[Editor’s Note: This article was published online on Nov. 3, 2016.]
A week ago, it was announced that the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan was going to speak to the world. As I read and saw the flyer what came to my mind involves words that came from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Also, words that the Minister spoke concerning the Honorable Elijah Muhammad being alive, well and in power!
Jabril Muhammad: Dear Brother Minister, to reiterate, I don’t remember the exact date when you and your party were in Cuba when I had an experience that I have mentioned to you twice. It seemed like it was very short. I woke up in it. It was maybe 5:30 a. m. when I woke up, when I knew I had just seen the Honorable Elijah Muhammad as clear as day. In the scene he was more to my left. I saw you. You were somewhat less clear and a little below the middle of the scene and somewhat towards the right. Almost simultaneously I heard what seemed to me to be a contingent; I wouldn’t say troops, but a small contingent or body of troops coming from over towards the upper right. That’s where their sound came from.
Then the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said to me, “They are coming for me in him.” Immediately, I knew he was referring to you. I woke up and the scene was still there. I thought to call you, but I said no that would be very improper. Moreover, I probably couldn’t reach him anyway. But it had an impact on me and then of course, when I got a chance I shared it with you.
About four days later I had another experience that did not directly involve our father or you. But there was a point of similarity. I intend to get to that another time. Be it the Will of Allah I intend to mention it, if Allah pleases, in a follow-up series of questions, I have in mind and answers from the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, Allah willing, which will be volume two.
Now, Brother Minister, I would like for you to tell me what you think about that experience.
Minister Farrakhan: First, it’s a very profound experience that answers many questions for me personally and probably for others as well. I would like to start by going back to the time when I was with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and he said to me, “Brother I want your mind. I want you to line your mind up with my mind so that there will be one mind.” If that is not the perfect recall of his words, it’s 99 and 9/10 percent correct.
Then later on he said to me, “Brother, I’m going away. I’m going away to study. I’ll be gone for approximately three years. Don’t change the teachings while I’m gone. And if you are faithful when I return, I will reveal the new teaching through you.”
Now, of course, Brother Jabril, his words have great impact on me, but understanding them takes time. Then of course, in 1975, February 25th, ten-past-nine New York time, ten-past-eight Chicago time, I get a call from my son Joshua, who was at the hospital (Mercy Hospital) where the Messenger was, saying to me that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad had expired. Coming to Chicago, seeing a casket with one that looked like my father and teacher, only about twenty to twenty-five years younger; participating in a funeral; carrying the casket to the cemetery; for me, at that time, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad had expired.
None of the things then that he said to me made sense. As you know I tried to follow W. D. Muhammad as he told me he knew the direction that the Nation should take after the alleged demise of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And so I told him that I would serve him, as I’ve served his father, as long as I could see that he remain faithful to his father.
As you know there had been difficulty between him and his dad. I did not wish to divide the nation, nor did I feel confident that I could lead in the absence of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, particularly if he were dead. I could hold the teachings if he were gone, and I knew he was coming back. But he already taught us that you don’t come back from death.
In that case I didn’t believe that I could lead the nation, though he sat me in his seat; though he said many things that would lead me to believe that he wanted me to take his place in his absence. I didn’t feel confident. So, if the Imam or W. D. Muhammad felt that he could, and knew the direction, then I would help him as I helped his father.
Thirty months later, I came to the conclusion that, that was not best for me—maybe even less time than that. I saw things that of which I disagreed, and I did not wish to upset the house. So I decided to leave (quietly) and try to resume my music career, which was a complete failure. The God took away everything from me musically. I almost had nothing left. I met you on that wonderful day in September of 1977. You gave me a book to read and on the third day of reading that book you came to the hotel room. And I told you, “Your eye operation was successful. The scales have been removed from my eyes.” And then the long journey began.
You gave me something to read. You told me even at that time that, “The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was yet alive.” And I, in my heart said, “Oh my poor Brother. He loves the Honorable Elijah Muhammad so much he can’t bear the thought that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is deceased.” And I said to him, “Well whether he’s alive or not, he’s not here Brother. So, the work is on us to do.”
And I gently passed it off. He (Jabril) gave me what I would call a commentary or something that you would add to a book that’s not in the book, and he gave it to me to read on the Honorable Elijah Muhammad possibly being alive. And I didn’t even want to waste time with something like that. Because at that time I said, “Oh poor fella, you know, well we’re going to go on and rebuild the work of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.”
One day, almost two years later, he was in my Lincoln Continental in Chicago, and he saw what he had given me, kind of ground up a little under the front driver’s seat. So he took it out and smoothed it out, like one would do a wrinkled coat or shirt and knew that it wasn’t destroyed. And he put it back in my hands.
I finally decided I’ll entertain him. I’ll read it. And as I began to read what he wrote, the words of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad began to make sense. They couldn’t make sense if he were dead. But, if he escaped a death plot, then the words that he shared with me made almost perfect sense. I say, almost, because he told me he would be gone for three years, approximately. And he was going away to study. Now it was approximately three years. It was actually 30 months. I was up; ready to take on the Herculean task of attempting to rebuild his work.
Now what you saw in your experience crystallizes all of this for me, because he now was in me; growing in me. But there were certain experiences that I had to undergo for him to fully grow in me and for me to fully grow in him. So Elijah did come back. He came back in the person of Louis Farrakhan. He came back in me because my love for him; my adoration of him; my surrender of myself to him.
Going back to my first hearing that God had raised a man for us. And knowing that I had searched for a man like this all my life, then I surrendered myself to him completely, so he was able to put himself in me. And when he left us in 1975, he knew that what he desired to do had been done, it only needed time; watering; circumstances; events for him to grow again in me. Now with your experience I realized that when he told me, “Brother, you may sit in my seat as the father over the house when I am gone.” At another time he said, “Brother, Allah made me to take His place among the people and I am making you to take mine.”
More next issue, Allah willing.
