1978-September-1

Bilalian News

Human Dignity

Imam W. Deen Muhammad

(Editor's note: The following are excerpts from an address delivered by Chief Imam Wallace Deen Muhammad at a Spiritual Jubilee held in Rochne Stadium on Chicago's West Side, Saturday, July 15, 1978. Continued from the three previous issues.)

Did Jesus just go up to heaven? No, he went down to hell then up to heaven. Jesus proved that he could stay in hell and keep his human form though he be in hell.

Priest, come on down to earth, face the temptations, catch the woman, chase the temptation, touch the woman and then keep your manhood, keep your righteousness, keep your human nature, show the world that you cannot be changed though you be in the arms of a woman.

This is the dignity in being a human being.
Who should wear the cap of victory? Who should wear the medals of victory?
Not the Nun. Not the Monk—the man and the woman that live with each other, that love each other sexually, but don't let sexual love take away the divine love for God. The man and the woman who love each other on the level of flesh, on the level of intelligence, on the level of spirituality and remain a human being, these are the ones.

Like the Hebrew boys that were put in the fiery furnace but were not consumed by the fire. They proved that they could stand in the fire and not be burned up.

The fire of what? The fire of lust of this world. All of us are Hebrew boys in the fiery furnace. Any time you walk down one of these streets in the ghetto and see a temptation there—a prostitute waiting, a reefer seller waiting, dope pusher waiting, a girl waiting to take you from your wife...from your family—every time you walk in the United States and there is temptation to get involved in some criminal activity so you can have more money in your hands and in your pocket. This is the fire of hell.

Any man, any Christian, any Muslim who can live in the United States of America and not fall victim to the temptations of sin in America is as great as the Hebrew boys because you stay in the fiery furnace and the fires don't consume you.

You go to church and sing about the Hebrew boys in the fiery furnace, about all of these great miracles and you don't know that you are performing those miracles yourself by standing above the fires of temptation in this world.           
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By standing above lust, greed, petty jealousy, self-righteousness, all those ugly things that take the human being down from the high pedestal that God put him on you are proving right here on this Earth in 1978 that God still performs miracles.

Men are still cast into the fiery furnace and not consumed, the Red Sea still parts for the servants of God and they walk across on dry land. All of these are great miracles. I can't interpret them today, but all of these great miracles are being performed every day in the life of people like Imam Wallace Deen Muhammad, and I hope in your life too.

I know that many of you are experiencing these same miracles. God made the human being to grow into his full form. Full form means that you must learn how to manage yourself in society. You must pass the test.

Don't lock yourself up at home and say, "I'm just going to pray to God." No! That's not your purpose. God didn't make you to be locked up in a closet praying to Him.
God made you to come out here and work, get together with other brothers and sisters, help to improve the life of the neighborhood, help to raise the quality of life in your community, help to correct the leadership that is over your city, the leadership that is over your state, the leadership that is over your nation.

You must help to correct it. You are a moral influence. You are a human...a living germ in the society of the world and if that human life is alive, it will share its life with the whole society.

Don't you know you don't even have to preach. When you walk by the low-life things that others fall into because they don't have the strength to walk by it, you are preaching. Your word is heard.

If you stand above filth, lust, selfishness, jealousy, greed, if you remain a human being and let your love go out to every creature equally, to your neighbor, to the people in your household, you are preaching.

Don't you know we need a Jesus Christ to come and tell us to love our mothers? Jesus said, "Love your enemy, love your neighbor," We need Jesus to come and tell us tonight to love our mothers, to love our fathers, to love our aunts, to love our uncles, jto love our children.

We need someone to teach us to love each other. We need someone to teach us to love ourselves. In fact, I think we hate everybody else because we can't stand ourselves.

Let me tell you the answer to that. Start being a human b«ing. If you don't know how don't go to the psychiatrist. He takes your money, and makes you funny. Come to me, I'll tell you how to live a human being's life.

All you have to do is start living a human being's life and you will start loving yourself. The world has told you God has made you black and ugly, and you got to singing, "God didn't make me black and ugly. I'm black and proud! I'm black and proud!"

Let me tell you what God said. God said that He made every human being, every creature and that He gave every creature his form.

God said in the scripture that I have made your form and your looks most excellent. Do you want to believe God or are you going to keep fighting with what the world told you?

You are fighting with it, you don't know it, but I know it. Black Nationalist, Black Muslim, Black Christian, they are black and proud. But when they can't handle the family situation at home its: "You old big lip. stinking, musty smelling black sucker. You napy-headed nigger."

I know your problem; you've been trying to sing yourself into a make-believe world. That's not the way to do it.

Believe what God said. God made you. Shouldn't He know what He made you? He made every creature. He gave every creature his looks. He gave every creature his facial looks, his physical makeup, his hair. He has made every form beautiful, most attractive and excellent.

I have gone to Africa and I have read much on Africa. In many parts of Africa big lips are a sign of beauty. Nappy hair is a sign of beauty. The big nose is a sign of beauty.

If a baby were born black with a keen nose and straight hair, the parents would be terribly upset. The razor-thin lips like that of a monkey sucking a grape or something, wouldn't be liked at all.

You may think a monkey has fat lips because they told you, you look like a monkey. Have you ever gone to the zoo and really looked carefully, at the face of a monkey.

I haven't found a monkey yet with fat lips. Every monkey I looked at had thin lips.
I admit some monkeys look like some of my relatives, but I found that they look a lot like some of the Caucasian's relatives too. In fact, they look like everybody.
I saw a monkey looked so much like the Caucasian working on my job I almost spoke to him.

Pardon me, he wasn't a monkey, he was an ape, but he looked so much like this Polish fellow—and nothing against the Polish, I don't believe in that—but he looked so much like this long-armed fellow that I....

This fellow I worked with had arms so long he didn't have to bend down to pick up anything.
His back was flat...and I looked at this gorilla's behind, I said, "How do they say that's a Negro? We're not shaped like that."
But you look carefully out there and you will find your relatives too. He's out there. I saw an orangutan and I said, what is God trying to tell us?
You have to have faith in yourself, you have to believe that you have some worth as a human being. You have to believe that what God gave you is the same that He gave every other human being, that's what you have to believe.

(To be continued)