1981-January-30

Bilalian News

“As The Light Shineth From The East”

Imam W. Deen Muhammad

(Editor's note: Imam Warith Deen Muhammad's publication, "As The Light Shineth From The East:" has received massive acclaim throughout the country. In that the response has been so universally overwhelming, Bilalian News takes this opportunity to provide its reading public with brief glimpses of this historical work. We not only recommend that everyone purchase a personal copy, but additional copies for friends and relatives as well)

Natural Anatomy Of Community Life

Today, I'm exceedingly happy, pleased and proud of you, and of our work. 1 think whatever doubts are being whispered around are all dispelled today. Some of us make our judgment before we see the full product. We started out like the rising sun three years ago, February 26, 1975. Our great inspiration, our hero, our courageous leader, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad had passed away, but we did not give up. We refused to pass away with him; we knew that somebody had to stay around here and keep the work going.

Our light began to rise — you know the sun comes up and goes down everyday — and men, great leaders are rising and falling every century. But all praises are due to Almighty God, if it is His work. He will preserve it. Almighty God enabled us to rise and when many saw our light, they said, this is not the light of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. They said “Wallace is changing everything.''

1 wouldn't let that cause me to sit down and weep. I stayed on the job because I knew that in a few years, those doubters, those people who were trying to describe what was being born before it was delivered would realize one day in the future that their judgments were wrong-they weren't seeing the whole thing.

We have been working for better than three years, and Allah is blessing us now to show the full form of what we were working on. Dear beloved people, there are bright prospects for a people choosing to grow in the natural anatomy of community life. The twin fountains of life are the forces in one life—not two. And if we understand these twin forces as being forces belonging to one life, we can get the balance that Prophet Muhammad came to give us and other prophets were sent to inspire us on toward.

The balance is between the religious life and the material existence. The anatomy of society should be the anatomy of the human being. By that I mean in the anatomy of the human being you have bones structured well, you have muscles and you have skin covering the body; you have a head on top of the structure.

You have a heart in the center, and that heart is pumping blood throughout the whole body. And you have the organs for discharging or releasing the waste in the base of the body. And you have two legs supporting the structure, carrying it, and you have the arms to deal with the work of the day. You have the vision before you and the ears divinely placed to catch the sound in the front, on the sides, behind and all around.

God has built a great edifice in the human structure, and we should take the advice of scripture, and pay some attention to God's handiwork in those things that operate between the skies and earth.

If we take heed of His hints in His creation, the hints that are in His designs, I'm sure that we will get a sign to uplift humanity much greater than any the world has seen yet.

Nature Over Form

In the clear focus that religion provides for us we see the importance of nature over form. Many people in religion read the allegorical or symbolic language of scripture and they can't see beneath the surface to read the real message that is in the symbolism or the allegorism. They come to the conclusion that religion is telling us how the sun was put in the sky, how the moon was put in the sky, how the stars were put in the sky, how fish were put in the water, and how trees and other life sprung up from the physical earth.

But actually, God is saying to us with scripture — and the great prophets made this knowledge available to us — that the world without is only a sign and a signal that He has made to direct you and your growth. As He has placed the sun that rises up from the horizon at dawn breaking the night and giving day, He has also placed a sun in your nature and in your structure — the light of intelligence. You fall asleep and darkness comes over you at night, but you awake because He has designed you that way. You awake and open your eyes, and the light of intelligence begins to operate; it operates until you get tired, it begins to set and you lie down and sleep again.

These lights are descriptive of the kinds of leaders we have on this earth. Some are like the sun. They rise and they cause a lot of activity. They make the little birds jump up out of their nests. They bring the animals out chirping and making a lot of noise. They give warmth like the sun does, and show us all the physical objects. But then there are some that are like the moon; they seem to be lesser in light, but their light penetrates the darkness that the sun has left on us.

And then we have some that are like the stars. They're very far away, and they seem small to us, but in reality, most of the stars that we think to be small are bigger than our moon, bigger than our earth, and many of them bigger than our sun.

We have people like that who are so far away from the foolishness we're involved in that we think them to be very small, but in reality they are bigger than the things that we are idolizing and admiring. Almighty God, He is the One that created us, and Almighty God is the One to inspire us; and Almighty God is the One to reveal the hidden secrets of the world and of our own life. That has been done by Almighty God through His great prophets, from Abraham to Muhammad.

Genesis tells us of the beginning of creation in these words: In the beginning the earth was without form and void; and darkness covered the deep; and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said, let there be light, and there was light. And He hung a great light in the heavens to rule the day, and a lesser light to rule the night. And He hung the stars also.

Now, let's look at the Quran to see how the Quran treats the same subject; to see how Almighty God revealed to a later prophet that was to complete the message of religion for the total development of the individual in society. It reads:

"Read in the Name of your Guardian, Evolver and Sustainer who created the human being from a lot of blood "

Here we are getting the same message. But it is brought to us clear. The light is coming on to stay. God says: Read, and your Lord is most bountiful who taught the man, the human being, the use of the pen. So, here Almighty God has revealed to Prophet Muhammad the real meaning of the Genesis; the growth of intelligence is the answer to the riddles, the rising of the sun, the hanging of a moon and the placing of stars in the heavens. As a result, fish come in the water, life grows ah" over the land, people begin to populate — God is telling us that in order for us to have a healthy, beautiful, full life on earth we must have intelligent life first. So, the Holy Quran doesn't leave us in doubt.