[Editor’s note: The following article contains the words delivered by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan during the prayer service held at the burial site for Brother Minister Jabril Muhammad, on Wednesday, August 2, 2023, at Phoenix Memorial Park & Mortuary in Phoenix, Arizona. Largo is Italian for “wide,” “broad.” In music it means a very slow tempo, or a musical piece or movement in such a tempo, slow in a broad, dignified style.]
Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim, Al-hamdu lillahi Rabb il-’alamin, ir-Rahman ir-Rahim, Maliki yawmi-d-Din.
(“In the Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful. Praise Be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds,
The Beneficent, The Merciful. Master of this Day of Requital.”)
›O Allah! We thank You for this, Your servant, whom You directed to come for me, and bring me back into the Circle of Life, that I might continue the great and noble work of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. I thank Allah for Brother Jabril Muhammad, an Angel of Allah!
Sent by Allah to come after me, and restore me, and strengthen me, and stand me back up that I might be to Allah and His Great Messiah The Chief Helper of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and the man through whom all His people would come to Him. ALLAH-UAKBAR! ALLAH-U-AKBAR! ALLAH-U-AKBAR! (God is the the Greatest!)
This body came from the earth to house the Spirit of God in my Brother. Now, the spirit of my Brother has returned to Allah, and this body that housed him is now returning to the earth. [As earth is scattered upon the coffin] From the earth he came, to the earth this body now returns.
[After The Adhan is performed and Al-Fatihah is recited by Brother Imam Sultan R. Muhammad, The Minister stands and places both of his hands upon the coffin of his beloved Brother as he continues with the prayer service.]
Jabril Muhammad: Blessed, for he successfully carried out his life’s purpose
Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim. In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful, Who intervened in our affairs in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad to Whom praise is due forever. We thank Him for His coming; we thank Him for His wise choice of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, to carry His word not only to us but to the entire human family of our planet.
“Blessed is the man or woman who finds their purpose in life.” Brother Jabril Muhammad discovered his purpose! His purpose was to be an emissary of God on a very important Assignment prayed for by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in these words…
After I delivered a speech to 500 preachers at Boston University in the 1960s, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad heard that speech; and they, the preachers, were so excited over what I said by Allah’s grace and permission, that of the 500, 40 of them came and visited the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to hear more of what Allah had revealed to him.
And in a letterthat he sent to me, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, “For that one speech that you made, to my worst enemies: If you ever turn away from me, or turn hypocrite on me, I will ask Allah to go after you and bring you back.”
His prayer was answered in this beloved servant that we put to the earth today, for Allah directed him and gave him the will and the mind and the spirit to come for me; and when he found me, he helped to raise me back to life. And he raised me back with a book that he had written about Jesus; and in that book, I learned so much about Jesus and about the imam (Brother Warithudeen Mohammed), and about those who are a part of our Nation.
That book has not been published, because he and I agreed that it shouldn’t come out yet; because if some heard, or read what was in it, they may misunderstand and think they have an assignment to harm our brother, Imam Warithudeen Mohammed, who had a job to do! Don’t ever make an error in judgment, thinking that his work was in vain. His work was to bring The Prophet Muhammad closer to us, and to bring what is called “Orthodox Islam” closer to us, that we may see why Master Fard Muhammad gave us a different path, a modern path—a path that would make us the vanguard of the Islamic world.
So as we say the Janazah over this noble minister of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, an angelic person who, like the Angel Jabril came to Muhammad and gave him words that became a Book. That precious Book is the Book that every Muslim on this Earth reveres, honors, and continues to read and study.
But The Saviour also gave Elijah Muhammad a Book written totally in Arabic, which the Honorable Elijah Muhammad could not read! And The Saviour said to him: “When you learn to read and write Arabic, I will present you with this Qur’an,” written completely by The Saviour! A Book that ends this Book (Qur’an), and opens a new Book for the people who will enter The Hereafter: “Here,” on this Earth, “after” the fall of the wicked whose time has come.
I thank my brother! I shall always be grateful to Allah for this man in this casket, or coffin, for what he did for me, and caused me to awaken to the Nature of God that was built up in me—made by the same God that made our Father, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Master Fard Muhammad made me to be the helper of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad—and Jabril Muhammad gets the credit eternally for the work that he did to stand me up again!
To the family of Brother Jabril: You have borne a tremendous burden, but you bore it with dignity, with the honor and respect that God has created you to carry and bear. I thank Allah for Naeemah! I thank Allah for Ati, for Bari, for Elijah, for Barnar! And for the children that you have brought into this world, from this illustrious grandpa. And as long as we are here, Sister Bernique Cushmeer, the mother of these children, shall always be remembered with honor and a deep and abiding respect. (Takbir! Allah-u-Akbar!)
And so, beloved, as we let this casket down, those who wish to join us in putting some of the earth to this casket, it’s a way of saying to Brother: Thank you. We love you. A life well lived and a job well done! All praise is due to Allah.
‘A Largo for Jabril’: Meditate, reflect on the life that helped change the world
In concluding this little, short talk, which I am not known for (smile), my Brother, Jabril: I want a special honor paid to him today. I have a teacher, who was my violin teacher; and he encouraged me to make an album of music, which I called originally “A Time for Meditation and Reflection.” But Snoop Dogg, I say that name advisedly, made a song for the album; it was called “Let’s Change The World.” And I loved the title, so I took my title (“A Time for Meditation and Reflection”) and I allowed that title (“Let’s Change The World”) to become predominate.
The man who inspired me to make that album is Charles Veale. It took me 14 years to finish it; but there is a song in that album that he wrote to a dear friend of his named Rollice, who lost his life, and Charles Veale, loving him so much for their friendship from youth to grown men, he wrote what is called a “Largo for Rollice [and Charles].”
“Largo,” in music, represents slowness of motion, slowness of movement—but a “largo” is something written that causes one to reflect. So, it’s in my album, but today, because of Brother Jabril’s friendship to me, and mine to him (from the time he was coming out of his teenage years), we have a bond that never was broken.
And in that, I say like my teacher: I would like that largo that Charles created for his dear friend Rollice to be played today as a “Largo for Jabril.” And this largo, as it is played: It takes about 12 minutes, but I want all of us who take part in the burial, make no noise, pick up the shovel, get some earth, while this largo is playing, and reflect on him, and what he means to each one of us whom his life touched.
“Largo for Rollice” is now Largo for Jabril. Every one of the great composers made a “largo,” a piece that is solemn, a piece that makes one think deeply on whatever you’re thinking on. Mozart had a largo, Handel had a largo, and Beethoven had a largo. And now we have a largo for our brother, Jabril Muhammad. Thank you.
As you take the shovels, no conversation. I want us to be completely silent, and reflect on the man that lies here, that now resides here in our hearts and in our minds and come and pay our final respect by taking the shovel and putting soil on the casket.
