1978-August-25

Bilalian News

Our True Guardian: Part 2

Imam W. Deen Muhammad

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

As-Salaam-Alaikum

(Editor's note: Following are excerpts of Chief Imam Wallace Deen Muhammad's historic New World Patriotism Day speech delivered in Chicago's Grant Park on July 4th, 1978. — Continued from last week.)

All praise is due to Almighty God, the guardian evolver and sustainer of all the worlds. The blessings and peace be upon Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah to us all.

O Allah, guide us, forgive us our faults, and grant us the blessings of faith. I bear witness there is no deity except Allah and I bear witness Muhammad is His Servant and His Messenger. Peace be upon him, his descendants, his companions, the righteous servants, all of them, and upon us in America and throughout the world:

I might be a faster runner than you, you may feel bad seeing me pass you in the race. But knowing I'm after the same thing that you are, for the same community, for the  world  community,  for  all people, makes you happy.

It hurts that I'm not going to get that prize, but I feel good that one of us will get the prize. That's the spirit that Muslims are taught to have by Almighty God.

We are taught not to let our eagerness to be the one that comes back with the prize grow into a bitterness that makes us jealous because the Jew got the prize and we didn't, or because the Christian got the prize and we didn't. No. God wants all religious people who worship Him to struggle and strive and race toward everything that He has established that is lawful and good.

We should cheer the achievements of the Christians whenever they achieve something good. We should cheer the achievements of Jews whenever the achievement is lawful'and good. But we should never put ourselves out of the race. We're not going to slow down. We would like to be the one who gets those cheers.

So Muslim community, go all together as in a race after everything that God has made lawful and good and you will be successful. We need a competition that inspires love instead of one that inspires hatred, jealousy and envy.

If we think we belong to different missions, we are going to be competing with each other in a spirit of enmity and hatred. But we should realize that the prophets, the messengers of God were all His messengers, and they are united in the brotherhood of the prophethood.

If we realize that we are nothing but followers of that one prophet-hood and all the members of that prophethood belong to one God, then that common denominator will make us healthy enough in our human hearts and in our human minds as brothers and sisters all under one God to compete with each other in the spirit of love.

If you get ahead of me, you get the prize; you bring it back and share it with me.

God teaches us this in nature. When the little bird is under his mother and can't fly or can't beat the wind like his mother, that little bird has to wait for his mother to bring back its food. The mother has a superiority over that little bird, but she doesn't use that superiority selfishly. She goes and gets the food and remembers the little bird can't get his food and shares the food with the little bird.

So if the Christian should get ahead of the Jew or the Muslim in some respect, and we remain in the spirit that Almighty God has put us in, the Christian will come back and share whatever he has gained with the Jew and the Muslim.

Likewise for the Muslim and for the Jew. If we achieve something or gain something, we should feel that it doesn't belong to us, it belongs to Allah, to the Creator.

The Creator has made the world. The Creator has made the human being with his heart and his intelligence. The Creator has given us the signs in the creation that point us toward knowledge, toward growth as individuals and as societies. The Creator made the field. He made the tools and He made the machines. He made everything.

He gave me my sentiments, my emotions, my intelligence, my drive. He gave me everything.

So the man that God created goes out with the energy that God created, into the field that God created and comes back with something and says, "This is mine."

How the hell can that be? No! It is not "mine." It belongs to Almighty God. For everything we achieve, the praise goes to God. Whatever we have managed is because of God.

Whatever great achievements we have been able to bring into the life of human beings is because of God. If God is the One responsible for all things, can we shut some people out? No. Almighty God is bringing us together.

Do you know what day this is? This is July the 4th. Do you know what July 4th
means to Americans? It means Independence Day. Do you know what independence is? The real independence is not the freedom to come out of a dungeon in Europe and have another lease on life and come to America and explore the wilderness and beat back the Indians and make yourself a home.

No, Pilgrim, that wasn't the real freedom. The real independence is the independence to live the life that God created for you.

Allah is the perfect being. Allah is all righteous, truthful — no imperfections in Allah. Allah is Supreme and Perfect without any imperfections.

O Allah. Make us of those who purify themselves and of those who repent, and guide us in your path. Amen.

Peace be to you
Your brother in service to Allah,
Wallace Deen Muhammad
(To be continued)