A Lesson From The Birds 2:260

When Prophet Ibrahim asked Allah how does He gives life to the dead, Allah, the Most High said: Take four from those swiftly moving creatures and incline and establish them towards you, then place a portion of them on each hill, call them and they will return to you.

Perhaps our success and resurrection from a dead people lies in following these instructions. Allah is metaphorically using the bird to speak to us.

Birds are intelligent creatures with outspread wings that allow them the freedom to soar high into the sky and survey their surroundings then return to the group with their findings. They symbolize freedom, insightful knowledge, empowerment and ascension. Allah has endowed man the ability to possess these same qualities. He created us with the intellectual abilities to ascend to great heights in our advancement of life, as well as to be free thinkers, and He empowered us to be the rulers of the earth.

Every created species naturally knows its mode of prayer, how to survive and how to establish family and community life. However, because African-Americans were cut off from their origin and then endured a brutal slavery experience followed by Jim Crow, then were misled, miseducated and given a false god and a false sense of identity, our commitment to group unity and group productivity as a race never fully developed. Some within the group have reached great heights with individual successes, but as a racial group, we have been unable to achieve that goal for various reasons, most of which have been systemic. Great numbers within the group possess high levels of education, skills, talents and abilities, but we still lack the unity, commitment, proper discipline and understanding of how to apply these abilities for the purpose of the group's success. Thus, we remain a species that is dependent upon others for our survival and in desperate need of G-d’s help, mercy and intervention.

Allah’s instructions to Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) were to read (educate) and His instructions to Prophet Ibrahim were to illuminate the mind, tame, train and incline. Therefore, we must return to our original origin, rid ourselves of false worship and seek knowledge on a higher level. We should educate ourselves and our offspring using the guidance which G-d has given us in the Qur’an and develop a strong love of G-d and of our race. We should choose the best from among us, the brightest and morally upright from among our youth, and educate and train them, then encourage and financially support them to ascend to greatness and high positions in all ethical areas of our society which are necessary for community development. This should be done with the understanding that they are to return with the knowledge, insight and commitment to work and apply that which they have learned for the development and establishment of our community life.

Just as the birds are trained as messengers to go out, survey and return, we must train our youth to learn to extract the higher-level knowledge from the sciences of the Qur’an then to go out and position themselves among those in high-ranking places (mountains) in society to seek additional knowledge that will be beneficial to the development and advancement of our community life as a people. While we now send our youth away to seek education, we fail to incline them to return and apply it to the group. However, this is being done every day through cultural exchange from students around the world at colleges and universities. Afterwards, these youth are placed in prominent intern positions or jobs to gain experience to further advance their people upon their return.

We must plant seeds of righteousness, knowledge and support and incline our youth to carry forward the mission and the vision needed for us to ascend to the heights that Allah wants for us. G-d willing, we will evolve an established community of people, the best to evolve from among the people, a model community. A new origin with the Qur’an as our base and the special insights given by our beloved leader and teacher Imam W.D. Mohammed, in addition to a strong desire, commitment and unity to work together will provide us the greatest advantage. This Muslim community has been given a new origin; we should put our differences aside and work together to fulfill the mission. It won’t happen overnight, but in Sha Allah, in due time.