Dear Brothers and Sisters, our subject matter
for discussion is titled: THE WILL OF GOD.
Everything in Creation is the manifestation of
the Will of God. All of Creation expresses the Attributes or
characteristics of this Mighty Being, The Originator of the
Heavens and the Earth. But the Will of God is the Power behind the
throne. The Will of God is the Power behind the Universe�its
creation, its maintenance and its sustenance.
The Holy Qur�an constantly reminds us
that Allah�s command is just "Be!" And it is.
But this is not some spooky term such as "Abracadabra!"
or "Open, Sesame!" When Allah (God) says
"Be!," He summons the Power of His Own Being, His
Creative Mind and Will, to bring about that which He Wills.
When Allah says, "Be!," this is an
expression of His Will. But it is more than just the expression of
His Will, for when He says, "Be!," He arranges forces,
resources, angels, people � according to a Plan�to bring about
the Fruition of His Will.
Allah�s Will never fails. There is no plan by
any scholar or scientist, no power in the Heavens above or in the
Earth beneath, that can circumvent the Plan of Almighty God. In
fact, the plans of the present world leaders were all taken into
consideration. Before they were even a thought in the mind of
their father, their plans were known. Their scheme was known. And
Allah took their plans into consideration. He places His Hand over
their plan; He places His schemes over their scheme, so that even
their wicked schemes help to bring about the Fruition of His Will.
That is a Mighty, Powerful Being we are dealing with. When He
says, "Be!," it is.
What a wonderful thing, that Almighty God, Allah chooses to
share this Power with Humanity! Think of that, Brothers and
Sisters! Almighty God, Allah, Who has created everything by His
Will, shares His Power with you and me! We, today, have the
ability to Will. We have the ability to plan, to organize and to
bring into fruition our plans. We, too, can say "Be!,"
go to work, and it is.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad has taught us
that the brain of Man is "infinite." I want you to think
on it�THE BRAIN OF MAN IS INFINITE. If the brain of Man is
infinite, then Man can bring into existence whatever he conceives
in his mind�the repository for Allah (God), the place for the
God to dwell. God is infinite in the brain of Man.
In the New Testament, Jesus says that he knocks
and if we will open up to him, he will come in and sup with us.
This does not mean that he is a visitor standing outside your door
(although it could mean that, too), but just as you would open the
door of your home to allow into your home one who is a friend,
likewise we should open the door of our ears, the door of our
heart, the door of our mind, to let Almighty God, Allah, come in.
For there He wishes to dwell: in the Infinity of the Brain of Man.
The Will is the Real Power of Allah (God) in
Man. However, the Will must be buttressed, or supported, by Faith
and by Knowledge. Let us look at Will and its meaning; Faith and
its meaning; and Knowledge. Let us look at what Allah (God) has
given us of His Will. And what do we have of Faith? What do we
have of Knowledge, to buttress and support the power of our own
being?
"Will," according to Webster, is
"the faculty of conscious and especially of deliberate
action." There is no action that is not preceded by a
conscious thought, planning and then the carrying of a plan into
action. "Will" is the power of control that the mind has
over its own action(s).
To be able to Will is to have a creative force
within that actually can change the conditions of our lives, the
condition of our homes, the condition of our community, the
condition of the Nation and the condition of the World.
But Will without Faith, Will without Knowledge,
is Power without direction. It is power that can be manipulated.
It is power that can actually be used by a smart, crooked deceiver
to make slaves of the totality of the human family. Therefore, all
of us must be possessors of Knowledge and Faith.
Faith, of course, is "confidence or trust
in a person or thing." Faith is having confidence
in your own ability or in someone else�s ability. In the Divine
Scheme of things, Faith is having confidence or trust in Allah
(God). Having Faith is having confidence and trust in His Word:
knowing that His Word never fails; His Plan never fails: His Will
never fails. When we put our trust completely in Allah (God) and
in His Word, we have the ability to see beyond our knowledge�for
what we know is limited.
Faith can be as big as a mountain; Faith can be
as big as the Universe itself. Regardless of what you know, you
must have a greater Faith than your Knowledge. For your Knowledge
is, of a surety, limited, no matter how much you know. But if your
Faith in Allah (God) is great, your Faith in His Word is great,
then that Faith will lead you to greater and greater Knowledge.
We must be faithful men and women, but we must
also be possessors of Knowledge. There are so many of our people
who have a lot of Faith but very little Knowledge. We need both,
Faith and Knowledge, to buttress and support the power of our
being, which is our Will.
Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) said,
nearly 1,400 years ago, "One who goes out in search of
Knowledge is in the Path of God until he returns." Why did
Prophet Muhammad make such an utterance? It is because when we go
out in search of Knowledge, we should never return. For Knowledge
is the Path of God. And Knowledge, like God, is Infinite. When you
go out after Knowledge, never say, "I found it!," for
when you have said you have found it, you have stopped searching.
You have stopped seeking. When you stop searching, stop seeking,
you reach a plateau of learning. That plateau leads to the death
of your society, the death of your own power, your creative
energy. Unfortunately, this is what has happened to this world in
which we presently live. Man has amassed a lot of Knowledge, but
unfortunately, he believes that he has found it. And in finding
it, he has lost it and is no longer in the Path of Allah (God). So
the Knowledge that he possesses leads his society to greater and
more complex problems which his own Knowledge gives him neither
the light, nor the ability, to solve. This is when Allah (God)
steps in�when our own Knowledge fails us.
Knowledge without Faith is like a ship without
water. Can you imagine a ship without water? No wonder the people
in the days of Noah laughed at him because he built a ship and
there was no water. But Noah knew what the people did not know; he
knew that water was, indeed, coming.
What about you with this tremendous skill in
science, mathematics, physics, chemistry? Don�t you realize that
you are yet a baby? You have a little bit of Knowledge and very
little Faith in Allah (God). Consequently, your Knowledge takes
you nowhere but to self-destruction. And so, Beloved, each of us
would want to develop the power of our own being, to use that
power to better ourselves, our families, our community, our
people, our Nation, the world. We must seek Knowledge and we must
develop Faith. For it is Knowledge and Faith that buttress and
support that great Power of Allah (God) in Man: Man�s ability to
Will.
The Will is protected and also sustained, not
only by Faith, but also by our Attitude, which demonstrates the
degree of our Faith. We cannot have a powerful Will and a weak
Attitude. The Attitude that we have is for the protection of the
Will. Change your Attitude and you might redirect your Will.
Attitude is "the manner, disposition,
feeling, position" with which we regard a thing. It is a
"tendency or orientation, especially of the mind." Think
of these words. It is a "tendency" or an
"orientation" of the mind. In fact, Attitude can give
you�or damage�your ability to perceive reality. Mood can color
your perception. So we have all of these things that affect the
Will, and, in fact, redirect the Will. Beloved, we must be careful
of our Attitude. (We are going to talk about that a little later
on in this program, but I want to lay this base before we discuss
Attitude.)
Will is Power, but Power must be guided. Guided
by what? The Power of Will must be guided by Knowledge. But there
is an emotional force that gives direction to Will. And the
emotional force�which is the creative force upon which the
entire Universe is constructed�is Love. And it is out of this
awesome power of Love that the Will springs up; it springs up out
of this emotion, and it is directed and guided by that emotion.
When you couple Will and Knowledge and Love, then you have a
balanced individual, whose Will is being used in a creative,
constructive way; not in the way of destruction.
Let us take a look at the things that adversely
affect the Power of Allah (God) within Man. From the time that the
baby comes into the world, we see a demonstration of Will. Mother
is not teaching the child from "day one," yet the child
accomplishes much in that first year of life. From what? From the
Will.
The Will moves the child to grow and grow and grow. The first
year of life is the strongest year of educational development. It
learns more in the first year, and without a teacher!
The teaching comes from within. What does that
tell us? That there is a Power within every human being that can
teach and direct. That Power is connected to its Source. It can be
a Source of comfort, guidance, protection and deliverance for
every human being.