1977-March-4

Bilalian News

World Community of Islam in the West: Purpose, Aim, and Goal

Imam W. D. Muhammad

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1. In the name of god, Most Gracious
Most Merciful,

2. Praise be to God
The Cherisher and Sustainer of
the Worlds;

3. Most Gracious, Most Merciful;

4. Master of the Day of Judgment.

5. Thee do we worship,
And Thine aid we seek.

6. Show us the straight way,

7. The way of those on whom
Thou hast bestowed Thy Grace,
Those whose (portion)
Is not wrath,
And who go not astray.

Holy Quran translation by Yusuf Ali: Sura 1; Verse 1 – 7
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In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful; Peace and Blessings upon His Servant and Messenger, Muhammad, forever. Amen.

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

As - Salaam Alaikum

My Dear Brothers and Sisters:
In this article. I will be speaking to you on the purpose, the aim, and the goal in this community called the World Community of Islam in the West.

Let us begin with the term "purpose." Our purpose is the revival and the restoration, of pure Islam. When we speak of reviving Islam, we are referring to the kind of teachings or the kind of preachings that were done by many, many Muslims since the days of Prophet Muhammad of Arabia to bring the Muslim community back to the everyday practical teachings in Islam.

In America, our community began with the teachings of "Master Fard Muhammad." When we say "Master" we mean "teacher." In Europe, we find that heads of departments of education or schoolteachers are still called schoolmaster today. It is important in Islam to understand the difference between the title teacher and the title reverend. In my contact with a Christian teacher who was one of the first to be called "pastor." he brought my attention to the difference between the title reverend and the title pastor. He said he preferred to be called pastor. Reverend puts stress on the requirement or the need to respect or to revere the person wearing that title. Using the term teacher suggests the giving of knowledge to others and knowledge dignifies those who truly possess it.

Reverse Psychology

The Honorable Master Fard Muhammad in his own symbolic way, using symbolic and mystical teachings, added the teachings of black nationalism to the teachings of the genesis of creation or the teachings on the original man (the birth of Adam). With it he put "black" on the original man and took "white" off of the original man, making the original man black and making the Caucasian so - called white man not original. He reversed the psychology and with it he brought us to practice Islam in our lives. We began practicing the habit of shunning pork, refusing any alcoholic beverages, not accepting to smoke cigarettes or to use tobacco and wearing decent clothes — the men dressing decently and the women dressing decently as it is the practice in Islam. This decent dress and Islamic mentality served to revive Islam in the West. But this revival was a revival in mental discipline, moral discipline and physical discipline. It did not concern itself too much with spiritual revival or spiritual discipline.

Instead of beginning as Prophet Muhammad (may the peace and blessings of Allah forever be upon him) began by calling the people's attention to the reality that there is one God and that that God is Creator and all else is creation, Master Fard Muhammad overlooked the importance of that and put his stress on material discipline (physical discipline). He stressed the dignifying of the mind by rejecting false ideas or beliefs that worked inferiority in our minds. Instead of bringing the pure oneness of God separated from creation and matter, be brought us the Christian concept of God — the "God" in man having a father before him who was "God" and who was born as a Saviour for the salvation of the so-called Negro, as we were called at that time.

Allah: The Definite God

Revival in this new day or the Second Resurrection goes back to the pure teachings of Islam to correct the total life of this community of America and we hope the world. These practical teachings began first with the rational and practical belief that God is One, God is Most High. In fact there is no perfect translation of the term or expression "Allah" into English. We say God, but actually Allah means a definite God, whereas the term God can be applied generally. When we speak of the God of the Christians, we are speaking of the God of the Jews and the God of the Muslims because that God is the Creator of everything. But if we speak of the "God" of some other religious societies, we might be speaking of a "God" that is limited and who is not the Creator of all things. So to get around the problem of addressing a limited "God," Muslims use the ancient word "Allah." The word that we find in the ancient history of the Meccans is the word for God in the Quran. Allah means Most High, and Almighty Power. We should understand as Muslims that we mean the Creator, the Master, and the Ruler of all things.

Purifying The Teachings

Our revival preserves all of the good achievements of the First Resurrection while purifying the teachings. In purifying the teachings, we mean getting rid of those things that were of a temporary nature. We also mean getting rid of those things that were just meanings, but had no reality that would allow them to continue forever. What were some of these things? One was the belief that the physical blackness of the physical black man made him superior. That was one of the things that had to be corrected. Another was the belief that the Caucasian race is physically a grafted race. The fact is, when we understand the teachings of Master Fard Muhammad, that only the mentality is the grafted germ in the Caucasian race.

Their physical bodies are a product of the physical environment or creation just as every physical object or every physical thing is a part of this physical universe. Their physical bodies came about naturally just as this physical universe came about naturally, but it is the mind that can be grafted. In grafting the mind, we create a grafted mentality in the person who accepts to be grafted. With a grafted mentality, in time the person's habits will form in him a nature (a natural disposition and natural attitudes) that will be the nature of grafted. So we refer to that nature as a grafted nature in those possessing a grafted mentality or a grafted mind. When we understand the new language of the new resurrection or the Second Resurrection (the new world of Islam), then we understand the secret teachings and really the powerful teachings in terms of wisdom that was given to us by Master Fard Muhammad.

The First Revival

Brothers and Sisters, the teachings of Master Fard Muhammad accomplished the revitalizing of Islam and the revival of Islam in our physical life — a revival that manifested in the eating of proper foods, the wearing of proper dress, and the speaking of Islamic language. I do not mean the Arabic language, I mean giving the greetings of the prophets of "As - Salaam - Alaikum" and returning it "Wa- Alaikum -As- Salaam." Also, I mean saying the prayer, "In the Name of Allah the Beneficent, the Merciful," and identifying with righteous people, living a daily life as a Muslim, taking baths once per day, keeping our tongues clean, refusing to use vulgar language in our life, showing that we are clean and upright at home and abroad, carrying ourselves as dignified men and women, giving our lives to righteousness and resisting wickedness, lies, falsehood and filth. This is the manifestation of the First Resurrection and it was and is the first revival.

The Militancy Of Righteousness

In the term "restoration," revival takes a higher step or a new gear. By restoration we mean an increase in our knowledge that brings clear understanding into our lives as Muslims. This increase in knowledge should make us uniform and complete in ourselves. We should not have conflicts within ourselves, we should have peace instead of conflict — a peace of mind, a peaceful spirit, and a relaxed life rather than a rigid militant life that is hard on the mind and hard on the spirit. We are not saying that we should drop militancy. We should remain militant, but we should be militant in a healthy and comfortable way. We should have a militancy that is dictated by the rule of God, a militancy that means obedience to Allah's laws. The best soldier is the Muslim soldier who resists the drink and who resists the temptation to rob his brother, his sister, his neighbor, a citizen of his country, a stranger, or a foreigner. He resists that temptation while obeying the dictates of Almighty God. That is the militancy of Muslims and the militancy of righteousness.

The Root Knowledge

By restoration, we mean getting back in touch again with the root knowledge. Our former teacher (the Honorable Master Elijah Muhammad) said, "I am trying to get you to the roots of these things." Well, now we are getting to the roots of those things and it requires that you be stronger and that you accept drastic changes in your life. To plant a thing root, trunk, and branch, we have to dig deep. We have to break up the earth and then put the plant in the ground and restore the earth to its place again. The earth will not look the same as it did before we dug it up, but we will have a tree there. By "tree" I mean a new community — a community that is not just an emotional community subject to be blown away by the winds of trial or the winds of political and social change, but a real stable community that has its roots in reality. That is what I mean by having the roots of the tree in the ground.

Our roots mast be in reality. We must be able to support, defend and establish our knowledge under any test. If it is the test of science, we must be able to keep our position stand firm, and not be knocked down or shaken. If it is the test of theology, we must be able to stand the test and not be knocked down by it. Regardless to what kind of test it is, we must stand it. The only way to stand the test is to have our knowledge rooted in reality.

The Power To Originate

By restoration, we mean returning to the original teachings of Bible and Quran. The Quran is original in its language but many people with English translations have translated the teachings out of the original language of Arabic of the Quran. So we have to return to those original teachings and understand the Oneness in Islam not only means One God, but it means One God separate from creation. It does not mean One God in many physical or flesh bodies, but One God separate from creation. His presence does not require your life to support it. You can die and the Presence of God where you are will not be affected in any way. Also, by Oneness in Islam we have to now understand that creation is one, but Allah the Creator is the only One Who has the power to originate things from the beginning. No other creature in creation has the power to originate things from beginning. Only the Originator, Who is God Most High, has the power to originate from the beginning.

The Struggle Of Human Life

Whatever we do or whatever we make, we make it or we do it from God or of God. By that I mean that we use the material that the Originator has given us. To accept the belief that God is One and the creation is one is to accept that you as a physical person are only physical creation just as any other member of any other race. It also means that you are subject to the forces of creation as a physical creation and that you can be reduced to the level of an animal or lower. You can fall in creation to the lowest depths because you are creation. At the same time, oneness in Islam compels us to accept that there is a human life that develops in the physical flesh and that human life desires and straggles for guidance and for a relationship with Creator. In that struggle the human life can reach great heights in creation and become the master of the flesh and the master of the physical environment. Almost 1400 years prior to the Americans reaching the moon, the Holy Quran had told us that man could cross the barriers of the skies (leave the orbit of the world) and go to other orbits and to other bodies in the skies. But to do it, he must have great knowledge and great power. This is the Quran teachings.

Oneness Of Spirit

Dear beloved people, Brother and Sister Muslims, this oneness in Islam also requires purity in our thinking and purity in our actions. Oneness in Islam not only suggests a numerical oneness, a oneness like this object is one separated from another object which is the second, but it also requires a oneness of spirit. By oneness of spirit, we mean that the whole life of the person should be governed and directed by truth. To have one's life completely governed and directed by truth, the person has to submit to truth wherever or whenever he or she finds it. That is, we cannot be hypocrites; we cannot lie and deny reality before us; we cannot live in a society and practice evil against that society because it is not under our religious banner. We must do unto others as we would have done unto ourselves. We must act justly and in accord with the Muslim life. That means that we have to walk peacefully, in dignity, self - composed, not boasting, not walking high and mighty over others. We must be willing at all times to take anyone by the hand and show them the way to the Mosque if they are seeking righteous direction. That means your black brother (if you accept and choose to call yourself "black"), your brown brother, your red brother and even your Caucasian brother.

The Khalifah Of God

We must be able to show this strength because the Muslim is a giant in creation and he accepts the responsibility to pull up falling civilization or falling society. He cannot refuse to help a man simply because that man is not of his race. If he is the crown of creation, he must accept to be the guardian, to be the brother, to be the helper, to be the saviour for everything in creation that needs or requests help from the righteous God. We are slave servants of God and we are too great in our moral makeup and in oar spiritual makeup to carry racial prejudices that are unnatural and that are not in accord with universal truth. We are too great to weigh ourselves down, to bring injustices in oar life, and to bring the charges of wrongdoings against us. We cannot as Muslims pick up the ways of those people who are un -Islamic, or the ways of the oppressors who are inhuman. As Muslims, we must live the Muslim life and accept the great responsibility of serving God and truth for the sake of all creation. That means we must accept to be the khalifah of God.

In the Quran God says, "I am going to put a khalifah in the earth." For what? To lead, but more importantly to follow. The word "khalifah" suggests an obedient follower, one who will come behind. You know from the language of the New Testament that Jesus preaches the idea of khalifah. He said, "I must do the work of my heavenly father." He meant that he must fulfill the role of khalifah. Khalifah is one who comes after or one who comes later. God comes first and establishes His way and His order in the natural creation. When that way and order is threatened, someone must pick up the challenge and restore that way and that order. The one who does that is called khalifah. Khalifah is an Arabic word that has a feminine ending. This feminine ending tells us that it is not the physical flesh and blood man that is to be the khalifah, but it is the spirit, the soul, and the conscience of that man that is to be the khalifah. That conscience, that spirit, that soul, and that mentality is to be embraced, shared and lived by every member of the true society of Muslims. So the khalifah is this World Community of Islam in the West.

Overcome The Defeats Of Slavery

So Dear Brother and Sister Muslims, we see that restoration in Islam goes very deep and it is very broad in its meaning. In the Second Resurrection, we not only move to a new field of development (the field that was prophesied by Master Elijah Muhammad, the field of spiritual or religious development), but we also move to a new plane, a higher plane, and a broader plane for activities and progress. With this our community expands to be involved in improving the conditions in our neighborhood. We work with non - Muslims as well as with Muslims in the mutual good or in those things that we all can embrace and share. We work for the sake of improving the moral strength and the moral decency in the society, and we work for the sake of improving the business strength and the community strength in the community. The community strength is organization. We work to protect the vital structure of the community, to support needed institutions in the neighborhoods and in the community, to support the fire department, to support the hospitals, to support the schools, to support every healthy institution in the community. We go as Muslims, carrying charity abroad after establishing it at home.

The establishments, the institutions, have suffered much in America, they have lost much in America, and they have lost many supporters in America. We have the opportunity now to restore healthy, strong, bright, positive, and hopeful leadership, not only for ourselves, but for America. Almighty God has blessed us to be in the position to receive the great favor of being elevated morally to the leadership of the world. I am asking you all to join me and to work hard as Muslims with this new light, with this new understanding, and with these new tools of knowledge. We must work hard to bring our people from every defeat that slavery left on us to the victories that only Islam can give us.

Ezekiel's Bones

Dear beloved Muslim Brothers and Sisters, in restoring pure Islam we have to follow the guidelines of the Quran. We have to exemplify the life of Prophet Muhammad to whom the Quran was revealed. We have to reflect the Quranic teachings and also reflect the leadership that was established in Prophet Muhammad of Arabia, the one to whom the Quran was revealed. We also have to follow and understand the Mujeddid of this day and time, the new revived mission of Islam in the West, so that we will be guided to the roots of the knowledge that we have. We must come to understand that religious knowledge or revealed knowledge speaks to world knowledge or scientific understanding. We have to understand that the job of Chief Imam W.D. Muhammad is the answer to the Bible saying in Ezekiel "that the bones came together."

Dear beloved Muslim Brothers and Sisters, the coming together of Ezekiel's bones means much, much more than just the restoration of a skeleton (bones). In this mission, the answer to that saying of the bones coming back together is the restoration of natural connections and relationships. Your mind is natural and it is a natural part of the physical world. Your flesh is natural and it is a natural part of the physical world, a servant to your mind and a natural part of your total being. Mind and flesh must be reunited and the healthy dignified relationship between mind and flesh must be restored. Also, it must be understood that human spirit is also a relative of the physical creation. Oar human spirit did not come from a foreign creation or from a world of spooks into oar flesh when we were created or made, but that spirit grew and developed naturally out of the human world that came naturally out of the physical world.

An Abundance Of Blessings

"Goal" in Islam and in this new world mission means direction. What is our direction? What are we trying to reach? We are following the dictates and guidelines of Islam as those dictates and guidelines are established in our Holy Book, the Quran. We are moving along in a focus that takes us naturally but divinely to leadership. The salvation of society and the survival of civilization depends upon establishing and preserving healthy, sound, truthful, and charitable leadership. First, we must establish the freedom to lead. To establish the freedom to lead, we must break all the shackles of slave mentality and slave habits. Much of that has already been done. It was done by the great Masters, Fard Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad (may Allah's peace be upon them and may He be pleased with them).

Secondly, we must gain the knowledge to lead. It is not enough to be morally fit to lead, but we must also have the knowledge to lead. All praise is due to Allah, we have been blessed in this administration through the efforts of your Imam W.D. Muhammad to get in touch with the knowledge that is true enough, solid enough, natural enough and divine enough to provide for us the kind of leadership that will not only stand, but will grow and continue to grow. Our goal in Islam is simply to benefit from all the good things that our Creator, Allah, the Most High has brought into our possession or has given us as our possession. Our goal is not merely to benefit, but to richly benefit. Leadership in Islam means receiving an abundance of blessings from Almighty God. We are not in Islam to just become materially rich or financially rich. If that is the reason we joined Islam, we can leave Islam and go to other societies where there is plenty of money and plenty of material wealth. But if we want salvation, health, peace and a hope in the future when the hope of other societies is threatened, then we should come to Islam.

The Natural Order Of Creation

It is very important to know that "goal" in Islam is evolutionary in nature and in meaning. What do we mean by evolutionary? We mean that the gains (achievements) that we realize and the progress that we realize is a gain that happens over and over again in or along, a certain and definitive pattern. That pattern is in accord with divine guidance as that guidance is reflected in the order of the original nature or in the original creation (earth, sky, wind, water, fire, and the life) that this environment produced. In all of this creation, its order, its movement, and the forms that develop naturally out of the original creation, we see direction. We see a natural law that suggests to us moral growth, moral excellence. mental development, intelligent direction, order, peace and the preservation of health and strength. We see all of this in the natural order of Allah's creation.

So when we say that our goal is to benefit, we mean that it is to benefit in the manner and naturv that was established in creation by Almighty God. We must have Islamic direction that is, we most have God's direction for our five senses. We must have Islamic directions for oar sentiments. As we know, a life born (delivered) from the physical womb of its mother is born with senses in its physical body. We know that by seeing the newborn child expressing its sentiments. We also know that soon, in time, physical development is a natural development out of creation and oar higher developments do not belong to us any more than our first development — the physical flesh or the germ we call semen.

A Divine Community

Allah must be the Guide, the Rule, and the Governor in all of our lives from dust to industry. He must be over flesh, over sentiments, over morality, over knowledge and over conscience that is related to the moral nature of the human society. When we speak of conscience we are speaking of moral disposition or moral attitudes. The result of this will be a peaceful, secured life always offering more room for progress. It will be the development of a community or "umma," An "umma" is not a nation in a political sense, but it is a community that strives and acts to preserve the natural order of the individual and the natural order of society. In that sense it will be a community of people united solidly on the sound, unshakeable principles of Islam. It will have a leadership that it promotes and protects. The leadership will also have relationships with every member in the community, the relationship of brothers and sisters to each other and the relationship of helpers and servants in the community.

Brother and Sister Muslims, by "umma" (which is translated by translators of the Holy Quran to mean "nation"! we mean more than a political nation or a physical nation. We mean  divine community, a community following the guidance of God. That kind of community is a nation on a higher plane, a nation in much broader sense. It is not only our duty to execute judgment on our subjects, to give direction and to regulate the life and the activities of the members of oar community — it is also our duty as members of an umma (a community following God's guidance) to share what we have to bring about relief in the community to those who cannot find relief by themselves. In fact, the mind in Islam is never a mind that should think of itself or of its members (brothers and sisters) as being individualists or isolated islands to themselves responsible only for themselves.

Establish Right Leadership

The community is responsible and the leadership is the voice of that community and the will of that community. As a religious community and as an umma, we are different from a political nation. We serve our leader as long as that leader is following the guidance of God. We do not become dissatisfied with that leader or dethrone him because we are not realizing the amount of "chicken in the pot" that we realized under the former administration. But as long as there is plenty of moral excellence in the pot and truthful guidance in the pot. we follow our leader. If our leader should become unfit, or if be should fall and pass away from us, we as an umma (a community on a higher plane than a political nation) must select one from our community and put him immediately into the position of leadership. God has charged us to follow, to recognize, to cultivate, and to establish right leadership.

The result of this will not only be spiritual blessings and moral blessings, but this is the divine way of pointing us towards the greatest successes in all areas of human life. It will mean for us greater material strength and greater material progress. It wll mean for us equality and equal dignity as a people with other races and other people. It will mean for us equal representation in the political order of the United States of America and equal representation in the economic development of the United States. It will also mean for us equal representation among the learned of America and the world, in such areas as the fields of science, technology, and human sciences. We will become engineers, doctors, researchers, city planners, mayors, aldermen, governors, and presidents. There is nothing out of our reach that is acceptable to decent society if we accept this new leadership (the Second Resurrection). The blessing of Almighty God is on the Bilalian people of the world and it is a blessing that the whole world can and will share in.

Dear beloved people, Brother and Sister Muslims, I hope you all will be present on "Survival Day" to bear our national address on the state of the World Community of Islam in the West. Give this leadership your support and give it as you should give it. Give it the respect and the support that it deserves. I would like to end this article to you with a reading from the Quran, the chapter called "Time Through the Ages."

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1. By (the token of )
Time (through the Ages)

2. Verily Man
Is in loss,

3. Except such as have Faith,
and do righteous deeds,
And (join together)
In the mutual teachings
Of truth, and of
Patience and Constancy.

Holy Quran Translation by Yusuf Ali; Sura CIII; Verses 1 – 3
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May the peace and blessings of Allah be with you.

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

Your brother.
W.D. Muhammad