1977-February-18

Bilalian News

The Message in Creation

Imam W. D. Muhammad

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20. On the earth
Are Signs for those
Of assured Faith,

21. As also in your own
Selves: will ye not
Then see?

Holy Quran Translation by Yusuf Ali; Sura LI: Verses 20 & 21
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In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful; Peace and Blessings upon His Servant and Hi s Messenger, Muhammad, forever. Amen.

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

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The message that we are teaching in the World Community of Islam in the West is not something that only has a base in dreams, prophesy, inspiration or spiritual experience. What we are teaching has its roots in the creation itself. The Holy Quran says that in the skies and in the earth and in yourself are signs ("ayats") or divine revelations. If you have the blessing of divine vision or knowledge to read the message of Almighty God in the sun, the moon, the stars, the wind, the water, the air, the fire in human beings and in everything that forms creation — you can get revelation directly from creation.

The Message Of Nature

Originally, Almighty God did not speak to prophets by inspiration. God only raised prophets because and after the natural truth had become distorted, corrupted and taken out of order. If someone changes your ability to relate to nature and to the world by giving you a false mind an unnatural nature, nature cannot speak to you with the message of Almighty God. Then God has to bless a prophet or a messenger with revelation. He ha s to inspire him to see that things have been corrupted, that language has been changed, and that ideas have been made false so the human beings cannot see with their minds what nature has to offer them for their vision. Because prophets came to restore the natural order of language and ideas, they are called "restorers," But the truth was first spoken by the Creator Who made the sun, the moon, and the stars and everything that is in existence.

Spread The News

The Holy Quran says that you should spread the news about the blessings or the rewards that you have received from your Lord. Many sincere people receive great blessings from Almighty God but they feel that they should not tell everybody since God gave it to them. They do not want people to think that they are boasting or that they want to show off what God has given them. That is the wrong attitude. When Allah blesses you with something, He is not rewarding you as an individual. Allah is not a selfish, individualistic God or a God that gives something to only one person. The only reason He trusts you with a special blessing is because He thinks that you are good enough to share it with somebody. He does not give us much because some of us are too selfish to share our blessings with others. We want to keep them all to ourselves so that we will be the only one with them. There are other people who feel that it would be showing off if they tell about their reward. Blessings and rewards are not to be shown off, nor are they to be held — they are to be shared with everybody.

If Allah blesses you with something that you know is good for you, do not keep it to yourself. Tell your Brothers and Sisters that Allah has blessed you with a reward. Tell them that you received it because you kept your faith in Allah. If we do this, Allah will give us more blessings because we give them out to others and we tell the news. In telling the news, we strengthen someone who does not see any sign that God is blessing the righteous. There are a lot of people who are just waiting for something good to happen because they do not see anything happening in their lives to give them any faith. If all of us would keep-quiet when we are blessed by Allah, the society would be faithless.

Almighty God has blessed me and rewarded my efforts with many, many blessings and I am going to talk about the rewards. Do not keep your blessings a secret. Spread the news and tell people how you were rewarded by God so that they will also benefit. Those who have no courage and no faith will then have courage and faith.

God Sends Down Revelation

We have heard in religion that God reveals things and that these things "come down" from God to us. The word "reveal" in many places in the Holy Quran means "to send down." In some places the Holy Quran says that God “revealed” the Book (the revelation)." In other places, using the same Arabic word which translates as "revealed/" it says that God "revealed (sent down) the rain," that God "revealed (sent down) the spirit," or that God "revealed (sent down) the iron" for man. We know that God did not rain down iron from the sky for man.

When the Holy Quran says that God "sent down" the iron, it means the same thing as when it says that He sent down the spirit or that He sent down the revelation (the Book). It does not mean that these things came down physically, but that they or the knowledge of their use came from a higher plane of wisdom, knowledge and understanding. Because they came from a higher and a purer moral and intellectual plane, we say that they "came down" to man* The spirit does not drop out of the sky, the spirit begins working right in you. When you become aware of your limitations and of your inferiority, you humble yourself to the greatness of the spirit that you see manifesting itself in you. You see your worth in relationship to that which has been revealed before your eyes as a relationship of a low thing to a high thing.

God Sent Down Iron

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25. We sent aforetime
Our apostles with Clear Sign
And sent down with them
The Book and the Balance
(Of right and Wrong). that men
May stand forth in justice;
And We sent down Iron,
In which is (material for)
Mighty war, as well as
Many benefits for mankind,
That God may test who
It is that will help.

Holy Quran Translation by Yusuf Ali; Sura LVII: Verses 25
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In the above verse the Holy Qu ran says that we sent down the iron, in which is material for wai as well as for the benefit of man. The Holy Quran is a divinely co nst ru c ted Book , so it has knowledge in it for the ignorant and for the wise. Some people are su ignorant that you cannot show them wisdom. Their ignorance or their love of ignorance is so powerful that you cannot reach them with knowledge. The Holy Quran has answers for that kind of person too.

We know that God did not send down iron from the sky, man discovered iron in the earth. When we look at the nature of iron, we see that fire has to burn the ore to make iron. Fire certainly comes out of the earth, but the source of fire is the sun. So we can prove to a dogmatic, material - minded scientist that Allah still brought down the iron. Although man had the iron ore, he still needed the solar fire to manifest the iron hidden in the ore. When volcanoes erupted with fire, molter lava rolled down the sides of the mountain and man found iron when the lava cooled. When lightning flashed in the forest and set trees afire, men came along after the fire had burned out and found iron. The fires of nature have naturally formed iron for man out of iron ore. When the Quran says that God "sent down" the iron, it means that man did not come here with the knowledge of how to bring iron out of the iron ore with fire. God had to te ach man that knowledge by "sending it down" from on high. When you are ignorant, knowledge comes to you and raises you up to a higher plane of existence. God tells us that no matter what we have of value (wisdom, knowledge, and understanding), it "came down" to us because every human being is born ignorant.

A Revelation On The Heart

In Islam, revelation is real. It is not a spooky thing that happens in the sky. The Holy Quran says that God descended revelation down on Prophet Muhammad (may Allah be pleased with him) by revealing the message on his heart. When God inspires a man, He reveals a message on the man's heart. This tells us that we should not think that the prophet was sitting somewhere in seclusion and that out of nowhere he heard a voice speak to him. To clear up this kind of wrong thinking that has existed among the people, the Holy Quran says that God revealed the message on the prophet's heart. The heart does not have a language, it has feelings, it is sensitive, it is sentimental, and it responds to moral issues.

God touches the man by giving him a sensitive heart that responds rightly to moral issues and to human needs. Because of this, his nature is turned around and his moral fabric is made right. Once his moral fabric is made right, his thinking becomes clear. Because of this, the man begins to grow into a better moral being and into a better spi ritual being. When his inner parts are more refined, they can receive the proper light (the proper messages) in the proper proportions from the natural creation. Then he can read the Book (creation) and see (understand). God sends His message to the prophets by cleaning up their hearts so that they are able to see the truth that others cannot see.

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

Your brother, W. D. Muhammad