1977-November-18

Bilalian News

Fear Of God

Imam W. D. Muhammad

With the Name Allah (In the Name of God), the Gracious, the Compassionate. As-Salaam-Alaikum

We are all creatures of fear, and that fear should develop into a healthy and sacred reverence for God. Once we come into that kind of fearful, faithful reverence of fearing to displease or to shame ourselves before our Creator, we have saved ourselves from all the shackles of fear. The Holy Quran says, "There is no fear for them, nor shall they be made to grieve."

It is said of our nature that fear operates in the human being to advance human intelligence and human development. The man or baby that learns fear, learns to trust its superiors. The baby fears that it cannot manage itself in this world so it trusts momma and daddy, big brother and big sister. God puts fear there as a safety check on that baby, and that baby learns to trust its superiors In trusting its superiors, the baby learns the strength of its superiors. In time it gets knowledge and it gets muscles and becomes as strong or stronger than its superiors. God has put fear in the baby that develops into faith and trust. This force in human nature interlocking with hunger, affections, and curiosity drives onward to increased social excellence. The human being is an evolving creature. This transitory world is as a womb in which humans are either formed or deformed till the last heartbeat. When God makes you flesh and blood, He has not stopped creating you. Once you pass out of this world, social evolution of this nature rests.

God says of the inner nature that we should be creatures of fear. Not the fear that we may lose an arm, but the fear that we may lose our human make-up, or lose our dignified nature. This great moral, rational, and spiritual nature is really what we should fear to lose. We should fear to shame ourselves before the Creator. All forms of suicide in Al-lslam is of the worse sin.

Submit your weaknesses and your strengths to Allah and ask Him to help you to justly and wisely use the means and materials given to you. Ask God to help you to be an asset to Society, to the world and to yourself. Ask God to help you to improve upon yourself day by day until you pass out of this world The Holy Quran says that "he certainly succeeds who cultivates his soul." Who strives unselfishly to keep his soul clean (blame free) and developing to greater excellence, can but prosper. God says in the Holy Quran that "the foam is thrown out upon the bare shore. The water, clean and pure, remains. Likewise in the metals that man melts to form instruments, the dross is thrown away, but the pure metal is saved." Here God is giving us a parable of two expressions of human life. One is expressed in the moral make-up and the other in the rational, industrial or economic life. Man expresses himself both materially and spiritually. God is telling us that we have to watch over the human development. Don't let the water stand still—keep active. Keep busy like the waves in the sea or in the lakes. When there is filth in the water, the waves churn and turn to kick the filth out. The dead and filthy are cast out onto the bare shore.

God is telling us that if we want to be successful, watch over both the spiritual and the material state of life. Do not be immoral in business or in designing or constructing our towns and cities. When you build your government, don't do it with corrupt ideas or with wicked intentions Design it with the fear of God so that it will serve the total needs and please Allah. Allah is telling us not to separate the life of the Church from the government, or the religious aspirations from financial life. The Church is not the only thing you live in. You have to live in the vital departments of the human world. In Al-lslam, Allah says that the Earth is His Mosque (house of worship). If the Earth is Allah's Masjid, we should be shamed to commit sin anywhere on the Earth. That is what Allah is telling us! We are never out of His Masjid, nor are we ever out of His presence. Fear to do wrong anywhere. Make your principal drive the desire to please the forgiving and merciful Creator, Allah. Throw the impurities out of your life wherever they exist — whether they exist in the spiritual or in the material.

Yours in service,
Wallace D. Muhammad