Estimated reading time: 9 minute(s)
by Willie Muhammad
Once upon a time, there was a general who was leading his army into battle against an enemy ten times the size of his own. Along the way to the battle field, the troops stopped by a small temple to pray for victory. The general held up a coin and told his troops, “I am going to implore the gods to help us crush our enemy. If this coin lands with the heads on top, we’ll win. If it’s tails, we’ll lose. Our fate is in the hands of the gods. Let’s pray wholeheartedly.” After a short prayer, the general tossed the coin. It landed with the heads on top. The troops were overjoyed and went into the battle with high spirit. Just as predicted, the smaller army won the battle. The soldiers were exalted, “It’s good to have the gods on our side! No one can change what they have determined.” “Really?” The general showed them the coin–both sides of it were heads.
I normally wouldn’t open an entry with a story, however, I did this time because the story illustrates a point that I want to highlight. Throughout our life we are encourage to believe and not believe in a lot of things, people and ideas. One of the things we are not encourage to believe in enough is the Divinity in ourselves. When it comes to the human being, we have been taught, “Don’t believe in man (humans) because they will let you down…Man is inherently sinful…etc.†When I hear such statements, I laugh because the same people who make such statements do so while praising the great accomplishments of men whom they say were either sent or raised by God.
Belief in self does not mean that we are forsaking the Creator. Our belief in self further confirms our belief in the Creator. When we devalue and doubt the Divine power that exists within us we at the same time are manifesting disbelief in God. The Bible, Holy Quran and other religious texts speak about the power of “The Glory of God†which are you and I. When we know self, we know God, the same is true when we disbelieve in self – we show disbelief in God.
We can never “think and act like a God†if we find it difficult to see ourselves as a God. This is one of the many lessons Jesus is sent to teach -God lives within us (Luke 17:20-21). In addition to teaching the masses this truth, he has to also teach the so-called religious teachers and leaders as well, who have been teaching the people to look toward the sky. In the Gospel of John 10:34-35, Jesus had to remind these so-called religious teachers and leaders about what their own scripture said, “…It is written in your own Scriptures that God said to certain leaders of the people, ‘I say, you are gods!’And you know that the Scriptures cannot be altered. †We should not be surprised at how misguided the people are.
As I stated earlier, we can never “think and act like a God†if we find it difficult to see ourselves as a God. As you sit and read this blog entry, I would like to ask you, “How do you see yourself?†In a recent tweet the Honorable Louis Farrakhan said the following, “You will never attain to your greatness unless you believe you already have it within yourself to do it.”
(Student Minister Willie Muhammad is the New Orleans representative of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and Nation of Islam. Follow him on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/BroWM46)Â
