Mr. Nashid Rushdan Full Interview

Salutation

With the Name Allah, The Merciful Benefactor, The Merciful Redeemer,

The Prayers and the Peace be upon all His Messengers.

Janet: So this is Janet Fiskio from Oberlin College, and I'm here with Mr. Nashid Rushdan and also Courtney Walker, and this is part of the Africatown Digital Archive Project. It's March 30th, 2019 and I wanted to emphasize that the copyright for this interview belongs to Mr. Nashid, so if you're interested in using this interview for educational purposes, you should contact him, and that information is on the archive website.

00:28 So Mr. Nashid, I wanted to start out--I know that you are Muslim, and I think that you converted later in life, is that right?

Mr. Nashid: Yes, reverted. I considered--

Janet: Reverted. Tell me about that, because you've used that word before. We'll start there.

00:44 Mr. Nashid: Okay. Some people say convert, meaning you've got [to make] a change over from something that you have not had knowledge of. I say revert because I feel that somewhere down in my [lineage], was Muslims, either in this 00:01:00country or Africa, and it went dormant for a while and then it manifested itself out in me. For me to accept the religion as I did back in 1972, and then studying the Nation of Islam's teachings, even though it was not per se a religious teaching, but it was more of a social teaching -- the Nation of Islam's teachings during that time. 01:34 And as I said earlier, the leader -- the honorable Elijah Muhammad -- we [identify] him as a social reformer, not a religious reformer [per se]. But he took religion and put some of the religion, at least the practice of it, and changed it up where we were emphasizing the religious, but it mostly was a reforming of our minds. Of our thinking. And 00:02:00that's why I said he is -- in our understanding -- a social reformer.

02:15 Now, on the other hand, his son, who's name is Imam W. Deen Muhammad (or Warith D. Muhammad) -- and you can find his speeches and a lot of his talks on YouTube -- he took the Nation of Islam, took over [the] leadership, and he put us on the path of the religion of Al-Islam as taught by Prophet Muhammad over fourteen-hundred years ago (peace be upon him), and following the Qur'anic teaching more than what we did during the Nation of Islam time.02:52 So I say revert. So for me, there's something in me -- in my DNA -- where it manifests 00:03:00itself out in me at this particular time, which would have been 1972, that it attracted me. And we know if something attracts us, it has to be something already there to feed the interest in it, and then you pursue it, and that's what I did.

03:24 Janet: And so, your ancestors -- when do you think that they came to Alabama? Do you know when they came?

Mr. Nashid: I don't -- the far as I've gone back, I've looked on ancestry.com, and I got up to...the records show the 1890's census was destroyed in a fire. So that blocked me from going [further]. I looked at the 1880 [census], but I didn't find any [information] on my great-grandfather. Who his parents [were]. 00:04:00And there was no other record, although ancestry [did] have marriage records, birth records, but most of the birth [and marriage] records were maintained by the slave owners on that plantation. So it wouldn't have been like now when a birth happens, it's public record and recorded by the vital statistics at the board of health. So, that's as far as I can go back.

Janet: So you think that -- I think you said earlier you thought that maybe you'd have five generations of your family here?

Mr. Nashid: Yeah, I was counting back on my father, my grandfather, my great-grandfather, and my great great-grandfather -- that's where it got lost 00:05:00at. Identifying who he was and I just gave up then, cause the key was the 1890's census, to keep going, you have a reference point to see; okay, so my great-grandfather, I think the name was -- and it was a common name back then -- Templer, something like that... But you could see who his father was, and that's cut off from the 1890's census, due to the fire.

05:51 Janet: I didn't know that. That's sad, that's sad thinking about what was lost. I think earlier, you said though, that you know that your ancestors came 00:06:00from the west coast of Africa and that Islam was an important religion there. Could you tell me some about that? Like, do you think that maybe some of the people who came to Alabama on the Clotilda, do you know that some of them were Muslim? Is that right?

06:17 Mr. Nashid: No, I don't know of them other than wife of Mr. Cudjoe Lewis. In Miss Dioufe -- Sylviane A. Dioufe, in her book she mentioned about the wife of Mr. Cudjoe Lewis, and her demeanor and her character. And she stated that that depicted a Muslim woman, in the manner which she carried herself and how...let's see, how did she say it? I can't quote it right now, but she mentions she had to be -- based on her character, how she conducts herself, her 00:07:00conduct and everything. So that's what tells me that there were at least one on the ship, of the hundred-and-ten.07:17 Now, whether or not she was on the ship, I don't know that for certain because I have not been able to gather that information. Hopefully I can in the future. I've just gotten a book by Ms Natalie Robertson, [and the name of the book is The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Making of AfricaTown, USA]. So I'm going to read her book to see if she identified anything in her book about Mr. Cudjoe's wife and about Muslim period.

Considering the time that the Africans were brought here, they were not allowed 00:08:00to be taught or read or write anything, so it wasn't any recording done. And by them not knowing the language good, you know, because even in Miss Dioufe's book, she quotes Mr. Lewis and you can tell that some of the words he utilized, it was not exactly the English word, but they sound like -- it's the English word, but they gave it a sound that made it... Whether or not they understood the meaning, that's a whole nother ball game in itself. So, I can't say specifically that there was Muslims on the boat, but I do know from history that 00:09:00the majority of the Muslims concentrated on the west coast of Africa, and a majority of the Africans that were bought -- brought here, rather -- was from the west coast.

Janet: Right. And I read that there were other parts of the country where I read the history and they said enslaved peoples were Muslim, but then there's also the pressure to convert, right? When people convert to Christianity, whatever the religion was that someone brought with them.

09:38 Mr. Nashid: Well, that was... there is a story, I'm trying to get the one, his name I think is Omar Said, [and he was taken Charleston, South Carolina] where his slave owner found him writing the Qur'an in Arabic. And so he 00:10:00questioned him about it, but he told him he had to read a Bible -- I think I got the right person -- and so they exchanged -- I think the agreement was, I'll read the Bible and I'll teach you the Qur'an, but I'm not clear how that story goes. It's been some years. But he does it -- it's Omar Ibn Said, you can Google him, it's on YouTube -- well, it's on the internet. 10:58 Then there was the prince of Natchez, Mississippi. The prince of Natchez, Mississippi, and his name 00:11:00[is Abd al-Rahman], but Natchez, Mississippi is not far from [Mobile, Alabama]. Well, he was Muslim and he eventually ended up getting his freedom, but he could not take his family with him because the owner of the plantation home would not allow his wife or his children to leave. So he went back home, and he was recognized by a Caucasian that was a writer or something, I think -- don't hold me to it. And he recognized him from -- he was an ambassador! -- he recognized him from travelling to the country that he was from. 12:01 But you can Google 00:12:00that same thing and get that.

So, there were Muslims here long before the Muslims of the Middle East started migrating to America. And they were brought over by [the slave owners] to be servants.12:24 How the prince got captured -- I think Mr. Cudjoe got captured. Yeah, he was captured, and there were some [situations] where the Africans sold other Africans, and that may be true, but I don't think that they sold them, or exchanged them for good, that they [knew what] our foreparents [were going to 00:13:00encounter] in terms of slavery. Because, remember, this was the new world as they termed it, so they might have thought that -- and it's a particular instructor that I had that pointed this out -- that they, and I can't say his name because I haven't come to him, but anyway, they saw an opportunity. You know, going to the new world, that they can, and I'm quoting him, that they can go and perhaps bring something back to help them. But they didn't realize that they was going to the type of slavery that our people encountered, which has never been before in the history of mankind. But that's another story in itself too.

13:56 So now with the hundred-and-ten, to specifically say that I can identify 00:14:00them, no, but I do think that they were. They were

Janet: Well I think -- I mean, I don't know the history probably nearly as well as you do, but my sense is that some people converted and then their families and their histories would've gotten recorded in the churches, but then the people who didn't convert, we wouldn't necessarily know their stories. We wouldn't know what happened to those families, or they might not have gotten recorded in the same ways, right? So...

14:33 Mr. Nashid: Yeah. And even with the -- I'm sorry.

Janet: No, go ahead.

Mr. Nashid: Even with the ones that converted some, I was reading in Miss Zora Neale Hurston's book in which she interviewed Mr. Lewis, and he said he never 00:15:00knew that God had a son. That was foreign to him, but that's the way that Christianity was projected in this country at that time. So, I thought that was very interesting for him to say that, and we recognize Christ. In Islam, we recognize Christ as one of the prophet messengers of God, not the son of God. 15:43 And so when I read that, my mind went to thinking not that he was Muslim there or he practiced Islam, he could have been Christian there, but the belief wasn't like the trinitarian belief that is practiced in this country here. It's 00:16:00something that makes you want to think about him to have said that and her quoting that in the book. Because she had control of the writing, you know, so that was interesting.

16:22 But there is, I would say, the influence and the impact of the religion of Al-Islam, particularly in the African American community, that's not emphasized much and not talked about much in terms of the history. And I'm not sure if it was -- well, let me say this here; the Nation of Islam's teaching, a lot of our own people -- when I say our own people, African American people -- rejected the 00:17:00teaching. Some out of fear, some they was used to one thing and they didn't want to make a change, and whatever other reasons they may have had. But those of us who reverted, those who converted, identified something in it that was unique and it gave them hope for humanity and that things would get better.

17:41 Janet: Can you tell me, if you want -- if you feel comfortable -- what is it that Islam gives you in terms of that unique thing or that hope? Because sometimes this feels like -- I mean, I think there have been a lot of difficult times, right? You were saying you grew up under segregation, and then this gave 00:18:00you hope. Can you tell me more about that?

18:07 Mr. Nashid: Well, personally, going back to the Nation of Islam teachings, when I heard and read the book, Message to the Blackman, that was by [the honorable] Elijah Muhammad, and the experience that our people was experiencing from the ignorance of Caucasian people -- not all, but some. And when he quoted saying that the so-called white man was the devil, okay in my mind, I'm looking at all that had happened in my family life.18:57 I can remember walking home 00:19:00with my father, and there was a gentleman -- a Caucasian gentleman -- he had a vegetable truck, we called him vegetable man. He grew vegetables and he'd come through the neighborhood selling them. Well, Vegetable Man, he had gotten...a little juicy. He was drunk, and he was sitting on this particular church step on the street, and I asked my daddy, okay why are the police holding him? Which, then, was African American policemen. And my father said, well he can't arrest him, all he can is hold him. I said, well why can't he hold him. [He said,] well, he's a white man, he can't do that. We don't do that, you know? So, that resonating in my mind stayed with me till today. And it still was like, I think I was quite a teenager then. I was quite a teenager then.

19:59 And, there's another thing that the Nation of Islam did; give up the slave 00:20:00master name. The last name. So we took X. Everyone had an X. If it was three or four brothers or sisters in the same temple at that time that had the same first name, then you would be X Temple. You'd be X1, X2, X3. 2X, 3X, like that. That's how it went up with the same -- to differentiate between which sister was what, because we did not identify with the last name.

So, there was an experience I had at a grocery store in Mobile, and I walked in the store and this Caucasian man said to this clerk -- it was a young lady, African American -- he said, you have my name. And he shouted, loud. I said, 00:21:00wow, what do you mean by that? 'You have my name.' Her name was the same name as his name, and I talked about it to my grandmother, and she couldn't explain it. She said, I don't know, son, but maybe one day you'll find out, so I did. When I read in the Nation of Islam Message to the Blackman that we have our slave master's name. And I asked my family about the Lewis family which was not from Mobile but from another part of Alabama, and some of the older ones said, well, you know our parents came off of this Lewis plantation. And so we -- most 00:22:00African-American people have now -- and then -- took on when they were released, they took on the slave master's [last] name and kept it. But they were known as properties of so-and-so, and that was during that period of time, okay? And we took that name so my parents, they just took that name. So when I [joined] the Nation of Islam, I was X Lewis. My name was initialed -- my father's name was L.B. Lewis, and I had initials L.B. and Lewis Jr. I didn't like the first name, and I grew to not like the last name when I started understanding the Nation of 00:23:00Islam. And we transitioned from the Nation of Islam into the religion of Al-Islam under the leadership of Imam W.D. Muhammad.23:15 We started changing names, and the thing that he brought out to us, he said, 'You look at your name, your last name is Jones and there's a Caucasian family named Jones. You're all in the same area of the city. Then you remind them of what their foreparents did to your foreparents.' So that would be a way to resolve the healing from the experience of slavery, in terms of reminding a Caucasian person with Jones, in this day and time, that someone in his family had someone in the Jones family 00:24:00under servitude. And that issue, after the slavery period supposedly ended, socially, it was not addressed as to how to heal it.24:25 Because there was bitterness for the one that was the slave, and then towards the one that was not. It just went on, went on. So if we can -- and you can -- break the chains of being property of someone else, so most of the ones in our community, we changed our -- in fact, everyone -- changed the last name. Some kept the first name, but the emphasis was on changing the last name because that's how we are identified, by our last name. You know, that's just the way it is, how we identify.

Janet: How did you choose the name you have now?

25:14 Mr. Nashid: Back when our name book was compiled -- a list of names -- and I went through the book reading each name to see the meaning of the name. And my first name, Nashid, means imploring God, the Creator. My middle name is Adib, which means good mannered, serious-minded, cultivated -- although I wasn't cultivated at that time, but I eventually grow. And Rushdan means rightly guided. So I looked at that, I said, okay, this is one I can work towards, I am doing that -- seeking God for protection and help. I am a serious-minded person, 00:26:00but I can be better. And I'm seeking -- constantly seeking guidance from the Creator, and that will be the right guidance for everyone to seek that. So that's how I did that, and that was done in... I think I did it -- chose in like December -- the latter part of December 1976, early part of January '77. Went through probate court, had it legally done, and the judge signed off you've legally changed your name. Went through the court system to do that. Yeah, so that's what we did.

26:49 So my children, their name, had theirs, went through court for them. My wife went through court for them, had everybody's name changed except one of my children, when he was born, he didn't have to go through that cause I had 00:27:00already done it. So -- *phone rings* oh, excuse me. *silences phone* So, that's what I did, that's how I chose it. The names have meanings to them -- different ones hold different names, based on the meaning I tried to merge [their] character into it, where it would enhance [their] character. So that's how we did.

27:34 Now, we particularly did it for one religion. We identified by that, although the name does not qualify you to be a Muslim. There are Caucasians that are in the religion, but they can trace their heritage back, whereas we could not. Cause I don't know exactly where in Africa that my foreparents came from, I 00:28:00have an idea of the areas based on the DNA -- my DNA -- that's prevalent in that area. I could say, hey, this be the area, but to go to a certain spot and say, 'you're my family'. I can't do that, but I'll be in the ballpark, whereas you, Janet, can trace your heritage back, and Zimmy -- how do I pronounce your name right?

Zimmy: Yeah, Zimmy.

Mr. Nashid: Zimmy. [They] can trace [their] heritage. Santiago can trace his, and Nathan can trace his, and...Courtney? You can trace yours. Yep. Well, she and I are in the same boat. We know our foreparents came from that part, but whereabouts, I don't know. And Ehryn, she can trace hers. And that's the thing, 00:29:00you want to have a place where you can trace where you come from -- trace that back and say, my people came from this country. Cause everybody here is immigrants. The difference between us as African Americans, we didn't volunteer to come, we were forced to come, while others volunteered to come. So this is my country now. Where my foreparents are from, that would be where I hail from, but in my travels, I wouldn't wanna live nowhere else other than where I am now.30:00 In the travels that I've done to see other parts of the world -- by 00:30:00the grace of God I've been here and there, so this is home. My foreparents worked here, the establishment of it, I feel that they helped in that. Establishing and building the country up, so this is my home and my ethnicity traced back to somewhere else, just like your family. Your ethnicity traced back, but this is your home. And if you're from what part of Europe, you could go and visit, but you just can't say that that's home because that's where you're from but this is home. So that's how we do that.

30:56 Janet: What is it like to be Muslim in Mobile? Is there a mosque here? 00:31:00What's your community like?

Mr. Nashid: Yeah, there are around six...five, six mosques or centers. And compared to the Nation of Islam days time and now, it's different. It's more accepted now. During the Nation of Islam, we was somewhat anti-America up until 1975 when the leadership changed. Imam Muhammad put us in a different direction by the grace of God -- guided us into a different direction. I can remember 00:32:00going out, selling papers, standing on the corner trying to sell them. Muhammad speaks to people, and people rejected it. 'Get that paper out of my face! I don't want that.' Having different family members say, 'Boy, you was born this way,' -- the older people talking to you -- 'You was born this way, and that's what you are. You come in here with this here...whatever that is.' They didn't even want to identify, and when I changed my name? Ooh, my. It was just like World War III, you know? I had all kinds of family saying -- not only family, but outside -- 'Well, you're this and you were born this way, you gone be this here...' And I just listened, and eventually my grandmother was the first one to 00:33:00accept what I decided on. Then I had an aunt -- two other aunts. Those three women was very influential in my life, they accepted and another aunt -- in fact, she the one really who told them and said, 'if he chose that, you all should accept him. Y'all know how he is, y'all know this, y'all know that, and he's thinking--' I'm using the term now, '--he's thinking outside the box. He's doing his own thing.'

33:47 And then my grandma said, look, you right, so they accepted. And my mother accepted it. And I have other friends and people as well, they call me by my former name. 'That's your name!' and I say, no, this is -- I went through the 00:34:00courts and this is legal. The courts identified, so why you can't accept it? And I've had experiences where people -- I'll tell them my name -- adult people -- tell them my name, they can't say it. But I can tell that three-year-old my name and they say it just as fluently as I did. And what I noticed with that was -- cause I challenged some people, I would tell them, I said well look, so-and-so just said it, and how old are they? But they weren't discriminative, they accepted it, whereas the older ones, they didn't want to accept it. So that was long but eventually, everyone did. My family, my mother, and I tell people my 00:35:00mother carried me nine months. Went through pain, nine months of carrying me, when she birthed me, she went through pain. If she can accept it, I could care less about anyone else. So that made them think.35:19 And some still do -- and I still have some that call me by the other name, they say, 'oh, I forgot! I forgot.' And the classmates that haven't seen me in a while -- in years -- well, that's understandable. And then when I explain to them, they say, 'Okay, I'm working on it, brother.' So the difference now, we are not considered to be on a terrorist list as the Nation of Islam was once on the list of the Hoover situation, during that time the FBI [had us listed as a threat to the United States]. But now, we are model citizens. We support this country. We're in the 00:36:00military, we're in different jobs, we're in the House of Representatives, we are mayors of cities, we are council members, we are mailmen, other professions -- professors of colleges and universities. So the religion of Al-Islam and our community is accepted now more so than it was during the Nation of Islam time. And the younger generation, they didn't have the experience, so they don't quite value it as we do. Because we know how we got to what we are -- what it was 00:37:00before, and what it was-- We've had experiences, police arrive, say, 'Come on, give me that corner!'37:13. ...Why? I'm just selling papers. I'm trying to help out people, you know? Going to the neighborhood, trying to help the people and trying to enlighten them on the lifestyle that they knew was not good and the police get called to us. Hey, they got this, doing that, and so things now, it's a lot better. I mean, you can see the difference. Yeah. You are going to have a few that stray...you are going to have some that slide down, that seem to be 00:38:00anti-Muslim, but it's not just anti-Muslim, it's anti-Christian, it's anti-Jews. For the things that happen in this country -- a synagogue being shot up because of the religion of a person, a church being shot up because the religion of the person, or the mosque being shot up, you know? So that's a person that has lost their humanity, and they out of being a human being and fall in the enemy, which is the Devil, and no particular race of people -- and this is what Imam Muhammad introduced when he took the leadership -- no race of people is the Devil. And we used to say in the Nation of Islam, people said, 'What about so-and-so? He shot 00:39:00so-and-so!' Talking about, 'What about that Black brother over there? He shot so-and-so.' And we say, well the Devil taught him. *laughs* But that's not -- no race of people. Because God made you! So we're saying God made a Devil? No! No, no. So our community, under the leadership of Imam Warith Deen Muhammad -- W.D. Muhammad -- he brought us a sober understanding of the religion of Al-Islam, and presented it in a logical way. We understand it -- and the Qur'an. Understanding the Qur'anic Arabic, not translations. Even though they have some good translations, nothing wrong, but the knowledge of the Qur'an is in the grammar and understanding of how the grammar works that give more information. So you really have to know the Arabic language.

39:57 And I was telling one of my granddaughters who asked a question, I said it 00:40:00is recognized that the Qur'an is -- and it's been recognized by the U.S. Congress, I think it was in 2005 or '4 -- not that the Qur'an needed validating, but they recognized that the Qur'an is still in its original text as it was received 1400 years ago. So I said to her, if this -- well not 'if'. I said, this is the last revelation that God sent to human beings, and I think the Muslim world went astray when they held the book back from people that were not already Muslim. Because they were not already Muslim when it came to them, so the book is for everybody. Whether you're Christian, whether you're Jewish, whether you're Hindu, Buddhist. Anybody that believes in God, the book is for 00:41:00them. To follow the guidance. 41:03 So it's like, you have an automobile you just bought. They give you the owner's manual. Okay, two years later, they revise -- or give you, 'Hey, we found this about this here, so if you do this, this is better. Work with this.' So, revelation comes in different increments. Different times. And the Qur'an being the following one to man. Like Christians have the Bible, Jewish people have the Torah, and the Buddhists, they have what they call the Enlightenment, and other religions have... As long as they recognize a higher authority, and that's the creator of the whole universe. And we have to accept that.

So now you have attacked -- Christians are attacked, Muslims are attacked, Jews 00:42:00are attacked, Sikhs are attacked. You have to ask yourself, are they attacking them because of their religion, or are they attacking them because they're living the way God said live. And that person should be living that way, and it should be reflected with a reflection of your soul. I had a good friend -- I say 'had' because he passed -- he used to introduce me as, 'This is my good Muslim friend.' And I introduced him as, 'This is my good Christian friend,' -- and he was Caucasian -- and we were good friends. You know, and that's how we introduced each other, so we respected. I respected him, he respected me, and we talked about my religion and we talked about his religion. So, this day and time, the religion compared to the Nation of Islam time -- compared to when the 00:43:00Africans was bought here, that was Muslim and then they denied to even talk about anything that they had at home -- this is the good time. It's a great day. It's a great day for everybody. Great day for everybody.

43:23 Janet: Courtney I wanted to see if you had questions that you wanted to have a chance to ask.

Courtney: *unintelligible*

Janet: Are you sure? If you think of some, let me know. This is circling back -- something I never got to ask earlier but I wanted to bring it up -- I remember, it was maybe a year ago -- more than a year ago -- you said that the graves of the people who came on the Clotilda face east.

Mr. Nashid: Mhm, yeah.

Janet: And that -- I heard, and I think many of us heard the story that, well, it faces back toward Africa, but then you said that you thought that that could 00:44:00be connected to facing toward Mecca. And that sounded like another...maybe hint, that there were Muslim influences or maybe that Muslim members of the Clotilda -- I was just remembering that, so...

44:16 Mr. Nashid: Yeah. Yeah, we are -- where we are located now, we are westward of Mecca, and the Muslim burial, you're buried with your head opposite of where some great sites are. Whereas it would be, even in the grave, you're still in a praying position. And as the sun rises -- different times of prayer 00:45:00cause we pray five different times a day -- you'll still be in that position, even though you've transitioned. But the way that you'll -- when the body has deteriorated, gone back to...dissolved -- that you will still be, some would just say symbolically, praying that way. Even though you've transitioned from this life to the next life. 45:38 And the headstones are -- the stones that they have, headstones -- they're at the opposite end instead of being facing westward, they're facing eastward. That's my thinking, based on the practice that -- that's how we [are buried] today. When we're buried today or someone in 00:46:00the religion passes, wherever they are, that's the way that they would be buried. That the body would be placed a certain way into the grave. Like that. So that, that's the thinking that I have. Personally, I really need to look -- calculation-wise, I know that we are west of Africa, but all that area is still within the Middle East. So that's why I say that they were leaving some signs that they were here. Although, their -- and it's in the record book that even 00:47:00with the navigator, one of the navigators on the ship was a Muslim. With Columbus when he came. That's something that's been said, that the navigator was a Muslim.

Janet: He's from Spain, and there were Muslims in Spain.

47:22 Mr. Nashid: Yeah, there are Muslims in Spain, yes. The Moors. Yeah, in fact, under the Spanish rule for 5...almost 5, about 600 years, the Muslim rule and the people of Spain were dealt with justly, you know? As it was established and they was duplicating how Prophet Muhammad established the city of Medina and where he recognized everyone that was there and everyone was equal. He did not 00:48:00force the Christians to convert, he didn't force the Jews to convert, you know, you have a right to your own freedom. The religion that you want to do. If you like Al-Islam, then you choose it. There's no compulsion, no force. Long as you recognize the Creator, the thing that we understand where in the Christian religion, that we have the situation with associating another entity or equating another entity with God and breaking God up into sections. That's not right. But in terms of him, they have full rights, from my studies, in the city of Medina (also called the City of Light).49:00 Medina means city, town -- that he 00:49:00established. All you had -- the requirement was you pay taxes. And everybody received the benefits of the taxes in terms of protection and just like we pay taxes here, and the government utilizes it. Some pay their fair share and some don't, but yeah. That's what -- back to the grave site and that area.

49:38 Zimmy: So you mentioned the importance of reading the Qur'an in its original text, and I was wondering if you could speak about that importance of language a little bit more? I think it's maybe -- it ties into the renaming as well. I was wondering.

Mr. Nashid: The renaming?

Zimmy: Yeah, choosing a new name.

Mr. Nashid: Oh, my name!

Zimmy: I was wondering if that, kind of, importance of language you could speak to.

50:10 Mr. Nashid: Oh, yeah. You have different -- several translations of the Qur'an, and Yusuf Ali is -- I'm not going to say that all of them are bad because in one language, what a word means, it doesn't necessarily mean the same in another language. So you have the Qur'an, and if -- you can get in online, you can get it at Barnes & Noble, they're big sellers of it. I'm not sure about BooksAMillion, but I know you can go on Amazon and get it. But if you get one, I would recommend getting one with the Arabic text, where you can see. I would not 00:51:00get one that is a Koran with only the English because the Arabic text, that's the Qur'an, not the translation. Whether it's in French, Chinese, German, the translation is not -- the Qur'an was received by Prophet Muhammad who was an Arab, so the tongue -- lisaan, t is tongue in Arabic. So a word may mean something in Arabic and they try best to look at the English that would fit that particular meaning of that word. And you might have several words that may mean...uh, may mean... Wait a minute -- you may have a word in English that has 00:52:00several meanings. Okay, now in the Arabic, the verb form of the word and the noun form may vary. And the verb form depends on -- you have basically ten verb forms in the Arabic language, and the form of the verb will dictate the meaning of the verb, but, more importantly is, that particular form of the verb gives you the degree of that word. Where it's like the verb form two is intensity and causation, where if it's the word that is Arabic and is saying 'to read', okay? It tells you it is a form two word, then it's telling you to read with 00:53:00intensity. And the causation would come from a source outside, what would cause you to read with that intensification would be that one. And, like form eight verb form would be reflexive. So you have to read with intensity from within to get and then have a meaning.

53:40 So, when I said earlier about the grammar, giving you the essence of the word and in an Arabic dictionary -- some Arabic dictionaries, one in particular, is Hanz Wehr who was a German, but he translated Arabic into English in the 00:54:00forms of the verb. Form one may mean one thing, form two means a different thing, form three is reciprocal, form four is causation but its within. There's something in us to cause us to...eat that orange. *laughs* It looks good too. Uh, so in knowing the grammar of the word, and then you look at the whole context of the verse, whereas it's gone give you information; who's doing it, who's talking, who's receiving it. Who's doing the talking, and then who's receiving it. But the English doesn't tell you that, it just tells you, for 00:55:00example, in the Al-Fatiha, it says, 'Thee do we serve, and thine aid do we seek.' 55:07. Okay? But when you look at the Arabic, it tells you who we serve, and whose aid we seek. Versus you just see aid and you're seeking. Well whose aid are you seeking? So there's a big difference there, in the Qur'anic. And the names that we pick, most of the names -- my last name, I can find it out in the Qur'an. A lot of us last names are taken from the Qur'an -- some of them first names. And where my name -- one verse talked about right conduct. You know, right conduct and how all of us as human beings have to have the right conduct. 00:56:00So that's the importance of the language versus looking at the translation, because if you look at -- one time it was the Greek, then the Greek translated to the Italian, and so forth so forth. And as it changed, it loses its value, or its essence. But in that language that it's translated, the essence of it is there, but the original essence of the tongue that it came from is not there.

56:54 Janet: Were there other things that you wanted to have a chance to talk about? Or that you're...

Mr. Nashid: Umm...I will say this; for years, the narrative of the religion was 00:57:00shaped by the media, and I will say that that was a false narrative in some regards. And there are some books that are written by people who have a name -- a Muslim name -- but they may not be Muslim. I met a doctor recently, and his -- I won't call his name -- but he's from the Middle East, but he's not Muslim. But when we see, let's say, Nashid, we're like okay, that's a Muslim name. There are 00:58:00some people with Muhammad, the name, but they're not Muslim. And there are people... so the media, they can be more truthful in the narrative that they are presenting. And like, with the word 'Allah,' years have gone by, people say, 'Well you worship another god.' Oh really? Okay, well then why do you say that? 'Well you say Allah is God.' I said, 'Yeah.' I say Allah is the Creator, but, in every language, there's a word for the Creator. So Arabic speaking people -- because this is an Arabic name, and those who convert to the religion, we learn 00:59:00the Arabic language -- hopefully. Some do some don't. But anyway, that's the word that's referred and that's the word in the Qur'an is Allah, the God. 'Al' - the, 'Lah' - God.59:18 Spanish, it's a different name -- what is it, Dios? Okay, French, I think it's Duer? D-u-e-r, I think. German, I know; Gott. Yeah, so every language, there's a word for the Creator and that is [used] to identify the Creator. So Muslim -- and not so much Muslims, but people from the Middle East -- the language is the Arabic language. And they speak Arabic, but if you ask a Christian who is God, he'll say Allah. Cause of the language. It's only 01:00:00one Creator, who has many names. Good names. So we just say the God, and that's it.

1:00:19 And being introduced to a [religion and a] language, and you not understanding [anything] -- not so much as the language, but the religion being introduced -- you're coming in, you're changing the narrative of that segment. And they're gonna resist. They're gonna come with -- because, we don't like change, although change is good. And change is natural. If you look at it from the birth -- from the inception of a human being -- you change. Two sperms come 01:01:00together, the egg, they change into something, they change into something. And it's in the Qur'an, in chapter 23 -- the development of the human being -- and it says the sperm drops a clot of congealed blood, then that changes to bones then flesh. The bones are covered by flesh and that's the physical creation. And then you have the mind that had to develop. And that's the essence of the person, it's the mind. So what you learn at four years old, do you still stay with what you learned at four years old? And you are fourteen years old now. So change is good, that represents growth.

1:02:01 But we don't like to change because we're comfortable in that, and 01:02:00something else come along and it takes you out of that little comfort zone that you in, but it's a good thing. Because it's going to enhance and elevate you. So that's the thing with the names. And I think the media can do a better job at presenting the narrative. In the Qur'an, it says that the woman should cover her head, cover her private parts. The word is 'khimar,' not hijab -- in the Qur'an. Now, if you look in the dictionary, the hijab is actually a wall or a partition. 01:03:00So we got *pointing to the wall* that's a hijab right there, it separates that room from this room. *gesturing to another wall* That's a hijab right there, it separates... And then next to that room, that room is a hijab. It's just a partition or wall, but in the Qur'anic verse -- in the verse in the Qur'an -- it says khimar, which is a covering. And she's to cover the private parts of her body. The upper part of her body, cover that, not expose, and to be moderate in her dress. And the same thing for the men -- to be moderate in their dress. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Well, what's good for the woman is good for the man, in terms of religion. He's to be modest as well and not reveal themselves like they do, because of the attraction that could lead 01:04:00to. Some things that are not good, *laughs* -- not lawful, I'll put it that way.

1:04:16 So I think that the media could -- when they say hijab, I know they're smart enough to know, but they not touching the religion, they're just going by what they said -- a wall. But an Arabic speaking person would know you can't wear a wall on your head. A wall is not -- although it'll cover you from the sun, but in terms of the dress, but it's talking about the man and woman being modest. And also, it's the cover -- the breast area is where the heart lies, so you cover your heart and your heart is the sentiments. You just don't let your 01:05:00sentiments go out to anybody. You be careful who you let your sentiments go out to, because they might -- you have to investigate them and check them out, make sure they're worthy of having your sentiments. So you protect that. That's just one meaning of the heart.

1:05:25 Janet: Is there anything else?

Mr. Nashid: I mean, I could -- y'all ask me.

Janet: Just wanted to make sure if there was anything you were hoping to talk to us about that you had a chance to do that.

Mr. Nashid: Well, I will say this here, the community of -- we call ourselves the 'stunga' -- of Imam W.D. Muhammad. He passed -- he transitioned -- in 2008. And we're still teaching the logic that he taught, which was -- he taught the 01:06:00Qur'an and the life example of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). 1:06:11 Now, there's a common word that's used, and I've been asked, 'Are you Sunni or are you... or what are you?' Okay, the Sunni, they say, we follow the way of the Prophet. And actually, Prophet Muhammad did not say he was Sunni, it's those who came afterward that said, in looking at how he dealt with things that was presented to him, based on using the scripture. And what we say is, the uswa, 01:07:00meaning his character. We try to emulate the character because he lived the Qur'an, the demonstrated the Qur'an, according to his wife. She was asked about him, she said he was the Qur'an walking, so he lived the revelation, and we try to emulate that by applying the revelation in every situation that we encounter. And using the revelation to make the right decision and do the right thing. So I'm neither Sunni nor Orthodox -- that's the other word -- and I'm not Shiite, because the Shiite, they actually causing a division, which is not right. And the Qur'an speaks against it, so if you read the Prophet [said] don't set up 01:08:00sects. And that's what they've done based on what was supposed to be the nephew of the Prophet -- that he should inherit that...whatever they call it. But it's not Islam. That's not Al-Islam. God chooses who he wants to bring about understanding in the period of time, like Imam Warith Deen Muhammad was -- is -- because the teachings or the logic or the ideology of the person, it doesn't die. The person may transition, but their teaching doesn't. And we read a history book where Methuselah lived to be so many hundreds of years, it wasn't talking about his physical body living that long, it was talking about the 01:09:00leadership or the logic that he presented to humanity. It lives.

1:09:09 So we in the association of Imam Muhammad -- we're the students, and we keep promoting that and utilizing it and presenting in a sober mind. And I do have a good friend that's just launched his ministry -- one of the students -- it's called Al-Islam Worldwide Ministry on Facebook, and this past Thursday was the second preview of it. Well, not preview, but presentation. It debuted last Thursday. So we are given the religion based on Imam Muhammad's logical teaching, and applying the logic to it. Not that we are parroting him, or 01:10:00mimicking him, but we are looking at the logic that he got from the Qur'an, and then applying it in our everyday life and sharing it with humanity. Because that's who -- the book is for human beings, not -- it doesn't say 'a book for Muslims'. Nowhere does it say that, it say this is a book for those who believe in God. So if you're Christian -- if you don't have a religion but you believe in God and you want guidance. And it points out things that have been, I would say, erroneously put into the Bible from the translation that the Bible has undergone over the years. Scripture is not literal. There are similes, there are 01:11:00metaphors, and we have to look at what is the root of this here? What's underneath here? What's the word...? I mean, like, skin. Okay, you might say a word -- and in the Qur'an it said their skin was burned -- okay, but skin, if you noticed, when something crawls on you, it sends a message to you. Hey, that's your sensitivities. So the sensitivities that we have, if they're not good sensitivities in terms of, to be obedient to the Creator and to treat humanity with dignity and respect, then that's not a good sensitivity. That is what would be burned up -- those bad sensitivities that we all house. You know? I have them, and you have them, and we work to get [rid of] those bad sensitivities. But, when you say the skin will be burned, you can't take it like 01:12:00this skin right here *gesturing over his arm* gonna be burned and it'll be a continuous burning. Well, we know that once something is lit on fire, it's going to dissipate. So how is it continuously burning? So there's another meaning there, so we have to look at scripture not just in the literal sense -- whether it's Bible, Qur'an, Torah, or whatever the scripture, it's a simile -- saying it's 'like' something, or it's a metaphor with a message that's beneath what you see on the surface. And once you get to what's beneath, you say. 'Ah, that makes sense.' *laughs*

1:12:45 And that's the thing that, when I say the logic of Imam W.D. Muhammad, that God blessed him to see the logic of the Bible, to see the logic of the Qur'an. And the Old and New Testament with the Torah, and the New Testament with 01:13:00the Injil. And, um...share that. Cause we share with the logic that he applied and the understanding, of the Bible -- the language. It's the understanding the language of that.

1:13:24 Janet: Thank you so much.

Mr. Nashid: Okay! I hope this is --

Janet: Wonderful. It was great.

Mr. Nashid: What we need, but -- just, I would say since you're gone be there -- Google W.D. Muhammad. You can go on YouTube, see his name, you'll see his talk. Just listen to the talk. We have a tendency to not want to listen to people that 01:14:00are not of our same whatever. But listen to the message. Like Dr. C. Eric Lincoln, he was in [Duke University], but what he said made sense to me, you know? So truth come in all people, and all people look different, but if you look at some of the teachings -- practically all the talks that he does on YouTube now -- look for the logic. And he told us to follow the logic to its conclusion. And that what your professor probably teach you: 'Okay, where is this taking you?'

That's the end?

Zimmy: It just shut off, but my phone is still recording the audio.

Mr. Nashid: Okay, yeah, so where is this logic gonna take you? It's just not here for no reason. It's taking you somewhere. So follow it and that's -- in the 01:15:00Qur'an, follow the logic to its conclusion. That's for everything in life. Follow that, just don't, 'Well the logic says this here!' Well, okay, now where's this gone take me? What am I to do? How am I to investigate this? And, what am I to look for and how is this gonna benefit me?

1:15:24 In Janet's teachings at school, she gives them...what did she say, 'Well this is the synopsis for the class,' right?

Janet: Mhm.

Mr. Nashid: End of the quarter, you should be somewhere. And you gonna be further along than what you were... did I say synopsis? That's right. Yeah, okay. You will be further along and know more than when I gave it to you, and that'll be the conclusion of what I gave. And then when you go to the next 01:16:00level, you're teaching something -- the synopsis of the class. And it's going to lead you somewhere.

1:16:07 And Imam Muhammad said this to us: let the known lead you to the unknown, and the unknown lead you to the known. So now, this is what that means; once you learn something, there's more to learn about it cause the Creator will open up things to you. Take your camera right there -- um, no let's take the phone. To record, we had the reel-to-reel, we had the eight track to record, now you got a phone. So from the first record -- the cassette recording -- or...the telephone! I remember people riding around with a telephone in their car, they 01:17:00had this long, tall antenna. Okay, now look what we got. But it took them from that point, that was known, it led them to the unknown, and now Apple and the other one -- what was the other one, Android? Whoever made that. They have the Android 6 and the Galaxy 6. They learnt something and it took you to another level. So that's God opening up this knowledge of this universe. So that's why I say, let the known lead you to the unknown that's gone lead you to the known. And it's a lot more of this universe out there. When I was in school, they told us it was nine planets, okay? So we got nine planets. How many do they tell you there is now? It's numerous! And they say it's only one sun. Now they're saying 01:18:00there's more suns -- *door opens* Ah, you made it!

1:18:10 Alright, yeah, so there are more suns out there -- more galaxies out there. *unintelligible* this is a vast universe -- that's the word that we can use -- but only one known and that's the Creator. So we are starting to learn more so that the known leads into the [unknown]. Now they got telescopes that can send to the satellites, then the satellite can send to another link, and another link, another link, to the destination.

Janet: I want to use that for my syllabus now. But the class ??1:18:49 Let the known lead you to the unknown.

Mr. Nashid: And the unknown lead you to the known. Yeah, that's it. George Washington Carver, look what he did. He took the peanut, and look where it -- 01:19:00all those uses. So once he finds something there, there's more to it. Cause the Creator has infinite knowledge, and we cannot even contain all that infinite knowledge.

Janet: We just read a little bit about George Washington Carver in one of the books in one of our classes. He was a deeply spiritual person -- he was really a mystic, wasn't he?

1:19:37 Mr. Nashid: I wouldn't say a mystic, cause people like that, they -- see, this is the thing I read about him, and it was one book: The Man Who Talked With Flowers. He gave credit to the Creator every time he learned something. Most scientists, they give the credit to themselves, but as he did, he learned 01:20:00this, he gave credit to the Creator then the Creator opened up more. And that's all the Creator asks us to do is give the credit where credit is due. So if you learn something from Janet, Ehryn, then don't say Ehryn taught Janet. Janet shared what she learned, and give the credit. You know, so that's what -- that's why you see the scientists make the error they have today. They'll come up with something and then they'll say, well, 'I invented this.' No, God opened up that knowledge about everything all the time. We just couldn't see it. We just couldn't see it.

1:20:48 Looking at the cars that we have now, you can kick your foot up under the back of the trunk and it opens up without a key. But the technology, and the 01:21:00advance in the technology -- from knowing something to taking it to where it need to go, you're taking it somewhere else. So it's God, the Creator. So that's the thing that he did. All throughout that book you'll see every time he did something, he gave the credit to the Creator. And that's all the Creator, so hey, why should we not recognize who gave it to us? Cause we did not make this. And now we say, the Creator. Just say thank you, give credit, 'If it wasn't for the Creator, I wouldn't have done this,' 'By the grace of God I've learned this.' And then more things will open up, but that's the selfishness in people where we want to take the credit -- we want to be better than the other one, and 01:22:00that only come about from a spirit that's in us. In the religion of Al-Islam, we say 'the jinn'. That's a spirit that's -- appetite that's unchecked. A spirit that's unchecked. And if you don't watch it, it'll have you doing things that -- within your own nature -- just like, I was asking about, your mother made cookies, and you sneaked and got one. Oh, Janet said she sneaked and got one! But something told her not to do that. Something said, 'No, don't do that.' That's that conscience that's in us. We get ready to do something that's not right, there's a conscience in us to say don't do it.1:22:57 They're gonna speak to you, speak to you, and the more you ignore it, it's like the sound will say, 01:23:00'Don't do that, Janet. Don't do that, Janet. Janet, keep with me.' And it's still there, the more we be doin' something, so that's the police in us. There was something that Prophet Muhammad, during his life (peace be upon him), established. They [did not] have jails. He talked to people about how the conscience that's put in us polices us to do what's right and not do the things that are wrong. And that's an innate nature. That's in us -- it's innate. That we have every human being, but if we don't listen to it...

1:23:49 I remember growing up, we used to watch The Little Rascal, with Spanky. He was told to stay home, as they said -- and they make mockery of this here -- 01:24:00of the human nature. Those who know those behaviors that I was speaking about earlier, they have an angel, as they said, on this shoulder, right? And then, what did they say, a devil on this shoulder? And the angel said, 'No, Spanky, don't go out the house.' *referring to the devil on the other shoulder* 'Go on, go! You can be back before your parents get back.' And he listened to the -- this one. That's the one that got him in trouble. So we have that in us, the jinn (Arabic word for 'uncontrolled spirit'). We have to check it, and make it conform to being obedient to the Creator. And let the nature in us, that is, the obedient nature -- let that grow and become strong. And that'll be in the heart -- the sentiments. Having the right sentiment. Where it would do the mind. Cause 01:25:00there's some things the mind would say is logic, but the heart'll say, 'No, that ain't quite right.' That be your heart speaking to you -- your conscience be saying it's not quite right. Yeah, that's just us. That's in our -- every human being! Everyone. So, that's the nature. And as long as...it's the nature of life. That's what it is.

1:25:37 So y'all have a question?

Janet: We got to ask everyone's questions, so...

Mr. Nashid: We didn't talk much about Africatown, but I am following up -- as I said earlier -- I talk with Miss Robertson, Natalie. She was here for the celebration and I just got her book. It just came in. Just came in -- I got it 01:26:00Thursday. I have not had a chance to read it yet, but I wanted to read her book to research what she had found out about Muslims being part of the slave trade. I told her what I was working on and she said yeah, there were some. So if you -- you can go to her page, Google Natalie Robertson. Her book is the...

Janet: Is it Africatown, USA? Is that...

Mr. Nashid: What I'll do, I'll take a picture of the book and send it. Yeah, I think it's Africatown--

Janet: She went back to Benin and did research there--

Mr. Nashid: Yeah, yeah, it was something like that with her book. Yeah, she's a professor somewhere...I forget which university she's at. But her site -- just Google her name, it'll come up.

1:26:59 Now, there -- I was telling about a good friend of mine, just launched a 01:27:00ministry called Al-Islam Worldwide Ministry. And what we're doing, we're trying to give. And he say worldwide because on his Facebook page, there are people from South Africa, there are people from Africa, there are people from Indonesia -- that they tune in to his Jumu'ah prayer, which is the Friday prayer. Every Friday we come -- we're on a different time -- and they listen to the way that we teach the religion, other than the honorable Elijah Muhammad and Imam Warith Deen Muhammad do. So he been working on the water and launched that.

1:27:49 There's another good friend of mine, he's just wrote his third book -- I just got that one. His name, let me spell it for you. Google his name: Faheem, F-A-H-E-E-M, Shauibe, S-H-U-A-I-B-E, Shuaibe. He just put [out] a book, [The 01:28:00Clear Path to Human Development: Human Science in Scriptural Language]. I just got that one too. But you can see that one. But what we're doing -- we're not trying to convert people from their religion. I say, if you're Christian, be a good one. My daughter and I go at it -- my daughter. She says, 'Dad, I want to be a Christian.' Okay, be a good one. Her problem -- the problem that we have -- is, she want to thank Jesus and not thank God, but her mother was Christian so 01:29:00that's what she learned. She learned that, so... And we'll get off the phone when we get to that point because--

Janet: Interfaith family then.

Mr. Nashid: Huh?

Janet: You're an interfaith family. Different faiths in the family.

Mr. Nashid: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, you know, the parent in me wants, you know... But I have to recognize that that's her choice. But I tell her, give the credit -- why give the credit to the creation versus give the credit to the Creator? That's who should get it. Christ was creation, and the Creator created him, so give the credit to the Creator. And I think that a lot have misunderstood when he says, 'ask in my name.' That didn't say, give me the credit in my name, it said ask. That quote in the Bible said, 'Ask in my name.' So whatever happened, it's by the grace of God that it happened. So she and I, we'll get on something 01:30:00and she'll say, 'Thank you, Jesus.' I say, 'Why you do that?' Well then it's time to go. But, I don't try to convert anybody from their religion, I just say, be a good whatever it is. I have Buddhist friends, I have a few Hindu friends, I have a few Jewish friends, few Christians -- more Christian friends. And some of them that -- the Christian friends that I have -- I'd trust my life with them. Because I see the humanity in them. I put aside the religion so everybody can have...cause you have to account for your... Those are the things that Prophet Muhammad established -- the freedom of religion. He did not tell the Jews they 01:31:00had to give up their religion. In fact, he told the Muslims -- we have to practice it till today -- that we have to protect the other house of worships. So this anti-Muslim and anti-Christian, that's some narrow minded thinking of people who don't have an understanding of the religion. Or being anti-Jewish. The situation in Palestine and Israel, there's a segment of the Jewish people who don't like that, and there's a segment of the people that do. But you have to look at where the segment that do come from. And that will be the ones that came out of Europe, and through the UN -- saying, okay, you're all seeking asylum from Germany and the rule at that time, so this will be a place where y'all can come. But then they get there and want to take over, and that's... Now 01:32:00they're fighting, and hopefully somebody on one side see that the fighting hadn't resolved it, so why can't we just sit down and settle this and we have our territory and you have your territory?

1:32:22 And then we barter on the goods that we have and the goods that you have. Cause there's something that you have that I don't have that I need, but there's something that I have that you don't have that you need. And that'll make for...simple.

Cause [since the] 1967 [war], and this is 2019. The fighting hadn't resolved it, so...too many people been killed. On both sides. Too many. And it's not Al-Islam 01:33:00to go and call yourself a suicide bomber and you be a martyr. You going to hell. Cause God says do not kill yourself. That's in the fourth chapter, verse 28. Don't kill yourself! So you strap on something and say, 'I'm being a martyr and I'm fighting in the cause of God.' No. You don't fight in the cause of God that way. Cause you put your standard of fighting in what you're saying for God. You should have the standard that God say you should fight for, versus, I come up with my own take and this is what I'm gone do. So God never said fight like that, cause that's not...that's not... Too many innocent people killed. You're 01:34:00gonna go and kill an innocent person that has nothing to do with what's going on? I'm sitting here eating, me and my family, and next thing I know, boom. And I don't know where it come from. That's not Al-Islam, and that's not being a martyr. And whoever misguided those young people, they're gonna burn up in hell for misguiding them and making them think that that's martyrdom. No. The Prophet said 'the ink of the scholar is more precious than the blood of the martyr.'

The ink of the scholar is more precious than the blood of the martyr. So knowledge. Sit down and talk about things -- how to do them. So that's not the religion. That's not the religion.

And when you fight in God's cause, you have to fight with the tools that God 01:35:00gives. And if it comes down to a battle -- where there was numerous battles that the prophet had with people. They didn't like the idea that he introduced the religion and they were freeing the people from being enslaved. And he was -- he was introducing an order that was changing the order. So you have that resistance of those in control losing the power -- I say the pseudo-power. 1:35:41 Cause they don't have no power -- we don't have no power. How many of you can tell me you have the power to wake up in the morning? Anybody? How many of you can tell me that you have the power to know what's going on when you sleep? Nobody. So, you know, we don't have no power, and the situation... We 01:36:00don't have that power. We don't have that power to do that. So we should just recognize human beings. We are human beings, that's it. We are all human beings. Yeah.

This is what God said; he created us. In the Qur'an, Chapter 49 verse 13, 'I created you in tribes and nations, that you may know each other.' And he separated us. History. Separated us, put some in Europe, put some in the Middle East, put some here, put some there. And then they had to try to traverse the 01:37:00waters to get to other lands. Like when Columbus -- they didn't want to sail on the water cause they thought that at the end of it, you're gonna fall of. And if you look at it -- have any of you ever been on a cruise? When you look way down at where the sun and the water meets together, you think that's the edge. That you gone fall over, but the earth is round. But they was scared to traverse because that's what they saw -- a flat. They just saw it flat, and you can see where the earth -- or if you've been in the desert, where you can see where the earth and the sun meet each other. That's the flat part, but the earth is round, 01:38:00so you're not gone fall.

1:38:08 Having the knowledge... I'm trying to think -- why did I say that? *laughing* Ah, well it'll come back to me, but he put all in separate places, we had to traverse the water and now we connect with each other. When I was growing up, I didn't know what was going on in other countries, but now, you all see what's going on instantly. With the satellite, you can see what's going on in this part of the world. It's daylight here, but it's dark somewhere else and you can see what's going on. Through the technology that man have -- when I say man I'm talking about women included -- have advanced in the knowledge. Cause women 01:39:00have done a lot. And this year women marked -- what do they call it, Women's History Month? I think that that's it. Yeah, women have done a lot. And they have done a lot to keep us men sane. Kept us from doing things that we shouldn't have done -- the women, come in. Cause that's what mother did. She come in and say, 'No, don't do that, son. If you do that, this [will] happen. And if you don't obey me, I'm going to give you something like what's going to happen if you don't change your bad ways.' So women have come in, and kind of -- they're more sober-minded than us men.

So we're all coming together. And when we were separated, but that's by divine 01:40:00plan, bring everybody together and we can communicate worldwide now. They call it the worldwide web, because they studied the spider. The spider built a web, and it goes up here, and then a line running down to -- running to each connecter, and when some hit it, it know exactly where to go because it sends a message to the spider that something light has landed and stuck. So they say the worldwide web, so that's a spiderweb if you look at it. It's a spiderweb. So man did not -- everything that we come up that we say we created or made, God has already put it here, we just didn't know how to connect the dots. And with 01:41:00sincerity and earnest seeking it, the known lead us to the unknown, but we want it to go there for a good reason to share and not be dominant. So God opened it up.

So that's the worldwide web -- the spider web. Look at one that's built and how they... So everything we have that we see is -- we were living in huts, living in caves...it was cold and we looked at the bees and see how they build their nest and it's cool.

And what time is Reggie coming?

1:41:47 Janet: You know, I'm not even sure. He'll come in when he's ready, but Courtney, I wanted to double-check, did you need to be home by a certain time?

*conversing about possibly taking Courtney home*

Janet: ...but Mr. Nashid, you're more than welcome to stay. I think that Santi's gonna be cooking. So you could...

Mr. Nashid: Oh, okay. Well, I mean, I'll stay with them.

Janet: Please do! Please, I just -- I don't want her parents to get concerned.