1981-August-14

Bilalian News

Our Internal And External Life: Part 3

Imam W. Deen Muhammad

(Editor's note: Following are excerpts from a lecture delivered by Imam Warith Deen Muhammad at Masjid Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Sunday. May 24. 1981 -- Continued from July 24.)

Oh yes — you've got the best. I mean the best all the way around. I'm not talking about the best in one respect, but the best in every respect.

What does Allah say? He does not want oppression for any of the people. He does not want oppression for any of the people; this is what Allah says to us in our holy book.

But what does the mixed up Bible say? And I know some of you don't like to hear me talk this way, but look — you get the Bible and read it from cover to cover and if it doesn't say it's mixed up, I will eat it up without a drink of water.

But I'm not the first one who said it was mixed up — it says itself it's mixed up. In fact it says it's so mixed up that only the "elect" can find their way through it. Now if you've been elected you're safe. But I hope you didn't elect yourself, or you're in bad shape. Excuse me for putting a little humor in this every now and then, but I find that it's nice. It's nice to keep a little humor in things, but don't get flippant.

Some of us are so giddy and silly-minded and don't respect anything that deserves respect. We laugh at everything. We take lightly the most serious matters of life; see the Imam like you see a comedy. We leave the masjid and go back home and do the boogie-woogie as though we never heard a word of sense.

There was a term that became very popular after the War of 1912. In 1914 and later years it began to be more and more popular. What is that expression? "Armageddon." Oh, the religious leadership that became occupied with that term, Armageddon. Why? And what is Armageddon?

When you read the dictionary the dictionary tells us that Armageddon is a final war between good and evil. If the dictionary gives Armageddon, as a term meaning the final war then what should that tell you? That should tell you that all other wars are really subordinate to that war. That should tell you that all other wars are incidental to that war. That really the war on the Earth is the war between right and wrong.

Isn't that what scripture is all about? Read it from cover to cover. Scripture is all about the war between right and wrong. And scripture tells us that that war is going to heat up and grow and grow and multiply until it involves the souls of everybody on Earth. The people are going to have to make a decision whether they want to go on living an oppressed life, a miserable life, a wicked life, or whether they want to conquer the forces of corruption and evil so they can enjoy the life God intended for them to live.

Yes. Isn't that the occupation ot man's mind? Now and yesterday - - I can't think back to a time that that thought didn't occupy man's mind, because once man became rational he became moral instantly. There's no such thing as rational activity in the mind and no moral activity in the mind. The moment he became rational, the moment he opened up his eyes out of the womb of the common animal and understood that he was not the common animal, from that moment on he was moral.

And because he is (infirm) or subject to blunders, weaknesses, I'm sure he began to struggle from that moment, because if it wasn't without, it was within: a temptation to break the law of conscience. And the war of Armageddon began.

But man was confused. He was the seed. He thought his war was for the apple tree or for the gold mine or for some other thing. But actually his war was the war to protect his excellence. And the excellence of man is in his truthfulness. The excellence of man is in his Tightness. The excellence of man is in his moral excellence. Yes, that's where the excellence of man is.

We don't need to argue that point. AH we have to do is reflect very quickly with a flash of lightning on history and see how learned men brought the whole nation down because he was bored morally speaking. And then flash back again at history and see how moral activity brought the world back on its feet again.

So Allah says to us, dear people, He does not want oppression for any of his people -no indeed.

Now can't you understand why it was so important in the history of the personal life of Prophet Muhammad and his leadership that he chose Bilal and presented him as his ambassador right along with the Romans and right along with the Persians?

Yes, men representing the face of the world. Oh yes — the man from Europe, the man from Asia, and the man from Africa. And though the world has grown a bit — we have expanded over into the New World, the new continent -- we can still classify man one, two, three: Europe, Asia, Africa. Although they have four classifications or more - black, brown, yellow, red, white; they have all those classifications — we know that men are grouped because of their environmental grouping and you might find a black-skinned person in Asia.

They have some of the blackest of blacks in Asia, not Africa — Asia. So black they look like the black seal in the water with the sunlight reflecting off his back. That's how black they are.

Now I didn't want to say blue-black because I didn't think you could get the picture as good as I gave it to you just then. If any of you have been to the zoo and have seen a black seal in the water with the sunlight reflecting off his back while he was under water, man you saw something black. And they've got stringy hair, sharp noses, keen features - - people in Asia of that kind of blackness, with that degree of blackness in their skin pigmentation.

So Bilal didn't necessarily represent the black man. because the black man is also in Asia. Bilal represents the African man. I'm telling you it's so good I can't rush with it. You know when you're really enjoying what you're doing you don't like to rush with it, because when it's all over the pleasure will be stopped. You want to prolong it. You don't eat your favorite dessert like you eat beans.

All right, now, getting back to this Armageddon, the war between right and wrong. It has become a racial war as well as a political war; it is also an academic war. We find that all of the important areas of human life and human need conflict. Why? Because there is some hidden demagogue who is determined to keep himself over society. Now I am not talking about a single individual, I'm not talking about race, I'm talking about a state of the mind in the world.

And it so happens that because the non Bilalian people have been free to make the advances, this hierarchy of demagogue is mostly made up of non-Bilalians. But I think they have one or two (Bilalian) members now. I'm not sure, but I think Farrakahn is trying to qualify. So all we can say is be prepared for war from Allah and his servants. You go on and make your decision if you want to, but don't think that we are going to (quit) -we're going to fight you until the end.

And how is the fight waged? Well, let's understand more about the battle. According to the meaning of this word — and I want you to take note of what I said; I didn't say according to the dictionary or according to the Bible, I said "according to the meaning of the word" - Armageddon is a battle for freedom and the control of freedom.

Those who doubt the ability of the common person to be responsible for his personal life don't trust the common people with true freedom. But they want the freedom process because without the freedom process even the leaders will become (helpless)...It also helps them to grow and expand, and they know that. Satan is not a fool. In the ways of the world, he is a genius.

I'm not talking about a floating spirit, I'm talking about the powers that float spirits. He's no fool. He knows that by advancing the freedom of society, the experience, the revelation that comes out of mass progress gives him food for thought and puts him in a position to again assert his own dominance. But he has to check freedom while advancing it. If he doesn't check freedom while advancing it, the eyes of the common man will see the technique; and when the common man sees the technique, he won't fall a victim to the trick. He will stand up on his own feet and chart his own course in the world.