With A Child's Heart 

Imam Warith Deen Muhammad


We have a guest that we don't normally have here. I understand that one of the representatives of one of the civil rights organizations> one of the well known and effective, that is an organization that has accomplished a 10t for the people, the little people, is here today. I won't give his name, but if later on if he cares to be introduced or if someone behind me will do that, that's not my job so I won't do that. But I did want you to know that we have such persons here and we have with us Bro. Muhammad Abdullah, who's Imam Muhammad Abdullah, who resides on the west coast, San Francisco was his home town for a long time. He supervised in that area and he has put together a reading, an introduction to the reading of Quran in Arabic with explanations, with duas, well known duas, and with other very good reading. I think that his book is completed. He's
only going over it now for last minute corrections and criticisms. I looked at it myself and read it, I think it is a very good book. I saw nothing in it but positive and eye-opening and progressive kinds of things that would help us to read Quran in simple Arabic language and at the same time help to have the right attitude towards the Holy Book.

As I was sitting there many thoughts entered my mind and I decided that I would speak to you for a few minutes on one of those thoughts that went through my mind. And that was the thought of Bilal Ibn Rabah, the Muezzin of Prophet Muhammad, may Allah be pleased with him and peace and blessing be upon His Prophet.

Dear beloved Muslims it is said that the Holy Prophet reported a vision where in he saw or heard the sandals of Bilal walking in the paradise ahead of himself. The Imam about a week ago or less now spoke on that and said "we know that Bilal was not Prophet Muhammad's leader" and we do know that. So we have to understand what it means, what the vision means when it reports Bilal walking ahead of the Holy Prophet. There is also another report and you know all these hadiths have their grades, hadith is a report, these reports. All of these hadiths have their grades of authenticity. Some of them are more valid than others and some of them are not valid at all, and some of them are perfectly valid. You see. There is another report that says: Prophet Muhammad while in the company of his companions referred to Bilal in this way. 

He said "all of us are Bilal". Bilal for us has a cultural application, cultural definition, cultural application, i.e., we have taken on the name Bilal because we see in his personal life a similarity, a comparison, a kind of prophetic comparison to our lives as subject people and people liberated by the call of Al Islam. So we see ourselves kind of paralleling the personal life of Bilal and for that reason we, and I give the words of the Imam who spoke last week, we chose this name of our own free will and we became very comfortable with it, those who chose it of their own free will. We became very comfortable with it, for the first time we felt that we are wearing a name that came naturally. 

We don't believe the name colored man came naturally. We don't feel that the name black man came naturally. We don't feel that the name negro and nigger, that those names came naturally. We don't even feel that the name soul brother came naturally, because it wasn't a decision it was a response. Some one called us those things and we responded. But we thought about the name Bilal and we made a rationally decision. So for the first time we feel that we have a name that is our own because we chose it with rationally thoughts. Praise be to Allah.

How come this name for us is so prophetic? And I want you to understand that I'm talking about for us, because I'm sure you have your own feelings, your own sensitivities, your own circumstances and you will respond out of the reality that is yours and we have responded out of the reality that is ours. So I have to keep emphasizing that this is our connection with the name Bilal. Other people might have different connections with the name. They might see different meanings, they might have different connections.

Quickly let us kind of review the life of Bilal. Bilal, according to the reports, is. first known as a slave, that's the beginning of Bilal, a slave. Now we know he lived before in the Ethiopia. He was a "Habashe Habashe", from the land of what was called Ethiopia. We know that, but whether he was Ethiopian or not we don't really know that. We know that he was "Habashe".  He was a black from that land. All right. His life before enslavement is not the report. The report is his life beginning with enslavement, that's where his life starts. He starts as a slave. He was slave out of his own land and away from his own people. He was a slave in a society that had a great destiny, but was living in ignorance and moral corruption, superstitions and moral corruptions. But with great destiny. 

It was destined that that land would become the center, the focus, the focal point for the world people. Yes. In that land he was a slave and he was an obedient slave. He wasn't a rebellious slave. He wasn't a slave that gave his master problems. He was an obedient slave up to a point. When he heard the message of "Lah ilaha illallah Muhammadan Rasululah" he changed, while yet a slave. He changed. His master noticed a defiance in him for the first time. What's wrong with this Bilal? What's got into this Bilal? He's not the same man any more or he might have said he's not the same boy any more and you know he was a grown man, you see. Yes. He discovered that Bilal had accepted into his heart the belief in only One Lord and that he had accepted in his heart that Prophet Muhammad was the Messenger of that One Lord, and the fulfillment of Prophecy. 

He had recalled so how in his past a faint understanding or faint  knowledge of scripture and when heard that message it rung a bell and he understood that he had to embrace that message and give his inclinations to the One Lord. So his master being very displeased with that because a slave that has One Lord that's not his master is no more a slave and he had lost his slave before the chain was taken off of him. Not that Bilal wore chains, chains of slavery are not always material chains. So he had become a free man even before the chains were removed and his master didn't like that. His master said I must get my slave back! And knowing the personally, the mentality of Bilal, he decided to use those kinds of methods that would bring Bilal around. So he threatened him, that didn't change Bilal. He subjected him to cruel tortures. 

He put heavy, hot stones on his bare chest and left him out in the desert, hot sun that becomes so hot you can't touch it with your feet. You heard of the dance across the desert, well I'm telling you man, if you walk across that desert at noon day you sure will dance, because your feet will be burning up. They put Bilal (the cruel master put Bilal) in the hot sun, high noon day and put the heavy stones on his chest, hot stones on his chest to see if Bilal would give up obedience to One Lord and would come back to be his slave. Every time he would ask Bilal was he ready to conform, Bilal said "lah, lah - lah, lah","no, no - no, no"

Bilal at times would be in such weak condition from the suffering that he couldn't sleep and his master would come and see if Bilal was ready to give up and Bilal pointed the gun at him - "ONE LORD, ONE LORD". One Lord, he couldn't speak but he held that one finger out, One Lord, One Lord.

Bilal was rescued as we know by the companion of the Holy Prophet, Abu Bakr.   Abu Bakr may Allah be pleased with him, paid with his own money the ransom, the freeing price for Bilal. It is said that he had to pay more than what was reasonable because his master was just that unjust, unfair. And so Bilal began his life as a follower of Prophet Muhammad, free to live the Religion of Al Islam. Although he became his follower before he was freed, he became the follower of Prophet Muhammad before he was free, but after the price was paid by Abu Bakr then he became a free man to practice his religion as a follower of Prophet Muhammad. Prophet Muhammad chose to select that man to be the caller. 

Now what is a caller? The caller, he says Allah is Greater. We say in the translated English language, Allah is Greatest or the Greatest, but actually the actual translation would be Allah is Greater. Because Greatest suggests to my mine something that's on your mind. If you tell me something is the greatest then it suggests to me that something is on your mind, that you have already an idea of something great, greater and greatest. But if you tell me Allah is greater, then I think you are addressing my mind. That you are telling me that Allah is greater than what's on my mind. So we don't say that Allah is the greatest. We say Allah-u-Akbar! Whatever you are thinking about He is Akbar, greater!

That's the call, Allah-u-Akbar. When the Muslims marched against the aggressing armies that wanted to stamp out faith and deny the Muslim life, what did they say? What was the war call? What was the battle cry? Allah-u-Akbar! What do you say to those who heard on the other side? It wasn't a bugle. It wasn't the drums. It was the voice of a human being saying "Allah-u-Akbar". How did it strike the ears of those on the other side as a humiliating blow before the battle was really started. "BOOM" because they knew they had something on their minds. And a crier called out and said "Allah is greater than whatever you got on your mind".

So Muhammad, the Prophet, (PBUH) he selected Bilal to be the one to make that call at the time, the stated times of prayer. Especially the morning prayer, salah Al Fajr, the morning prayer. Bilal would wake up before all the others, make his ablution and prepare himself for Adhan, that is to make the call and he would make the call signaling the nearing of the time for prayer. And the Prophet, himself would wake up. He woke up by that beautiful chime, the voice of Bilal. The Prophet would get up. It is reported that one day Bilal over slept and the Prophet woke up and Bilal had not awaken to alert everybody for the time of prayer and it was too late then for Fajr prayer. So the Prophet told him we will prepare and let us go on our way. And he prepared and they went on in their way. When it became about the time that we make EID prayers on the Eid days before noon, Prophet Muhammad stopped and he told Bilal, now prepare and we will pray late without the Adhan. So they prayed that prayer anyway but it was prayed late.

I'm just mentioning these few things. So Bilal continued to be the Muezzin. He didn't say "look you over slept this time, let us find another Muezzin. We have to find another caller. Bilal over slept this time". No Bilal continued to be the Muezzin. Prophet Muhammad passed, may the peace be upon him, and Bilal was still the Muezzin. Bilal was blessed one day with a special blessing that was on the day of victory over the aggressive pagans who were trying to stamp out the light of faith. On that triumphant day the Holy Prophet marched into Mecca, place of the Kibla, the Kaa'ba and pronounced forgiveness and the end of blood-feuding. Again he gave a special role to Bilal. He said Bilal go on top of the Kaa'ba and make Adhan. I don't think any man ever made Adhan from the top of that Kaa'ba before Bilal. He must have been the first to stand on the top of the Kaa'ba and make Adhan. Told him to go on the top of the Kaa'ba and make Adhan because of a huge crowd, you need to go up high so your voice would carry far. So he went up top of the Kaa'ba and he made the Adhan on the day of victory! On the day of victory, yes, he made the Adhan.

After the great victory Bilal continued to be the Muezzin. Muezzin means a caller. He continued to be the caller. The Holy Prophet passed, he continued to be the caller. Abu Bakr, the same one who had paid his price of ransom to free him from his slave master, he had some difficulty with him because he wanted him to obey his biddings and Bilal just didn't feel up to it. Bilal was kind of tired and he just wanted to get away from things. He began to weep heavily with the passing of the Holy Prophet, PBLJH. So he told Abu Bakr, did you pay my price, did you pay the price of my freedom so that you could boss me or did you pay the price freedom so I could serve Allah? Not that Abu Bakr, the noble Caliph, the companion of Prophet Muhammad was a slave master, a tyrant, a domineering man, he was not, he was a most considerate man, but he was asking Bilal to something out of the sentiments of his heart. The sentiments out of Abu Bakr's heart was driving him to drive Bilal. They loved to hear Bilal's call so much, they wanted Bilal to stay with them and keep on making that call. But Bilal, his mind was leading him to other places. He was getting kind of dissatisfied with the situation he was in. So he decided to go to Syria. And he went to Syria and there he died. He married and later he died in Syria.

Well, if that's not our story. If that's not our story. With your limited understanding you should see yourself in that story I just told you. That's our story. Now I think I have about five or ten minutes or more. You know I have myself on time. I have timed myself today because I want to hear from the next speaker. Let me now talk about the mental state of the people we call Bilalian in hopes that you will understand even more clearly why we have chosen this name Bilal for our people. You know our people are a people of a child's heart. We are people of a child's heart. Doesn't the book say that a little child lead them. Doesn't the book say, I'm not talking about our book, I'm talking about their book. You know, all I know is what their book says, (laugh) Excuse me, having a little humor here. But their book says, I mean the book that Christian and Jews identify with, Bible. I'm talking about the Christian version now, more so than the Jewish version. Their book says a little child shall lead them and again their book says "and the children shall go in ahead of them". Is that written in the book? Yes, I think it is, in fact I would put some money on it if I was a betting man. Yes.

Let's look at the mental make-up of the people we are talking about. When we said Bilalian, our Muslims brothers, right away they thought we were saying we were another branch like the Shites  or even worst like the Ahmadiahs.   That we were trying to establish something new and different in this religion. No indeed. When we use the name Bilal we are not talking in scriptural context at all, we are talking in social context. We are merely applying this name in a kind of a interpretive way to portray us, with the artist materials that what we see in Bilal. So we take a paint, we take a brush, we use all of this from the concept of Bilal and then we portray ourselves because we see a great comparison, a great similarity that we think is prophetic. Now let's get back to mentality, the mental make-up. A child's heart is innocent, it's good, but it can be misled. A child's heart is wise, but it can be made foolish, Yes, I know this, I'm a daddy. I have watched my wife raise the children, I've watched them, I've been a daddy and I know children are good. And they are wise. It took me a long time to learn that, but I finally learned that children are wise, they can teach you a lot if you will just take note. You know Art Linkletter, he almost got rich just writing what children had to say, yes. Art - Link Letter. That's plain enough. He said make it plain. I say that's plain enough.

I have given my interpretation of the Bilalian personality in us. It is characteristic of a child's heart. A child's heart is formed and influenced by situations, circumstances, conditions. How do I know that? I can speak from science. I can speak from hadith. Prophet Muhammad said (PBUH) that a child that comes a Jew or Christian or something else because of what? the environment in which he is born and raised up. So there's my support to Muslims and if we wanted to we can go to science and get the support for everybody, because science says that same thing. This is a blessing but it can be a curse, yes. It's a blessing to have a child's heart. That's a blessing. Because it is a child's heart that will go into the kingdom before the elect. 

Because the elect, maybe the elect will change and become a camel that can't go through the eye of the needle, yes. Maybe the elect will change, So it wasn't actually Prophet Muhammad that was going in behind Bilal, it was his community that was going in behind Bilal, because his community had become a camel that couldn't get through the eye of a needle. And you've heard that saying before, and it's a Quranic saying. Before the camel gets through the eye of a needle, no, no, you'll not get in. You think you'll get in? Can the camel get through the eye of the needle? You are a camel. You have become a camel. Now you think you going into paradise, can a camel get into through the eye of the needle? Now there are many, many hadiths to back what I'm saying up. How Prophet Muhammad foresaw his own community becoming intellectuals, giving to intellectual ism rather than faith. Money-minded people, given to materialism rather than faith. There are many hadiths that I can give that show you the thing that we are talking about right now.

So it had to come from who? From babe, from the little child. The little child, he has not been exposed to the subtleties of the world. In fact, we began to be drawn to them with strong attraction than we had for each other. Why is that? It is because the child has been raised with the rod  to obey and love and trust the one that uses that rod.  Isn't that true? The child that loves its parents the most, I'm not talking about just sentimental love, I'm talking about love that manifest in obedience, in devotion, in obedience that child has been under the rod.. If it were not a physical rod, it was a tongue that lashed it. Am I right or wrong? We were never under the rod of the Bilalian man or the Bilalian woman, we were under the rod of the European-American. That's what we were conscious of. It was the European-American's rod that we conscious of. 

We would treat each other nice and play with each and be girlfriend and boyfriend and make love and peace and everything with each other. And as soon as a notion or something hit us and we wanted to differ with each other, we started chopping each other up, beating each other up side of the head, chopping each other, killing up each other. We didn't feel we had to answer to anybody for the way we treated each other. Until the vision of the European-American with his rod came to our conscious. Then we said "ut'ol, the man is going to lock me up".


See how it can be a blessing and a curse. Yes. A child's heart is only right when it is under the right influences. Bilal's situation changed when the environment that he was in changed. As long as there was nothing but slavery and slave masters and no one calling to human dignity, Bilal was comfortable as a slave. But when the environment changed and the call to human dignity rose up in the call of slavery, Bilal's mind changed. Why? Because he had a child's heart, but he had a good child's heart. He just didn't have any child's heart, he had a good child's heart. He had been a good servant to his cruel master and he decided that he would be a good servant for the true Lord Allah. When the invitation was given, he couldn't make the decision on his own, the environmental situation had to change for him first.

Now let me tell you something, we as a people, we haven't changed not one time until the environment changed for us. Yes! Let's look back in the days of chattel slavery, in the cruelest hour of our enslavement a man tried to resist it, tried to rebel against it by the name of Nat Turner. He didn't receive any help. He was smothered out and if it wasn't for historians remembering to put his name down no one would even know he made a ripple on the pond. Is that right? Yes. Let us look back again. The great man Frederick Douglas, there were many others, but we just singling out a few of them. Maybe we should go back a little, David Walker, Elijah Lovejoy. 

These men came up under Bible, New Testament influence and it is because of their touch with the New Testament that gave them a concept of man as servant to One Lord even though it was Jesus Christ, they began to question the Lord that was over them. Didn't change until changes in the circumstances. Changes in the environment took place. Now, Frederick Douglas came along at a time when nations were questioning human ethics, political ethics, the treatment of the common man. Frederick Douglas was educated because of a situation in his environment, he was given permission to study. So he studied and then fell under a cruel slave master who refused to let him study, but the change in his environment that enabled him to study and his mind to come alive intellectually would not allow him to stay under that slave master, he broke a loose a ran from that slave master, ran on to the north to freedom. I believe that's the history. Circumstances, change, the environment changed, conditions change came into the conditions and changed the conditions. Something came in that wasn't there, then the Bilalian began to get on the move.

You know the time is beginning to fly but I'm looking at his face and he's not telling me to stop so I'm going to go on. I've talked long as I wanted to talk but I see I've got myself into something and I can't get out of it right away. So let me go on. It's good for us to understand ourselves. Now, after those people are stars, great stars, Frederick Douglas and look how he fought the influences of slavery and that man managed to impress the President, in fact, he impressed the President before he became President. Abraham Lincoln before he became President was already influenced by Frederick Douglas. When he became President he was under the strong influence of Frederick Douglas and that man was given the freedom to speak out. And Frederick Douglas spoke out and we have his shining words, right now, in print, we can go to Bilalian book stores and other book stores and buy those words for a small price. 

How that man stood up with intellectual vision speaking out of the innocent heart of the human being, out of the child nature and spoke against the human cruelties. And he called the America that he was in a "brute". A brute of the worst kind, who had become so insensitive that it was shaming every fine principle that it based its life upon. This was the indictment of Frederick Douglas against that cruel America that had us in slavery. But that man came to life because of changes in his environment.

We can go on and name many others. Drew Ali, the one who started the Moorish-Americans. Marcus Garvey, the one who started the back to Africa Movement. Those men spoke in a new time, new circumstances. It wasn't the same America. They spoke in an environment that encouraged them to think. An environment that encouraged them to be somebody. Why? Because the idea of freedom had come then into the society as an open message. The same man that said"! hold these truths" he said it for his folks, he said it for everybody that heard it. (laugh) And the same man that said "wake up, wake up, the British are coming". He said it in one ear, it hit all the others, everybody heard it. New time, new time. The man that said "give me liberty or give me death". 

He said it in one ear, but it hit every ear that was open. So that was the beginning of changes in the environment. You see how Allah can bring about changes downstairs while things are happening upstairs. Ain't nothing happening downstairs, it's happening upstairs, (laugh) But the people downstairs hear what's happening upstairs and the people upstairs think they are the only ones listening. The people upstairs are saying "Amin", and they don't know we are downstairs saying amin. We are saying amin louder than they are because we are deeper under the stuff than they are. We have to say it real loud to be heard. They're up there saying amin, amin George. Amin, Ralph. And we downstairs are saying "AMIN, LORD, AMIN, LORD, LORD, AMIN, AMIN!" Praise be to Allah.

Marcus Garvey got many followers, mainly out there on the east coast, It was because a new time, new situation, new time had come. Behind him came the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. A man again who was born in season. It was time for a change over the American Bilalians. It was time for a change. Freedom, church, and freedom had not yet given us a sense of true dignity. The little man was still neglected.

We are a people of a child's heart. The same people that said Jesus Christ was God. Jesus Christ is Lord and believed he was Lord because he loved everybody, turned away from that and followed the Honorable Elijah Muhammad because his bitter message also appealed to their childish heart. A people given to extremities because they haven't established for themselves any discipline for their faults. They haven't established for themselves any discipline for their mind. No discipline for their vision. Don't you know vision needs discipline. A child can't establish discipline for his vision. A child merely monitors, merely gazes, merely monitors, merely senses what's happening upon its soul and respond to it and that's all we've been doing. 

In our soul was a reception for revenge, although it's the heart of a child. It accepted the Lord Christ, who says no vengeance, leave vengeance to the Lord, love your enemy, turn the other cheek. That went nice too, because it was a child's heart that received it. The child's heart liked that message too, because that message says stop suffering and start mending, healing. The child wants to get the lash off his back. The child wants to get an uncomfortable situation away. So that that strikes the child as being capable of changing an uncomfortable situation appeals to the child, so that message of the Lord Jesus Christ struck home with us because it says here is a chance for reconciliation. Here is a chance for healing, a healing of the races. That's what it said to us, the message of love, is that right? And the child's heart bought it, but the same child's heart will buy justice. Why? Because deep in that child's heart it senses that wrong has been done to it and before things can be right justice must come. 

So when the Honorable Elijah Muhammad came with the bitter message, with the bitter gospel, with the gospel of vengeance, it struck home too, in the heart of Bilal. Because we knew the white man hadn't made sufficient Apologies for his treatment to us. In our hearts we knew that the white man hadn't really been redeemed himself, and here he's preaching to us redemption and giving us a white image of himself, calling it the Lord Christ, the Redeemer. And he himself in that image hasn't been redeemed. So we didn't want that. The child's mind say What the heck! Something was wrong. Say look, we followed that all of our lives but something was wrong. Say look; I hadn't looked with the other eye, you just caught me with one eye open, now something has happened in America to open my other eye and I see that justice has been neglected. Redeem yourself first before you master me. Yes, isn't that what we told him? Yes. You know what we told him.

A heart given to extremes, wasn't the message of love extremism? Isn't the message of Christ, love? Isn't that extremism? Wasn't the message of Black Nation, from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, wasn't that extremism? The heart is given to respond to extremes. Yes. But now something else happens, something else came into the environment along with the message of black supremacy, from the mouth of the downtrodden Elijah Muhammad and his people, came something else from the hand, not from the right hand. From the right hand went fire and brimstone, but from the left hand came the Quran. In the left hand he held the Quran and in the right hand he pointed the finger of wrath, "curse them, you race of devils, my saviour says he's coming to burn every one of you up even your babies to the last". I've seen him so many times, I'm talking about Elijah, holding the Quran in his left hand and pointing the finger
of condemnation and wrath with his right hand. "He's going to scare every one of you and stop your broth". 

Yes that's what he would say. "Say, he's coming to stew you in a pot, and he's going to sop your broth." That's what Elijah said holding the Quran in his left hand, not his right hand in his left hand. Then along came his son and his son reached down and picked the Quran up with his right hand and he held it in his right hand and he began to read it. And then he came out and said "gee, wooo, halt, be still you wiggling people, be still". Came to check extremes, to check extremes, to check the tendency to be given to extremism with a book that was revealed for that purpose. It says "And this is a middle way...," not the way of extremism. This is a middle way. With the influences of that book a new people was born in America. Now don't tell me circumstances weren't involved, circumstances are involved, but look here is a man too, born in season. Tell me I wasn't born in season. 

Born in season, at a time when extremism was putting out our eyes, extremism had put the leadership of America's eyes out long ago and caused them to be too blind to see that we were human beings just like they were. Extremism came from the church and put the eyes out of all the masses who bought that extreme doctrine of Christ Love. It put the middle eye out and made them an emotional kind of people given to bacchanalia, drunkenness of the mind, given to drunkenness of the mind. That brought the whole America down about 1960 in the early 70's we saw the whole America under bacchanalia, mental drunkenness. Allah says to Prophet Muhammad in this book that you will see men drunk and they will have not touched liquor. Not drunk with liquor, drunk with irrational philosophies. 

Drunk, under the influence of irrational ideas, irrational philosophies that stress emotionalism and play down the role of logic, the role of good sense. This is what we came under didn't we? The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was a factor for changing not only the Bilalian environment, but also the Caucasian environment, while they were drunk, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad sounded drunk, but what he spoke was logic. Yes. It was logic. Oh, he said his father spoke logic, he said his father spoke truth, no-no. Let me catch you right now. HALT! In the name of the law. When I say logic I don't necessarily mean truth. Logic and truth are different. Logic sometimes is truth. Logic is not always true, now you check that out in the Bible and in science and you'll see that I'm giving it to you straight as it is. So I said he spoke logic. 

Logic means that which respects the laws of reason, that's what logic is — that which respects the laws of reason. The Hon. Elijah Muhammad spoke logic, now whether it was true or not that's another story, because you can speak that which respect the laws of reason, but it doesn't mean you are speaking the truth. Can you understand that? You are speaking the truth for that situation. But take it out of that situation it might be a lie. Can you understand that? The logic in one environment doesn't have to be the logic in another environment. You can follow your reasoning but your reasoning is dictated by your influences, is that right or wrong? Your reasoning is dictated by your own influences, so if your influences are not influences that are pure than you might have logic, but not truth. Does that make sense? I'm telling you that's the scientific truth.

Now let's get back there. The Hon. Elijah Muhammad was able to reach the African-American people, or the Bilalian as we call ourselves, Bilalian-Americans, and he was also able to reach the European-American. The European-American heard him, listened to him, respected him, many of them, and they also were influenced; their behavior was influenced; their thinking was influenced because of him. Bilalians did the same thing and they experienced the same kind of changes  in them. When the Hon. Elijah Muhammad passed I introduced a new way of thinking. When I began to speak I had to appeal to your sober, rational thinking. I had to appeal to your need for some understanding and in appealing to your need for some understanding I had a hearing, many of you listened. Why? Because I was a man too, born in season. 

What had transpired in America over the history? What had transpired in the outer world and also in our African-American world or Bilalian world had given us many encounters, shocking encounters. Encounters that were able to transform us to a certain extent or a certain degree, but what all of those encounters had failed to do was give us understanding. I challenge anybody to show me that you had understanding before the Quran came, and I mean before it came with me holding it in my right hand. Challenge any of you to prove to me that you had understanding. No, you didn't have understanding. I didn't have understanding; we didn't have understanding, we were grouping, struggling for understanding, our minds were so tired of running up against barriers that we couldn't climb over, or couldn't see over. We had almost given up hope of any understanding. 

We were just responding to the emotions and the interactions that we were a part of. Push us left, push us right, push forward, push us backward, send us up, send us down, we would just respond to the interactions in our society. Isn't that right or wrong? Until this Quran came. Until that Quran came from the right hand, then you began to behave differently. You began to want to know. You began to want to understand. And I didn't leave any stone unturned that I came upon, I didn't care how sacred it was. Say oh, you can turn over the minister's stone, that's all right - what is he getting ready to do now? What is getting ready to do now? And they see my hand going towards the Hon, Elijah Muhammad's stone. Oh no, hold up, I hope he doesn't turn over the Hon. Elijah Muhammad's stone. I say flip! Turned over the Hon. Elijah Muhammad's stone. We want to know if there are any snakes up under stones.   

We are not going to leave a one unturned. And I went to one and they saw an Arab image on it, a non-Bilalian image was on it, and they saw my hand going at it and they said "oh, lord it's finished". I reached and I turned over Fard's stones. Flip! Say whoo-o-! Say this man, he doesn't have any stopping at all. He goes and he just gets into everything. Why? Because the season was here. What season? Season for understanding. The season for understanding came, yes. We had gone through enough changes, from one extreme to another. The soul was calling for understanding, and that was a growing thing, wasn't it. When we followed the Hon. Elijah Muhammad's voice, many of us followed simply because we thought that his voice would lead us to understanding, oh yes. 

I don't think that was true of the church message. I don't think the Bilalians, African-Americans that embraced this Christian Doctrine, embraced it because they thought it was going to bring them to understanding That might have been true for just a few, a very few educated preachers, maybe, but the great masses, no , I don't think they embraced the Christianity for understanding, they embraced Christianity for spiritual relief. They wanted a vacation from the world and Christianity offered them a vacation from the world for as long as they were under the power, the hypnotic power of the sermon. So they would go to hear that sermon to take a trip from the world. The world was hell. But I think that those who followed the Hon. Elijah Muhammad weren't looking so much for a comfort, because when they followed the Hon. Elijah Muhammad they put themselves in a worst-risk situation than they were in before. 

Because now my relatives are going to condemn me; the society will condemn me; my boss may fire me. They took a chance of throwing themselves in worse fire than they were already in. But they took that chance because already in them was manifesting a need for understanding. And though Hon. Elijah Muhammad spoke a very apocalyptic message, gave a very confused doctrine to them, they believed that in it was understanding because the Hon. Elijah Muhammad said "dig deep", he encouraged the search for understanding. He didn't just give us some very vague doctrine and left us with it, no, and say take it face value. He didn't say that. He gave us a very confused, a vague kind of doctrine and he said search deep. He said it's under the surface. He didn't say it was on the surface, he said search deep. That means the understanding is under the surface, not on the surface. That means don't take it literally find what's under that literal language, that's what he said. He taught us that.

Now, by encouraging that search for understanding the Hon. Elijah Muhammad got us and we followed him and we followed him with rational intelligence. What do I mean by that? The followers of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad for about forty years, they didn't give themselves to foolish, irrational behavior. They gave themselves to rational, intelligent behavior. They gained a reputation for being decent, honorable, clean-cut intelligent, industrious people. Though they were taken from the very bottom row of the Lazarus of society. This is the history. Let me make this point. What happened was this, even though the search for understanding came into the Bilalian, came into the child's heart that's given to extremism - rational thinking is not extremism, it will eventually take you out of extremism -but what prevented us from coming out of the extremism? It was irrational beliefs. You can have rational search. You can have the urge for reason, but if you are dominated by irrational beliefs, you won't come to reason, you won't come to rational thinking, you won't come to the truth because you're influenced. 

See that's what I mean by logic, logic is subject to its environmental influences in which it is born. So here was born a logic, a reasoning in the Bilalian, but it was born under the influence of irrational doctrine, irrational beliefs, so what happened? What I mean by irrational, irrational on the surface, we know that mythology is irrational on the surface just as the teachings of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad that were given to us in the form of lessons, problems books, etc., were irrational on the surface. There was a lot of rationale in it: the distance of the stars, the calculations and what not of the distances of the stars, all of this, what causes blood pressure to go up, because they had high blood pressure, all of these things. This is rational, right. But what is its base? 

The base of it is irrational. Who created the stars? Irrational! We are studying something in a concept that is based on irrational thinking, right. It is only rational in its deep interpretation, but on the surface, irrational. We couldn't come into rational thinking, we were searching for understanding, but we would get out there and make ourselves look like the biggest fool in the world and would go away thinking we won the argument.. We would feel so victorious, walk away so proud and everybody would be laughing but us. "That stupid fool, I thought everybody knew that, where these people get this crazy stuff they believe in?" But we didn't think it was crazy, we thought it was facts. We would run it down to them too. You know.

When the Quran was taken in the right hand and the message of truth came in an environment that was not given to extremism, mythology and whatever sense began to come in. And over a period of five or six years or more sense has taken root in this community. Good sense has finally taken root in this community and the believers now are new people. Why do we still chose to call them Bilalians if they are new people? Because we want that connection with that history. We don't want to lose that connection with that history. Bilal is a figure that will always remind us of our past. A thousand years from today, if our people read about Bilalians and then learn that Bilal was converted while he was a slave, they will know the connection. And they will say, yes these people were once slaves. 

We have a child's heart. Most of us want to forget that we were slaves, but it's important for history's sake for the coming generation, that we remember that we were slaves, and remember how we came up out of slavery. It wasn't by the doings of one man. It was by the efforts of the human race that we came up out of slavery. The effort working in other people and the effort working in us, yes. That's how we came up out of slavery. Some of you would like to say Abraham Lincoln freed us. Some would like to say perhaps Malcolm freed you. Some want to say Elijah Muhammad freed you. Others might say Fard freed us. Let me tell you, some of you might even say Wallace freed us. No! 

Humanity with the aid of God freed us. That's what has freed us. It has been humanity, the movement in humanity, the favor of God, and the movement in humanity. Not the movement in the beast, but the movement in humanity. That's God's favor on us and it has been the movement in humanity that has delivered us. And all of those people that were happening in our lives were incidents They were incidents and an incident can be a turn for the better and a turn for the worse, and for many all of those incidents were a turn for the worst. You know it's the truth. For many, every one of those incidents that I've named here today were turns for the worst. But for a certain number they were turns for the better. Why? Because humanity was dominating in those persons, that's why. 

If humanity is not dominating in you, those influences will not bring you to the core of humanity. They will be selfishly used by you. They will serve your selfish motives. They might send you into black supremacy; might send you into a fanatical nationalism; might send you into a tomato bed, where all of you become sweet tomatoes for everybody to eat. Those influences doesn't mean a man is going to be erected. The man has to be in accord with the divine providence that says humanity must be established.   If that man's nature, his heart, his inclination are in tune with that movement to establish humanity, then he will respond to those incidents and he will respond humanly and correctly.

The only thing that is guaranteed is the word of God. For heaven and earth has a way, but the word of the Lord stands forever. Is that not true, yes, this is what stands, the Quran, this book stands. It's not shakable, it's not subject to change, it's complete, it's not subject to influence, it can't be altered, added to or taken from, it is settled, it's complete. Not only is it complete, it is perpetual, it's timeless. Tomorrow won't produce any circumstances that will cause us to question it's validity.


