1980-August-8

Bilalian News

On Moral Consciousness

Imam Warith Deen Muhammad


With the name Allah, the, Gracious, the Compassionate

(Editor's note: Following is the conclusion of excerpts from Imam Warith Deen Muhammad’s Feb. 17, 1980 Sunday address at Masjid Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Chicago, Ill.-Continued from the last six weeks)

How can that happen? It can happen if Allah wants it to happen. Anybody who comes in the name of Allah, if they do right they get a blessing for doing it. If they do wrong in His name, He'll do the thing that intelligent beings do. God is an intelligent being, The highest in intelligence. God is a dignified being, the highest in honor.

If someone right now starts advocating or propagating a philosophy in the name of President Carter, don't you know that sooner or later President Carter will have to speak to that, especially if he is misrepresented. If that person misrepresents President Carter, President Carter is obligated to come out. Now do you think you can come out and speak in the name of God, and say you are Allah, and do your work and Allah not speak to that thing you did?

If anybody goes out in the name of God and says, "I am God." Allah is ahead of them and He's going to stay on their case. If they meant well, then they'll just pay for their wrong doings, and they will be rewarded for their good intentions. But if they start out meaning wrong, He will utterly destroy them, completely destroy them.

Dear beloved people, this Christianity that we have now in the West and in other places on this Earth, it uses the name of God, too. It has used the name of God; it says, "God said this, God did this, God said that." And can't you see how God's been on the case of Christianity? Oh, yes—He won't let Christianity rest. No, because they took it upon themselves to say. "God did this, God said this."

Did God ever say that a man is God? No! And if somebody says that against God, don't you know that God is going to prove them wrong? Oh, yes-and the innocent will be saved, the guilty will be punished.

What are we guilty of? For my part, I have never done anything but tried to do right. I don't know about all of you, but I know there are many who are just like I am. They had no wrong intentions. They came in because they thought this was the way of God. They felt that God was with this and that they should come away from what they were in. I was raised in it from a baby. Allah is my witness, I never had any intention but to be right. I used to pray the same way you prayed and worship the same way you worshiped.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was the "Messenger of Allah," that's all I knew. "Allah came in the person of W.D. Ford," that's all I knew. We had to "obey him if we expected to be saved," that's all I knew. I followed it, I believed it: I followed it and didn't break the laws. No, I didn't eat pork, didn't drink whiskey, didn't smoke cigarettes, didn't mistreat people, didn't do wrong against people.

Not that I was perfect -- I went to a movie. I remember going to a dance. But the laws I broke were minor laws: I never broke the major laws. When I broke any law-whether going to a movie or not- I felt hurt, felt shame and guilt; I asked Allah for forgiveness-until I finally began to rationalize. I said. "Well, they're looking at t.v. - what's the difference"" Then I stopped feeling guilty.
I've taken up all of your time here. All praise is due to Allah. Dear beloved people, when you come out next Sunday for our Annual February Convention we will continue this talk. After that, Insha-Allah, I won't have to talk anymore. You'll be able to talk.

The meeting next Sunday will be devoted to the "inside" and "outside." There will be an outside address for an hour by radio, and after that will be the inside address. The inside address is for Muslims only.

Don't invite non-Muslims to come to the Masjid next Sunday; it's for Muslims only. They will hear over the radio an hour of the address, which will be pertaining to things of general nature, general concerns. We will be talking about our February convention called "Saviour’s Day." That's going to be our topic, and we'll be talking about that among ourselves—to each other.

I expect to see all of you here. You should tell all the other Muslims that they should be here. All Muslims should be here that ever belonged to this Community, which was called before, the Lost-Found Nation of Islam in the Wilderness of North America, and now the W.C.I.W. If they are not here it's not my fault. I'm inviting all of them.

THE END
