Self-Improvement Study Course
by The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan
In The Name Of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.
I Bear Witness That There Is No God But Allah And I Bear Witness
That Muhammad Is His Messenger.
I GREET YOU ALL IN THE GREETING WORDS OF PEACE:
AS SALAAM ALAIKUM.
God has brought us all onto the Earth to face one difficulty after another and it is the facing of these difficulties and the overcoming of these difficulties that helps us to improve our character and improve ourselves.
Now, the key word is 'to face' a difficulty. 'To face' a difficulty means to look at it; to assess it; to summon the total strength or our being to oppose it; to overcome it; to have a determined, persevering, courageous spirit to overcome the difficulty. There is no difficulty that man is faced with that man does not have the ability to overcome, if he will summon the strength of his being against that obstacle in the pathway of his progress.
But, how many of us turn our backs on difficulties? Whenever the difficulty comes, we turn away from it; try to find an easy road out of a difficult situation. I am talking to all of us. How many of you, when a difficult situation arises in your life, summon the strength of your being to stand resolutely and firmly in the face of that difficulty to overcome it? Or, do you turn away?
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.
Struggle is ordained by God. God is not a vicious God. He is a Loving, a Beneficent and Merciful God, but He ordains struggle. Because without struggle, you cannot bring out of yourself that which God has deposited within you. It is something that has to be brought out and it is a struggle overcoming difficulties that manifest your own gifts and you own sublime qualities.
Struggle is ordained, but the Qur'an teaches that 'after difficulty comes ease.' God gives you difficulty then He gives you ease. It is like a blacksmith, if you will, who is shaping a piece of steel. He puts it in the fire then he beats it and he cools it. This is the way God forges men and women of character. He does not forge you into great men and women without the fire, the water and the beating.....................
The challenge now is yours and mine. I hope that you and I will be able to say like Jesus, 'the strife is o'er...'. The battle is done, man. The victory of life is won; I got it. I made it. Not number one in football, not number one in singing, dancing and clowning, not number one in this and that, but the victory of life, meaning that the Divine Life that God gave you, you finally have connected to the Source of it.
And now you have become one with God, so there is no more struggle, no more strife, the battle is over, the victory is won and you have become a risen child of that Creator that has ascended to the heights. Then we can say, Allelujah, for Praise belongs to God!
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hmmm....pretty much anyone who knows me knows of the struggles of my life these past few years. i'm talking abvious ones that i dont have to tell anyone about.it seems that i just cant get it right. on my search for peace i came across this article and just read it. i'm not done all of it but i like the feel of it already. it strengthens my resolve for devine closeness. my spiritual cleanliness. i'm still reading and writing daily. increasing my knowledge and intelligence.
the most powerful part of this small excerp is when he says that there is the need to ask god to stand strong when there is struggle, not asking for him to deliver me from it. i will pray for this. for this strength in the face of struggle. because no matter what there will always be problems, troubles, ects with the irritations of life. but the point is to get through that and
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