1975-November-28

Muhammad Speaks

Overcoming The Gravity Of Materialism

W.D. Muhammad

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1. The mutual rivalry
For piling up (the good things
 Of this world) diverts you
(From the more serious things),

2. Until ye visit the graves.

3. But nay, ye soon shall .   
Know (the reality).

4. Again, ye soon shall know!

5. Nay, were ye to know
With certainty of mind,             
(Ye would beware !)

6. Ye shall certainly see
Hell-fire!

7. Again, ye shall see it
With certainty of sight !          

8. Then, shall ye be
Questioned that Day
About the joy      
(Ye indulged in)!

HOLY QURAN Translation by Yusuf Ali; Sura CII: Verses I -8
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In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful; Peace and Blessings upon His Servant and His Messenger, Muhammad, forever. Amen.

There is no god but Allah; Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.

As -Salaam –Alaikum

Prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullah (peace of Allah be upon Him) said that the five pillars of Islam are like the four corners of a tent with a center pole. The "center pole" is the first pillar of Islam which is the belief in One God, alone.

If the four corners of the tent all fall down, we will not lose the tent as long as we keep the center pole in position. In fact, the height of the tent will not drop a fraction of an inch even if all four corners fall down. But if the center pole falls down, the tent will drop because the center pole gives elevation to the tent. The other four corners are only holding the tent in its proper form so that we can enjoy freedom of movement under this roof of protection.

The Nature Of Human Life

We do not want to just have a tent, we want to have movement under our tent. As one person, we can have some degree of movement and existence as long as the center pole of the tent is in position. But the nature of human life demands that we move out and that we seek agreement with that (creation) that is one with us. Because our brother and our sister is one with us, we want to pray, to acknowledge, and to glorify the main structure (support) of the tent in unity and agreement with them. Congregational or community prayer is the established form of prayer in Islam.

Prayer enables the society to move in the natural path towards God. We acknowledge God, not by standing still, but by moving. In order for the society to move, you have to get together with your brother and your sister and pray.

Advance The Human Society

If there is more than one person under your tent, you need room in which to move around. So you take one corner of the tent, move out from the center post, and stake the corner in the ground. Right away, with just one corner staked in the ground, you get increased faith because now you have at least enough space in one corner for limited activity.

A person with no means of existence will pray without even being told to pray. If he does not think that his prayer has been answered by God, he will start praying to anybody when he gets into enough trouble. The natural act of praying in the human being should be advanced in order to advance human society. Nothing in creation should remain undeveloped. We should seek to refine and to complete that which is natural in us.

Expand The Material Life

Charity (Zakat), which is the second corner of our tent, requires extended movement on the part of the man or the woman in Islam. A person who just prays does not need to move out as much as a person who prays and who also gives charity. Because of the need for more movement under the tent, you make more room by staking the second corner in the ground. Now half of the tent is available to you as an area of movement.

Even if a family or a local community prays together, they have to move out into the area of human activity if they are going to be charitable. They establish various jobs and they dig into the earth to bring out the earth's material wealth. Then the material life is made a little more comfortable and a little easier for the movement of the brothers and sisters in the community.

Charity Precedes Fasting

The third corner of the tent to be staked in the ground is fasting. Why does fasting come after charity? If you can give charity, it means that you have more material wealth than is necessary for your survival. After you have established or acquired the basic necessities of life (food, clothes, shelter), you are able to perform the duty of charity. If a man is materially poor but spiritually wealthy or humanly wealthy, we know that he can still give of what he has of spiritual wealth or human wealth.

Before you can fast you have to be able to give charity. You cannot tell a starving man or woman to fast. When you are fasting you feel the pangs of hunger and want because the body wants something that is being lost in it. Fasting has to come after charity because you have to be able to give something before you can sacrifice something.

Universal Movement

When the fourth corner of your tent is staked in the ground, your structure is now erect and complete and ready to give you the broadest freedom of movement that you can achieve under its shelter. The corner of completion is the fifth pillar of Islam called "Hajj," or pilgrimage to Mecca. After you have moved from belief in Allah, to prayer, to charity, and to fasting — you are now ready to move on to Hajj which demonstrate universal faith and principles moving naturally with the human need 'to embrace the whole creation as home.

Islam: The Saving  Force

In Islam we acknowledge the One True God, we pray, we give charity, we fast, and we make Hajj so that we can continue to grow in the natural movement towards oneness and peace with God. Islam is structured with the greatest of wisdom to be the saving -force in human life.

Some people will achieve a thing and then move on to invest in something else without first protecting or preparing for the survival of the first thing they achieved. Fasting is an effort to preserve charity and charity is an effort to preserve prayer. The danger in growth is that you might jeopardize the preservation of what you have already achieved when you step out to expand your growth. In Islam we work scientifically so that we can increase our growth and fortify our growth without jeopardizing what we have already gained.

Agreement With Allah

We start with the belief in the One God, alone, but we move on out to prayer to strengthen that belief. Prayer works to secure and to preserve faith in Allah. Charity works to secure and to preserve prayer because the Muslim demonstrates the commitment stated in prayer to the brothers and sisters of his community. Even if the Muslim has the opportunity to acquire an abundance of physical wealth, he remembers his commitment to the structure under which he lives (Islam) and upon which he depends for his survival.

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1. Have We not
Expanded thee thy breast ?

2. And removed from then
Thy burden

3. The which did gall
Thy back ?

4. And raised high the esteem
(In which) thou (art held)?

5. So, verily,
With every difficulty,
There is relief :

6. Verily, with every difficulty
There is relief.

7. Therefore, when thou art
Free (from thine immediate task),
Still labour hard,

8. And to thy Lord
Turn (all) thy attention.

HOLY QURAN Translation by Yusuf Ali; Sura XCIV, Verses 1 -8
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The Believer in Islam gives his excess material wealth in charity and, in giving
it, he brings about agreement between himself and Allah. This agreement makes the Believer feel more comfortable because he has done what Allah wants him to do. His conscience no longer bothers him and he feels closer to Allah because he has obeyed Allah.

Growth From Prayer To Charity

In fulfilling the act of charity, he is now more inclined to pray and he is more mindful of the need to pray. The person who forgets the importance of praying is a person who is drifting away from Allah. Charity acts to bring him back to Allah by making him do something of good for his fellowman. Although the best route to Allah is the route which comes straight to Him, you can also get to Him by going to your brother and your sister because He has tied you all together with your brother and your sister. When you fulfill your duty in Islam, you are going to feel that you are more presentable to "come home" to God.

A disobedient child who loves his parents but who has broken the rules of his parents does not want to come back home and see the parents until he has done something to make up for breaking the rules. After you spend some charity, you then can come home and pray because you feel that you have done what Allah wants you to do. Now you have moved from prayer to charity and, in establishing charity, you are now in a position to fast.

Fasting Is For Allah

The Holy Quran says that fasting is for Allah. Fasting is not something between you and the society, fasting is more an exercise against natural urges.

The human flesh form is kind of delicate and fragile. But we know that the more delicate the message to be transmitted, the more delicate the instrument has to be to carry that message. The finest strings on musical instruments carry the finest notes. The human body is made by God to be a refined receiving instrument, not to be a body strong in material strength. God was looking for a receiver that would not boast in its strength, but a receiver that would take pride in its strength, but a receiver that would take pride in its ability to replay (echo) His fine music. The receiver that Allah creates is the inner being, the inner person, the caliph, or the ruler inside the world that we call the body. Allah creates that being, not to stay still, but to grow.

The Muscles Of Human Life

The act of fasting helps the inner being to grow because it helps you to overcome the natural gravity that acts to keep you from growing. The same natural gravity that pulled against you when you tried to get up from crawling to walk is the same gravity that pulls against your human growth. That gravity is the gravity of your material needs or the desire to increase your material weight.

In order to overcome this pull of gravity, you have to sacrifice your material weight by fasting. In sacrificing your material weight, you strengthen the muscles of human life that are trying to grow in your material body. Every time you are able to push back the desire for the material, those muscles get stronger and stronger.

Corrupting God's Plan

Brothers and Sisters, Almighty God has created you only that you may grow. If you retard or change the natural growth that He has intended for you, you are corrupting His divine plan and you are failing to achieve the whole purpose for which He created you. You cannot achieve the growth and the purpose that God intends for you unless you learn to grow under the structure of human life established in the five pillars (principles) of Islam.

Thank you for honoring us with your time to read these few words.

Your Brother,
W.D. Muhammad

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The Wisdom Of W.D. Muhammad

The Book says that Satan the devil was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. Satan is never out in the open — he is the one who sits behind the scene and makes his false prophets. Satan became so skilled in his works that he made something to represent him in his absence: he grafted the Trinitarian Doctrine, which is the living image of the chief devil.

Allah is God, the Supreme Being, the Creator. He created the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, and everything in the universe. He has created them but He is creating us because we are not yet finished.

Everything that you live under as a rule of life in this world of artificial humanism is either a direct tool to enslave and destroy the natural cultivation of the human life within you or it has become an indirect tool for the destruction of your being.

The Book says that God made man to be the ruler in the earth. He gave the man dominion over the land and the sea. But no matter how well developed your flesh and blood body may be, you cannot rule creation without a well - developed mind.

Almighty God knew the plan of Satan before Satan conceived the plan himself. He permitted Satan to come up with his scheme to challenge Him and His Righteous Way so that in the battle between religious lies and religious Truth, God will be proven to be God with power over all things.

The leaders of the Christian mentality have worked hard to keep the people of the world ignorant. They do not want you to come into scientific knowledge because if your mind becomes scientific, you will use the senses of your brain to reason with the knowledge they have tried to force in your mind.