1979-September-14

Bilalian News

The Night of Power

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 from Imam Wallace Deen Muhammad's Khutbah, delivered at Masjid Elijah Muhammad in Chicago, Illinois on Sunday Aug. 19, 1979, the Night of Power.)

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:

This is an especially blessed night for us in America because Allah revealed the Quran in this night, and when the Quran is revealed there is light and guidance. In the Quran we have light, we have guidance, we have mercy, we have knowledge, we have logic. We have all the things that we have been deprived of as subjects in America.

1 believe we are perhaps the only community on this Earth that knows nothing of its past, except what we got second-handed from the people who separated us from our past.

We are a people who have no language except the language of our former slave-masters. We have no language, I repeat, except the language of our former slave-masters. We are a people without a thinking except the thinking of our former slave-masters.

Now that we have embraced Al-Islam, Al-Islam gives us thinking that is universal. Muslims all over the world think as we do now.

Before, we didn't think in any universal frame. They had framed our thinking for us and that thinking was in the frame of a slave. All praise is due to Allah, Al-Islam has freed us.

Al-Islam has given us the courage to question everything except Allah. We don't question Allah, but Al-Islam has given us the courage to question everything except Allah.

Al-Islam has given us a language. For the first time we are getting a language by choice. The language we have is the language we got because of oppression, because of subjection, because we had no other choice.

We became English-speaking people because we had no other choice. Now we are becoming Arabic-speaking people by choice. So let no one tell you Arabic is not your language; Arabic is the only language you ever had. The Sura Lilatou-Al Qadr (the Night of Power) tells us that it was in the Month of Ramadan that the Quran was revealed; that it was revealed at night.

I have come to understand that the Quran is the answer, the completion. It fulfills what was promised to the Prophets before, and it completes the religion for us as Allah says in His Quran — this day I have completed My favor on you — meaning all His animals.

When the Christians begin to sing on Christmas Eve, "Holy Night, Blessed Night," they're singing about this night. They don't know it, but they're singing about this night. Jesus was only the sign. This is the real thing!

Why is the night so blessed?

The Christians were told that Jesus said this world's light is darkness with God—their day is night. Our night is the beginning of day. The night precedes the day—their day is night. So we come in the night.

Allah blessed us with the Quran in the night. For what ? To bring in the day.

Didn't the Quran come to bring in the day? Yes. Their day was not the day, but the light that comes with the Quran, that's the real day. The night in which the Quran was revealed, that's the blessed night; it is better than a thousand months.

Allah revealed the Quran in the night; the world had nothing but moonlight, faint light, blind faith—moonlight. The Quran came with faith, logic, science — the best of science — and knowledge for arranging our whole life. That's the kind of light we need in the day.

In the day man has to work, he has to travel the roadways, he has to build buildings, he has to read blueprints. He needs the sunlight, moonlight is not enough.

How peaceful it is when we are enjoying the spiritual blessings of our religion.

But Allah says, "Free the slave, free the oppressed." This requires you to get out of the night and into the day.

To free the slave, to free the oppressed, to regulate the affairs of the community requires that you do something, that you have courage. It takes courage to get out there and do what you must to make life right for the society.

People like to rest in spiritual faith. They like the night, that blessed night of spiritual faith, where they just enjoy the blessings of God and say Al-Hamdu-lillah, Al-Hamdu-lillah, Allah-u-Akbar, Subhaana-Allah. You feel so wonderful. How great it is.

When Quran comes, it hits us with such power that it makes us cry with tears of joy. It crushes us, and the crushing is a great thrill.

It's like our whole body has been crushed by a great weight — tons and tons — and when you catch your breath you say ALLAH, ALLAH, ALLAH, ALLAH!

That is a great thrill when you come to know the greatness of Allah, the greatness of His Word, the greatness of His Truth. It saves the person, it cures the person, it cleanses the person. It takes away fear from the person.

Then the dawn comes and that faithful person who has been blessed in the night must get out and act upon his faith.

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)