[Editor’s Note: This article was published online on December 28, 2004, and The Final Call will continue to publish articles by our late and dear Mother Tynnetta Muhammad.]
“If good befalls you, it grieves them, and if an evil afflicts you, they rejoice at it. And if you are patient and keep your duty, their struggle will not injure you in any way. Surely Allah encompasses what they do. And when thou didst go forth early in the morning from thy family, to assign to the believers their positions for the battle. And Allah is Hearing, Knowing.” –Holy Qur’an, Surah 3, verses 120-121
In 1974, two years following the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s electrifying delivery of the 22-lecture series entitled “The Theology of Time” which began in June and ended in October, many preparatory events unfolded that centered on his departure.
He did many things that we, as observers and participants, did not always understand, and often times begged to question in our ignorance. Many instructions were given that startled and amazed everyone. He was giving us our positions, as it were in the Battle of Uhud, which would make manifest those who believed from those who disbelieved. It was this Battle of Uhud in Surah 3 of the Holy Qur’an that a turning point was reached, in which a great separation took place and is clearly recorded in the history of Islam and that of the Prophet more than 1,400 years ago.
It was in this decisive battle that was being staged in which the Prophet was seriously wounded and it was rumored that he was dead. This announcement spread quickly among the forces involved in the battle and a certain number of archers–numbered 50–abandoned their post. They were excited by what appeared to be the retreat of some of the insurgents, and so they made their way to capture some of the spoils of war.
Muhammad had ordered the 50 archers to remain at a certain passage of the hills named Uhud, from which this battle derived its name. The enemy took advantage of this security breach, broke through the ranks and pursued the archers from behind. The disorder and confusion that prevailed was a result of the attachment to wealth and merchandise rather than the obedience to the Prophet’s instructions. This was exasperated by the rumor that he had died.
Certainly, there is a time for each of us to die, but that was not the time for the Prophet’s demise, and this served as a test to separate the claimants to belief and those who were otherwise. This battle led to the manifestation of the hypocrites who disobeyed the Prophet’s order. The Muslims had experienced a loss in that battle but, in truth, it was a victory for Allah and the Believers.
It is recorded in one of the histories of Muhammad concerning the particulars of the Battle of Uhud that a certain woman of the tribe Dinar came to the Prophet’s aid on the battlefield, wrapped his wound and cared for him while in this condition. Applying this history to the present moment of time, we arrive at some truly remarkable parallels between that battle and the departure of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in 1975, which is concurrent with the present state of affairs of the Nation of Islam centered on the spiritual leadership of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.
The fuller consciousness of this timeline came to a head in this turning point year of 2004, in which we celebrated the 9th Anniversary of the Million Man March in Chicago held October 15-17. In 1972, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad laid the timeline for events that were yet to take place, in which many of his companions and members of the Nation of Islam, and the world in general, would fulfill walking in his footsteps as recorded in the revelation of the Holy Qur’an.
We are fulfilling aspects of this history in the establishment of the Nation of Islam in America as the witness-bearers of this great truth. As Prophet Muhammad (May the peace and the blessings of Allah be upon him) laid the foundation of Islam in Arabia, which spread throughout the Eastern hemisphere more than 1,400 years ago, it was a sign of its greater fulfillment or final sequel taking place in the West.
Surah 54, entitled “The Moon,” opens with a verse that speaks of the moon being “cleft asunder.” The scholars and historians interpret these events as representing a sign of the Final Judgment, in which two parts of the moon were seen upon the horizon of mount Hira in Arabia. The crescent moon appears like a sliver of light in a lunar eclipse; one side of the moon is seen while the other is under darkness.
This represents the ascendancy of the Power of Islam in the West. Under the line of descent of the Prophet’s family, we are represented in our rise in the West under the Work and Mission of the Great Mahdi, Master Fard Muhammad, Who has chosen the Honorable Elijah Muhammad as His servant in the Resurrection of the Dead.
While in residence at the Palace in Chicago, along with my children who were placed there by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in 1974, the stage was set for the opposing forces to manifest their discontent, evil plans and designs against the Prophet and his household, as it is written and is in the minds of the opponents today.
Dear readers, what you see in the examples of the spiritual leadership of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and that of his greatest helper, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, is a repetition of the events that transpired in the life of Prophet Muhammad and his successors in the East. These events are now being repeated in the West from among the rejected and despised Lost and Found Members of the Nation of Islam.
While in the Palace residence, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad began to reveal to me more details of the plans mounting against him from among members of his household who were in league with some of his laborers involved in his death plot. This was the same thing that happened to him more than 40 years prior when Allah showed him his own brother Karlot, and others inside the house, making plans to take his life. He taught me exactly how this happened, which led to his flight from Detroit to Chicago in 1935, running up and down the East Coast from city to city for seven years, until his arrest by FBI agents in Washington, D.C. in 1942.
“When thou didst say to the believers: Does it not suffice you that your Lord should help you with three thousand angels sent down? Yea, if you are steadfast and keep your duty, and they come upon you in a headlong manner, your Lord will assist you with five thousand of havoc-making angels. And Allah made it only as good news for you, and that your hearts might be at ease thereby. And help comes only from Allah, the Mighty, the Wise.” –Holy Qur’an, Surah 3, verses 124-126
To be continued, Insha-Allah.
