Earl Abdulmalik Mohammed Speaks

Originally posted on 11/23/2019

IMAM IBRAHIM EL-AMIN: I’ve been meaning to ask this for some time. I’ve noticed that you do not use the word “Quranic.” For example, you will say “Holy Quran teaching” rather than “Quranic teaching.” When this registered with me, I put the term down as well. What is the reasoning for presenting our Holy Book in this manner?

IMAM EARL ABDULMALIK MOHAMMED: This is a question for a class. So, we will mention with this question that I am leader and teacher in Imam W. Deen Mohammed's tradition. Those closest to me, even if they have left me for their interests or reasons, know that I am teacher first, not preacher, and there are not any similar. My leadership comes from faith and knowledge first. I am first a naturally curious and inclined student of faith and knowledge. I am aware of the reach we have by way of this medium, and so I want to maximize the parameters of what we can address in your question.

In answering your question I first want to quote something from our late leader. He said "Words make People." This is a powerful teaching. You have to think deeply on it to appreciate it. If you are a surface thinker, or a shallow peacock looking to make a show, or a 'great pretender' attempting to make it appear that you have understanding so to get some online students, or if you are under the influence of people like these, you are in a situation where you will not appreciate what it is here. You will miss it entirely.

This is a statement of a blessed leadership philosophy fit especially for a specific People with a specific purpose in the history of mankind. It is a simple but complete leadership statement coming from the blessed one, the 'former' that is FORM-ER (one that forms) of our language environment. The blessed one who 'formed' us with language into a People. Wallace D. Mohammed, son of Clara and Elijah Mohammed, the Imam of al-Islam, the leader of a People who were formed in and from his language womb and the sensitivities of that womb. I want to say here that worlds of knowledge will eventually be born from that womb in the morally-peculiar, strange moral construct and theatre of America.

My language is his language. It is authentic. I am not faking it and I am not borrowing something here and there to get the attention of an audience. It is my native tongue and it is also my studied and cultivated tongue. And, this is why I am the first of those to qualify and lead his People after him. He saw that it was my natural way, and he saw also that I was inclined to his teaching as a serious student. Some are students of knowledge, and their nature has to be converted to faith. Some are naturally inclined to faith and have to discipline themselves to become educated. Imam Mohammed said to me early in the years of my work for him when I could not fully appreciate what he was saying, "You are a combination of me and my father."

Any sincere person who had interaction with me will tell you that their impression was that I was the one expected to succeed Imam W. Deen Mohammed. They would look at me and speak to me with this expectation. I am saying this in the context of this answer to your question. The answer is in language and the sensitivities that form language. What sensitivity was so obvious to Imam Mohammed that he would say that to me when I was 25 years old? What were others sensitive to when they looked at me with this expectation? The answer is in language, and this is what your question implies. This is why those opposed have no public answer for me, just like they had no public answer for Imam Mohammed. And this is how leadership is determined and will always be for our People.

The short-sighted, insincere, sinful, jealous-hearted, shifty, hypocritical self-absorbed and self-important ones see this but will never acknowledge it, and their offspring and those under their influence will never embrace it. This is not unusual and not unexpected. Most of the ministers of the Honorable Elijah Mohammed did not accept Imam W. Deen Mohammed as leader. Most all of the officials of the Nation of Islam, after they saw what he was doing and where he was going, rejected his leadership outright or schemed against him for years. Knowing this history and knowing how it applies to the mindset of these people now, I say what difference does it make if they don't accept me? It is no matter because Allah says that the greater numbers have always been those without faith and those without knowledge. The faithful are a select group and an elect group. The faithful are always in the smaller numbers. They are, however, the ones carrying the greater substance and significance. Someone might ask, what does this have to do with the question? It is all in 'language.' "Words make People."

From time to time I have used the term 'Qur'anic' but only in specific instances. I have not used it as a habit. It is not my habit. My habit is to say, as you have pointed out, "Holy Qur'an teaching." If we carry the habits of difficult or bad experiences they will form our language and eventually they will define our interests. To answer your question completely it requires some technical references and rules of the Arabic language that originate with the Holy Qur'an, and we do not have the situation to explain this adequately in this exchange and in this format of communicating. The rules are a part of Arabic grammar and they do not originate in the spoken language of the Arabs. They come with the revelation of the Holy Qur'an to Muhammed the Prophet.

You will recall that Allah says that "He taught the Qur'an," meaning in one understanding that to have so-called 'Qur'anic-knowledge' requires that Allah Be your Teacher in every aspect and dimension of knowledge. The knowledge coming from the Holy Qur'an does not originate with man. The Prophet is instructed, and we might say he was commanded, "Read!" Read what? Is it read what is written by man? Is it read what man has done or what man is planning? No, not in this instance. The revelation says "Read in the Name of Your Lord That Creates." And the verses progress to say eventually "...He taught mankind that which they were not knowing before." So, this is knowledge upon which man is established as a species by his Lord and Creator and taught to man by Him. Praise be to Allah, the Most High.

Now, what bad experiences am I speaking of? I am speaking of our general experience as an African-American people with Christianity as it was presented to us when we arrived here from Africa as slaves to a Christian world. No matter the beauty of the Christian religion and the beauty of Christ's teachings in the Bible and there is much beauty in it, Christianity was presented to us as rationale to justify that we were a 'slave-people.' Christianity in the hands of slave owners and traders was a tool of oppression. Biblical teachings were used to establish proofs of the human inferiority of black people, and they were used to enforce a psychology of fear and trepidation that most of us still struggle to overcome.

We were designated by Christian teachings as a people not entitled to the respect due to a human being. Our humanity was set aside by use of Christian teachings, Bible teachings, 'Biblical' teachings, and we were designated a separate class of persons, not human. I do not want to go into all of the details of this in answering this question. I will address these matters in major addresses when I am free. My intent then will be to restore our language and teaching and reasoning to our People that too many of us have been influenced to lose touch with. You all who are with me will have to provide security for this work that I am about to do. We have many enemies that counted on the idea that there would be no leader in our tradition after Imam W. Deen Mohammed. They introduced language and put together a psychological strategy to prevent it from happening. They have invested much, so they are not so willing to give up. You will know them in their language because as our late leader taught us "Words make people."

When the Imams in our so-called association quote from the Holy Qur'an and they say this is from Surah so and so, ayat so and so, this habit is not from the teaching of Muhammed the Prophet. This is not from the teaching of Imam W. Deen Mohammed or any of the righteous and the learned people in the history of Islam all the way back to the Prophet and his companions, may Allah be pleased with all of them and may they be granted the Mercy. This habit is from Christian influence, and specifically to reinforce 'chapter and verse' of those Biblical teachings which justified and enforced slavery and oppression on us.

We are not 'chapter and verse' people. Islam is not a 'chapter and verse' religion in this way. Muslims are not 'chapter and verse' quotation artists in this way. We are not told to "quote the Qur'an." We are told "Recite (rehearse, recount, act upon) the Qur'an in a measured, precise, logical way." Our religion is a religion of clear language and proofs revealed and taught by G'd, our Lord and Creator, to guide and support intelligent reasoning and conclusions for the development of our human individual lives and a complete human community existence. This language and these proofs are fulfilled in standards and norms of justice, and a correct, consistent, perfect morality that never conflicts with the human inclination to a nature-based culture of high-level decency. No conscientious Muslim can place in the market the dignity of human life.

When we recite the Holy Qur'an it is formally our prayers, our acts of worship. We understand our entire human existence to be a series and progression of acts of worship, and everything Allah Has Created, Made, Fashioned, and Revealed to be Signs (ayaat) of His Mercy. He created us to benefit from His Mercy. An Islamic conscience cannot limit that. It has no desire to limit Allah's Mercy. And so in our recitation of the Holy Qur'an is instruction in every, single aspect of our lives and decision-making as individuals and as communities. If we quote the Holy Qur'an, it is to foster what Allah has taught that is a Mercy on us, not in any way an oppression. To say 'Qur'anic' satisfies the grammar requirements of the English language to project the literal meaning 'of the Qur'an' or 'belonging to the Qur'an.' This grammar does not transfer to the Holy Qur'an language.

The Holy Qur'an teaching and language has adjectives of association or ownership, but Arabic, in the general dialects, is not the Holy Qur'an language. I hope this is clear. The general language of people can restrict us, label us, and characterize us in a way that Allah does not intend. There is a subtle opening to a corruption here. The test is whether it is proper to say that we are 'Quranic' people. We are Muslims, and the People of Faith, and the People of Justice and Correct Behavior. We are People of the Holy Qur'an teaching and proofs which means we are formed in the language of the Holy Qur'an teaching. It is the Word of Allah which makes us and forms us as a true righteous People. We do not characterize it by choosing what language we prefer to describe its role in our reality. It characterizes us, and is a proof or an argument for us or against us in light of its teaching. Its teaching proves our legitimacy as a People of the Holy Qur'an or our illegitimacy.

If you think about it you will admit that there are many eloquent 'chapter and verse Qur'anic Peoples' that the Holy Qur'an teaching is exposing and dragging to a punishment. We are a People in the history of Muslim Peoples. We do not belong to the Islamic cultural traditions of the Arabs, the Indians, the Far Asians, and we are even distinguished from the Africans. It does not mean that the quality of our Islam is of a different nature than any of theirs. All of these are People of the Holy Qur'an. The deciding factor is whether the Holy Qur'an teaching approves us in our establishments upon it.

Words Make People. Do you see how blessed our tradition is?