1976-April-16

Bilalian News

The Light Of Truth

W.D. Muhammad

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35. God is the Light
Of the heavens and the earth. 
The parable of His Light 
Is as if there were a Niche 
And within it a Lamp : 
The Lamp enclosed in Glass :

The glass as it were
A brilliant star:
Lit from a blessed Tree,
An Olive, neither of the East
Nor of the West,
Whose Oil is well-nigh
Luminous,
Though fire scarce touched it:
Light upon Light!
God doth guide
Whom He will
To His Light:
God doth set forth Parables
For men : and God
Doth know all things.

36. (Lit is such a Light) 
In houses, which God 
Hath permitted to be raised 
To honour ; for the celebration,

In them, of His name : 
in them is He glorified 
In the mornings and 
In the evenings, (again and
again), —

Holy Quran Translation by Yusuf Ali; Sura XXIV, Verses 35 -36
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In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful; Peace and Blessings upon His Servant and His Messenger, Muhammad, forever. Amen.

There is no god but Allah: Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

When I speak on religion, I do not feel that I am speaking as a Muslim in the sense that the world sees and accepts Muslims. I do not feel that I am speaking as a Christian or as a Jew or as any particular religious society of people speak. I feel as though I am speaking as one who believes in Almighty God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. I feel that I have the right to speak and to feel comfortable anywhere and with any people because we are all one creation and we all have one "boss" over us.

The world has become so confused in religion that it is hard to identify Muslims, Christians or Jews. Many Muslims have stopped living like Muslims, many Christians have stopped living like Christians, and many Jews have stopped living like Jews. A big problem is presented when we try to put labels on each other. Everything is made simple when we ignore the label and deal with the contents.


The Brotherhood of the Prophets
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51. O ye apostles ! enjoy 
(All) things good and pure, 
And work righteousness: 
For 1 am well-acquainted 
With (all) that ye do.

52. And verily this Brotherhood 
Of yours is a single Brotherhood, 
And I am your Lord 
And Cherisher: therefore 
Fear Me (and no other). 

Holy Quran Translation by Yusuf Ali; Sura XXIII, Verses 5 7 -52
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The Holy Quran tells us that the divine content is the same in all the great religions. It also tells us that the messengers (Abraham, Muhammad) brotherhood. Quran and
or prophets of God Moses, Jesus and all belonged to one When we read the Holy the Bible with proper understanding, we can clearly see that these great religious leaders were not divided one against the other. Jesus not only supported the scripture that Moses taught, but he interpreted it and explained it so that the people could get more light on what Moses had taught them. When Prophet Muhammad of Arabia (peace be upon him) came behind Jesus, he did the same thing. He spoke from the scriptures (from the word) that Jesus had left and he explained and interpreted what Jesus left. If our great heroes in religion have not divided themselves one against the other, and if they have shown us that they belonged to one unified family, why are we divided?

There have always been people who have wanted to "do their own thing." As soon as the man (prophet) leaves that the teaching belongs to, they take it over and "do their own thing." Those who claimed to follow Moses and Jesus took those prophets' teachings and changed (corrupted) them to suit their own evil plans.


The Darkness Of The Heaven

The scripture tells us that the world began in darkness. Men and women are born as children knowing nothing about the world. They come into this world and they learn of this world order until they reach a stage of development when a light is lit within them — then they come "into light." The Holy Quran and the Bible teach us that the world began out of darkness, and it was destined or preordained that darkness would come over the world again to test those who were really worthy of the light.

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"For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee."

(—Isaiah, 60:2)
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The scripture says that the darkness that would come in the last days would not be a darkness that would rise up over the earth, but it would be a darkness of the heavens.


JESUS: The Un-Expected Messiah

When    Jesus    came    to   the   world, Jerusalem was troubled with darkness. The Book (Bible) describes Jesus' coming as one coming under the cloak of darkness at a dark time.
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"To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."

(—St. Luke, 2:79)
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The people of Jerusalem, called Jews, were very bitter with the established order. They did not like the foreign rulers (Romans) that were ruling over them, and the masses of the Jews were in an uproar. There were different religious groups, all of whom had the fever of rebellion, and most of them wanted to change the established order. They preached about the expected messiah who would be brave enough to stand before the Romans, like little David stood before Goliath, and challenge them and defeat them with truth. When Jesus came up and won such great acclaim among the people, the established leadership among the Jews did not recognize him or accept him. Jesus was not the kind of messiah that they were looking for. Instead of Jesus doing what they thought the messiah would do, he did what they never expected. They were expecting him to stand up and condemn Rome, but he stood up and condemned his own people, the hypocritical ones of the Jewish people.


"...Your Father The Devil"

Jesus, being wise and divinely guided, knew that he would have to do first things first. If a people have an enemy, or an oppressor over them and they cannot do anything about their condition, they should first look at what is happening in their own hearts and mind. They should recognize that something has gone wrong in the community to make it possible for the oppressor to get a firm position over them. So, Jesus went to the real cause of the problem. He called them lying, hypocritical Jews, "devils" in disguise.
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"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it-"                                      

(—St. John, 8:44)
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Jesus did a great work. He truly left a sign in history that a saviour was indeed born. To save a people, it is necessary for God's man to do what he knows the people do not like, but what he knows is good for them. Jesus' first appearance in scripture is described as one coming under the cover of darkness at a dark time. It was a time when the earth (the society, or the masses of the people) was dark (ignorant), but the leadership had light.


The Two Firmaments

The Bible speaks of two firmaments (the upper firmament and the lower firmament), which we have broadly taken to be the earth and a physical heaven. The writers of scripture were talking about things that resemble, in their nature, physical earth and sky, but they were not talking about physical earth and sky. The "lower firmament" represents the ignorant, rejected and unschooled people. The "upper firmament" represents the favored and the wealthy people who have knowledge and a position of power over the common people.

In the beginning God favored the "upper firmament" by opening the way for everybody to get wealth and knowledge. The people who had the best qualifications got the wealth and knowledge. After they got it and other people began to envy their wealth and knowledge, jealousy and envy came into the picture. People began to war against each other and rob each other of their rights. It was at this time that the snake, the devil himself (the wicked ungodly mind of men hiding under religious garments), conspired to take over the "heaven" that God had originally established. They conspired to take over the original religious society that God first inspired to hold the torch of truth high for humanity, and they maneuvered themselves into the seats of authority. This was the condition of Jerusalem when Jesus came. The conspirators were ruling the religious order. They had the light, but they were withholding the light from the masses. Darkness was not over "heaven," it was over the earth (the weak, the meek, the deprived).

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"...As The Lightning Cometh Out Of The East"

"Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen."

(—Revelation, 1:7)
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The Book says that when Christ returns, he will return in the clouds of heaven. Today, we have lived to see the time when the upper firmament would be dark, confused and disturbed. We cannot say that the darkness is on the earth, because the masses (the common people) know what is right and what is wrong. The average person in the street has seen wrongdoings of the leadership, and they are condemning their leaders from the preacher to the government leaders for their conduct. But, there was a time a few centuries ago, before mass literacy and modern communication techniques, when the masses of the people were kept out of everything. 

They could not point a finger at their guilty leaders and judge those who were ruling over them. They had to accept whatever the leadership gave them. We have come to the time that the Book has prophesied of when the ground (the common people) would be lit with knowledge and know the truth. They cannot read the Bible because they were not given the Bible - they were given a rational mind and an experience of the history of enslavement and deprivation. This experience has lit their mind, and the natural conscious that Almighty God gave them lights their heart. They are not in darkness. The church, the synagogue and the mosque are in darkness.

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"For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the son of man be."

(—St. Matthew, 24:27)
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The Book says that the second coming of the Christ would be as a flash of light out of the east even unto the west. In order to remove the confusion in religion today, we have found that it is necessary to go back to where this religious teaching started and trace it up to where we are today. We had to bring it from Jerusalem to Chicago and not have a single break in the chain of light that stretches from Jerusalem to Chicago. This is what has to be done before the religious order today can be lit up again with light, because someone has broken that chain of light.

The evil workers of Satan have separated Abraham from Moses, Moses from Jesus, and Jesus from Muhammad. They have put blocks of darkness in the great chain of prophets in the movement of truth from God to us. In order to see clearly again, we have to see that light stretching from the east to the west in an even, unbroken pattern.


The Second Coming Of Christ

The Book says that when Jesus comes, he would come to judge and to condemn the wicked. He would also reprove the righteous, justify the righteous, and satisfy the burdened hearts and minds of those who have held on to truth and God. They have respected righteousness and humanity, but they have suffered the greatest hell that any human beings or any creatures could have suffered. It was prophesied that Jesus would bring comfort to their minds and to their hearts by explaining to them the things that have taken place in the history that the Book had prophesied.

Who are the wicked that he is to condemn? They are the same ones that he condemned before. That is why the return of his life is called "Christ's coming" again, because the job that the second man will do will be the same as the first coming of Christ. He is not coming to change the common prostitute and make them confess their sins, nor is he coming to judge people who eat physical hog flesh. On his "second return," he does the same thing that Jesus did the first time that he was on earth. Jesus pointed at the heavens and said that the earth was dark because the heaven was a hypocrite. On his second coming he will say that the heaven is dark because of God's judgment. The established houses of worship have become houses of hypocrites, so God has taken the light away from them and made their heavens dark. God has condemned them and taken the light away because they do not deserve to have His light shining up there "in the heavens."


The "Holy Monopoly" On Truth

You might say, "Look at the good that the Christians have done." I say to you, "Look at the good that the devil has done." Do you think that the devil is all bad? The devil always shows more good than he shows bad, but he produces more hell than he produces heaven. The established religious orders have shown more good than they have shown bad, but the effect that they have left on the earth has been more hellish than it has been divine. Let us look at their work and judge the doers of that work.

There are some members of the established religious order who do not go along with the majority, but you have to look at the facts. If the minority of them are wicked, then the majority have let the minority come into power. If they speak from their scripture, and if they preach the truth, they have to present something that will condemn them for what they have done. The Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, preaches against deceit, lies, craftiness, greed, murder, enslavement and hypocrisy. The Book also preaches against materialism. It goes after the protection of the weak, the unschooled and the deprived. The Christian establishment has gone after the weak, the uneducated and the deprived to put shackles on their arms and on their legs.

That is the history that is behind us in the Lost - Found Nation of Islam. If it were not for us fighting and risking our lives everyday for the last 40 years or more, we would still be in mental and spiritual shackles right now. The Holy Quran from Al-Fatinah to Al-Nas, preaches against the withholding of knowledge from people whatever they be on the face of the earth. It, like the Bible, preaches against a "holy monopoly" on God's truth.


The World's Growth In Darkness

Today, brother and sister, Almighty God has rewarded us with more spiritual light of understanding than He has rewarded any people with in the past history. You may ask, "How can you have more light than Christ Jesus?" There was not as much light needed in the time of Jesus Christ, because there was not as much darkness as there is today. You might ask, "How can you have as much light as the holy Prophet Muhammad of Arabia (peace be upon him)?" There was not as much darkness on the earth when Prophet Muhammad of Arabia was here. 

The conditions were horrible in the times of those great men, but darkness had not covered the whole earth at that time. Almost one - third of the whole world had not yet been discovered by the known world of that time. Look at all of the problems that have come out of human nature and out of human society since the time of Moses, Jesus and Muhammad of Arabia). The world has grown in darkness like the burning of a corrupt and filthy lake. It poured out just so much filth in Moses' day, and just so much in Jesus' day, and just so much in Muhammad's day — but, today, the whole world is polluted with filth and ignorance.

It takes the proper kind of understanding, right conditions, experiments, and circumstances. All of these natural things working together bring the bright light of truth out more and more and grow our understanding. As our understanding grows bigger and bigger, our focus grows bigger because our focus widens to take in more light. The people to whom Jesus and Prophet Muhammad spoke, lived in a world that conditions, experiments and circumstances had only allowed to grow so big in understanding. Their spiritual eye could not focus to receive so much light. But, today the divine plan is universal. 

The devil and his hell have gone all around the world and he has covered the earth with hell and confusion. The people have the experience of hell and confusion all over the world. Television and other modern inventions have focused the world scene so that the average man and woman anywhere in the world can look at the whole world's picture at one time. This condition has worked to open up and to expand the mind of the common people. So, the man that comes today can give more light, because the focus of the people is big enough to see the light, whereas yesterday the focus was too small to see the light.


The Return Of The Light

The light that God has blessed us with today is bigger than any light that has shown before. It is not bigger than the Holy Quran, nor is it bigger than the Bible, but it is bigger than the Bible that this world has seen so far, and it is bigger than the Holy Quran that this world has seen so far. Although we have been teaching for just a little over a year now, do not measure what we have done with the finished work that we are to do. We have not finished, we have just started. 

If God blesses us to do all the things that He has shown us, in just a few years there will be great populations confessing that this is truly the return of the light of Christ and of the light of Muhammad. They will confess that the hope that has been in the people for the return of Christ and for the return of the light of Muhammad, as he presented it in his day, has been answered in this Nation here in America among the Bilalian community. It will be confessed high and low that the Lost - Found Nation of Islam is the manifestation of the true light of Christ and the true light of Muhammad. We have the light of truth.

Thank you for honoring us with your time to read these few words.

Your brother, 
W. D. Muhammad

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Wisdom of W.D. Muhammad

The object of religion today is to knock the firmament out from under you and to disassociate you from first things. First things should come first. In doing that, they separated you from reality and they held you in a world of superstitions, dreams, vain imaginations, and child's play.

Something that is designed to hold you down and limit your travel is the strongest prison cell you can find. Nothing can be designed to do a better job of making a man a slave and containing him than ideas that are foreign to reality. If you take on ideas that are foreign to reality, you can live on the earth and never touch the ground. You will be no more than a walking shell, no more than a physical dummy, that has been programmed to give out what was put into it but with no ability to examine what was put into it and map out its own future movements.

Believe it or not, the church has been the stronghold of the power of white supremacy and diabolic consciousness. I am not talking about Christians, I am talking about the image of the devil that came in the false language of the Church and is backed up by a Caucasian image to support the white mentality.

The problem with the church is not the beautiful teaching of the Master Jesus (may peace be upon him), the problem is the interpretation (symbolic language) that is organized in the Bible and in the Christian language to advance color consciousness for the rule of white supremacy all over the world.

Today, we have sounded the death knell for white supremacy. We expose its Dravidian roots to the criminal and to the victim. White supremacist mentality is being destroyed by the fire of Divine Truth, root and branch, never to plague the mind of man again.

A prophet is one who understands something of truth. He knows that there is a God and he feels the reality of a righteous being in his own life. Because of his purity (clean mind) and his willingness to follow righteousness, he is able to predict what will happen to people who rebel against the right way (the way of the prophets). In being able to predict, he is given the name "Prophet."

Prophet means one who has the power to prophesy. That kind of man is not needed in the world today. There is no need to prophesy because the prophecies have been fulfilled and the whole truth is being brought out in the open.

We don't predict and tell you that a certain thing will happen because of this or that. The word "prophesy" is the wrong word to use for what we are telling you today. We tell you, in fact, what is going to happen if you go in a certain direction. That is not the same as prophesying.

The very world "prophesy" suggest a lack of knowledge. It means that the person can't see all of the way. He sees only part way, so he predicts the rest of the way. This is the day and time when we don't prophesy anymore. Today, the Divine Mind sees all the way. The knowledge given to you by the Divine Mind, brothers and sisters, will make you greater than the prophets.

You have misunderstood religion completely and you have never rightly understood what a man of God is. You have thought that a man of God is somebody who leaves the world and runs away from money, actual facts, and scientific proofs and who closes his ears to all the sounds of the real world. You have called these space-dreamers "prophets," but they are fools.

People like that have never done anything to help the real world. When you want to go somewhere for guidance and leadership, don't go to dreamers. Go to people who have stopped dreaming because they have discovered something real to work with.



