1977-July-15

Bilalian News

Live Truth

Wallace D. Muhammad

The following article is from excerpts of a lecture that was delivered by Emam Wallace D. Muhammad in Philadelphia on April 20, 1977.

With the Name Allah, the Gracious, the Compassionate.

As-Salaam-Alaikum: (The Peace be upon you)

Dear Readers,
In all the big cities, we have the same problems — people going wild and tearing down the properties and vandalizing themselves. But now, I am thankful to Allah, that trend is almost gone. If our energies are all tied up in the destruction of property and in the destruction of our own lives, then our state is hopeless. We have to have our energies in our own hands. We have to direct our own energies into constructive work that builds
our life up instead of tearing our life down. Whenever we just blindly or emotionally release our energies to tear things down, it backfires on us. When we take account of the' situation after the explosion, we almost always see ourselves as the biggest losers.

Do not think that this kind of destruction is just something that happens accidently in our lives. There are evil racist elements that desire to see us waste our lives away. If we do not get ourselves together in a constructive way to better our position in this world, the forces of evil and the forces of racism will take our life and direct it into destructive channels that will mean the destruction of ourselves.

When we really study what scripture is saying about our life, we get a superior knowledge of our own life. If my life is in my hands, then I should know how to manage that life. If an automobile is in my hands, I have to know how to manage the operation of that automobile. The automobile is not as much in my grip as my own life. Nothing is more in my own grip than my own life. So the most valuable knowledge for me, then, is the operation of my own life. This is the great gift of scripture: the great gift of religion. It is the knowledge of how to operate our lives.

Live Truth

Dear beloved people, Moses, Abraham and Jesus were on this very earth4hat we are on. We think it was a long time ago. But just a few days ago, Abraham was teaching people. Just a few days ago, Moses and Christ Jesus were teaching people. Just a little while ago, Muhammad, the Universal Prophet, was here on this earth teaching people. Because there were ears alive to receive their words, a great community of strong people rose upon the earth and established this truth so that we could inherit it. You have the same opportunity now. You have the opportunity to deliver a life from ''bondage in Egypt" and lead it to a "promise land flowing with milk and honey" with moral and rational teaching. But you have to act on truth just as people before you had to act on truth. You just can't listen. You have to hear and obey. Live your religion.

The Fight For Natural Life

The average plant can grow where there is water, sunshine and earth. But there is a problem because the same environment that feeds one plant feeds another. The same environment that feeds the grass that we love to see in our lawns also feeds the weed or the crabgrass. So we just can't grow naturally without conscious effort. Conscious effort is the human nature. We have to fight for our natural life because other things are going to feed on the same thing our natural life feeds on. If we do not watch over our life all the time as a gardener, our life is going to be choked out. The beautiful field of human society is going to be marred and uglied by weeds and other undesirables.

The thing that puts human life on a plane above the other life of this world is our superior ability to respond. No life in Creation has the ability to respond as we do. They can receive and receive and receive, but they cannot respond as we can respond. I can get out of my "plant hole" and walk and find a richer spot to grow in. The tree has to stay where it is. If my needs aren't where I am, I can go find my needs elsewhere. So God has grown us up out of the world like a plant, but He didn't stop us there — He freed us. The plant is not free, but we are free.. We are free to move around in the world.

The Most Valuable Freedom

Believe me, the most valuable freedom is the freedom of movement within myself. I do not have to stay fastened down to low desires, to inferior mentality. I can rise up in my own being. I can rise up in my own domain. Right in the vicinity of my own structure I can rise, walk, run, fly. I can do everything the creatures without can do without even having the physical space in which they do those things. I can do those things right within my own structure. I can lift my essence up above inferiority. Trusting the Word of Allah, I can deliver my soul from bondage with the powers that I have within.

On the cement floors, you can cultivate the rich soil of your being and grow oak trees, pine trees, wheat, corn, grapes, bananas and apples. You can cut a channel and fill it with fish. You can raise cattle and livestock of all kind. You can build a city while you are physically confined. Do you see the power you have? You have to know yourself.
To know yourself is the greatest of all knowledge. For this, Allah has revealed clearly human nature and the pattern on which human life grows and develops to its fullness. Live the Truth.

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

Your brother in service to Allah,
Wallace D.Muhammad