[Editor’s note: This edited article originally appeared April 15, 1988 in The Final Call]
In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.
We cannot build a nation of righteousness depending on the governments of the world, for most of the governments of the world have turned away from Allah (God) and are now suffering great loss.
Who is better than Allah (God) to depend on for our sustenance and the granting of our innermost desires? Who knows what is best for us, other than Allah (God)?
Oftimes we have desires which, if fulfilled, would bring us great sorrow. However, if we are strong enough to desire only that which pleases Allah (God), then we can never suffer disappointment and grief over not fulfilling some cherished desires.
Allah (God) teaches us in the Holy Qur’an that He is the Grantor of Security and that He straitens the means of subsistence for whom He pleases. It is He, then, who can cause the Earth to reveal its treasures to us and it is He who can keep us from the treasures of the Earth. So let us depend on Allah and ourselves.
Why should we depend on ourselves? There is an old saying that God helps those who help themselves; and we are taught in the Holy Qur’an, “Surely Allah changes not the condition of a people, until they change their own condition.”
There is a direct relationship between our success and our relationship with Allah (God) and our failures and our relationship with Allah (God). When the Earth turns relative to the Sun, we are in the time of vernal equinox, or “spring.” When the Earth turns relative to the Sun producing what is called the winter solstice, we come into the season called “winter.” This teaches us spiritually that death (winter) and life (spring) are dependent upon our relationship with Allah (God). Thus, in the Holy Qur’an Abraham is made to say, “Surely I have turned myself, being upright, wholly to Him who originated the heavens and the earth and I am not of the polytheists.” (6:80)
The turning of Abraham to Allah (God) is not with his own power, but Abraham is in harmony with the Power that is turning him. We do not turn to Allah (God) on our own, neither does the Earth turn on its own axis in relationship to the Sun on its own. There is a force moving the Earth and the Earth is in submission to that force.
When we submit our will to do theWill of Allah (God), and it turns Him toward us, producing the springtime of our life. Faith takes root, we grow, bud, blossom and reproduce, spiritually and materially.
In the Bible, this is the work of Elijah. It is written that Elijah would “turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” (Malachi 4:6) Our obedience to Allah (God) and His Messenger is the axis on which we turn to Allah (God) and Him to us. We believe that this Elijah was among us in the person of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
The force of Satan (deceit and rebellion) is to interfere with our willing submission to Allah (God). So when we resist Him (Allah) and resist turning to Him on the axis provided by Him, Elijah Muhammad, then we are taught by the Qur’an that Allah (God) turns us to that to which we turn ourselves.
We cannot build a nation of righteousness depending on the governments of the world, for most of the governments of the world have turned away from Allah (God) and are now suffering great loss.
Every Muslim that visits the Holy City of Mecca for Hajj (Pilgrimage) or Umrah (minor pilgrimage), is made to follow the path of Hagar, running between the two hills (Safa and Marwah). What a beautiful story for us to consider, particularly those of us who have committed ourselves to rebuild the Nation of Islam by the Guidance coming to us from Allah through the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
Hagar was put out of Abraham’s house (protection and security) into the wilderness with her young child and was running between the two hills looking for help for herself and her little baby. When she was exhausted, exasperated and about to give up the struggle of life, she laid her baby down and at the foot of the baby a bubbling well sprung up. The well of Zamzam.
What lesson is in this for us?
WE MUST DEPEND ON ALLAH AND OURSELVES. Hagar got no help from the hills. The help came when she exhausted herself running to and fro between the hills. It was when she gave up on the hills that Allah (God) caused the well to spring up.
David the Psalmist wrote, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills. From whence cometh my help? My help cometh from the Lord Who made heaven and earth.” (Psalms 12:1, 2) Hills here could represent small governments of the world. We, the Nation of Islam, are, like Hagar, out of the house of our Father, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, with a little baby nation that we are attending.
We are running to and fro, trying to get help to rebuild the Work of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, which is for the salvation of our people and ultimately the entire world. Could it be that we have cried out to the hills (small governments of the world) but they have not heard our cry to rebuild this Great Work? Could it be that the well that we are looking for and need is right at our own feet?
WE MUST DEPEND ON ALLAH AND OURSELVES. Let every Muslim get up with a mind to work. Let every believer determine there is no help for us but the help of Allah (God) and ourselves. And let us show the world that Allah (God) is sufficient for the Believers. On Him let the Believers rely!
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad has warned us against sitting at home waiting on a mystery God! We have tried the mystery God and he has not come to our aid. We must get up and go to work doing something for ourselves.
WE MUST DEPEND ON ALLAH AND OURSELVES. In the Book of Proverbs 26:13, we are taught that slothful (lazy) people make excuses not to work, saying “There is a lion (beast) in the way; a lion (beast) is in the streets.” Instead of killing the lion or taming him, his presence is used as an excuse to stay indoors and thus, “as the door turneth upon its hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed.” (26:14)
Allah (God) has given, through the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the wisdom to conquer the beast and civilize the savage; so let every Believer depend on Allah (God) and ourselves and go to work today and to do something for ourselves.
Thank you for reading these words.
