THE NATION OF ISLAM S T U D Y C O U R S E

Muhammad University of Islam © 2011

FRIDAY CLASS WEEK 32

STUDY GUIDE 18

RISING ABOVE EMOTION INTO THE THINKING OF

GOD (PART 3)

2

1

This study course is designed to be done both in a course room, mosque, study-group or self-paced at home. Certain parts of this course (Key Word Study) will be done with a partner. Other parts will be done independently (by yourself). When its time to partner, you and your partner (twin) are to follow the steps provided in this guide. The study course is laid out in the order you do them. It is important not to skip any steps of the guide. THESE INSTRUCTIONS ARE TO BE FOLLOWED IN OUR CLASSES.

Purpose of this Study Course Guide:

The purpose of this study course guide is to guide you through this course of study.

Time to Complete:

Although the hour and a half that we have for study this evening will hopefully allow you to progress through most of this study, however it is strongly recommend that you continue to work on this study course at home at your own pace.

Important Note: During the study course session, if you have any questions raise your hand for assistance. Each believer (student) should have a copy of this handout and its instructions to take home and continue studying on their own. All steps may not be completed in the class sessions in its entirety.

Study Course Steps Step 1: Key Word Clearing Time Frame: 30 min Key words are important words related to key concepts found in the reading. Having a good understanding of the meanings of these words will help each student better understand the important concepts and ideas of the study, as well as eliminate misunderstandings that come with misunderstood words. Use the key word list and definitions found in this packet to do the drill (exercise) a and b.

2

1.) Select a partner (closest to you) and study the Key Words together, through reviewing the questions and answers to master. (If done in course room or mosque/study group the time allotted is 30-45 minutes)

2.) First time through: The student has the questions and answers in front of him or her. The partner asks the student the question, and the student answers it. He/She can look at the answer if needed. The answer does not have to be word-for-word or memorized; just the concept must be correct.

3.) Second time through: Once finished with the drill the first time, you start again from the beginning, this time without the answers in front of you. Your partner asks the question and you answers. If the answer is incorrect, your partner shows you the answer. Look at the answer again and repeat until you have grasped the concept, then continue to the next one.

Step 2: Independent Reading Time Frame: 30 min After completing step one, you may begin to read the selected reading materials. Step 3: Check Your Understanding Questions: Time Frame: 30 min Review the lists of questions. Each question is formulated to check your understanding of the key concepts and ideas found in the reading. Answer each question on a sheet of paper and be prepared to discuss your answers at the conclusion of this session. Sufficient time may not be given during class session to answer all of the questions. If you do not finish in class, please continue this step at home.

S t u d y C o u r s e I n s t r u c t i o n s

3

1

What is pride? Pride is an emotion. It is an intense feeling of self–importance and superiority; an inordinate opinion of one’s own merit. What is a scholar? A scholar is a specialist in a particular branch of study; a person who is highly educated or has an aptitude for study. What is an interpretation? An interpretation is the action of explaining the meaning of something. What does it mean to be decisive? Decisive means settling an issue; producing a definite result. What does allegorical mean? Allegorical means constituting or containing allegory. An allegory is a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. What does perception mean? Perception means a way of regarding, understanding, or interpreting something; a mental impression. What is an offering? An offering is a thing offered, especially as a gift or contribution. What is a sacrifice? A sacrifice an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy. What does acceptable mean? Acceptable means able to be agreed on; suitable: adequate; satisfactory; pleasing; welcome:

KE

Y W

OR

D C

LE

AR

IN

G

2

What does command mean? Command means give an authoritative order. What is a trial? A trial is a test of the performance, qualities, or suitability of someone or something. It is also a person, thing, or situation that tests a person's endurance or forbearance. What is comfort? Comfort is a state of physical ease and freedom from pain or constraint. It is (comforts) things that contribute to physical ease and well-being. What is a gulf? A gulf is a large difference or division between two people or groups, or between viewpoints, concepts, or situations. What does it mean to be rational? Rational means based on or in accordance with reason or logic. It is (of a person) able to think clearly, sensibly, and logically. What does it mean to reject something? Reject means a person or thing dismissed as failing to meet standards or satisfy tastes; fail to show due affection or concern for (someone); rebuff.

4

RISING ABOVE EMOTION INTO THE THINKING OF GOD

by THE HONORABLE MINISTER LOUIS FARRAKHAN

1

APPROACH TO SUBJECT MATTER

In the study of Emotion and its impact on our responses to the expressed Will of Allah (God), let us begin with the following verse from Surah (Chapter) 3, Verse 6, of the Holy Qur’an:

“He it is Who has revealed the Book to thee; some of its verses are decisive --- they are the basis of the Book --- and others are allegorical. Then those in whose hearts is perversity follow the part of it which is allegorical, seeking to mislead, and seeking to give it (their own) interpretation. And none knows its interpretation save Allah and those firmly rooted in knowledge. They say: we believe in it, it is all from our Lord. And none mind except men of understanding.”

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that He would not give two cents for the combined work of all of the scholars and what they have written as their interpretation of the verses of the Holy Qur’an. That is a powerful statement. In the above–cited verse, Allah (God) tells those seeking to give the Book their own interpretation that none knows except Him. So even if they claim to be scholars, Allah (God) has already overruled their scholarship, in these words, “None knows its interpretation except Allah”. Those “firmly rooted in knowledge” are the Believers who submit to it because it is all from Allah. What they understand is that they do not fully comprehend Allah’s Book in totality. They await the One Whom Allah will teach the Interpretation of the Book to directly. That One is the Messiah, the Mahdi, the Christ. That One is the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

“Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou did set thy heart to understand and to humble thyself before thy God, thy words were heard: and I am come for thy word’s sake.” Daniel 10:12 “And lean not upon thine own understanding; in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct thy paths.” Proverbs 3:5,6

The first step toward growing into the Mind of God is to desire to do His Will. Then, we must learn to obey His Commands. Allah (God) tests and tries His Servant to see how well he will obey Commands that he does not understand. He gradually brings the servant into understanding of what he has obeyed, but only after obedience. Through the suffering that accompanies obeying Allah (God) comes understanding and the Servant gradually grows into the Thinking of Allah (God).

“Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.” Hebrews 5:8 Allah (God) may try a servant with a certain command. Since a servant of God is always desirous of doing His Will, giving such a person a command can only be a trial if that person believes that the command is against what he or she has been taught is right, fair, just or in keeping with our

CONTINUED (PART 3)

5

2

understanding of Revelation. Through the command of the expressed Will of God, the servant’s level of understanding up to that point in time causes an emotional reaction that could result in disobedience if it is not put in check. In this manner, Allah (God) helps us climb above Emotion, using our own desire to obey Him for sustenance during the steep climb.

“For this cause also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His Will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” Colossians 1:9

In order to obey Allah’s (God’s) command(s), we must overcome our emotional reaction to His command(s). At the root of the emotional reaction is frustration over something we personally desire, think or believe. He challenges us where we are most comfortable with a command calculated to disturb our comfort. Thus, He says in the Holy Qur’an, “none comes between a man and his heart, except Allah”. When He says, in Isaiah 55, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways”, His ways are higher than our ways as the “heavens are higher than the earth”, He is speaking on many levels of mind. The Original Man is from Allah’s Thinking, which is above, while the made man is made from the testicles, found in the lower region of the Original Man. Allah (God) produced Himself, not from testicles, but from His own Thinking; then He formed what we call the “testicle”, that there might be the physical reproduction of the form. It is from the lower portion, or weaker germ of the Original Black Man, that the devil was made manifest. To get into the Thinking of God, we must rise above our present level of thought, which emanates from beneath. There is a gulf between the thinking of man and God and the ways of man and God. The process by which we cross that gulf is called Resurrection. The way to think like Allah (God) is to be exposed to His Thinking. In our Lessons, we are given the Actual Facts as a beginner and as a start in thinking mathematically rather than emotionally. Jesus said, “I and my Father are One.” How was he able to become one with the Father? Jesus was born of a woman and came through the vicissitudes of life. In time, through obedience, he became the interpreter of God’s Will. You cannot serve as the interpreter of the Will of God unless you know God and what He thinks and what gave rise to His thoughts. And we cannot get up into the Mind of Allah (God) except by His Permission. When we are able to see beyond the effect to the Cause that produced the effect, then our decisions are no longer emotional, they are made with precision. This does not mean we will act without intense feeling; it means that we will be in such complete control of our feelings that our decisions will be completely rational. In “The Theology of Time”, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad stated that Allah (God) “went to War with the Darkness” using sunlight to manifest all that the darkness was hiding. It is evident that He had an intense dislike for the darkness, and that intense dislike manifested in the fact that though we were once in complete darkness, we are now in a Universe of Light. In going to war, Allah (God) was not acting irrationally. He made a rational judgment based upon

6

3

His Idea of what He wanted in terms of a Universe. That Idea stimulated an intense dislike for the darkness because it stood in the way of His Idea, so He banished it. Today, Allah (God) is bringing about the destruction of the present world order. His intense dislike for this contrary world and the one who made it is the result of a mathematical understanding of what He desires for His Creation. His precise understanding of what He Wills and what stands in the way of His Will summons an intense dislike for the impediment. When He says, “Away with you!”, this is not an emotional reaction; though there is intense feeling in it, it is the result of reasoning. We, on the other hand, are just the opposite in our approach to a problem. Instead of being guided by reason, our emotional reaction clouds our reasoning and distorts our judgment. We react to things emotionally first, and the power of passion dominates over reason instead of being called into service by means of reason. The propagandist summons the passion of the people by giving them a reason to dislike a person, a thing, a nation. The elite, or those in authority, supply the people with the reason that summons the passion against the object of the authority’s disapproval. There must always be a reason to like and a reason to dislike. He who supplies the reason directs the passion. If I were to speak against many in the manner they have spoken against me, I could summon the passion of this Community against any object of my disapproval. But I have never chosen to do so; I have directed the passion of the people toward Allah (God). I have given the people a reason to love Master Fard Muhammad and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad while the Caucasian has worked tirelessly in supplying reasons to dislike them. Thus, the reason the devil accuses both myself and my Father, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, of teaching Hate, is actually because I point out the wickedness of the devil. By pointing out his evil, I give the people a reason to summon their passion against that evil.

PORTRAITS OF EMOTIONAL REACTION

In the very beginning of the Bible, in the Book of Genesis, we get a portrait of emotional reaction (intense feeling in response to someone or something) and the destructive power of Emotion when it is unchecked. Whenever Emotion overpowers Reason, it covers Reason and replaces it with a new rationale; the new rationale then leads us to disobey a command of God. “Pride” is an emotion. It is an intense feeling of self–importance and superiority; an inordinate opinion of one’s own merit. God gave both Adam and Eve clear instructions not to eat of the tree in the midst of the garden. The Serpent (subtle suggestion in the mind) led them both into disobedience by appealing to the feeling of Pride: “For God knows that when you eat the fruit, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:5

Satan’s suggestion incited Pride; the feeling that Adam and Eve were entitled to something that God was actually attempting to keep them from having, out of fear that it would threaten His position.

7

4

Adam and Eve did not envy God, nor did they feel hatred or jealousy toward Him. But they had an intense feeling of pride which overpowered reason, so that they placed themselves directly in opposition to the Will of God. The consequence was the Fall of Adam.

“Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Proverbs 16:18

Most of us are familiar with the story of Adam’s sons, Cain and Abel. We know that God accepted an offering from Abel and rejected an offering from Cain and that Cain killed Abel over God’s selection. How many of us ever asked, “Why did God accept the offering of Abel and reject the offering of Cain? Have we ever considered the effect of God’s choice on both men and on the future? Have we ever stopped to reflect on whether God cared how they felt? Is it possible that He had a Purpose that was not perceived by either Cain or Abel at the time? The Bible describes Abel as a “keeper of sheep” and Cain as a “tiller of the ground”.

“And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof.” Genesis 4:3,4

In making a comparison of the actual effort each man put into his offering, there is much to reflect upon. Remember, we are trying to walk in Cain’s shoes; to feel what he felt when his offering was not accepted. We must look into Cain’s efforts in order to know something of the level of his expectation. The word “till” means to “to labor, as by plowing”. “Labor” means to “work to the point of exhaustion”. Cain worked the field to produce his offering. His time, sweat and pride were tied up in his work. In his mind, the rejection of his offering was tantamount to a rejection of him. Abel sacrificed a sheep. In reality, Abel had nothing to do with the creation, development and growth of the sheep; Allah (God) was responsible for the process by which the sheep came into existence, as well as for producing the grass the sheep took its nourishment from. Abel offered that which grazed on the grass and his offer was accepted. In understanding Cain’s feelings, we must ask ourselves how we feel about something we work diligently to produce and what our reaction is when what we produce is turned down. His ego was crushed by the rejection of his offering and in applying the rejection to himself, he then began to sense a feeling of being lesser; now there is remorse over this apparent lowering of self. God is abasing him, in his mind, in rejecting his offering. At this point, what would have saved Cain from being overpowered by his emotional reaction would have been to question God in the right spirit: “Did you reject me in rejecting my offering, and if so, why?” The emotion of pride connected to his work and suffering clouded his ability to get into the Mind of God. The first mistake that God would have been Able to correct was Cain’s misperception that God was rejecting him. He took it personally and in doing so, his emotions clouded his ability to get into the Mind of God. He made himself and his offering the center, rather than what God wanted as the center.

8

5

Once his ego was deflated, Cain began feeling a dislike for God. Unable to act effectively against God Himself, he focused his feeling of dislike on the person he believed God had chosen over him. The nature of the sheep is humbleness. What God rejected in Cain was his pride over his work that gave him the exaggerated feeling of worth. It is only the humble at heart that will be able to obey God. God will ask you to do things against the pride of yourself. Allah (God) accepted the sheep above the corn because He knew that at a time far into the distant future, the only offering He would accept from us would be our lives. As a sign of His Servant who could come to give his life as a ransom, Allah (God) accepted the life of the sheep.

“Say: My prayer and my sacrifice and my life and my death are surely for Allah, the Lord of the worlds…” Holy Qur’an 6:162

Many in the last days would offer money, substance from the ground. But Allah does not ask us to give money alone; our charity is but a symbol of our willingness to give Him our lives. He asks us for the very essence of our being: the Will. That is why in the last days, the only religion that will be accepted is Islam the complete surrender of our will to His Will. His acceptance of the sheep was a symbol of His lost sheep; a people, among them, a lamb, who would be willing to give his life for the salvation of the whole. We cannot buy our way into the Kingdom of God. This is not the sale of indulgences. We cannot even work our way into the Kingdom of God, if we are not willing to offer Him the essence of our being. Our charity, our service, our acts of kindness, could be turned down unless we surrender our will to His Will. That is the best of all sacrifices.

TO BE CONTINUED…

9

STEP 3: Check Your Understanding The following questions are for discussion at the conclusion of the study session. The remaining questions can be completed at your own pace as you continue your study at home. You can use your book if you need help answering the questions. Write your answers on a sheet of paper.

Questions For Discussion: 1. Why did the Honorable Elijah Muhammad say that He would not give two cents for the

combined work of all of the scholars and what they have written as their interpretation of the verses of the Holy Qur’an?

2. How does one grow into the mind of Allah (God)? 3. Allah (God) may try a servant with a certain command. Explain what this means? 4. Explain how our understanding effects our reactions to Allah’s commands? 5. What is at the root of our emotional reaction to a command? 6. What is meant by Allah when He says in the Holy Qur’an, “none comes between a man and his heart, except Allah”? Give an example of this.

7. How do we begin to think like Allah (God)? Explain and give examples. 8. Explain how Satan’s suggestion incited Pride within Adam & Eve in the Garden. What can

we learn from this? 9. Why did God accept the offering of Abel and reject the offering of Cain? What did God

rejected in Cain and his offering? What is the lesson in this? 10. How do we usually feel about something we work diligently to produce? What’s our reaction when what we produce is turned down? Give an example.

11. What is the acceptable offering that we can make to Allah today? Explain.

Questions For Further Study: 1. Who are “those firmly rooted in knowledge” and what makes them different from most

scholars as it relates to the word of Allah (God)? 2. What is the gulf between man and God? What is the process to bridge the gulf? 3. How does one make decision with precision? 4. Why do we have a Universe of Light? What’s its origin? 5. What is the difference between man and God as it relates to how each approaches a

problem? 6. According the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, what is the proper and the

improper way of summoning the passions of the people? Give an example. 7. What is the result when emotion overpowers reason? 8. Why did Allah (God) accept the sheep above the corn?

Muhammad University of Islam © 2011 www.noi.org/gostudy