ERICTOUREM and Richard B. Muhammad -Staff Writers-
Divine Teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad crucial for survival
(FinalCall.com) – For the past 81 years, the teachings of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, patriarch of the Nation of Islam, have been inside America and have spread across the globe.
It’s core could be described as simple powerful truths: Blacks in America are the fulfillment of the prophecy of Abraham’s children enduring suffering and bondage among a strange people and a strange land before the one scripture calls the Christ, and in Islamic tradition the “Great Mahdi,” would come to deliver and uplift this fallen people. This mighty one would also judge and destroy America for her evils, just as empires were destroyed in the past, and make a great nation out of a once-destroyed and foolish people, the children of America’s slaves.
›This mighty one, whom the Hon. Elijah Muhammad taught was Master Fard Muhammad, came on July 4, 1930 to declare the independence of the Black man and woman of America. He also has supreme power and wisdom and will usher in a world of peace and justice, never to be destroyed, Mr. Muhammad said.
So in an era of spiritual and conventional warfare, socio-economic unrest, poor health, starvation, and weather calamities, which have steadily increased in America since the coming of Master Fard Muhammad, the teachings of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad are critical for Black survival.
“The Hon. Elijah Muhammad’s teachings are medicinal,” began scholar and Nation of Islam member Dr. Wesley Muhammad, who holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in Islamic Studies. He has also taught at the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and the University of Toledo, and has presented or lectured at the University of Mainz, Germany, the University of Chicago, Duke University, Emory University, Morehouse College, Spelman Collegeand Clark Atlanta University.
“When we each and collectively take the proper, prescribed dosage, the Islam of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad has the power to heal the many, post-slavery pathologies that afflict our community: social, psychological, spiritual, economic and political. Knowledge of self and others is the root of this teaching,” he says.
That knowledge includes understanding the divine nature of the Original people and the devilishment endured while under the rule of Caucasian people. It is the knowledge of God, unlocked in the children of America’s once slaves, and the knowledge of the devil, or the Satanic actions and attitudes of Whites and a nation guilty of evils at home and abroad.
“The number one impediment is spiritual,” Nation of Islam Southwestern Region Student Minister Robert Muhammad told The Final Call.
“It’s the blinding touch of Satan. His touch has blinded us to the reality of the scriptures and our identity according to the scriptures,” he explained. “To embrace the teaching of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad is to embrace Black originality and to embrace our destiny.
“Allah has raised a warner and messenger for every nation. So to embrace the teachings of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad is to embrace the full power, majesty and might of God in relationship to not only our progress but to our survival through this world and into the next,” said Robert Muhammad.
“To obey knowledge is to survive. To be obedient is to be successful. The teachings as given to us by the Honorable Minister Farrakhan gives us first, the insight into the fall of this world, and two, our progress towards achieving what is called the hereafter–our destiny to rule the earth.”
For Blacks, the preoccupation with surviving or saving America–White America–and a lack of knowledge have helped prevent achievement of a full and complete freedom.
But with failing education, unemployment, violence, economic failure and joblessness, health crises and a country unable to solve its own problems, and a country unwilling to offer justice for centuries of oppression and continued assaults, Black America is in a precarious position.
God wants Black people, and as the scripture says, he will remove nations to get his chosen people, said Min. Farrakhan recently at Mosque Maryam.
Min. Farrakhan, the top student of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, has repeatedly warned that God is angry with America and will plague the country with rain, hail, snow and earthquakes until his people are let go. His warning is a reminder of the warnings that came from his teacher in 40 years of work among Black people.
“Now the reason that judgment is on America is not because of America’s bad policies and what she has done to other nations of the world but the reason that his anger is kindled against America and his threat to destroy America, it is because of what America has done and is doing and plans to do against the people that God has chosen–the Blackman and woman of America–whom I have declared to the world of religion, Christian, Muslims and Jews, that we are the Children of Israel and we are fulfillment of God’s prophecy and promise,” said Min. Farrakhan.
“In other words, you don’t have a future in this political-economic system. You can’t carve out a future for 45 million Black people in the economy of America. And this is why God is asking for separation in a state or territory of our own,” the Minister continued. He made these pronouncements at a major press conference March 31 at the Chicago headquarters of the Nation of Islam.
A comprehensive program for life, progress
Water, food, and adequate shelter are basic human needs. Economics coupled with moral and spiritual renewal are proven healing balms for a nation’s survival.
While amongst us, Elijah Muhammad and his followers guided Blacks toward the forgiveness and mercy of Almighty God Allah by first giving us the knowledge of God and then building social, cultural, educational and economic infrastructure.
The Nation of Islam established farms, owned rental housing, built homes and purchased real estate, created food processing centers, restaurants, clothing factories, banking, business leagues, import and export businesses, engaged in aviation, impacted diet and health care as Muslim and African nations began to recognize economic and societal thrust of the Nation of Islam.
In 1972, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad opened a $2 million mosque and school in Chicago, which was a model for independent education and proper education.
“The teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad represent a truth which transcends time,” educator Dr. Chike Akua, told The Final Call. “The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s representation of the teachings has had a profound impact on the work that I do in education training teachers, administrators, and parents and presenting to students. The Messenger stressed the need for the Black Man and Woman to come into the true knowledge of themselves. This information has been carefully and consciously kept from us,” he continued.
“Now, at a time when there is a national Black male high school graduation rate of only 47 percent and schools struggle with increasing low student achievement, apathy, and violence, school teachers and leaders are struggling to find solutions. Yet educational research is clear and compelling.It indicates that culture is the key–the critical mediating factor in increasing student achievement. In other words, when students are taught using their culture as a bridge rather than a barrier, achievement dramatically and consistently increases,” he said.
The body of knowledge that Mr. Muhammad presented in his books, Message to the Black Man, How to Eat to Live, Our Savior Has Arrived, and The Fall of America, are survival tools and place those who believe on the scriptural path of a world without end.
His teaching energized the Black Power movement, provided a counterweight to integrationists facing a recalcitrant White power structure, produced influential students like Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali; Imam W.D. Mohammed and others directly and others indirectly. His “How To Eat to Live” books revolutionized food and diet in the country and his spiritual teaching about the nature of God and misuse of race in religion opened the door to more progressive and culturally aware Black theology.
“This teaching does not just inform us that ‘The Black Man is God’ and the ‘White Man is the Devil.’ This teaching prescribes a lifestyle which can literally make gods of Black men and women and develop in us the ability to also reverse the effects of the many pathologies that if continued unchecked will certainly effect our demise on their own,” Dr. Wesley said.
“Our young people coined a phrase called set-trippin,” observed Anthony Muhammad, student minister of Mosque No. 55 in Memphis. “Which means they fight for their particular sect(ion); hate those who are not of that sect. So the Crips fight the Bloods and the Vice Lords fight the Gangster Disciples, etc. Yet they are not the only ones who ‘sect’ trip. Many of us do this in religion. We are disunited as a people financially, spiritually and morally and we often times pride ourselves like young people in our sects. The church will go against the mosque, Christians against Muslims or visa-versa. Minister Farrakhan calls this the Willie Lynch Syndrome. This syndrome renders us unable to pool our resources as we are taught,” he said.
“The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan is working diligently to remove these barriers. He speaks in the mosque and also in the church. He speaks to our artists and our gang-bangers, to our political leaders and our disenfranchised.
“And the beauty of this is that his message of truth is the same regardless of what arena he may be in. He speaks as his teacher before him for the whole of our people,” said Anthony Muhammad.
Land, economics and power
“The reason I got into agriculture is because the Hon. Elijah Muhammad said that agriculture was a root of civilization,” said Muhammad Farms director Dr. Ridgely Mu’ min Muhammad, who is based in Georgia. “And I knew economics (money) controlled everything. So, I went to school for agricultural economics to understand agriculture, economics and business.”
Speaking from the Nation of Islam farm in Georgia where he milled wheat, he shared thoughts about Black survival and the messianic teaching of Mr. Muhammad. “Once you believe that this world is wicked and should be brought down and that we should separate–come out of her–then comes the importance of the economic blueprint found in Message to the Blackman in America,” he said.
“Working together in a collective manner and making no excuses for our mistakes. He demonstrated this. When the Messenger got the farmland, the products produced did not go to the White man’s stores. The product went to the Black neighborhood direct through Your Supermarkets, to our restaurants and at that time, to our temples. From the land to the man,” he reflected. “By replicating that model today, we will develop an alternative system to the present system and survive the fall of America.”
Abdul Muhammad, a student minister in the Nation of Islam at the Chicago headquarters, noted that there are already freedoms, won as a direct result of the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, many take for granted.
Muslims jailed or imprisoned were previously barred from having their book of scripture, the Holy Qu’ran in their possession. The right of religious freedom in prison that is present today was fought for by members of the Nation of Islam in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, explained Abdul Muhammad.
“Everybody that goes to prison, no matter what their religion is, they have the freedom to have their religious documentation. They have the freedom to celebrate any religious holiday. They have the freedom to have somebody to come into that prison of that particular faith and minister unto them,” Abdul Muhammad told The Final Call. When the early Muslims fought for freedom of religion in prison, other religions such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, 7th Day Adventists and other denominations were able to also practice their faith, he noted.
Blacks can oversee the proper education of their own children directly today, a benefit enjoyed by home schools and independent educators as the result of Mr. Muhammad’s influence, explained Abdul Muhammad, a schoolteacher for nearly 17 years.
There was a time where it was unheard of for Blacks to have their children in any school other than the public school, said Abdul Muhammad. The Hon. Elijah Muhammad and his followers were jailed and accused of contributing to the delinquency of minors when they opened Muhammad University of Islam.
“The freedom that we have now, to educate our own, even to have a Betty Shabazz International Charter School or these Afrocentric schools we take for granted, is a freedom that was fought for and won by the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad,” said Abdul Muhammad.
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