Self-Improvement Study Guides - Study Guide 5: Building The Will - Part I
STUDY GUIDE 5
BUILDING THE WILL
PART I
READING MATERIAL
Holy Qur'an
Surah 11 "HUD"
Page 3; Paragraphs 4 & 5
Page 7; Paragraphs 1 & 2
FACT (S)
Both the Bible and the Holy Qur'an teach us that the Will of Allah (God) is the Power behind the Universe: its creation, its maintenance and its sustenance.
WILL is the faculty of conscious and especially of deliberate action.
Both books teach us that Allah (God) has given each of us a FREE WILL. This faculty of divine power distinguishes man from all other life forms in Creation.
"Brothers and Sisters, each time we turn away from the struggle to overcome difficulty, there then is deterioration of character and there is destruction of the Will -- and the Will that is within you is God's gift. It is His Essence that He gives to man and anything that deteriorates your Will destroys your ability to cope with the problems of life. Struggle is ordained." (SELF-IMPROVEMENT Page 3)
DISCUSSION
1 First, let us review some key words and their definitions. Please look at the GLOSSARY.
2) You have read Surah 11, "Hud", in preparation for this session. In the lives of the prophets, we see examples of strong Will, or, "conscious and deliberate action." Just as the physical body requires food (nourishment) to stimulate and sustain it, there is a primary source of nourishment required to build the Will. What is it?
3) Let us review 11:36-49. The Prophet Noah obviously had a strong Will. By what means or method was his Will strengthened? Did he attain his objective? What happened to his opposition?
4) Let us review the "MAKE YOUR WORD BOND" Pledge Card which is attached to this guide. What is a "pledge"? Why would the Honorable Elijah Muhammad ask us to strive to build schools, housing, businesses, when there are already a multitude of these things already in existence around us?
5) Please give some examples of the prophet's encounters with opposition as given in Surah 11. Why are we given these histories to study throughout the Holy Qur'an?
6) Has Minister Farrakhan encountered any opposition? Why do you think he has been singled out of the thousands of men who claim to carry the Word of Allah (God), and is the subject of such vicious attacks? Do you encounter any opposition as one who believes with him and supports him in our mission? What do you do when you encounter opposition? After completing this study session, including the reading of the 11th Surah, what should you do when you are opposed in your mission?
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Select one bad habit that you DESIRE to break. Beginning tonight, you are to focus your WILL on overcoming that habit. Whether it is smoking, drinking, gossip, excessive eating, oversleeping, too much television --- whatever it is, you are to stop it as of NOW.-
At our next session, BUILDING THE WILL PART II, be prepared to speak on your progress in overcoming the habit (it is not necessary to state exactly what the habit is, but you may do so if you wish).
May Allah (God) bless us all with success and the Will to do HIS WILL for ourselves and others.
SUPPLEMENT
1) See GLOSSARY.
2) Before He said "Be!", Allah (God) had the DESIRE to BE. DESIRE is the food that builds the Will. Desire causes us to strive to achieve whatever the object of our desire is. You will recall that Desire was defined in the GLOSSARY in Session #3, "Overcoming Difficulty". Remember Minister Farrakhan's words from SELF-IMPROVEMENT:
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"The desire to attain a goal brings us face to face with difficulty. When we undergo the trial of difficulty, the trial may be so intense that it extinguishes the light of the desire to attain the goal"
As we embark upon the course of building the Will, we see the importance of keeping alive the light of Desire. For the Will is exercised only as long as there is a Desire. Continuing, perpetual desire generates continuing, perpetual exercise of the Will.
Without Desire, we have lost the nourishment to strengthen our Will, which weakens and is ultimately starved to death. It is the absence of the Desire to read that makes it impossible to achieve literacy; we must have the Will to read so that when difficulties are encountered in learning how to read, we will be able to overcome those difficulties and accomplish the goal.
A child who is crawling does not realize that he has the ability to walk until he performs the act. What triggers his conscious and deliberate action of walking? Desire. His mother or father may call him, "Come to Mommy" or "Come to Daddy" and out of his desire to do so, he stands; he wobbles; he achieves his balance; he walks. Or, a brightly-colored ball is placed in his range of vision. He is delighted; he wants to touch it; he wants to pick it up and handle it. His desire for the object leads him to exercise his will to overcome whatever difficulty he must overcome in order to walk.
We learned in Session 4, "The Struggle For Balance", that our primary inclination is to Allah (God). In our nature is the ultimate desire for Allah (God). But because we have been made other than ourselves, or other than the nature in which we were created, we may not realize our ultimate desire, but, - as the Holy Qur'an teaches, we take our low desires as our God. Before we can build our Will our balance must be achieved, so that we move forward with Allah (God) as the center of our existence in our conscious mind and in our hearts.
3) In the history of Noah, we find the definitive portrayal of a man with a strong Will to do the Will of Allah (God). The nourishment for his Will was his Desire to please Allah (God, While his Knowledge was limited, his Faith was not. His Faith in his lord was manifested in his constancy at his task. His ultimate objective Was Allah (God); his specific objective was to build the ark. His Desire set the path of the direction of his efforts.
There was opposition to Noah and those with him. The chiefs of the people mocked him and caused the people to mock him. But the mockery actually strengthened his Will. Will is Power. In the physical body, it is the muscle that is power. As we exercise muscles and develop them by lifting weights, we exercise the Will in the same way: by overcoming resistance. If we don't meet and overcome resistance, our Will cannot develop.
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"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen." Though the ark was built on dry land, Allah (God) knew He would inevitably destroy the wicked with a flood. The water came just after Noah finished the ark. He achieved his objective; he and those who believed with him. His opposition was destroyed in the flood. Allah (God) had told him long before, "Surely they will be drowned." Holy Qur'an 11:37.
We see in these verses that Noah was not weak and equivocal in his Faith; contrary to the misconception of many of us, men of God have always been and must be, strong-willed. The opposition, on the other hand, is always self willed. Noah prevailed and did not yield, for he had submitted his Will to the Will of Allah (God) and therefore could not be defeated.
When the chiefs of his people laughed at him, the Holy Qur'an tells us that he returned their contempt for the making of the ark with his contempt for their opposition and their plans to destroy him: "He said: If you laugh at us, surely we, too, laugh at you as you laugh at us." Holy Qur'an 11:38. The "us" and the "we" means those who were with Noah. They were vastly outnumbered by the disbelievers, as the Holy Qur'an teaches, "...and there believed not with him but a few." 11:40.
4) Here, our pledge (security) that we put up is our word. This act of giving our word is our first step toward overcoming the resistance we meet in the inertia of self. This is necessary because we cannot build a Nation without improving self for the benefit of ourselves and others.
There is no point in the consistent reference to the prophets and their struggle to overcome difficulties, unless these references serve to motivate and inspire us to say, "I will do exactly that; I will achieve my objective." And so, when Allah (God) asked Noah to build the ark on dry land, this is symbolic of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad asking us to build in the midst of buildings. That is, to the disbelievers, it appeared that Noah's work was not only unnecessary and useless, but foolish,
Noah, by faith, was certain that water was coming. What did the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, by faith, know was coming? He knew that the schools would fall, that housing would deteriorate and businesses would close down.
Allah (God) told Noah to build the ark (a place of security) under Our eyes. We are not IBM, we are just a group of Black people, putting together that which to this world seems no more than planks and nails; we are ridiculed for our efforts, but we who believe know what the disbelievers know not --- that what we build, no matter how crude compared to this world -- will provide us with safety and security in a world that is coming down around us. Just as Allah (God) told Noah, "Surely they will be drowned", we see the signs that in 1987, this world will go under.
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The Honorable Elijah Muhammad called us to build a Nation. In accordance with this call, Minister Farrakhan said he is determined to develop a Mosque to the glory of God. And he is doing it through building human potential. We said we want to help him. We gave our word (pledge). By working to build the ark each day, Noah's will was strengthened. Every nail he drove in took him closer to his goal. Every newspaper you sell, every thing you do in the way of this work, takes us all a step closer to our goal. Every one and every action counts. Every prayer we say every day, every good deed, is a nail in the plank and the sound of building drowns out the sound of the mockery from our opposition.
There is no such thing as a member of a nation who does not count. That is why they take a census in this country. They want to count the human potential, the human resources available. We must build self to build a community.
5) After discussing Hud, Abraham and Lot, Salih, Shu'aib, Noah, review the accompanying letter to us from Minister Farrakhan.
6) We know that our Brother is encountering not only opposition, but vehement opposition, which grows as his words manifest as true at a rapid pace. If we are even minimally active in the work of the resurrection of the mentally and spiritually dead, we too are encountering opposition. But Allah has ordained struggle. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad says that you cannot be a champion without an opponent. That is, we can all think we are determined, but how determined we are cannot be determined until opposition comes.
Allah (God) is set to prove that He is the One God. In order for Him to manifest His Power, He allows His enemies to attempt to destroy His servants, to destroy His Plan, so that He can show them He is with us and His backing of us will cause us to prevail over the most powerful enemies that He has.
Opposition is vital, necessary. Without opposition, it cannot be proved that a tender plant cannot just be plucked up out of the ground. When we go to pull on it, we find out it is rooted in the ground; it has a strength that is not apparent just looking at it. This shows us that Allah (God) is with the plant, which is of His Creation.
Until we have tasted the fierceness of opposition, the depth of our roots in the Faith will not be manifested.
Study the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:18-23. The seed aptly stands for the Word of Allah (God), that is, the Truth, because when implanted in the heart and conscience, it grows, develops and brings forth spiritual fruit. The ground, but on the bad, as a sower scatters the seed not only on good example to those who would preach, not to neglect the unreceptive or even the
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wicked in their ministrations. The seed falling by the wayside, or rather on a hard, beaten track across the field, is the case of those of us whose attention on our business, social and other worldly affairs, renders us unreceptive to the Word; even while the word is being preached, our minds are elsewhere, so when the message is finished, we immediately return to our usual affairs and contact with the world sweeps away any recollection of what we did hear. "Satan cometh immediately and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts" (Mark).
The seed falling upon the rocky places, where there is a thin layer of soil above and hard rock beneath, is the case of those who are quickly susceptible to religious influence, but wanting in spiritual depth, so no permanent impression can be made. Some of us start out enthusiastic but tire easily and fade away.
The seed falling among thorns is the case of those of us who have every capacity for developing the highest spiritual gifts; but we fail because we deliberately attempt to serve two masters, which is impossible.
The seed failing on good ground is the case of those of us who are not only receptive to being taught, corrected and renewed, but who respond to the teachings in proportion to the spiritual capacity and unique insight which Allah (God) has blessed us with individually.
Look over the statements the prophets made to their opposition about their complete trust in Allah (God). Look over the fact that Minister Farrakhan invited the Jews and the entire government of America, in the midst of their persecution of him, to come against him With all of their persecution of him ' to come against him with all of their power and then to double it. These are the strongest indicators we will ever receive that we must call on Allah (God), for on Him and Him alone, can we rely.
We are powerless without Allah. Noah was able to build the ark because he submitted his Will to Allah's Will. He bent (arc) his own will so that God's Will could be done through him. What makes us stand upright and strong is the power of Allah (God), so to Him we must submit. This is a true state of balance.
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FULFILLER (FULFILL) One who fills the requirements of; satisfies a condition, or answers a purpose. (To bring to an end; complete; perform; realize one's ambitions and potentialities; to carry out something desired, promised, expected or predicted.
ARK A refuge or place of security.
ARC The part of a circle representing the apparent course of a heavenly body; any unbroken part of the circumference of a circle or other curved line; a bowlike curved line or object; a curved structure that supports the weight of material over an open space; any part of a curve, especially a circle.
ASCENT Movement upward from a lower to a higher state, degree or status; advancement; act of climbing or traveling up; a procedure toward a source or beginning.
INERTIA Inactivity; sluggishness. The property of matter by which it retains its state of rest or its velocity along a straight line so long as it is not acted upon by an external force. That which is inert, having no inherent power of action.
INFINITE Unbounded, unlimited; endless; inexhaustible; immeasurably great.
ENDEAVOR To exert oneself to do or effect something; make an effort or strive.
EXTREMITY (EXTREME) Of a character or kind farthest removed from the ordinary or average; exceeding the bounds of moderation; the terminal point, limit or part of something.
CONSTANT Not changing or varying; uniform; regular; continuing without pause or letup; recurrent; persistent; faithful, unswerving in love or devotion; steady.
CONSEQUENTIAL Following as an effect, result or outcome; resultant; following as a logical conclusion or inference; of importance.
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GLOSSARY
PLEDGE A solemn promise or agreement to do or refrain from doing something. To stake, as one's honor; security for the fulfillment of a promise, as one's word; an assurance of support or good will.
PLAN A scheme of action or procedure; a design; a definite purpose; a formula or system; a method of doing something.
OPPOSITION The action of resisting or combating; antagonism or hostility; the state or position of being placed opposite. Set against.
OBJECTIVE Something that one's efforts are intended to attain or accomplish; purpose; goal; target.
ULTIMATE Last, furthest, farthest; ending a process or series. Maximum, decisive, conclusive; representing a limit beyond, which further progress is impossible; the final result.
WAY A method, plan or means for attaining a goal; passage or progress on a course; a path leading from one place to another; course or mode of procedure that one chooses or wills; range or extent of experience or notice; condition, as to health, prosperity or the like; a road, route, passage or channel.
