ST. LOUIS—A full weekend of spiritual devotion and training occurred in the city of St. Louis, commencing with a special keynote message delivered at Mosque No. 28 by Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad, National Assistant to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. The events were hosted by Mosque No. 28 and facilitated by Brother Hashim Hakim, founder of the program P.A.T.H. (Patience, Attraction, Technique and Humility).
The June 2-4 event, themed “Our Way of Devotion,” started on Friday morning with a meet and greet. Training on effective distribution of The Final Call newspaper, a banquet and the Sunday mosque meeting rounded out the full weekend. Over 70 participants from different cities participated.
Some came from as far away as Jacksonville, Florida; Fort Worth, Texas; Greenville, Mississippi; Omaha, Nebraska; Kansas City, Missouri; Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; Dayton Ohio, and Des Moines, Iowa.
Brother Hashim was very happy with the participation and success of the weekend. “This was the best training out of all four previous ones we’ve had. The number one reason is because we had a banquet and Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad did the keynote and gave the Sunday lecture at the mosque on Sunday.
The second reason it was the best one is because this is where the P.A.T.H. all began, here in St. Louis back in 2012. And we had great participation,” Brother Hashim Hakim told The Final Call. “Brother Student Minister Ishmael reminded me of what the Honorable Minister Farrakhan said concerning money and getting our people.
He said, ‘to go after the people and the money will come, but don’t go after the people seeking money.’ The sales training teaches the individuals how to engage with people from all walks of life and it also teaches how to counter rejection,” said Brother Hashim Hakim.
“The basis of this training is for recruiting; it’s not just for selling The Final Call newspaper. Our job is to get the people in the mosque and make it attractive to the people so they will want to stay engaged.
My purpose is to help encourage each brother and sister to build confidence in themselves to have the courage to go out and recruit the people of God and bring them to the Lamb of God.”
At the Saturday banquet, Student Minister Ishmael encouraged the listening audience to have faith and be patient with God because He will deliver them from the power of Satan. He explained that though this is Satan’s world, Allah (God) has sent His Servant /Messiah to end Satan’s rule and establish the Kingdom of God on Earth as it is in heaven.
“This is a world that belongs to the devil … because if it was God’s world, it would be peace. If it was God’s world it would be love of the brotherhood. If it was God’s world, it would be justice, there would be freedom for all members of the human family that live on our planet. There would not be strife. There would not be envy.
There would not be hatred and bloodshed and violence and corruption, and the abuse and mistreatment of women and children,” said Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad. “My hope is in God and not in this world!” Melvin Liddell, a first-time guest, attended the banquet and told The Final Call he enjoyed himself immensely and gained another perspective on life after hearing the message.
“He gave me a totally different view on how we are living and what’s going on in this world. And what we should do to make things better in our lives and for the world of how we’re living,” said Mr. Liddell
On Sunday, a capacity audience filled the sanctuary and the overflow room to listen to the energetic and passionate keynote message delivered by Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad. He taught lessons on life, and why understanding God’s Will for your life is important. “Dissatisfaction is unfulfilled expectations and there are times in your life when things might not go as you would like. But that’s when you must trust in God’s promise. The devil promises you and fails you, but with God, He promises and He never breaks His promise.”
If you take God out of the equation you have chaos, he explained. “There is no human being that is at peace until he or she discovers their purpose in life. We have a duty, an obligation and responsibility to the community, and to the people.”
Stephon Riggins, 18, was a first-time visitor to the mosque and attended the banquet the night before. He shared that he was inspired and his willingness to apply what he heard to his life. “I feel the creator brought me here today to receive the message of patience. To develop myself as a man. So being here was divine intervention and timing and I really internalized everything that was said.
I am going to take the information and understanding to create solutions for my community as a youth and share it with other youth. Because we the youth are the pioneers of the future, so I will develop myself to help develop others,” he said. James Rahming is from the Bahamas but now lives in St. Louis and is in the Nation of Islam processing class.
He spoke with compassion about how the message reminded him to be faithful for the remembrance of God. “I will apply this in my daily life and be more faithful to Allah. I’m from the island of Grand Bahama, Freeport. I went to the island of Bimini when I heard Minister Farrakhan was visiting there, but when I got there he was not there so I stayed there for three more years before I moved to St. Louis,” he said.
The importance of the mission of the resurrection of Black and oppressed people was also a theme throughout the weekend.
“Brother Ishmael emphasized the importance of us being more responsible and having more dedication to the cause of resurrecting our people,” said Brother Danny Muhammad from Omaha, Nebraska. He also talked about The Final Call newspaper “being the purification of God’s word on paper for us to distribute to our people which is very important,” added Brother Danny Muhammad.
William Muhammad, of Mosque No. 28, explained why the distribution of Final Call newspapers is so important to him. “When I go out with The Final Call, it gives me an opportunity to give back to the community what I was given. I received life from The Final Call newspaper and in the newspaper are the words of Master Fard Muhammad, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.
So, if I can get this word into our people’s hands, then they are able to put it in their heads, then we’ll be able to change the condition of our people. So, I am motivated to do that!” he said. “I was excited to see the brothers out there. It was inspirational to see the young brothers doing something positive and not selling dope, or shooting, and it’s good to see brothers not doing that.
It showed that we can build, we can run business, we can sell stuff whether it’s bean pies, newspapers or just giving a good word. Seeing Black men in suits, they are not out there screaming at people. They are teaching people. It was good to see the brothers,” said Joshua Idris.
