[Editor’s note: This article was published online August 3, 2004.]
The second sentence of the passage of Psalms, which we’re analyzing, reads: “Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.”
One way to piece apart this sentence is this way: “Then said I, Lo, I come:/// in the volume of the book it is written of me,/// I delight to do thy will, O my God:/// yea, thy law is within my heart.”
Consider other ways to do this with this sentence. This is an essential first step, especially when studying the word of Allah. We must begin with the actual facts.
Probably we’ve all experienced taking written examinations. Many of the answers we got wrong were due to our not properly reading the test questions, as they were actually written. We may recall some important examinations wherein we failed to get certain answers right because we misread the questions.
In the Lessons that Registered Muslims in the Nation of Islam receive, we are referred to as students. We read that we have the most serious examination imaginable or possible ahead of us. Our real assignments will be made immediately after this examination; immediately after completing our course of labor. We read that God’s own analysis is involved in this process. Finally, for the purpose of this article, it’s made clear in the introductory material that “every one’s final examination will be before Allah (our Saviour)” which includes, among other materials, six written lessons–three of which were written by the hand of the great Mahdi Himself.
We’re to “copy” the answers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. These are the answers he said he gave when he was a baby in the Teachings of His teacher. This is mercy to us.
As we become better students, we grow to more deeply appreciate the value of having before us the best student and example of the response of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to his Teacher (God Himself) in the person of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.
Let me give you a tiny example of what I mean in my use of the word “response” in the previous paragraph. One day, Master Fard Muhammad said to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, “Come on Karriem. We got about all we are going to get.” He broke down and cried: “Master, if you destroy them, destroy me.”
“(Before He gave his servant the name Muhammad, Master Fard Muhammad gave him the name Karriem.) That’s love–of an extraordinary kind.” (This Is The One, page 242)
This is also the heart of Minister Farrakhan, which beats in unison with his teacher.
We once were lost and now have been found by Master Fard Muhammad. We were once blind and now we see, if we want to see. It’s written–and some of us are fulfilling this–since you say you see and do not see, you will not see. Of such people, the Holy Qur’an says that they will say, when the matter was clearly over, that the two Messiahs taught us Allah’s truth: “Oh my lord why have you raised me up blind when I used to see?”
The truth of Psalms 40:6-8 is an example of the deeper aspects of the overall revelation of God to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Its truth is mentioned elsewhere in the scriptures. But it’s not worded in the same words. It’s divinely intended to deepen our thinking of the redemptive work of God Himself and the two Messiahs–the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Minister Farrakhan–in bringing us all from a state of nothingness, to eventually become the rulers of the earth. Furthermore, Black people don’t know that they are to become the rulers of the universe and even participate in its recreation, by Allah’s guidance. They will.
In the present text of the numerous translations of the Bible in English, we don’t read the words “Prepare me a body and I will go down and redeem man.” But, as I’ve written in previous articles, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad stated that it was in an earlier translation of the Bible. Next article, Allah willing, I want to quote some of the Jewish and Christian scholars who give powerful reason for one to see that the present passage omits the full power of the original text.
From a general reading of Psalms 40:6-8, the speaker is voluntarily offering himself to do God’s will. The speaker is conscious of the fact that this is the expression of the very material out of, and the way in which, God created him. The speaker realizes that his sacrifice and offer of himself to do God’s will is superior to all of the sacrifices and offerings made described before his time.
The words, “Then said I, Lo, I come” are again, the words of two persons. We are to follow their example. One characteristic of the scriptures is that the same truth is repeated elsewhere in the text to bring out the truth from different angles. But the first reason, so said the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, was to catch the eye of the dead.
Generally, the expression “the volume of the book” refers to the books God’s prophets brought, by which they taught the people. Those books also contain the knowledge of the future work of the two Messiahs.
This short commentary on the passage we’re discussing is interpretative. Can this be proven to be true? Yes. Let’s first ask this: How does anyone justify any interpretation of any part of the scriptures? How do we get from the first step–which must be an examination of the actual words given in the text–to the end of the process, which should be the true meaning of it?
We would have to know each word’s meaning, not only in English, but we must trace and understand every word’s meaning to their ultimate roots in the language(s) from which each word was translated.
To rush through this a bit, we would have to know who the writers were, where they wrote, what were the circumstances and the conditions under which they wrote, who their audiences were and what was their intention.
If you were that wise, if you had the means and the time to go that far, this would not yet be far enough. You yet must answer the question of how this information got from God to the prophets and then to the writers. There still are other factors I can’t squeeze into this article. But the bottom line is this. In no way could we have ever gained the right interpretation of the scriptures on our own. Moreover, we now know why this is so. For the last 66,000,000,000 years, God concealed Himself from the public. This is the time He chose to manifest Himself.
A most wonderful work has already been done for us in the birth of the Mahdi, His preparation and His study; His having set in motion His perfect plan that includes the work of the two Messiahs to execute their parts of His work–of which we are beneficiaries.
We’re precious in His eyes.
More next issue, Allah willing.
