Lessons from Closing the Gap

JABRIL.MUHAMMAD

More columns by Jabril Muhammad

Holy Qur’an 13:27: “…Say: Allah leaves in error whom He pleases, and guides to Himself those who turn to Him–Those who believe and whose hearts find rest in the remembrance of Allah. Now surely in Allah’s remembrance do hearts find rest.” 42:13: “…Allah chooses for Himself whom He pleases, and guides to Himself who turns (to Him).”

On page 341 of Closing The Gap, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan stated: “You know, no matter what gifts a person may be blessed to have, it is out of the heart that the real issues of life are formed and the real meaning of the person’s life gets found. It is not in the talent. It is the heart. The heart of a servant of God, is formed by God. It is not formed by a mother, or a father, or circumstances. It is formed by God and is manifested through circumstances.” (Bold mine)

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Anyone who picks up the book, Closing The Gap, starting on page 347, you can read the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s response to my question of his trials. He gave other answers to questions that appear in this book, that have an indirect bearing on his trials. This is why I asked him that question that produced his answers on his life.

This has a direct bearing on our understanding and use of such words as, how, what, when, who and why. This has to do with all of the realities of the information that is in our heads and our hearts. To say that something has a “direct bearing on something” is to say that it has an effect on something, or a connection with something.

I know that millions and millions, or billions of people do not know him, like many of the few of us know him. I know that some have learned about him on the basis of misinformation, and the like. So, I wanted people to see him, from his mouth, to get a view into his heart.

Minister Farrakhan did not know that I would ask him that question before I did it. I asked Allah, in the name of His Messiah, to bless me to ask him that question at the right time. So, I asked him that question in a respectful, simple, direct and clear manner that produced that powerful, insightful and beneficial answer for all to read his words. By the help of Allah I intend to go into this “all.”

At this point, I’m asking the reader to go look into the following words that appear in italic and bold a few lines below. These words are the basis of a few articles to come, by the help of Allah.

Closing The Gap contains Minister Farrakhan’s answers to a question on this very significant subject–his trials. To me his reactions to his trials are exemplary. Exemplary means: “so good or admirable that others would do well to copy it, designed to serve as a warning to others, serving as an illustration or example of something.”

What did the Honorable Elijah Muhammad see in Minister Farrakhan in 1957 (quoted in the last article) that caused him to say those words to him? If you have not read them, here they are from Minister Farrakhan.

“I was captain and then as a captain, I came out to Chicago for Savior’s Day and the Messenger had the captains to speak on that Saturday, February 1957. I spoke and the Messenger was sitting right behind me. In the pictures that I saw there, he had this beautiful smile on his face. As I spoke as Captain Louis that night he invited me, for the first time, to come to dinner with him.”

“That night I remembered him doing something that I’ve never seen him do since then. At the end of the dinner he went around the table shaking everybody’s hand. When he got to me and shook my hand he came close and whispered in my ear, ‘You remind me of David.’ Then he went back to his chair and of course, dismissed us. That was in February.”

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad whispered his words? Why?

When God was informing Samuel that He had appointed David (to be king instead of Saul) He said, “for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” (Read 1 Samuel 16: 7.)

That illustrates the value of the heart of the human being, from the Supreme Being’s supreme-view, which will prevail one day soon. Zechariah 14:9: “And the Lord shall be king over all earth…”

How do you see these words, spoken to Minister Farrakhan in 1957, “You remind me of David” relate or connect, to these words spoken to him, years later: “Allah prepared you for me”? How do you see these words relating to his trials and to you?

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Now back to his words on his trials. They are very valuable, as we will see, if we don’t see this now. On page 350 Minister Farrakhan begins.

“By May of 1957, because of problems with Minister Ulysses and the need for funding and money to keep up his quality of life, he had to work in a foundry or his job had took him away from the Mosque; so the Messenger decided in May of 1957, to make me the minister.

“Then other trials began. You know the trial of extreme poverty. I remember working in the garment district in Boston making forty-five dollars a week. They would take ninety cents out for FICA; Social Security and whatnot, and I would come home with forty-four dollars and ten cents; with my wife and three children. But I always found each week, money to donate to the Temple and of course, my charity to the Messenger, and encouraged the believers to do the same. But that trial was extreme poverty.

“When I finally got up to sixty-five dollars a week working days; I studied during my lunch hour. We didn’t each lunch. We ate one meal a day. So I would just have a cup of coffee and write my subject out to preach.

“I remembered the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, “Well, you have gotten the Mosque up.” The believers were sufficient in number to support me. So he said that I should come away from the day job and concentrate fully on the resurrection of our people. He said that I could get one hundred dollars a week. This was 1958.

“Not one time in nine years did I ever get a hundred dollars. The most I ever got, as I can recall, was sixty-five to seventy dollars. But the actual charity was between thirty and forty-five dollars per week. For nine solid years I was not able to buy a new suit until the ninth year, when I was leaving. The believers gave me a new suit. I would wear suits from the pawnshop that my brother, from New York, would bring to me.”

More next issue, Allah willing.