1977-April-29

Bilalian News

"The Natural Elements Testify To The Truth Of The Quran And Muhammad": Part 2

Imam W. D. Muhammad

The following article is from excerpts of an address that was delivered by Emam W.D. Muhammad to the San Quentin brotherhood on February 29,1977.

With the Name Allah (In the Name of God), The Gracious, The Compassionate.

As -Salaam –Alaikum

Dear Readers,
Let us look at the elements of nature and see some of the beauty the ancients had that was revealed (inspired) by Almighty God. When we say revelation we are not talking about dreaming. There were dreamers and there were prophets, but dreamers were not necessarily prophets. A prophet is one that God connects back with His message in nature. When the prophet or the messenger of God connects back with God's message for humanity and for nature, then he is able to read the signs of God.

Signs of God

What do we mean by signs of God? In fire, God ha s a sign for the minds of men and women, or for humanity. In the water He has signs (messages) for our minds and for our nature. The Holy Quran says that God reveals His messages in everything that we see in the heavens and in the earth and in that which is between. Each verse or each thought of the Holy Quran is called an "ayat." The Holy Quran says that God has given this creation to our minds and that His signs carry His messages to our minds. If you accept this idea, you will accept that God leads the righteous people in the same way that natural knowledge leads science.

The "Natural” Religion

There is no magic, there is no magician, there is no spook — there is reality. The "spook" comes into our minds when we get out of touch with reality. The "magician" (unreal spirit) comes into our life and it takes us further and further away from reality. Then God has to again find Himself a natural man and a natural mother. He has to tell the natural man what to teach that natural mother to bring her child back on the right path. The natural man becomes a natural leader for his society because God tells him how to put his people back in touch with God's guidance as that guidance is established in the nature and in the order of the creation. In the Quran, our religion is called "Deen AI-Fitr." Deen Al-Fitr means the religion that is established on the natural pattern that God has established in the physical creation. If we do not get away from that natural pattern, we are on our way "to Zion," we are on our way "to the kingdom," or we are on our way to that destiny that God holds out for us. But if we get off that track, we are on our way to confusion, to a life of falsehood, to a life of crime, misery, sadness and much burden.

The Fiery Creature

Let us look at the element of fire. I choose to use the element of fire first because the Holy Quran says that the man (the creature) of fire was made first. He was made before God's khalifah or God's holy prophet. In the allegorical story that we find in the Holy Quran, God is informing the creatures of His intention to establish a human being (a righteous, upright, truthful man) so that man would form a society like Himself. That society would be the khalifah, the custodian, the keeper of society and of creation. God said that He was going to make a khalifah and give him authority in the earth. The fiery creature said, "I will not accept to obey such a creature." Because of this attitude, God cast the fiery creature oat from His presence into the earth. He cast the fiery creature out of the heavenly order for refusing to submit and to accept His khalifah or His divine man. The angels did not argue with God. They said, "Oh God, we have no knowledge except what you have given us." They submitted to the Creator, God Most High, but the fiery creature became proud, arrogant and he challenged God. The common name for this creature in Christianity, Judaism and Islam is Satan or the devil.

Satan's Belief

Nowhere in the allegorical teachings of the Quran or in the clearly expressed teachings of the Quran do we find that Satan is a magician or one performing spooky miracles. Satan's duped followers, his victims, his slaves, are misguided by him and they become spooky. They believe in witchcraft, black magic, white magic, etc., but Satan never believes in foolishness like that. Satan believes only in himself. He refused to believe in God. He refused to believe that a human being can become a fit guide for society without mastering the sciences (the knowledge of the world). He does not believe in human power, which is moral conscience, integrity, uprightness, compassion. He believes that the valuable human power is foolishness for governing society. He only believes in the power of scientific discoveries and the knowledge that those discoveries brings to his mind. He thinks that only materialistic, so-called "scientific" wisdom has in it the power that is capable of ruling a society.

The Nature Of Satan

We are not talking about things that are outside of the human creation. We are talking about things that are inside of our creation. Satan is, was and always will be until be is destroyed no more than a certain unnatural posture or nature in the human makeup. Do not look for Satan in the sky. Do not look for Satan beneath the surface of the ground. Satan most likely is within you. If he is not within you, he is within some flesh and blood like you. He does not necessarily take on colors; in fact, it is not his nature to take on colors. The nature of Satan is to maintain a selfish, wicked rule over society. In the history of civilization and also of primitive societies, the Satan has rotated through the colors of the earth. He has been black, brown, yellow, red, white and now he is "universal" in color. He is not too much concerned about color anymore. He is only concerned about maintaining his evil grip on human life.

The Foreign Mentality

Satan said to God (in words), "Alright God, I told you that I am a better ruler for society than this thing (man) that you are about to make. Since you won't accept that, I am going out to make destructive war against your creature. I am going to prove your creature unfit for the great position of dignity that you have written for him." Such opposition is very good for God's plan. An opponent or a challenger to God will only bring out God's strength, God's power and God's glory. So Satan was free to challenge the plan of God. This Satan is not an invisible spirit foreign to creation. We are talking about a certain mentality that is foreign to the natural order of creation, but which exists in physical matter that is of creation.

Fire: The Destroyer

In the element of fire, we see certain natures. Fire in our earthly environment is unruly and it does not like to take any definite form. It likes to blaze out in rage in a very greedy manner. It will not stop eating until it has eaten up everything in its environment to eat. When fire burns it eats up the oxygen out of the air. It does not help the outside when it burns, it just rages and grows up itself. There are people with nature like fire. The more they consume from our environment, the more they grow up. They take our material things and pile them up all around themselves. They take the knowledge out of the society, but they do not give it back. They just keep eating the knowledge but they make themselves look like they are the authors of that knowledge.

The Creature Of Flames

Fire has another nature or description: it destroys the form of a thing by breaking up the composition of matter. Fire reduces the form of most material things to nothing but gases and ashes. God is the Creator of form from the elements of the physical earth and from the atmosphere. Fire breaks down the form of things that have been made or formed. It will destroy the form of a plant and reduce it to its primary, base elements. By reducing the plant to its most elementary composition, it destroys the form of the plant so that we cannot call it a plant anymore. Its composition has been so destroyed that it has been totally wiped away from creation as a plant. Fire destroys the form of everything it touches. It will even turn iron into liquid. The nature of iron is a solid. It is to support heavy structures with its solid mass, not to run like water. If you heat iron enough, that metal will change from a solid form and run like water. Likewise is the nature (description) of the fiery nature.

The Human Intelligence

What do we call this fiery nature in the human being. One description is "passion." Because our passions are like fire, they burn in us and they can cause us to be destructive. When the desire for food is excited beyond its normal composition, that desire becomes destructive. Then we are not satisfied just to eat enough food for our bodies, we take more than enough. In taking more than enough, we become vicious, wild, and cruel. Fire in the form of passion also excites the sex nature of the individual. When the individual is not of a fiery nature in his sex makeup, be will just have sex in a normal, healthy, natural way. But when be becomes a creature of flames in the sense of passion, he will go to extremes in his desire to fulfill the sex appetite. By doing things that are unnatural, he will become perverted and he will do things that are cruel. Instead of just going after pleasure, be will go after cruelty and pain. There are creatures who degenerate so much in their sexual makeup that they have sex to inflict pain on their mate.

Satan Proper

The human intelligence is the other form in us that takes on the nature or description of flames. It is a tool for you to use in cultivating the society, in elevating the society, and in building it up higher. Human intelligence (knowledge) is also a kind of ladder that you may use to step up from lower levels of existence to higher planes of human development. At the same time, intelligence can be a terrible thing in the life of the people. It can be fire, it can be Satan. When we gain knowledge in a selfish way to make ourselves look bigger or wiser than others, we are taking on the nature of the flames that is the nature of Satan. Some evil people use their knowledge to get a monopoly or a hegemony on the world. They try to get control over all of the forces that are in the field that they want to master and over all of the benefits that can be reaped from that field. When we grow in an intelligence form to get that kind of selfish power in the world, we have already taken on the form of Satan.

When we look at the world today, what do we see as a big problem for society? We see arrogance, we see tyranny, we see greed. We see these things that are characteristic of Satan, but the society has been led far away from the real signs of God and from the real directions of God that guide us to see exactly what God is talking about when He is talking about "Satan." We have been led so far away from the true image of Satan that we think Satan is the thing which makes people rape, kill, rob, and steal. No, those things are the influence of Satan. They are things that Satan has effected into your life, but they are not Satan proper.

The Book (Bible) says that the children of hell are seven times worse than Satan himself. The wrath and the misery that Satan's imps are inflicting into our lives are much, much more than that inflicted by Satan directly. We suffer more at the hands of those who are affected by Satan than we suffer from Satan directly. Satan is "intelligent" and "rational" in his own grafted (false) way. He will only go so far. Satan is not only a flame, but he also knows how to blow (give oxygen to) the flame. So he excites the wild passions in the people and be makes their common sins become unnatural, abnormal and uncommon sins. He knows how to blow his spirit into the fiery mind that be creates in your intelligence makeup and he feeds the destructive fires of your intelligence. Satan magnifies himself in his victims as God magnifies His truth and His righteousness in His obedient servants.

The Plane Of Rational Conscience

The  Holy  Quran  says that  God  made  the creature of fire before He made His own special creature, which we call the "khaltfah," or the ideal human society. When looking at the development of civilization, we find that man became spiritual before he became scientific but be did not gain revealed knowledge before scientific discoveries. The society had already gained scientific knowledge and understanding before God missioned the prophet or the one who received divine revelation. When we say "prophet," we are not taking about dreamers or seers. There were dreamers and seers long before fire was brought to human beings. The prophet is one who received revelation from God -- not dreams or spooky experiences. When the Bible and the Quran talk about revelation, they are talking about revealing something from reality. What is revealed is also real. In order for that kind of revelation to come, the man must be rational in his mind. God evolves the man or the society to the plane of rational conscience.

Then He finds on that rational plane a man who is morally upright, a man who is unselfish, a man who is truthful in his life, a man who is charitable and who wants to help the members of his society, and the man who feels on himself the burdens of the sins and the problems of the whole society. That man, in his moral development, is not only rationally conscious but be is also morally conscious as God wants human beings to be morally conscious. Then God selects that man and He gives him a higher knowledge of the scientific order of the physical world order. He shows him that everything in creation is a reflector (sign) showing man something that God wants in our makeup or something that is important to us in our society. In next week's article we will look at the relationship of wind, water, and earth to the nature of the human being.

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

Your brother in service to Allah,
W.D. Muhammad