1975-May-30

Muhammad Speaks

A Message To Young Men & Women

W.D. Muhammad
Supreme Minister of the Nation Of Islam

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful; Peace and blessings upon His servant and His messenger, Muhammad, forever. Amen.

As-Salaam-Alaikum
My dear young brothers and sisters,

I greet you with the greetings of peace, which is the greeting of all the true prophets and messengers of Allah from Ibrahim (Abraham) to Muhammad. It is a greeting of good wishes for your happiness, your total health, and your peace of mind.

This with is given in the Arabic words: “As-Salaam-Alaikum.” When someone gives you this greeting you should remember that they are saying something very nice, very beautiful, and good for you. They are saying to you, “ I with you to be happy; I with you to be peaceful; I don’t want you worried; I don’t want you to be angry; I don’t want you to feel bad.”  When someone says that, never forget to tell them a nice word too. You can’t tell them anything nicer than, “Wa-Alaikum-Salaam.” This means that you wish the same good thoughts to them.

I want to say a few words about something that is important to you and that is yourself. If you can understand what I tell you in this short article, you will get a good start towards being in control of your own self.

There is nothing closer to you than yourself, but one other thing. That is Allah. There are a lot of grown-ups who don’t know that there is something closer to themselves than their own selves.

You young men and young women must start now to understand and to act with self-control. Self-control means making yourself do what you want yourself to do. If you want to be smart, you first have to make yourself do what you want yourself to do.

Do you think that you are already what you are supposed to be? You are not. You will  be what you are supposed to be when you are perfect. Then you will be smart enough to do things without making mistakes; smart enough to know what to say to people and how to answer people; smart enough to make money and a home for yourself; smart enough to keep your own home for yourself; smart enough to keep your own self clean and neatly dressed without anybody telling you to do it; and smart enough to get yourself to do what you want to do. Right now you are a long way from what you are supposed to be.

If you are five years old and you make good grades in school, you know how to dress and keep yourself neat and you can take a bath and brush your teeth without any help, you are alright for five years old. But what about when you get 10 years old, 30 years old, or 70 years old? The older you get the more you are going to have to grow.

You may stop growing physically before you get 20 years old. Do you know what “physically” means? We mean your bones and your meat (flesh). But you will not stop growing I hope. You should continue to grown as a person.

No matter how tall or  how big you are in bones and meat, if you don’t think big (if you are not big in your mind) you will be small as a man of a woman.

I’m going to tell you something now that is very important: You don’t begin to really be created as a person until what’s going on inside of you begins to grow. So when people tell you that Allah made you, tell them, “You are not quite right,. You are missing something. Allah is making me.” As long as you are alive on the earth, Allah is making you. Other people and other things can make you too, if you let them make you.
We will continue this subject next week.

Thank you for reading this article. I pray that you understand it and benefit from it.

As-Salaam-Alaikum.