OBEDIENCE

Obedience
"When you find a house of disobedient children, you will find a house that has a sorrowful spirit. When you find a house with a sorrowful spirit - when this spirit should be as high as the Wisdom of that house, yet the spirit is low - then you find a disobedient house."
Obedience is one of the keys to our success as Muslims. If we were to study the patterns and habits we have formed since being in the Temple, it would be easy to recognize the need for us to study obedience.
Obedience means submission, and Islam means peace and submission, and a Muslim is one who submits entirely to the Will of Allah (God); therefore, to write on obedience is really to write on Islam.
Many times we hear the word "obey" and we immediately begin to think of orders which we are instructed to carry out. This aspect does of course play an important part, yet it is not the only meaning of obey. To obey also means that there is something planned, written or spoken for us to be guided by - and that something to be guided by is Islam.
Synonymous to the words obey, obedience, and obedient, we find the word submit. To be able to submit to authority, submit to control, submit to orders, submit to instructions, submit to guidance, submit to the jurisdiction of Islam, takes a very good man - especially when it calls for submitting to Black authority. We cannot become good Muslims unless we learn to submit. We will not learn to submit until we learn to obey.
When you find a house of disobedient children, you will find a house that has a sorrowful spirit. When you find a house with a sorrowful spirit - when this spirit should be as high as the Wisdom of that house, yet the spirit is low - then you find a disobedient house. You will find a house that needs to learn the lesson of obedience.
The scripture says: "But if ye will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandments of the Lord, then shall the hand of the Lord be against you, as it was against your fathers."
Now who is this 'voice of the Lord' that we will not obey? Who gives us the commandments of the Lord which we rebel against? If we believe that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, then he is the 'voice of the Lord' who gives us the commandments from Him. So in our disobedience, we disobey God by disobeying His Messenger, and this puts God against us.
When we are disobedient to Allah's Messenger, Allah will turn us aside, turn us away from Islam, and then we go after vain things which the Book says "cannot profit us (benefit us) nor deliver what we seek," for they are vain things we seek if we seek not to obey Allah's Last Messenger.
When we accept Islam as our way of life, then we become precious in the eyes of Allah and His Messenger; yet, when we disobey them the scripture says: "We have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly".When we do not obey Allah and His Messenger, they take away from us the things we desire.
When we have not been blessed for long periods of time, there is no one to blame but ourselves. If we were to examine self, we would find that somewhere along the line, we have been disobedient to that which we know is the right way.
The Holy Qur'an so beautifully teaches us: "And we sent no Messenger but that he should be obeyed by Allah's Command". This tells us that Allah, God Himself, commands us to obey His Messenger ----and our obedience is not without reward. The Holy Qur'an further says: "And whoever obeys Allah and The Messenger, they are those upon whom Allah has bestowed favors from among the prophets and the truthful and the faithful and the righteous, and a goodly company are they."
This teaches us that our obedience makes us to become companions of the Messenger and teaches us that in our obedience we learn to understand the truth -- our faith becomes true, and we become righteous men and good Muslims and men whose company we should keep.
Surely, Messenger Elijah Muhammad has revealed to us a great truth which is good for us all when we obey it. Whoever follows this truth does it for his own good, and whoever makes an error and refuses to obey this truth and goes against it, he makes an error which is only to his detriment.
The Holy Qur'a says: "O would that we had obeyed Allah and His Messenger". This is because Allah gives them a double chastisement and curses them with a great curse for their disobedience; and because they seek to follow this world's life instead of obeying that which leads them to the Hereafter.
Of course there have always been those who are obedient and those who are not. Usually those who refuse to be obedient become fascinated with this world's life instead of looking forward to the Hereafter, and because of this Allah leaves them remaining in error and the Holy Qur'an says that this is their just due.
The Holy Qur'an says: "And certainly we raised in every Nation a Messenger saying: Serve Allah and shun the devil. Then of them was he whom Allah guided, and one of them was he whose remaining in error was justly due."
We are blessed to have a Messenger raised in our Nation and teaching us to serve Allah and shun the devil and his world and his life. Some of us obey these Teachings and Allah guides us on the right path, while others will not heed the Teachings and they remain in error.
These are the ones who seek everything for themselves and nothing for their brother. They are prone to jealously and they are greedy. They are not following the right path though they look good to the naked and non-understanding eye.
They Holy Qur'an teaches on the one called Korah, and it says Korah's wealth and his desires of personal importance lead him to ruin. Korah was given great wealth and treasures. He had so much wealth hoarded until the weight of it all would weigh down a body of strong men according to the scripture.
The Holy Qur'an says: The keys of his treasures (not just his money, but his greed and his desires for importance and his refusal to accept and give Praise to Allah) formed a load for three hundred mules.
This is exactly how some of us desire to form a load or burden to put upon the shoulders of our Messenger in hopes that the burden will be too great and we in turn can tear down the strength of the Messenger of Allah.
We take our wealth and refuse to give to the cause. We take our time and refuse to give it to the cause. We take the law and we break it as often as possible. We take the Teachings and we add to its meanings to satisfy our own desires. We take instead of obeying and giving of ourselves.
The Holy Qur'an says that Korah referred to his wealth and the seemingly exalting position he had, and said that he had been given these things only on account of the knowledge he had, not realizing that Allah is All-Wise and All-Knowing.
So his wealth and attitude about himself was so great (he thought) until he began to exalt himself and not Allah. He forgot Allah and the Will of God, just as we often seek this world's life and forget Allah and the doing of His will as taught by Messenger Muhammad.
This picture of Korah makes reference to our desires in the accumulation of wealth and our desire to build our personal selves as the great object of our life, whike we neglect our duty to the truth and refuse to build up with the Messenger of Allah, a Nation of people and individuals.
So Korah went forth among the people with great finery, looking for the people to pay homage to him instead of encouraging them to Praise Allah and thank Him for guidance through His Messenger.
So they began to say, "Look at Korah! I want to be like Korah!" because they thought Korah had Great fortune. He had money, he had admiration from the people because of his money, and he exalted himself when Allah is the Most High.
Korah was disobedient. He refused to obey that which he had been taught. He forgot where all gifts come from, and he forgot the Giver of Gifts and the reasons we receive these gifts.
But those who had knowledge, those who were wise, those whose understanding lead them to obey Allah's commandments knew that Allah's reward is better for him who believes and does good than all the money, power and position we can muster in a decaying world. And they knew that none is made to receive this reward except the patient and the obedient.
Therefore, Korah died and he had no help against Allah's Wrath. His wealth could not defend him: he could not plea, saying, "I have been your obedient servent". He could not say to Allah, "Show me your mercy for he had exalted himself. Korah was not obedient, therefore he had understanding.
The Holy Qur'an asks this question: "Do men think that they will be left alone on saying, "We believe", and will not be tried?". Just to say we believe and then we will not obey this belief, but yet we get away with this false display of belief: this will give you a false sense of security which leads to temptation which causes us to disobey and break the law.
But let us remember - the Holy Qur'an says: Woe to the cheaters! Who when they take the measure (of their dues) from men, take it fully. And when they measure out to others or weigh out for them, they give less than is due.
Obey Allah and obey His Servant (Holy Qur'an). Like it is written, "Those who say that they believe and go out saying they disbelieve".
Disobedience comes from the hypocrites and they learn from chastisements. To disobey Allah and His Messenger is actually an act of rebellion against them. And who can rebel against Allah and His Messenger and be successful?
Therefore, only one who does not understand would be foolish enough to believe that he can be disobedient and his actions and deeds will go undetected and not answered by Allah and His Messenger.
We may feel that because we are not confronted with every act of disobedience at the very time we disobey, that we are getting away with something, but if we recall our Teachings, (That every man's deeds cling to his neck - becoming a part of his book that weighs his life on the scale of the righteous and the obedient.) we would know how wise it is to obey Allah and His Messenger.
Many wish for us to believe that they will obey Allah, but they will not obey His Messenger. This is because they do not believe in Allah as they say, because they do not see him, nor do they know Him.
Yet, they see His Messenger, and because His Messenger is here among us and we can see him and hear his judgments, they seek not to obey him because of his presence. In other words, the one they can see, they will not obey and the one they haven't seen, they claim they will obey. This is because they have no understanding and they have no fear of Allah.
How foolish can we be to say that there is a difference in obeying Allah and in obeying His Messenger?