Legacy of Malcolm X, The Malcolm Nobody Talks About

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Event Name: Legacy of Malcolm X, The Malcolm Nobody Talks About
Transcription Date:Transcription Modified Date: 5/23/2019
Transcript Version: 1


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allahumma salli wa sallim wa barik ala

sayyidina muhammad ali he was a habit

hehe woman to be 1,800 a lot of tahini

hikmah to ensure Adina Miccio delivery

trauma dealer who are deceived in o

muhammad wa l-akhirin

what our how our our water in level

aligning in our name alhamdulillah the

celebration of Malik Shabazz is life I

think is something important for our

community in the United States because

the Hajj medic Shabazz really is at the

essence I think of what the Islamic

Muslim reality is we live in a country

that has a long and checkered past it's

a country that many people have come to

these shores in different circumstances

and the vast majority of us here are

immigrants or children of immigrants or

children of children of children of

immigrants and each one of those groups

that has come here with the exception of

the anglo-saxon community has had a

struggle and many of them are actually

still struggling has had a struggle to

find its place in the American tapestry

or a seat at the American table and the

Muslims are now a group that is going

through a struggle and in many ways that

struggle is far less difficult than the

previous struggle

if we actually look at what people have

gone through before the struggle of the

American Muslim community really came at

a time when so much ground work had

already been done many of the immigrants

that have come to this country came

after the civil rights movement and

after an immense amount of work had been

done to prepare their ways in this

country their abilities to work in

places and to be treated with a modicum

of dignity and I and I would argue in

fact that it's very important to know

not only for the children but for the

immigrants who have come to this country

and some of the people in the audience

did come from other places and now they

have children here but to know the

previous struggles it's very important

to have a sense of the history of what's

been going on because the struggles have

not stopped the struggles continue the

nature of life on Earth is that we are

born in a struggle the Quran clearly

identifies that that the human being is

born in a state of struggle and the

prophet muhammad sallallahu said I'm

whose life and mission was a struggle

and who struggled until at the very end

of his life so when we look at the life

of Malcolm Shabazz were looking at a

life of struggle and we're also looking

at a life that embodies the search for

knowledge and truth and the quote that

was previously quoted from her father

which was really a perfect quote to

highlight what I wanted to talk about

was the fact that this was a man who was

incredibly open mind

and I think people tend to forget

because you have a man who was a speaker

behind a podium but people are not just

speakers behind podiums people have

multifaceted dimensions to their

personalities but if we look at this

openness to the truth that's what we

consistently see in the life of the Imam

we see an openness to the truth and

continual growth growth that doesn't

stop at any point but the other thing

that really strikes me about his life

and legacy when we talk about a legacy

is human dignity is the dignity of the

individual and this is something that's

a very important message for the Muslim

community today all over the world but

also here in the United States the

struggle for dignity to be treated with

dignity the Quran states in surah 2 ayah

surah that Allah subhana WA Ta'ala has

given human beings dignity while at

karramna bani adam' we have given human

beings dignity Mihama now until valerie

will bury what as warez Okinawan men of

puberty or vaudeville now Erica theorem

in monadic net of Leela that we have in

no bold dignified the children of Adam

carrying them on the land and in the sea

we were ennoble by being carried we ride

on horses on camels on donkeys and now

we drive in cars we ride on airplanes on

buses we cross the sea

ships and this is an indication of

honoring the human being we're not like

animals that have to move across long

places without the facilitation that's

been given to human beings and then we

walk upright that's part of the hummin

that we've been given the honor of

walking upright the human being walks

upright and we've provided the Quran

says we provided the children of Adam

from pure things and we preferred the

children of Adam over so much of what we

have created yeomen a true home on that

day when we call no young Ned a little

cooler or NASM ve mom IAM on that day

when we call everybody with their imam

who are they following who have they

taken as an exemplar because on the yom

Okayama you are going to be called by

your Imam the one you have taken as an

exemplar who is your example is it an

example that's dignified isn't it an

example that's elevated or is it an

example that is degraded undignified

that has squandered this incredible

opportunity of life by living a life

that is not becoming of the noble

stature of the human being one of the

things that when we look at the life of

Hajj Malcolm Shabazz we see somebody who

carried himself with dignity and it's

very clearly reflected right here in his

daughter because you you see dignity

and this is something that we're losing

as a species we are losing this as a

species if you listen to the speeches of

Malcolm you hear flawless English you

hear somebody who spent time mastering a

language going through the dictionary

and when he used slang he used it for

rhetorical purposes was which is part of

the rhetoric of the English language

even Shakespeare uses slang for

rhetorical effect but he spoke dignified

English

he was always dressed in a dignified

manner he was kept in a dignified manner

those are aspects and qualities that he

embodied that people might not really

think about but they are part of that

personality the Prophet SAW Allah and a

were allah wa sallam said in a hadith

that imam ahmed relates in know comedy

Mona Ala Moana come for a slippery

Harlequin what a slippery bicycle hats

at acuña quranic' on shamaton finesse

what an extraordinary hadith he said you

are going to be amongst your brothers

and sisters you're going to places so

make sure your the the the beasts that

you're riding on is well-kept make sure

that the clothes that you're wearing our

good clothes Imam Ashok County says

hadith via to no and inevitably seen

that you will hate up this hadith

indicates the importance of wearing

clothes that are dignified wearing

clothes that are dignified and then he

said some alone into Sonam to take care

of your clothes so that when you are

amongst people it's as if you were a

distinguishing mark amongst people as if

you were a beauty mark on the body Islam

elevates people it pulls them up it

takes people that were in the most

degraded of circumstances and it gives

them honor and dignity because it makes

them servants of the highest most

exalted and it reminds us in the Quran

in the economical in the law at Sock'em

that the noblest amongst you are the

most conscientious the noblest amongst

you are the most conscientious the

people that are most aware of virtue and

practice virtue the dutiful ones the

people that care for the orphans that

care for the weak that care for the

widows when kinesia ina has said on when

the prophet sallallaahu sent him came in

worried about the experience that he was

having and hadiza said God will never

forsake you what was her proof that

Allah would not forsake his prophet

sallallaahu was to them she said you

helped the weak you take care of the

needy you fulfill the needs of people

you take care of the orphan this is what

she spoke about she spoke about his

virtue the prophet sallallaahu Saddam

had a a special set of clothes for

greeting

the wolf food when people came and sent

their emissaries to the Prophet he had

clothes to greet them he had clothes

that were specifically for the mimbar

this is mentioned in his serie

sallallahu alayhi wa sallam we're living

in a time when the most degraded people

that design clothes to make people look

degraded really if you look at what's

happened to women's clothes in just in

our lifetime those of us who are old

enough to remember in this country

what's happened to women's clothes and

now convincing people that threadbare

clothes are fashionable so that people

will pay large amounts of money for

wearing jeans with holes in them

purchasing them people will wear

t-shirts now which used to be an

undergarment when I was growing up a

t-shirt was worn under the shirt and my

father wouldn't let us wear jeans

literally would not let me wear gee I

wanted to wear jeans because James Dean

wore jeans

this loss of dignity in our language

when language becomes something that no

longer is meaningful the prophet sallal

idea said him talk towards the end of

time he talked about the Sakai room and

they asked him who were the Cecotto and

they're like fiery people people that

fiery people and he said they're young

people whose greeting amongst each other

would be cursing each other

cursing each other to greet each other

what a difference between that and

saying assalamu alaykum peace be upon

you Islam is about elevating people

taking them out of dire circumstances

giving them dignity letting them walk

upright the Prophet Solomon incident was

somebody who spoke beautiful language

his language was an exalted language he

spoke to each group according to their

dialect if the Yemenis came he spoke in

the Yemeni dialect this is one of his

miracles and the Sahaba used to marvel

at his language because sometimes they

couldn't understand the dialect that he

was speaking in but it said the tribes

who heard him speak to them said that he

spoke in the highest and finest and most

eloquent language of their clans this is

how the prophet sallallaahu said him

spoke he was somebody who watched his

words he spoke deliberately you can find

no wastage of words in his language if

you read the Hadees from cover to cover

he said that cradled canal that or the

Arabs say the best of speech head would

cut Allah Allah Allah the best of speech

is what is direct and to-the-point

this community has an obligation to know

the struggles of the peoples that went

before that were struggles to achieve

dignity to achieve the right to sit as

an equal at this table the Muslims are

in the midst of that struggle the

Muslims have been singled out

we have racial profiling I don't know

what's so racial about it because I'm

white as the Moon and I've been selected

for this as well so I've been pulled

aside one time I was pulled aside one of

the guys was a Muslim and the other guy

said this has nothing to do with you

know your name and the other guy just he

was behind him he's like you know

literally I was in New York so the

Muslims are finding it a little bit

difficult to be honest with you it's a

good thing it's not a bad thing because

this community needs to be pushed a

little bit

we've been complacent for a long time

the people that came to these shores

those of us who converted to Islam those

of us who converted to Islam we got to

work right away

imam z dr abdul hakeem quick some of the

other Muslim converts that I know in

here they went to work right away we

wanted to Imam so hey doctor or Omar

Abdullah Pharaoh these are people that

they got to work right away to find out

about this religion and now these are

leaders in our community because they

took this religion seriously this

religion is something to take seriously

if you go out and walk around we've got

right across the street there's blues

and

hey this is sick I was walking down and

there was music coming out of there

and I looked up and it said blues and

booze you got the blues you drink the

booze and the blues goes away until the

morning and then you start vomiting it

up this country has the blues really

this country has the blues it's a

depressed country it has an economic

depression but it also has a spiritual

depression and people that don't think

that's true they're not reading the

statistics they're not reading the

reports that are coming out we have the

military now has exponential rates of

suicide the suicides are going up in the

military and they're very concerned

about this literally dozens a month of

Iraqi veterans are killing themselves we

have a country that's right now we've

got black oil being pumped in to one of

the beautiful regions of this country

and that oil is moving once it gets into

the Gulf Stream that it'll end up in

England people should be making do our

we should be making do I really make dua

that allah subhanho wa taala

enlightens an engineer to work out how

to stop this thing because this thing is

harming not just the the sea creatures

is harming everybody we have volcanoes

erupting that are disrupting air space

in Europe was shut down because of a

volcano in Iceland that 200 years ago a

volcano in Iceland erupted and killed

one-fifth of the population and you have

people on television making jokes about

the volcano saying it's too hard to

pronounce couldn't the Icelanders give

us an easier word as if it's a joke

we've got a volcano in Guatemala we had

an earthquake in Chile

and recently that literally shortened

the day on the atomic clock because it

shifted slightly the axis of the earth

this is what our scientists are telling

us the United Nations just announced

last week that at current consumption

rates there will not be any fish in the

ocean in 50 years I've got children that

are going to be my age in 50 years and

this is what the United Nations is

telling us is it's not time for booze

and booze it's time for waking up really

it's time for waking up it's time for

thinking about where we're going hyah

thud huh Boone because what we need is

Toba what we need is restoration what we

need is reclamation the human condition

needs to be elevated once again it's

possible human beings I I live in the

poorest country one of the poorest

countries in the world in West Africa

and I saw some of the most dignified

human beings that I've ever seen in my

life

in absolute nodder abject poverty and

yet in that poverty they were the most

dignified people I'd ever seen in my

life

imam zain went to mali and said the same

thing about the people of Mali go and

look at some of these places that still

have traditional cultures intact despite

the poverty they maintain a level of

human dignity that is completely absent

in the Western Hemisphere

you just don't see it you don't see it

in the rich and you don't see it in the

poor because we our culture has been

pulled down our culture has been pulled

down by a degraded monolithic hegemonic

media machine that's capable of

generating and literally changing the

hearts and minds

masses of people in a very short period

of time never has the power of so few

people been access to control so many

people ever in human history and this is

what we're up against but we need to

recognize these young people deserve so

much better they deserve so much better

when I was working early when I came

back when I first came back and I was

working as an imam in Santa Clara and

doing work in the prison system and this

is where my Malcolm had his awakening

what I was working in there I was so

struck by the dignity of some of the

Muslims that I met in those institutions

that what Islam had done in fact one of

them just I met somebody earlier today

he came up to me in the booth and told

me how one of my books helped him in

prison like helped turn him around in

prison is LOM is about restoration it's

about elevating people pulling them up

that's what this religion is about it

did it for me it did it for him Imams a

that did it for dr. Abdullah Hakim quit

for dr. Omar Abdullah Farooq and there's

many other converts in this hall we know

what we're talking about

Mustafa Shaheed right there we know what

we're talking about

some of y'all have been taking this

religion for granted for so long

you don't know what you have you don't

know the precious gift that you've been

given but you owe it to people out there

that need this elevating transformative

force

this power this spiritual power that can

take a degraded individual and turn them

into a mover of mountains a leader of

men give him or her the human dignity

needed to live a life that in the end

somebody can say that's a great man

that's a great woman that's what this

man that we're honoring tonight means to

me he's a great man

and as long as there are Muslims in

America he should be remembered and

inshallah he will be remembered and

honored

Longfellow says lives of great men all

remind us we too can make our lives

sublime and departing leave behind us

footprints on the sands of time

footprints that perhaps another sailing

or life solemn main a forlorn and

shipwrecked brother seeing so they shall

take heart again let us then be up and

doing with a heart for any fate still

achieving still pursuing learn to labor

and to wait that's what the life of a

great man is about it's an example it's

an imam he is an imam on that day we are

going to be called and be behind our

Imams who is your Imam

who is your exemplar inshallah it'll be

the most dignified of human beings

Akram oh hello kinder the noblest of the

messengers sallallahu and Eva and he was

Sedna said on my neck