[Editor’s Note: This article is a reprint and was published online on August 22, 2003; and The Final Call newspaper will continue to reprint articles published by our late and dear Mother Tynnetta Muhammad.]
“So whomsoever Allah intends to guide, He expands his breast for Islam, and whomsoever He intends to leave in error, he makes his breast strait (and) narrow as though he were ascending upwards. Thus does Allah lay uncleanness on those who believe not.” –Holy Qur’an, Surah 6, verse 126
I have presented in the last several articles a mathematical approach to the study of the Muslim Program and Divine Teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad based on the discovery of the ratio of Pi (P), used as a fraction, 22/7, found in our Nation’s little book of Lessons.
Using a seven unit outline first published in the Muhammad Speaks newspaper, spiritual leadership is represented at the top of the diagram, followed by education and training. This is followed by five necessities of the good life, which is the promise made by God to His people–to sit us in Heaven at once while we live and not after we die. These basic essentials of living include food, clothing, shelter, technological advancement, and good health.
Let us internalize the above formula based on the concept of Pi (P), relative to the human body, mind, and soul. Our bodies contain nine basic systems. Holistically, we embody the temple of God within. The pattern of our internal organs and body machinery of electrical and chemical impulses correspond to what is created in the outer world. As above, so below! As a man thinketh, so is he!
If we correlate the spirit of man to the Mind of God, then the region of the head, containing the brain, the mind, and the transmitter of thought waves, would represent the 10th and most important system of the body. Its function would serve as the generator of these electrical and chemical impulses that would stimulate and activate all the other nine systems. In the study of astronomy, we could compare the evolution of man to the sun and the movement of the nine planets in our solar system.
The more we know about the inner workings of our physical bodies, the more we are in tune with spiritual reality. Because man is in a physical form, he must be supplied with physical and material needs. To be perfectly balanced and harmonized mentally, spiritually and physically, we must align our thinking and our mind with the thinking and Mind of God.
Now, some people might object to this statement because it implies that God has a brain and a mind. That is exactly what I am saying. How could it be otherwise? Would He create a world outside of His own Law of Self Generation? Why would He, God, be interested in physical beings and a material universe and not be of the same material or matter of His Own Divine Creation? Granted, He is Superior to what He has created, but yet He follows the Laws of His Own Creation and causes everything else to evolve out of that Circle or Body of Wisdom.
In the continual correspondence of the seven unit outline applied to the workings of the physical body, we will note that after the category of Spiritual leadership which represents the head, we then move to shoulders of the body, which carry the weight and responsibility of attaining the proper training and education, which prepares us to acquire the necessities of life which, to some extent, represents material success, good homes and friendship in all walks of life.
Thus, provisions must be supplied in the five categories of goods and services to sustain us in our growth, which is found in food, clothing, shelter, technological advancement, and good health. This structure ultimately leads to the development of government and service to society at large.
In the area of trade and commerce, the Leadership of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was well in advance of his time, setting an example for others to follow. He opened up a successful Fish Program with quality fish imported from Peru, with sardines canned and shipped to us from off the shores of Morocco to trading efforts established with Asia, beginning with Korea and Taiwan.
An Import store was established on South Cottage Grove Avenue in Chicago, which was stocked with merchandise brought to us from abroad. This included china (dinnerware), stainless steel cooking utensils, and silverware exhibited among the products. We had a thriving supermarket, Salaam Restaurant, fast food service, and Pioneer Building that was built from the ground up. These are only a few of the enterprises that the Program of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad offered to our people in the area of Self-Help, Community development and improvement.
Since that time, a blight of famine and homelessness has fallen upon our communities, so that such accomplishments and achievements in a united front today are far and in between to the success story in which we prided ourselves. One might ask, is this the fault of leadership, or is it the fault of an ungrateful people who do not have the desire to do for self, even though the example and blueprint of success was laid before us?
The Holy Qur’an gives us this parable to read in the 16th chapter, verses 112 —114:
“And Allah sets forth a parable: A town safe and secure, to which its means of subsistence came in abundance from every quarter; but it disbelieved in Allah’s favours, so Allah made it taste a pall of hunger and fear because of what they wrought. And certainly there came to them a Messenger from among them, but they rejected him, so the chastisement overtook them, while they were wrongdoers. So eat of what Allah has given you, lawful and good (things), and give thanks for Allah’s favour, if He it is you serve.”
To be continued.
