CHICAGO—Billed as possibly the most important plenary of the entire weekend observance of the birth anniversary of Master Fard Muhammad, “The Christ, The Messiah and The Wheel” did not disappoint. The discussion was led by Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad, National Assistant to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and a son of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
Joining Student Min. Ishmael in the discussion were Student Ministers Ilia Rashad Muhammad, Demetric Muhammad, both of Muhammad Mosque No. 55 in Memphis and members of the Nation of Islam Research Team, Student Minister and newly appointed Student Imam Abdul Salaam Muhammad of Mosque No. 6 in Baltimore and Student National Imam Sultan Rahman Muhammad, a great-grandson of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
Student Min. Ishmael reminded the audience that a year ago, Min. Farrakhan said that, if we were to make it through the impending dark hour, it’s based on the belief that the Exalted Christ, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, is alive and that the Messiah, Minister Louis Farrakhan met Him on The Wheel.
“At a Believers’ meeting, the Minister said to us, that there are two articles of faith that we must have if we are going to make it through the dark hour. Do you remember?” Student Min. Ishmael asked the audience. “The first one is believing that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is alive, and the second one is his (Min. Farrakhan) going to The Wheel.
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The session included several slides and a three-minute trailer of the Nation of Islam movie, “The Wheel,” viewed at the conclusion of the plenary which served as more than enough as the presenters provided insight into the articles of faith. Panelists answered the pivotal question placed on each of them by the National Assistant: “When did you know he was alive?”Student Min.
Ishmael answered that critical question himself. “How do you know, Brother Ishmael, that your father Elijah Muhammad is alive? How did you come to believe that? How did you come into the certainty of knowledge that Elijah Muhammad is alive? There was a funeral. There was a body, I saw it. Members of the family saw it. The Minister saw it. The rest of the Nation did not see it—that body in the casket. It was announced that Elijah Muhammad died. Is dead,” Student Min. Ishmael stated.
“I was in my own room at the time with my brother Rasul, when my mother came in there at the National House—the Palace … she (Mother Tynnetta Muhammad) was just weeping and crying. We knew,” he shared. “So we started crying before it came out of her mouth, ‘he’s gone,’” he reflected. “That was a very painful, painful moment for the Nation and all of us,” he continued.
“And then that night,” Student Min. Ishmael recalled, “I slept in the bedroom … my mother and father’s room at the Palace; and my mother was in disbelief.”
Mother Tynnetta Muhammad, wife of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, went to the Bible to read the 11th chapter of the Book of Revelations, he recalled. That scripture speaks of the two anointed witnesses of God who died and how the wicked of the land were in celebration of their death only to learn of those servants rising from the dead and into heaven. Mother Tynnetta then went to her young sons to inform them of what she had found and that her husband, their father, was, in fact, alive.
“Griffith Funeral Home on King Drive,” said Student Min. Ishmael, “that’s where they had the so-called body of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. My brother Rasul was with me, and we noticed something. The mole on the left side of his cheek was on the opposite side. I’m telling you what my eyes saw,” he softly exclaimed to the audience.
“We stepped (while) the other members of the family would come and we stood off to the side,” he joyously expressed. “That gave me reason and hope as a (little) boy. I want you to think about this as a boy, along with what my mother had just told me. So, from that day, I believed that Elijah Muhammad was alive. Thanks to my mother and for what my eyes saw.”
Student Min. Ishmael closed on the point noting that his mother visited Minister Farrakhan in 1978 after learning that he had stood to rebuild the work of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad. She pledged her support from that day, “and she made her word bond to the day that Allah called her to Himself on the 16th of February, 2015,” he declared.
“Researching the words of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, he gives us so many reasons and provides so much evidence as to who He is, and His Exaltation,” explained Student Min. Ilia Muhammad. “The Honorable Elijah Muhammad stated in the “Theology of Time,” on several occasions, ‘I am the Elijah of that Bible.’
And in His life’s work, he proved that He is that Elijah of the Bible. And Elijah, who is associated with God’s heavenly vehicle that rescues Him somehow. That’s interesting,” Student Min. Ilia noted as the audience began to utter their obvious excitement.
“The Honorable Elijah Muhammad stated clearly also in the Theology of Time, ‘I am that little lamb you read about in Revelations.’ What I remember reading about that little lamb in Revelations,” Student Min. Ilia continued, is “people thought he was dead. He appeared to have been slain from the foundation of the Earth. But all of a sudden, he was up in heaven with these angels and the Lord.”
He first came to hear and learn that the Hon. Elijah Muhammad was alive by following and listening to Min. Farrakhan. He viewed a lecture of the Minister in the 1980s from The Final Call administration building in Chicago in which he was speaking of the fact that his teacher was in fact alive.
“Now here is the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, a man who is known worldwide, who is loved by many (and) hated by many as well; particularly by those who are in power. Perhaps, one of the most scrutinized men on the planet. He has taken an unpopular position that his teacher, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad is physically alive,”
said Student Min. Ilia. Pondering the point, the researcher pointed out that of all the hate and condemnation spewed on the Minister, he questioned why no one ever denies his (Min. Farrakhan’s) claim?
Student Min. Demetric Muhammad concurred with a lot of what his research team member shared. He came in to the Nation of Islam three years earlier than Student Min. Ilia, however, both came in as teenagers rooted in the Southern Bible Belt, where their understanding had been formulated in the concept of what the Hon. Elijah Muhammad taught was “a mystery God.”
But, now having the ability to relate the years of teaching and seeing it come to life in real, live men and knowing we have a Saviour in Master Fard Muhammad, the Christ and the Messiah, makes all the difference in the world, he explained.
“I think that listening to my brother, it is similar to mine when you think about faith is both a cause and an effect,” Student Min. Demetric began. “Thinking over coming into a belief, and a real certainty that the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad is physically alive, I can point to more of a confluence of things, many different things,” he said. “We grew up with a belief in Jesus. Islam is new in the South compared to Christianity.
So, when we come to hear the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan boldly declare that his teacher is alive and has escaped death … for me, it wasn’t very difficult. Because like my brother said, I already believed in Jesus. Being a small child, raised in a Baptist church, going to Sunday School and Vacation Bible … so I came to the Nation with a certain leaning. When I heard the Minister teach that, I did not disbelieve it. I didn’t understand it, but believed it,” he said.
In the plenary, attendees also heard from Student National Imam Sultan Rahman Muhammad and Student Minister, Student Imam Abdul Salaam Muhammad. Student Imam Sultan wowed the audience with his personal life experience coming to the realization that his great-grandfather, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad did not lie. And when he finally read “Message to the Blackman in America,” (his) belief—not only in his being alive, but that the core of the Teachings of Elijah Muhammad is central to establishing a true and living Islam—was confirmed.
“As a great-grandson of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Mother Clara Muhammad after the fall of the Nation, I grew up nurtured under the scholarship of so-called orthodox Sunni Islam, and began academic training in the Islamic sciences at the age of 12,” shared Student Imam Sultan.
“When I read “Message to the Blackman in America” for the first time at the age of 19, I was struck by the comprehensive aspects of the Teachings that included foundational knowledge of Islam’s principle actions and beliefs. The spiritual Teachings of the Knowledge of Self (Ilm-An-Nafs) that I read both in “Message to the Blackman” and “Our Saviour Has Arrived,” convinced me that what I was taught of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was a lie!
The false narrative advanced by ignorant compromise among our people, foreign so-called Islamic authorities, and the mainstream government-controlled academia and media that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and the beliefs of the Nation of Islam is not real Islam is absolutely dishonest,” he added.
“The core principles of faith and action remain the same—rooted in the Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullah (PBUH), yet, renewed and unburdened by Arab nationalism, traditionalism, and ritualism for a unique people of the New World of Islam.”
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