STUDY GUIDE 7
BUILDING THE WILL
PART III
READING MATERIAL
Holy Qur'an
Surah 58 "The
Pleading Woman"
(Verses 14-22)
Surah 70
"The Ways of Ascent"
(Verses 19-35)
Self-Improvement
Pages 12-16
The Will of God (Part 1)
Pages 8-12
FACT (S)
Again, I am quoting from the
Holy Qur'an; the Holy Qur'an
says the "Jinn" was created
before Man. (15 -.27) Some
scholars say that 'Jinn' means a
being of fiery nature and
temperament. "If the "Jinn"
comes before the Man, you must
come through the Fire of Emotion
before; you can become a
developed human being. You have
to learn to control these forces
within your own being that come
from Allah (God) Himself, before
you can,/become a human being...
"Man can be an animal or Man can
reflect Allah (God). You start
in this world, like a fish,
swimming in a bag of water. You
evolve out of that and you come
forth crawling; like other
crawling things on the Earth.
Allah (God) never intended for
you to be an animal. He wanted
you to be a perfect reflection
of Himself. (11:7) But, there
must be a coming out of the
animal stage of development into
a moral consciousness, where you
have (a spirit in you that
accuses you for what you do,
based on that which you know
instinctively is right." (75:2)
SELF-IMPROVEMENT (Excerpts:
Pages 14-16)
DISCUSSION
1)
Please review the
GLOSSARY.
Remember to make an effort to
incorporate terms from the study
guides into your "functional
vocabulary" (conversation).
2) In Study
Session 6, we looked at some of
the ways Allah (God) has given
us to support and direct us in
the ultimate goal of our meeting
with Him. We also looked briefly
at some of the forces that
impede us in our journey.
Please read Surah 58, verses
14-22. What is the significance
of these verses as they relate
to our struggle to overcome the
internal impediments to
obtaining our desire (s)?
Supplement
3) (a) Read
verse 19 of Surah 70. Now read
verse 5. What is the natural
force within that has the
ability to extinguish the light
of our desire (s)?
(b) Why does Allah (God) create
us impatient, then exhort us to
be patient?
What relationship does this
struggle within have to building
the Will?
(c) Read verse 20. What does
"fretful" mean? In what way does
this emotional force adversely
affect the Will?
(d) Read verse 21. What does
"niggardly" mean? In what way
does this force adversely affect
the Will?
Supplement
4) In view of
tonight's lesson, why must we be
"constant" at our prayer?
Discuss some of the natural
forces which are impediments to
prayer. Why are we told to
'guard' our prayer?
Supplement
5) Read verse
26 of Surah 70. What are the
impediments within us that may
cause us to reject the truth of
the Day of Judgment?
Supplement
6) Read verses
27 and 28. What are the natural
impediments to our need to
remain fearful of the
chastisement of our Lord?
Supplement
7) Read verses
29-31. In what way does the
force of sexual passion
adversely affect the Will?
Supplement
8) Read verse
32. What impediments within us
cause us not to be faithful to
our trusts and our covenants, or
upright in our testimonies?
Supplement
Building the
Will Part III - Page 2
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PRACTICAL
APPLICATION
This week we want to test
impatience.
1) Each morning, let us rise and
pray at 5:00a.m. Let us resist
the power of sleep and pray with
Allah (God) on our minds instead
of sleep. During the day, no
matter how busy or involved we
are in our work, let us excuse
ourselves after the noon hour to
remember our Lord.
2) Let us take some of the money
from our pockets and regardless
of the forces which press us to
withhold our money and be
niggardly, let us think of the
right that the poor have in what
Allah has given us and give to
the Cause of Truth.
3) When something happens to
annoy us and make us irritated,
let us be calm and remember
patience. Allah will help us
resist the powerful emotional
force of Anger.
MAY ALLAH (GOD) BLESS US ALL
WITH SUCCESS!
DISCUSSION
SUPPLEMENT
1) See
GLOSSARY.
2) In these
verses, Allah (God) is
describing an enemy which moves
among the Believers, taking
"shelter under their oaths, so
they turn (men) from Allah's
way..."
In this way, Allah gives us a
picture of what is taking place
inside of ourselves. Just as He
is "wroth" with our taking the
"devil's party" for friends, He
is displeased with our following
our low desires, which make us
"forget the remembrance of
Allah.'
The correlation here is that we
must guard against the internal
enemy that moves within the
circle of Believers and we must
guard against the internal enemy
that moves within the individual
Self.
3) (a)
"Impatience" is defined as an
"eager desire for relief or
change; intolerance of anything
that thwarts or hinders." Thus
we see that it is a force which
is natural and which is
characterized as a desire.
Desire feeds the Will,
therefore, the desire to be
relieved from the irritation of
waiting over a protracted period
of time comes into conflict with
the desire for any goal which
requires patience to obtain. One
force must win over the other.
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Will Part III - Page 3
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There is a law
in physics which says that for
every action there is an equal
and opposite reaction. In
creating us impatient, Allah
(God) has insured that the
struggle he has ordained for us
in order to achieve anything of
consequence or acquire anything
of value, takes place.
In Study Session 3, we saw that
the ever-present difficulty
factor increases as we grow
closer to our desire (s). In
overcoming the natural forces of
resistance within us, we develop
the discipline necessary to
obtain what we want.
(b) Through the natural friction
between our desired goal (s) and
the conflicting desire for
relief from waiting which is
impatience, Allah (God) has
provided each of us with a means
of building the Will. In Study
Session 5, we saw that the Will
(Power) is developed by
overcoming resistance, just as
the muscles of the physical body
are working against resistance.
In our study of the prophets, we
saw that patience was a
pervasive virtue. They were
mocked and ridiculed by the
disbelievers for long periods of
time, but were instructed by
Allah (God) to bear patiently
what they say. In overcoming the
natural force of impatience and
developing the attribute of
patience, they were rewarded
with vision, or the ability to
see beyond the present. They
could "see", through their
patience, that the ends for
which would ultimately come
about.
Impatience, or the desire for
relief or change, may be removed
from us, not by yielding to this
natural force, but by seeking
refuge in Allah (God).
Whenever impatience threatens to
cause us to turn away from a
desired goal, we must go to
Allah (God), the Lord of the
ways of Ascent, in prayer.
Prayer will give us the security
and peace of mind that will
relieve our irritation. It is in
that frame of mind that we then
must re-identify with our
desired goal. The desire (and
the willingness to be patient in
order to obtain it) will then
return.
Prayer is the re-affirmation of
desire. We endure by reaffirming
and reidentifying our desire
until we reach the goal.
(c) Verse 20 of Surah 70 says
that we are 'fretful' when evil
afflicts us. That is, there is a
natural force within us that
brings about suffering from
disturbing thoughts and torment
of ourselves with worry when we
are afflicted with evil.
Persecution is an evil which
afflicts the righteous in the
struggle for justice. When this
evil is practiced against us, it
stimulates this force,
"fretfulness", which suggests to
us that we retreat and turn our
back from our goal in order to
obtain relief from our mental
anguish.
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Will Part III - Page 4
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Remember these
words form page 3 of
Self-improvement: "Brothers and
Sisters, each time we turn away
from the struggle to overcome
difficulty, there is
deterioration of character and
there is destruction of the
Will."
(d) In Study Session 6, we
defined the word "niggardly" as
meaning "reluctant to give or
spend; stingy." It is natural
for us to attempt to hold on to
whatever good we obtain, that we
might not relive the suffering
we have undergone when we were
without.
However, the natural base
inclination to hoard things
becomes an enemy to us when it
impedes the fulfillment of our
duty to give charity, in the
Cause of Allah. We must keep
uppermost in our minds that the
beggar and the destitute have a
right to a wealth. That right is
fulfilled when we give charity.
The Holy Qur'an teaches us that
we "cannot attain to
righteousness unless you spend
out of what you love." So
hoarding and niggardliness are
natural forces which have the
power to actually bar us from a
state of righteousness
altogether, unless they are
overcome.
4) In Study
Session 5, we defined the word
"constant" as "not changing or
varying; continuing without
pause or letup; recurrent;
faithful, unswerving in love or
devotion; steady." Throughout
the Holy Qur'an, Allah tells us
that He loves the "steadfast".
Constancy is required in order
to overcome the natural forces
which keep us from prayer. Sleep
is necessary and good for us in
its place. but it is such a
powerful force that it will hold
us in its embrace far beyond its
normal function until it impedes
us from prayer, the first pillar
of Islam which supports our
belief in the One God.
Another powerful force within us
is the inclination to do that
which gives us personal
satisfaction. We generally love
what we do best and do best what
we love; and what we love to do
most is what we were most likely
born to do. When we are doing
what we love: business, writing,
music etc., whatever we love, we
do not want to stop doing it for
anything, even the remembrance
of Allah (God).
Whatever we feel we are born to
do, we must never put that above
remembrance of Allah (God). For
it is only the remembrance of
Him, the Lord of the ways of
Ascent, that empowers us to
attain excellence in that which
we are born to do.
This is why we must not only be
constant in our prayer, but we
must "guard" our prayer. We must
shield it from that which would
usurp its place of prominence in
our nature and in our behavior
patterns.
Building the
Will Part III - Page 5
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At the end of
the day, we are naturally tired
from hours of exerting physical
and mental energy. As this
natural force, tiredness, can
keep us from remembrance of
Allah (God) as we go to bed, we
must summon the strength to
praise Him before retiring.
5) Verse 26
exhorts us to be of "those who
accept the truth of the day of
Judgment." The natural forces
within which may impede us from
the acceptance of the truth of
judgment are our personal
desires.
Judgment takes place each and
every time the Truth comes to
us, in that its Light shines on
our motives, secret desires and
actions; which ofttimes, we
don't want to see illuminated
before ourselves and others.
There is nothing between a man
and his heart (desires) but
Allah (God). To accept the truth
of Judgment is to accept the
Truth He gives us which aids us
in correcting our behavior when
it is contrary to what is right.
Each time we reject the truth
that illuminates our faults, we
reject and deny the truth of the
day of Judgment.
6) We are
warned in verses 27 and 28 that
chastisement of our Lord is "a
thing not to be felt secure
from". We must always keep in
mind the Power of Allah (God)
and His ability to punish. We
cannot secure ourselves from His
Displeasure by isolated acts of
righteousness.
An illustration of our
relationship with Allah (God) is
that of the child to the father.
There is the child who loves his
father and knows his father
loves him; the child also knows
of the awesome power of the
father to chastise him when the
father is displeased with acts
of disobedience. This awareness
serves to facilitate goodness
for the child does not wish to
engage in conduct which will
bring punishment.
On the other hand, the child may
become spoiled in the security
and comfort of parental love.
Even though he witnesses the
chastisement of a brother or
sister, he may think to himself,
"I am his favorite, he won't
whip me." This thinking causes
the child to do something in the
way of disobedience and that
brings about the chastisement
that he thought he was secure
from.
So we must strive daily to act
in the way of righteousness, for
we are always susceptible to
incurring the displeasure of our
Lord if we -act contrary to what
is right.
7) In verses 29
and 30, we are told to restrain
our sexual passions (a natural
drive). In its place, this force
is a good force that serves the
procreation of
Building the
Will Part III - Page 6
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man, but it also
conflicts with the desire for
self-improvement; it demands
satisfaction "now".
The desire to satisfy the sex
drive conflicts with the desire
to go forward in the way of
righteousness. It is powerful
enough to actually use the Will
to serve a low desire. Though
Allah tells us that if we are
patient, He will satisfy us out
of His Grace, the sex drive
tells us to ignore our unmarried
state or ignore the fact that we
are married to someone other
than the one we are about to
engage in this activity with; it
says, "Go ahead. Why should you
wait on God?"
And so the Holy Qur'an asks the
question, Have you seen him who
takes his low desires for God
besides Allah?
8) Verses 33
and 34 exhort us to be faithful
to our trusts and covenants and
to be upright in our
testimonies.
There is a natural force within
us which causes us to do and say
that which will facilitate
obtaining the object (s) of our
desire (s). This results in
making false promises in order
to lead others to give us
things, even though we may have
no intention of fulfilling the
promise. Or, we may intend to
fulfill our promises at the time
we make them, but when the time
of fulfillment comes, we ignore
the promise if it conflicts with
the immediate personal desire.
We borrow money; promising to
pay it back; when the due date
comes, there is something else
we would prefer to do with the
money.
We must overcome the forces
within which impede us from
keeping our word.
9) As the
guidance in the ways of ascent
opened with the exhortation to
pray (verse 22), it closes with
an exhortation to guard our
prayers (verse 34).
Remember, Prayer is the Alpha
and Omega of all success.
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Will Part III - Page 7
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Glossary
FORCE:
Power of influence, affect or
control. Producing or tending to
produce change in movement or
effect.
IMPATIENCE: Eager desire
for relief or change;
intolerance of anything that
thwarts impedes or hinders.
IMPEDIMENT:
Obstruction; hindrance;
obstacle.
IMPEDE:
To retard in movement or
progress by means of obstacles
or hindrance.
IMPEDANCE
(Electricity): The total
opposition to alternating
current by an electric circuit,
equal to the square root of the
sum of the squares of the
resistance and reluctance of the
circuit. (expressed in "ohms."
Symbol: Z)
ANXIETY:
Distress or uneasiness of mind
caused by apprehension of danger
or misfortune; a state of
apprehension and psychic
tension.
GRIEF:
Keen mental suffering or
distress over affliction or
loss; sharp sorrow; painful
regret; anguish.
FEAR: A
distressing emotion aroused by
impending pain, danger, evil,
ect., whether real or imagined;
the felling or condition of
being afraid. To have
reverential name of; the fear of
Allah (God).
FRET
(FRETFUL): To torment
oneself with or suffer from
disturbing thoughts; to worry.
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Part 28
CHAPTER 58
Al-Mujadilah:The Pleading Woman
(REVEALED
AT MADÍNAH:3 sections ;22 verses
)
SECTION 3:Internal
Enemy to be guarded against
14 Hast thou not seen those
who take for friends a people
with whom Allah is wroth? They
are neither of you nor of them,
and they swear falsely, while
they know.
15 Allah has prepared for
them a severe chastisement. Evil
indeed is that which they do!
16 They take shelter under
their oaths, so they turn (men)
from Allah’s way; for them is an
abasing chastisement.
17 Of no avail against Allah,
will be to them their wealth or
their children. They are the
companions of the Fire; therein
they will abide.
18 On the day when Allah will
raise them all up, they will
swear to Him as they swear to
you, and they think that they
have some (excuse). Now surely
they are the liars.
19 The devil has gained the
mastery over them, so he has
made them forget the remembrance
of Allah. They are the devil’s
party. Now surely the devil’s
party are the losers.
20 Those who oppose Allah and
His Messenger, they shall be
among the most abased.
21 Allah has written down: I
shall certainly prevail, I and
My messengers. Surely Allah is
Strong, Mighty.
22 Thou wilt not find a
people who believe in Allah and
the latter day a loving those
who oppose Allah and His
Messenger, even though they be
their fathers, or their sons, or
their brothers, or their
kinsfolk. These are they into
whose hearts He has impressed
faith, and strengthened them
with a Spirit from Himself, and
He will cause them to enter
Gardens wherein flow rivers,
abiding therein. Allah is
well-pleased with them and they
are well-pleased with Him. These
are Allah’s party. Now surely it
is Allah’s party who are the
successful!
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CHAPTER 70
Al-Ma‘arij: The Ways of Ascent
(REVEALED AT
MAKKAH:2 sections ;44 verses )
19 Surely man is created
impatient —
20 Fretful when evil afflicts
him,
21 And niggardly when good
befalls him —
22 Except those who pray,
23 Who are constant at their
prayer,
24 And in whose wealth there
is a known right
25 For the beggar and the
destitute,
26 And those who accept the
truth of the day of Judgment:
27 And those who are fearful
of the chastisement of their
Lord —
28 Surely the chastisement of
their Lord is (a thing) not to
be felt secure from —
29 And those who restrain
their sexual passions,
30 Except in the presence of
their mates or those whom their
right hands possess a —for such
surely are not to be blamed,
31 But he who seeks to go
beyond this, these are the
transgressors.
32 And those who are faithful
to their trusts and their
covenant,
33 And those who are upright
in their testimonies,
34 And those who keep a guard
on their prayer.
35 These are in Gardens,
honoured.
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Self Improvement: The Basis of
Community Development - Page 12
If Jesus is the Prime
Example, and he said, 'I of
myself can do nothing, but
whatsoever the Father Wills,
that I do.', he is telling you
that he is dependent. He is not
Sovereign Lord. He is dependent
upon a Power bigger than
himself. Well, that example
should be studied by us, for the
Qur'an teaches us that Allah
loves not any self-conceited
boaster, who goes about the land
exultingly. In fact, the Qur'an
says the most hateful sound to
God is the braying of an ass.
Even if he gave the ass a voice,
he doesn't like to hear it. When
you talk like the jack ass,
going about in the land
exultingly, self-conceited
boaster, saying and thinking
that you can do things which you
really cannot do, then God
intervenes to show you that you
are not what you think you are.
Look at how many rockets have
fallen out of the sky. With a
few successful launches of the
new program that came out of
NASA, suddenly every rocket they
sent up exploded. See, there is
another Power and that Power is
trying to tell you, 'Look, man,
you are not God. You had better
wake up and recognize, you are
coming out into My Universe,
taking a peek at what My
technology has built. Why don't
you bow down and recognize that
there is somebody bigger than
you?
Now. This part of the lecture is
really the heart of it. This is
very difficult and I want you to
pay attention.
In this Qur'an, as well as the
Bible, Allah says, 'I am going
to place a ruler in the Earth.'
And the Angels say to Allah,
'What will you place in it
except that which will create
mischief and cause the shedding
of blood?...We celebrate Your
Praise and extol Your Holiness.'
But, God says to them, 'I know
what you know not....I am going
to place a ruler in the Earth
and that ruler that I place in
the Earth is going to create
mischief and cause the shedding
of blood.' The Angels say, 'You
are Holy, why would you do a
thing like this?' And God says,
'I know what you know not.'
Listen carefully, now.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad
gave us a very clear
interpretation of the Qur'anic
passage. That interpretation
dealt with a ruler who is over
the nations of the Earth, who
has created mischief and the
shedding of blood. But God, Who
knows best, said that even
though a mischief-maker 'has
become the ruler by My
permission, nevertheless, at the
end of the mischiefmaking and
bloodshed there is something
that will wipe away the pain of
his rule...I know what you know
not.'
Self
Improvement: The Basis of
Community Development - Page 13
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Tonight, I would like to
advance another interpretation
of that scripture. You say,
'Wait a minute, Farrakhan. Who
are you to advance an
interpretation?' Really, nobody,
just a student of a great
teacher. But you know, it is
wrong for any man to think that
any one interpretation of a
divine word is the
interpretation. How could this
be God's Word and you treat it
as though it is your word? If
The God, Who reveals the Book,
gives a Word that is comparable
to His own consummate knowledge
of things, then how could you
dare say that His Word is
limited to your meager
interpretation or mine? I would
like to offer this
interpretation to you as another
way to look at scripture.
Listen. 'I am going to place
a ruler in the Earth.' Not on
the Earth, but in the Earth.
Where did you come from? Your
flesh is from what? The
vegetation of the Earth. Your
bone is from what? The stone of
the Earth. Your blood is from
what? The water of the Earth.
This lump of flesh and blood and
bone has to have a ruler in it.
Something that rules it;
something that commands it; that
dominates it. Is that right?
Now look Who is talking. This
is the Lord of Creation talking.
'I am going to place a ruler in
the Earth.' And the Angels said,
'My God, what You are going to
place is going to create
mischief and cause the shedding
of blood.' Then He answered, 'I
know what you know not.' Now, if
God is going to form this body
and He knows that you are
supreme above the Sun, Moon and
Stars, above all the creatures;
you are the supreme existence
--- Man and Woman. He is going
to place in you a ruler. But,
the ruler that he puts in you
has got to come through stages
of development and on its way is
going to create mischief and
cause the shedding of blood. I
want you to follow me, because I
want you to see yourself.
'I am going to place a
ruler...' In Hebrew,' ruler
means 'Elohim' or 'God', 'Divine
Essence', 'Will', 'Divine
Force.' God shares Himself with
Man and Woman. The only reason
you can say 'I' is because the
true 'I' has shared a part of
His 'I am' with you, that you
may be. Look, now. He, Allah,
God, places in you a Power from
Himself. I am going to say this
--- it may create a lot of
trouble. But you all are ready
for trouble. When God gives you
some of Himself, that is a Power
that you have to learn how to
handle. You see people get rich
too fast; what happens to them?
You have to be spiritually
equipped to handle the Power of
God. When God shares Himself
with you, He gives you a problem
to overcome. You have to
struggle with the only force
that is in you, which is the God
Force. There is no other force
but God. 'But I thought there is
a Devil.' Wait a minute. That is
what you become when you abuse
the God Force and use it for
negative ends.
Self
Improvement: The Basis of
Community Development - Page 14
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]Many years ago, people
thought that the Earth was the
center of the Universe. Then
they thought that perhaps the
Sun was the center of the
Universe. So, we asked the
Honorable Elijah Muhammad one
day, 'Is the Sun the center of
the Universe?' He said, 'The Sun
is very near the center.' He
didn't say any more. The Sun is
not the center. God, Himself is
the center of what He creates.
He makes everything to revolve.
If the Sun were the absolute
God, it wouldn't move; it would
just make everything else move.
But the Sun is also revolving.
It is near the center and there
is an Unseen Reality that makes
the Sun move.
Look at a child. What makes a
child want to be the center of
attention? Have you seen your
children? You have been one,
probably you still are. How many
of us want to be the center of
attention? 'Hey, look at me, ha,
ha.' Why do you think people go
into show business? They want to
get attention. And when people
shower attention on them, they
feel so good. They become a
star; they become great. Then
they begin to think they are
different; they talk different.
It takes time for the child to
mature, to realize that there
are others in this world other
than himself. I want you to
look, now. Don't look at anybody
else; look at yourself, because
I am talking to you.
If the child does not get
attention, he resorts to
destructive means to get it. God
is a Lifegiver, but God also
Destroys. The same Power is
within us; we can give life, but
we can also destroy. So, if we
don't get attention, we break
the party up. 'If the
organization won't recognize my
tremendous skill and ability,
I'll break the organization up.'
Look at you. 'If the church
won't recognize that I can sing
better than anybody in the choir
and give me a solo, then the
hell with the choir, I'll break
it up.' What kind of mind is
that? What kind of power is
that, that you have misused?
See, someone is creating
mischief with a created thing.
Your voice is a gift of God, but
it is the way you use it.
The child must learn to
accept its place with others You
are the center of nothing. And
you are deluding yourself if you
think you are. There is always a
True Center and you are not it;
neither am I.
Again, I am quoting from the
Qur'an; the Qur'an says the
'Jinn' was created before Man.
Some scholars say that 'Jinn'
means a being of fiery nature
and temperament. Have you ever
watched an infant when you don't
give it its desire? The infant
will cry so hard. Watch it now;
it cries so hard until you see
fire come right up in its face;
it may be Black, but it turns
red with the fire of anger,
because 'You didn't give me what
I wanted! I am hungry! I want to
be changed; not tomorrow, right
now! And if you don't change me,
I'll raise so much hell, nobody
in this house will sleep!' The
infant is a creature of emotion.
Self
Improvement: The Basis of
Community Development - Page 15
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If the Jinn comes before the
Man, you must come through the
fire of emotion before you can
become a developed human being.
You have to learn to control
these forces within your own
being that come from God
Himself, before you can become a
human being.
The child wants gratification
now. Allah says you must learn
patience. And when you are
patient, it shows that you are
maturing psychologically. The
child is selfish. It wants
everything for itself. It must
learn respect for others. The
child must be tolerant of
others. The child must learn to
share with others. And so, a
child has all of these forces
within that have to be
controlled; that is why God
gives children parents.
It is something to make a
baby and not know what to do
with it. Most of you, dear
mothers, are wonderful,
wonderful creatures, but you
make babies and you don't know
what to do with them. Poor
father, he is just out there. He
just plants the seed and runs
away. He doesn't know what to do
with life. You are given to the
child, mothers and fathers,
parents; we are given to
exercise control over these
forces within the child. And you
must feed your child knowledge,
guidance, as you exercise
control, that the child may grow
into the proper use of the
Divine Force. Therefore, when
the parent does its job, it
turns the child over to
institutions that become the
stewards of the Life Force.
School is not school---it is
the Steward of the Life Force in
your and my children. It is the
'other Mother', the other
nurturer and fosterer of this
child and its development on the
road to its meeting with God.
Listen, now, schoolteacher. You
have never been trained like
this.
Church---that is an institution.
The pastor is supposed to
educate the congregation in the
matter of control and guidance
of their lives and the young
lives of their children. Then,
you have Government---that is an
institution. These are the
stewards of the Life Force of
the people. Therefore, you are
given the privilege to make laws
to govern the people. But what
have you done? You have created
mischief and cause the shedding
of blood, because there is
ignorance in the parents;
church; there is ignorance in
the government. In fact,
children rule over us.
Each of us has great
potential, but a just and
balanced home, governed by
wisdom, fosters that potential.
However, when another, or one
people, to the neglect or
detriment of another, we set up
the destruction of that home,
that school, that society; for
you are making devils. 'What did
you say?' Yes, I said you are
making devils. And, when you
make a devil, you ought to be
responsible for what you make.
You are making your destruction,
in your homes, in the schools,
in the church, in the society;
we are making devils. Now, wait
a minute. 'My God, Farrakhan,
this is terrible.'
Self
Improvement: The Basis of
Community Development - Page 16
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Look at all of you righteous
people in the church. How come
there is no peace there? Come on
all of you saints; you
sanctified ones. Who is raising
hell in your church? 'Well, it's
the devil.' Yes, the devil in
you. You don't want to come to
grips with that, do you? I told
you, you are going to have to
strangle that beast before
tonight is over.
Man can be an animal or Man can
reflect God. You start in this
world, like a fish, swimming in
a bag of water. You evolve out
of that and you come forth
crawling; like other crawling
things on the Earth. God never
intended for you to be an
animal. He wanted you to be a
coming out of the animal stage
of development into a moral
consciousness, where you have a
spirit in you that accuses you
for what you do, based on that
which you know instinctively is
right.
I remember once I went to the
Honorable Elijah Muhammad. There
was a young girl; she was about
twelve (12) years old and she
had committed an act of
fornication; she wanted me to go
the Honorable Elijah Muhammad
and plead her case, because she
said her mama never taught her;
that she did this thing and she
was ashamed, but if her mother
had taught her about these
things, she probably would not
have done it. So, the Honorable
Elijah Muhammad said, 'Brother,
don't let that little girl put
that stuff over on you.' He
said, 'Her mama didn't have to
teach her. Ask her where did she
do this thing. And, if she went
and did it in the dark, which I
am sure she did, then that meant
she did not want the light to
discover her activities.'
Listen, now. Listen to what
he said. When you are innocent
of something, you do it in the
open. But, when you have to find
a dark place to do your thing,
whatever it is, then this means
there is something about this
that you know you should not be
engaging in. So, he said, 'Go
and give that girl time.' Now,
when he told me that, he said,
'God created the planets at
right angles to the Sun and He
created the brain cell of Man to
think right. So when you think
other than right, you think
against the grain of the brain
cell; therefore, you damage your
brain the power of the mind.'
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The Will of God I - Page 8
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[So these
enemies of the Will: Fear,
Vanity, Pride, Envy, must be
gotten rid of . But how can we
get rid of the enemies that keep
us from full development?]
V. LUST
Lust
is a voracious appetite; a
sexual appetite that is
inordinate. It is out of the
Divine Law. It is out of the way
of the Order of Allah (God). It
is something that we feel we
have to do. It is a compulsion.
And we allow that drive, that
sexual drive, that ends that are
nonproductive of good.
VI. ANGER
To
those of us who are angered
much, Anger can direct the Will.
Anger directs the Power of our
being toward the object of our
Anger. And ofttimes, in our
Anger, we can do - very
destructive things to Self and
others. Anger is something that
must be controlled.
VII.
GREED
And
of course, lastly, there is
Greed. Greed is the accepted
inordinate or rapacious desire
for wealth, power, food or
drink. Allah (God) wants us to
be satisfied. But when we are
overcome by Greed, this lust for
wealth or power or food or
drink, it manifests itself in
our conspicuous consumption. It
manifests itself in our
directing our Will to destroy
those who stand in the way of
our assumption of Power. It
leads to obesity, where one
destroys one's health because of
one's Greed; or destroys one's
health because of our
uncontrolled urges.
******
When Allah (God)
asks us to become His servants,
He asks us to give Him the best
part of ourselves. What does
Allah (God) ask us for? He asks
us for our Will. What does He
ask us for? He asks us for the
Power of our being.
The Will of
God I - Page 9
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Since He gave it
(Power of our being) to you and
you say, "The Lord giveth and
the Lord taketh away," then
if Allah (God) has given you a
bit of His Own Power (which is
His Will) then He asks you will
you give it back in surrender,
what should our word to Almighty
God be? Of course we should say:
Yes. I submit my Will to do Your
Will." Not by force, but
willingly.
And this is the
meaning of the Arabic word
"Muslim." To be a Muslim is not
some strange thing. To be a
Muslim doesn't mean being
radical or being an extremist or
being a parrot. To be a Muslim
means that you recognize that
your Will that has been given to
you by God, as His Gift to you.
And He is requiring of us,
obedience to His Will;
submitting our Will to His. And
when we do that we are called
Muslim.
And the religion
of obedience to the Will of
Allah (God) is called, in
Arabic, Islam. And so we say to
you, Beloved that every prophet
of Almighty God, was, by the
action of that prophet, a
Muslim, thought he may not have
called himself Muslim as such.
But his act of submitting his
Will and time to do the Will of
Allah (God) is an act of
surrender, that, in Arabic we
say he is Muslim, his religion
is Islam.
So when we are
asked to submit to our Will to
do the Will of God, He takes
that Will and He fashions it. He
makes that individual unto
Himself. So when The Honorable
Elijah Muhammad asked us, "Who
is the Original Man?" He is
gently directing you back to
your original state, since your
original state is to submit.
You came into
this world not knowing anything.
You came into the world pliant,
ready to be taught, to be
shaped, to be guided, to be
developed, to be evolved, to be
nurtured. And so, you submitted
when you came in. Your original
state is one of submission to
Almighty God, Allah. And if you
return to that state, you can
become the Original Man of a New
Dispensation. You can become the
cream of the Planet. For those
who submit to the Will of Allah
(God) rise above all of those
who reject obedience to His
Will. By submitting to the Will
of Allah (God), we can become
the Fathers of a brand new
civilization; a civilization
superior to those who have
rebelled against His Will.
In fact, we can
become that which the Holy
Qur'an calls "Caliphat,"
or, "one who takes the place of
God," God's Vicegerent. We can
become the Supreme Ruler of the
Universe Itself. It starts with
obedience to the Will of Allah
(God). Because of the awesome
power that Man can come into by
obeying Allah (God), he must
learn valuable lessons.
The Will of
God Part I - Page 10
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Brothers and
Sisters, whenever Allah (God)
has chosen a People, He chooses
them for Eminence. He chooses
them for Greatness. He chooses
them for Exaltation, but he
requires of them obedience to
His Will.
If we submit,
Allah (God) starts exalting us.
There is a requirement --- a
prerequisite, if you will ---
for Exaltation. And Allah (God)
gives us that prerequisite in
the very first verse of the Holy
Qur'an: Al-hamdu
"Lilla-Hi" (The praise belongs
to God). If you submit your
Will to the Will of Allah (God),
The Most High, and He begins to
exalt you, to nurture you into
greater power and creativity and
greater influence, then there
should be in us obedience.
Humility is the
state of mind that each one of
us must be in, in order for
Allah (God) to continue His Plan
of Exaltation for any of us.
And, unfortunately, History
tells us that every time
Almighty God chose a people for
exaltation --- when He gave them
Power, when He gave them Wealth,
when He gave them Influence,
they began to forget Him. They
lost their Humility. Their Will
became corrupt. They became
hypocritical. They began to
speak what was no longer in the
heart. And so, Allah (God)
chastised those people and He
brought other people in their
place.
Dear Listeners,
this was the fate of Israel.
According to the teachings of
the Bible and the Holy
Qur'an, Allah chose Israel
for exaltation. But He wanted
them to submit. He made Israel
above the nations of the Earth.
Allah chose Israel for
exaltation. But He wanted them
to submit. He made Israel above
the nations of the Earth. But
when she got to a certain stage
in her development, she lost her
Humility. She became vile; she
became envious; she became
greedy. She became all of those
things that corrupt and redirect
the Will. So her Will was no
longer the Will of Allah (God);
it became the selfish Will of
Israel, with God's Name added to
that Will. So Allah (God)
punished Israel and made her an
example for us today.
The Prophets and
their magnificent
accomplishments that make them
of regard in this world and
worthy of regard in the
Hereafter, are all due to the
quality and the degree of their
submission of their Will to do
the Will of Almighty God, Allah.
The only reason
that we call the names of Moses,
Abraham, David, Solomon and the
great worthies of Allah (God) is
because they distinguished
themselves by doing a mighty
work. They submitted their Will
to do the Will of God. They are
on the pages of history as an
example for you and me.
The Will of
God Part I - Page 11
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BREAKING THE
WILL
But what about
the breaking of the Will?
Whenever another individual
wants to make you a slave, he
wants to break your Will. He
wants to absolutely interfere
with the faculty of conscious,
deliberate action on your part.
He wants to take control of our
minds over our actions.
This is
terrible, Brothers and Sisters,
but all over the world today,
humanity is enslaved by people
who come in the name of Allah
(God). People who come in the
name of politics, medicine,
religion or science. But their
aim is to make you and me submit
to them as thought they are God
besides Allah. And the knowledge
of no leader, no teacher, no
prophet is absolute. The prophet
only gives you a knowledge of
how to reach the Absolute. The
prophet's knowledge may be
absolute for that time, but it
is not absolute for all time. He
brings you a knowledge that you
can rely upon, but it is a
knowledge that must lead you to
Higher Knowledge, or leads you
to the Absolute. And the
Absolute is Allah (God) Himself.
Why, then, must
you be enslaved to a textbook by
one whose perception of reality
may or may not be proper? One
whose mind may be damaged by one
or more of these damaging
things: Envy, Fear, Greed, Lust,
Anger, the swelling of
Self-Importance? This kind of
thing, that comes out of the
textbooks of learned men, can
corrupt our Knowledge if we take
our doctors of law and our monks
for lords besides Allah (God).
No, no, no! Their knowledge is
not perfect.
We must not take
imperfect men or textbooks as
the Absolute and build our
complete world on that which is
an assumption or theory that has
yet to be proved true. Only
Allah (God) knows how to direct
the Light which He has given,
for He alone is the Light-Giver.
When we submit ourselves to
these 'Johnny-come-lately(s)'
and become slaves to preachers
or teachers who come in the name
of Allah (God), or in the name
of science or education, then we
put ourselves under the control
of a mind that is lesser. We
become, in the words of a movie,
"The Children of a Lesser God."
Why should we be the children of
a lesser god, when we can be the
children of the One True God?
Every day that
we live there is someone trying
to break our Will. In fact Black
brothers and sisters, that is
what made us slaves. Our Will
was broken; our ability to
control our own minds was
broken. Somebody wanted mastery
over our thought processes and
over all of our actions.
Somebody wanted to make us a
slave. And I respectfully say to
you, that in making us a slave,
white people, who are the
descendents of the
slave-masters, have made
themselves slaves.
The Will of
God I - Page 12
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Now they are
slaves to their own material
world. Slaves to the Lust for
Power. Slaves to Greed. Slaves
to their own Self-Importance.
Look at all of these slaves that
are in the world. So many of us
who come today in the name of
Jesus, in the name of Muhammad,
we come to redeem and to free a
world of slaves. Some know that
they are slaves and some know
not. Many Black people under the
sound of our voice think that
they are free. How foolish could
we be? You are not physically
enslaved to Caucasian people,
but you are enslaved to false
ideas and concepts espoused by
those who know how to trick and
deceive the mind and fill you
with false delusion; breaking
your Will.
Today, there are
people who are fat --- just
plain fat. Fat for what? You eat
too much. What do you want to do
about it? "Oh, God, I'm so
fat...I'll go to my doctor,
maybe he will give me a pill." A
pill?! A pill to do what? A
chemical? To slow down your Lust
for food? Or, "Maybe I will go
into surgery and he will put a
balloon in my stomach or clip my
stomach." Clip your stomach?!
Oh, Brothers and Sisters, what
fools we have become. We are
relying on surgery, when the
very thing we have to clip our
stomach --- the very thing that
we should be developing that
will give us Power over our
actions, is our Will.
But your Will
has been broken. Your Will is
destroyed, so the Power of Allah
(God) in you is almost
non-existent. You are, in fact,
slaves. Oh, Brothers and
Sisters, your knowledge is
undermined and your Faith in God
and Faith in Self is broken. How
many preachers I hear on Sunday
morning talking about Faith in
God.
This is the only
way it is with politics. These
politicians are the weakest of
leaders. One should never put a
vote of confidence in a
politician, because he is like a
leaf which blows whichever way
the wind is blowing. How can we
put our hand in such leaders'
hands? Politicians, it is
corruption of your Will, the
breaking of your Will and the
making of yourselves a slave.
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