Min. Farrakhan’s Magnificent Answer on the Honorable Elijah Muhammad

JABRIL.MUHAMMAD

Previous Farrakhan The Traveler Articles

Continued from Previous Column

Chapter Six is titled: “Minister Farrakhan’s Magnificent Answer.” I raise a question at the end.

The interview of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, from which I excerpted a small part, and placed it in an earlier part of this book, was done over a period of several days. On April 3, 1994, in a follow up question, I asked him this:

“Do you think you would have come to the position in which you are without your having come to the realization that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is yet physically alive?”

Without hesitation he responded: “Never, never, never could I have reached the point that I’m reaching, or have reached, and am still reaching right now, had I not come into that realization.

“In education there is a thing that is called a ‘plateau of learning.’ When one reaches a plateau of learning, and stops there, the process of learning stops and the process of intellectual death begins. So when I saw my leader as dead, the fountain of my spiritual and intellectual growth had died.

“There were so many unanswered questions in what he had taught me, that I then had reached a plateau of learning, and having stopped there, a process of intellectual death had begun. This was because certain things I had been taught, and of which I was convinced–which were the foundation of my life–and which were linked inextricably to his life, were now being broken down, as I was convinced that he was dead.

“And at a certain point, even though I wanted to rebuild his work, out of my love for him and love for the people, there is no way I could have carried myself or the people forward without coming to that realization.

“Once I realized that he was in fact alive, the whole of the Bible, from Acts to Revelation, took on new and vital meaning, which meant there was no longer a plateau in my growth. I began to grow again. And not only grow again, but grow into a new growth, because the realization of his life and his growth … the realization of his [my note: the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s] growth and his higher life, after I thought he was dead, is also the realization of my growth and my life.

“The realization of his [my note: the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s] renewal, after what appeared to be his death, is the realization of my own renewal after my appearance of death.

“It is the realization that all of humanity can be renewed, but only renewed in him, in a proper knowledge of him–the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And this is why I believe the scripture says ‘All become new creatures in Christ.’ ”

[This excerpt from the above mentioned interview with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan was conducted on a Easter Sunday morning.]

Minister Farrakhan continued: … it is so fortunate that this comes on a day that is called Easter–a day of renewal–a day of restoration–a day of reconciliation of man with God through this renewed faith, ‘That he lives.’ For me to see this apostle, this disciple [Author’s note: here he is referring to himself] to be so honored to be proclaiming, on this day– ‘I know that my redeemer liveth’–this is powerful!

“Because of my growth, you see, and because of that knowledge first, and that faith, which is the precipitant of the growth, I now can grow the clergy into that which they have hoped and prayed for.

“So this is how and why I notice that when I speak to men of religion they break down and they cry.”

As the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan spoke, he thought back to a specific experience of his, with a certain pastor, in Ghana, who himself broke down and cried–in front of others–over the powerful witness from the text of the scriptures which he heard coming from the mouth of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. That pastor’s name is Reverend Shuler.

In no way was Minister Farrakhan putting that pastor down, as he spoke to me. However, a few years later I heard this same pastor express what seemed to me to be a need in him to misrepresent Minister Farrakhan, with falsehoods. I twice heard him do this on radio programs, when promoting one of his books, throughout America–and maybe beyond her borders. Minister Farrakhan noted the effect of his witness to the Christ on this pastor, then moved on to say:

“ … as he heard the words of scripture, that he’s all too familiar with; but they [My note: he now shifted his mental attention to the clergy as a group] have such new and revivifying meaning coming from one who has died in and now lives in the man–Jesus–that the book is talking about and who is its central figure.

“I can see going back to the letter that I wrote to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, ‘Am I the first to believe in you as this Christ figure?’ Well, I am not the first, in the sense of belief, but I am the first in the sense of experiencing a certain growth into life by ‘seeing’ in the light of my renewed faith–that he is truly alive in his body, and is with his Lord. And after coming out of my death, and then to be the first to experience that maturation into the love and appreciation of self and of my connection to God, and his Christ, I am being used as a vessel to get others to experience the same thing.”

The 16th chapter of the book of Matthew, contains the famous passage, called Peter’s Confession. From the current Catholic translation of the Bible we read in Matthew 16: 13-16:

“When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter said in reply, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ “

This event did not take place 2,000 years ago. But even if it did, it was prophetic (a type or sign) of an event that did take place in the 1970s, in the United States of America. It took place between the man of whom Peter was a sign–the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan–and his teacher, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

As Peter’s work, in its essence, from his teacher, according to the Bible, was to make his teacher’s great commission known, so did the Honorable Elijah Muhammad give this assignment to his Minister, the Honorable Louis Farrakhan.

In my humble view, Minister Farrakhan has magnificently carried out, this and all phases of his assignment from the time he arose in September 1977 right through today. And, I fully expect that he will continue to do all that is written of him.

I think all right minded people, everywhere, ought to pray for Minister Farrakhan to be blessed to hear these words from his teacher, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, as it is recorded in Matthew, chapter 25, in Jesus’ parable of the talents:

“Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful … enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”

What makes Minister Farrakhan’s Answer so Magnificent?

More next issue, Allah Willing.