[Editor’s Note: This article is a reprint that was published on May 28, 2003.]
By Allah’s help, I’ll return to the concluding words of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan on the spiritual meanings, and the practicable application, of As-Salaam-Alaikum–the greeting words by which Jesus greeted others.
“And certainly We conferred a favour on Moses and Aaron. And We delivered them, and their people from the mighty distress. And We helped them, so they were the vanquishers. And We gave them both the clear Book. And We guided them on the right way. And We granted them among the later generations (the salutation), Peace be to Moses and Aaron! Thus do We reward the doers of good. Surely they were both of Our believing servants.” (Muhammad Ali translation of the Holy Qur’an, Surah 37:114-122)
Every time the thought comes to my mind of Minister Farrakhan’s legacy, either through reflection or from another circumstance, the above passage from the Holy Qur’an is among the first thoughts that occur to me.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad stated, in more than one way, that we must teach our children the truth in such a way that they may be able to teach their children the truth.
The Bible emphasizes how the children of Israel were taught to accurately hand down, way into their future generations, the doings and the works of their Lord in their affairs throughout their history.
Much critical work is needed to assist those Black men and women as they either document or seek to document this truly unique time in which we live. (By “time” here, I am thinking more immediately of the last, let’s say, 135 or so years through the present.)
Far too many of us cannot carry a short message to a few, much less to many people accurately. We really need the educational help of those who love the research process; the ethical way to treat the works of others who preceded us; how to think critically; how to keep our egos in check, etc.
Look. How many persons do any of us know, who makes speech after speech after speech after speech–that are all loaded with wisdom, year in and out, as does Minister Farrakhan; who tells all, in the clearest terms, that he was taught by another, who was taught by God. At his dinner table, he has educated others, in their profession, without having studied theirs. Should not this alone produce a new look at the nature of this teaching? Something REALLY BIG has occurred in America.
Look again at these words: “And We granted them among the later generations (the salutation), Peace be to Moses and Aaron!”
The case has been made time and again, over the last several decades, that the Moses and the Aaron of the scriptures (as well as their people) were made as signs (types) of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. There is no justification for continued doubt that the modern counterpart of the people who were liberated by them, under the power of the Almighty, are ourselves–the Black man and woman of America.
The only thing that prevents anyone from seeing the identity of Black Americans as the chosen of the scriptures is first, ignorance. Then comes, in no particular order: bias; arrogance; prejudice; false assumptions; and just plain old blinding hatred–these prevent otherwise intelligent people.
You ask, what singles out these people for such distinction? Start with our enslavement. It was unique among enslavements. We were thoroughly spiritually robbed.
We were not chosen because we are wise and good. In fact, our enslavement was really a huge factor in our being chosen. All of this has been covered in the teachings of the modern Moses and Aaron and borne witness to by both those who follow them and those who do not, in many ways.
Meanwhile, think over and/or look at the Black nurses; maids; barbers; hair-dressers; waitress; waiters; secretaries; baseball, football and basketball players and boxers; dancers and singers; Sunday school teachers; preachers and members of the choirs; bank tellers and managers; Wall Street brokers; professional liars and slanderers; pimps and harlots; bums; writers and musicians; doctors; steel workers; bus drivers; newscasters; lawyers; politicians; junkies; comedians and clowns; inmates in jails; electricians; mechanics; janitors; business owners; pilots; news reporters; actors and actresses; seamstresses and tailors; scientists; real estate agents; taxi cab drivers; and more.
These words or general titles do not really identify these people. Consider this introduction to this subject in the 43rd chapter of Isaiah, where the God is talking of a people whom He refers to as His sons and daughters, and says: “even every one that is called by my name; for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea. I have made him. Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.”
He says: “You are my witnesses … and my servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He: before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside Me there is no saviour.”
This is a great chapter among great chapters in Isaiah. He goes on to say, “there is none that can deliver out of My hand: I will work, and who shall prevent it?”
He says, “I will do a new thing … I will even make a way in the wilderness … I, even I, am He Who blots out thy transgression for my own sake, and will not remember thy sins.”
And He continues on in Chapter 44: “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty … I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy offspring.”
Then in I Peter 2:9-10, we read: “but you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy Nation a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praise of Him Who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light: which in times past was not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.”
You are the messianic people, whether you presently understand and like it or not. You will. How? Keep looking, listening and reading.
The following lines from Minister Akbar Muhammad are loaded with truth. He wrote in The Final Call (Vol. 22, No. 32) the following:
“Who would have pictured the son of Caribbean parents who at 22 joined the Nation of Islam (1955); at 32, was moved from Boston to New York (1965); at 42, watched the Nation fall (1975); at 52, was pushed in the national spotlight, trying to help Reverend Jesse Jackson in his run for president (1985); and at 62, led the historic Million Man March where nearly two million men responded to his call (1995).
“The Honorable Louis Farrakhan at 70–the life of this noble son of Africa and his impact on America, the Caribbean, Africa and the world must be told and recorded in the volume of books.”
And who will believe it, that, be it the will of Allah, the best is yet to come of the legacy being produced by Minister Farrakhan?
More next issue, Allah willing.
