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I have
written 7 articles detailing different aspects of my
faith walk with my spiritual guide, The Hon. Louis
Farrakhan. I have been blessed by God during my time of
being a student of God’s word under his direction to
make some amazing changes in my life since my acceptance
of Islam on March 20th, 1996. However, I
don’t want anyone, for one second, to think that my life
has been perfect for the past 12 years since walking in
the path to become a Muslim. I have made an equally
fair share of mistakes and yes “sins”
since becoming a Muslim.
Sometimes,
many religious people let their supposed new righteous
life give them the false arrogance that they are better
than others. But, I take the view that I am on a
journey in the path of God striving to be qualified to
be one of his righteous servants. I don’t look down on
others, but rather try to encourage others to reach for
the best everyday.
I,
after 10 years of being a Muslim, during the year 2006
had a major fall in my personal life that tested my
faith and made me reflect on my journey deeper.
I will
be exploring this sensitive subject of my fall to sin
during the 8th part of my article series, My
walk with Farrakhan. I won’t give the specific instances
where I fell, but I will say that I went from the
highest of high to the lowest of low in my personal
life.
Before
we get into exploring this subject let’s define a few
words to ensure we have the clearest possible
understanding of the words used in this article. One of
the things both The Most Hon. Elijah Muhammad and his
student The Hon. Louis Farrakhan teaches us as students
is to get definitions of the words we use. Also,
Minister Malcolm X began his journey to enlightenment
just by reading the dictionary and learning the meaning
of words.
The
word Righteous, according to
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
is defined as,
“1: acting
in accord with divine or moral law
: free
from guilt or sin
2 a: morally
right
or justifiable
<a
righteous decision>
b: arising
from an outraged sense of justice or morality
<righteous indignation>
3
slang
: genuine,
excellent”
The
word wicked, according to
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
is defined as,
“1: morally
very bad
: evil
2 a: fierce,
vicious
<a wicked dog>
b: disposed
to or marked by mischief
: roguish
<does wicked impersonations>
3 a: disgustingly
unpleasant
: vile
<a wicked odor>
b: causing
or likely to cause harm, distress, or trouble
<a wicked storm>
4: going
beyond reasonable or predictable limits
: of
exceptional quality or degree
<throws a wicked fastball>”
The
word sin, according to
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
is defined as,
“1
a: an
offense against religious or moral law
b: an
action that is or is felt to be highly reprehensible
<it's a sin to waste food>
c: an
often serious shortcoming
: fault
2 a: transgression
of the law of God
b: a
vitiated state of human nature in which the self is
estranged from God”
Now with a clear definition of the keys words used in
this article, we will now proceed to explore this
subject of righteous people, wicked people and sin.
Understanding Adam, Sin and falling from grace
“And certainly We gave a commandment to Adam before, but
he forgot; and We found in him no resolve (to disobey).”
Holy Qur’an 20:115
Both the Bible and The Qur’an speak of ALLAH creating a
new man, giving that man specific instructions and that
man ultimately falling from grace. This is the daily
story of the human family of the earth that is striving
in the path of God. Whereas both the Bible and Qur’an
relate the same story there are differences in
understanding of meaning. The Holy Qur’an takes the
position that human beings are created in a state of
Islam(natural submission to God) and are pure until our
parents, environment or our own deeds take us from the
path of righteousness.
The story of Adam and Eve has been used to promote the
position that it is natural to sin or the “human” thing
to do. In one sense yes humans inevitably make mistakes,
but we are not created in the image and likeness of
Almighty God to act less. Also, the Holy Qur’an doesn’t
blame the woman for leading man into temptation. We
learn from reading Sura(chapter) 20:125 that Adam
didn’t intend to disobey his Lord, but rather he forgot.
We are taught in Islam that all deeds will be judged by
our intentions while doing the deed. Some people do good
deeds for wicked intentions. Likewise, some people do
wicked deeds while feeling the pangs of their conscious.
Yes, Adam fell from his great glory, but did Almighty
God give up on him or turn his face from him? The Qur’an
teaches that ALLAH turned mercifully towards Adam and
“reminded” him of the promise of divine guidance.
I will use the biblical story of the prophets to make
the next points in this analysis of righteous people and
wicked people. Before I proceed I must make a
clarification. The Holy Qur’an accepts all of the
prophets mentioned in the Bible as true men of God.
However, The Holy Qur’an doesn’t accept the stories
attributed to them of unrighteousness. The Qur’an
teaches that for the prophets to be examples to purify
others they must be pure themselves.
The Bible teaches us of man named Noah who was chosen by
God to be a fulfiller of his will. The story further
teaches us that Noah was a “righteous and “just” man(Gen
6:8-9). He was chosen by God to build the Ark and be
a savior of his people. After Noah had fulfilled his
mission from God and survived the flood, the Bible
teaches that the sons of Noah found him in a drunken
state. One of the sons of Noah saw the drunken state of
his father and told the other brothers. We then learn
that the two brothers refused to look at the nakedness
of Noah and covered him.
Later, when Noah awoke he cursed (and God upheld the
curse) the son (Ham) who looked and blessed the sons (Shem
and Japheth) who covered him. The point to this
story (from the biblical perspective) is that Noah was a
righteous man who did an unrighteous deed, but that
didn’t stop God’s favor on him. As for the sons, their
refusing to look at their father naked could mean: they
chose to look at the good of their father instead of the
bad or they refused to judge this aspect of his life.
Another biblical story teaches us of a great king named
David, who was the father of Solomon and a forerunner of
the Messiah. The Bible teaches that David had a heart
after God’s own heart. Yet, despite these great
qualities the book informs us of several misdeeds of
David. Some scholars have suggested that David violated
about 9 of the 10 commandments. However, David is still
held up as an example of a true man of God and his
kingdom set a standard for all others.
Travelling (travail) on the path of god
I like to describe my faith walk with God as being a
journey. I have been on this journey for 12 years and
will be on it for the rest of my life. I want you to
think about something related to a journey. Imagine if
you lived in Pensacola, Florida and you decided to
travel to Chicago one day. You would find yourself
travelling up I-65 N for a long period of time. Let’s
also say this is your first time travelling to the
destination, so you are checking your map closely trying
to stay on course. Yet, you made a mistake and took a
wrong exit, therefore ended up in Kentucky. What fool
would sit on the side of the road, give up and never try
to make adjustments (checking the map) to get back on
the interstate towards your destination. Likewise, in
our journey to godliness we may find ourselves making
some wrong exist Ex. drugs, alcohol, adultery, lying,
stealing etc…
However, we don’t have to stay on these wrong exists. As
one would get back on the interstate to continue
travelling to a city, we should, if a wrong exit was
taken, get back of the path to continue our journey to
God.
The Bible perfectly illustrates this point in the
following words
“For a righteous man falleth seven times, and riseth up
again; But the wicked are overthrown by calamity.”
Proverbs 24:16
If you notice that while the above scripture describes a
man (or woman) as falling he still has righteous
attached to him name. Why is this? Though we are taught
that all have fallen short of the glory of God; is there
a difference between righteous people who sin and wicked
people who sin? As I wrote the last sentence, I thought
how it could sound like a major paradox or
contradiction. I think people can make unintentional
departures from the right way and still be righteous.
Yet, other people live a lifestyle of sin and are
blatantly ignoring the will of God. This is what I think
is the difference between righteous people and wicked
people.
The example of The Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan
Brother Farrakhan, to me, is a great example of a
Muslim, because of his strong insistence that me must
submit totally to ALLAH’s will, fear no one but ALLAH
and his ability to be honest about his short comings.
After the Nation of Islam “fell” in 1975, Brother
Farrakhan said that he became “disillusioned” with
religion and fell from his former resolve. After
reflection on his life, the condition of our people and
the teachings of his spiritual father, The Most Hon.
Elijah Muhammad, Minister Farrakhan recovered from his
“fall”
Concerning this The Most Hon. Elijah Muhammad, ALLAH’s
messenger to us, reminds us
“So
this is the thing that you must remember, that trials,
sometimes, are so terrific that they will weaken the
most strongest person sometimes.”
(The Most Hon. Elijah Muhammad 1964 Laborer meeting)
His example teaches me that the true strength of a
person is not that you wont get knocked down from time
to time, but can you get back up from a fall, make
adjustment and go on to shine.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, I had a
major fall in my spiritual life after 10 years of
striving to be a good Muslim. Yet, after much reflection
and the help of God, I am now returning to the path of
God and am seeking to be qualified to be called by his
name. The Bible teaches us: "All things works for the
good of those who love the Lord." It is important
when you are having a down moment to have the “right
mental attitude”,
which will determine your response to a down moment.
I want to encourage you to examine Minister Farrakhan
and his example of being a servant of Almighty God.
Thank
you for reading these few words!
Copyright2008©Mustafaa
Muhammad
Http://brothermustafaa.com |
