[Editor’s Note: This article is a reprint and was published online on May 10, 2005; and The Final Call will continue to reprint articles written by our late and dear Mother Tynnetta Muhammad.]
“Praise be to Allah! Whose is whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth, and to Him be praise in the Hereafter! And He is the Wise, the Aware. He knows that which goes down into the earth and that which comes out of it, and that which comes down from heaven and that which goes up to it. And He is the Merciful, the Forgiving.”—Holy Qur’an, Surah 34, verses 1-2
The world of Islam is universal in its ultimate goal and expression to establish a world of peace that conforms to the divine principles of Almighty God Allah. The idea of peace is at the heart and root of the meaning of Islam. A Muslim holds as his ultimate goal to perform the duties of a righteous Muslim by rendering total submission to the will of Almighty God. The inner search for truth and the purification of self leads to the higher manifestation of God’s presence in every human being. The states and stations of the spiritual journey is a lifetime pursuit and carries with it the goals of reaching the state of consciousness when entire submission to the will of Allah is obtained.
He, Allah, is the Guide and His divine revelation contains the essence of the details of that journey returning to God. Thus, through the contemplation of God’s divine words as revealed in the Holy Qur’an and as contained in all the divine scriptures, brings the traveler to see with the Eye of Certainty His overall divine plan for all of fallen humanity.
On Friday, the 29th of April, I flew into San Francisco, California, from Mexico City to participate in the 12th Annual Sufism Symposium. With three days of work set before us, ending on May 1, our activities were fully impacting. I began to realize more forcibly the inner connecting threads between the divine teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and its application to the entire world of Islam and its relationship to the whole of humanity.
Throughout the many years of my association with the International Association of Sufism, co-founded by Dr. Nahid Angha and her husband, Shah Nazar Seyed Ali Kianfar, who is also co-director, I saw more clearly the working relationship between a couple—husband and wife team—who are devoted to the love of Allah, of family and the broader community. Dr. Angha has encouraged me over the years through our friendship to continue accelerating my work among the women and men of our society to be a source of light and inspiration for the millions of souls around our planet.
The theme of this year’s symposium was, “A Practicum: Theories and Practices.” Each day there were presentations in the form of exceptional panels and presenters with backgrounds of highly intellectual and professional accomplishments. I participated on the panel entitled “States and Stations of the Journey.” I had flashbacks of my early years as a student follower and wife of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, who in his person was empowered to reflect in his teachings the true image of God, not as a spook or as invisible, but as He is, both human and divine.
Thus, being guided to Islam when a teenager of 16 years of age in the city of Detroit, Michigan, as a senior at Central High School, I began my states and stations of the journey seeking to know myself and God as the foundation of our work today, everywhere on this planet. Today, our work in the Nation is based upon the meeting of the many minds that are caught up into this stream of consciousness guiding us into the thinking and the Mind of God. This journey is to unite us with the source of all spiritual consciousness, which is God Himself.
At this symposium, I witnessed the commingling of Black and White, Arab, Christian, Muslim and Jew vibrating on a level of spiritual consciousness that defied distinctions based on race, color or national origin, or religious belief or creed. All were speaking the same language of the heart and soul burning with the desire to be released from the imprisonment of self-seeking to be united and absorbed in the rapture of the presence of God and God alone.
In the exercise of zikr, which is the remembrance of God, we chanted the beautiful names of Allah forming a circle, calling God to remembrance with words such as “La illaha illa Allah” (There is no god but Allah). We were enchanted with the movements of the Whirling Dervishes in their Sema Ceremony, while spinning in unison with their center focus on the beauty and majesty of their beloved Almighty God Allah. I reflected on the words of my illustrious husband and teacher, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, revealed to me in a dream state in which I entered an auditorium or an arena surrounded by many unknown or unidentified gathering of people. He said to me, “Let us see what the scholars will think of this.” Truly there I was representing in this gathering the thinking and mind and divine teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and his Master Teacher, W. Fard Muhammad. I was literally facing new people from every religious philosophy, exchanging thoughts and ideas with imminent scholars and professors of colleges and universities.
My mind was ringing and buzzing with the words of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan that he shared with our own assembly of 56 delegates being called to the first Constitutional Convention only a week ago. He shared with us present duties and responsibilities to expand our breasts in Islam and in this mission to reveal the universal truths embedded in the message of our Divine Teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to the entire world of humanity. He prefaced his closing remarks at our convention with a quote from the 20th Surah of the Holy Qur’an entitled “Ta Ha,” which I musically interpreted as a symphonic work that debuted in the country of Mexico and included traditional instruments from around the world. He quoted the following verse from Ta Ha which reads: ‘My Lord, expand for me my breasts and ease my affair for me…’ He stopped and paused at the first verse and referred to the use of his violin in returning to his music as the universal language that has expanded for him his breasts, making room for the greater revelation of truths from Almighty God Allah intended for all peoples and all nations. I thank Allah for the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and for giving him and us a helper and a comforter, an aider from his family, in helping us to get safely across the turbulent tide of this world into the next world of universal consciousness of peace, happiness and divine blessings.
“And give to me an aider from my family: Aaron, my brother; Add to my strength by him, And make him share my task—So that we may glorify Thee much, And remember Thee. Surely, Thou art ever Seeing us. He said: Thou art indeed granted thy petition, O Moses.”—Holy Qur’an, Surah 20, verses 29-36
To be continued.
