past.  Both are harmful and both are equally harmful.

There’s no way to rise above a world if you are going to be under its influences.  If you want to rise above that world you will have to come out of it.  And I don’t want to be equal to America.  I want to rise above America.  Those that rise above America can lead America.  Those that want to be nothing but equal to America, they will never be leaders.  And I’m talking about Americans.  What President can lead America if he just wants to be equal to what he sees in America?  The President that can really lead America, is the President who wants to be above what he sees in America and he has something to offer.  He has leadership to offer.  We should think that way.  We should always think big.  Think bigger than the thing you are dissatisfied with, then you can surmount it.  That’s the only way

What will protect us from the tendency to be taken off course by emotionalism or sentimental influences?  When we identify in this religion and the Qur’an in this religion, when we identify what is proper behavior for a Muslim and we insist that all Muslims – I don’t care if he is a person who just walked in the door, or if he’s the one who sells eggs to us, who brings our eggs to the home, or the one who runs the school, who teaches our children, or the Imam of the Masjid, or a Council member – I don’t care who he is, we should insist that all of us conform to what is proper for a Muslim in terms of behavior.  And we should insist.  I say, we should insist.  Insist means that we should use our collective voice to bring down any one that’s destroying or hurting the image of this community.  That’s right.  So actually we don’t have a philosophy.  Our guidance is the teaching of the Qur’an.