[Editor’s Note: This is a reprint that was published online June 12, 2006; and The Final Call will continue to publish articles by our beloved brother and friend, Minister Jabril Muhammad.]
By what authority does the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan teach and do what he does? Who validates it and with what? Minister Farrakhan teaches that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad met God Himself. What convinced him?
Let’s start with the fourth question.
In 1958, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote:
“God has been the most controversial study for many years. Who is He? What does He look like? … By the people not being able to see and know God in Person, they formed many false conceptions of Him. Many have worshipped His creatures, sun, moon, stars, trees, stone, fire, water, animals, beasts, monkeys and snakes. Others worshipped imagination and spirits. The average person takes God to be a spirit, something that is felt, but not seen. This is almost next to nothing, comparing spirit with the actual Supreme Being (God), for spirit is dependent on life, and not life dependent on spirit.
“The masses are so ignorant to the knowledge of the person of God, that it’s a perfect insult to them to describe God in any other form than a spirit. The reality of God has been a secret for the past six thousand years. This was done for the better … “the common people cannot believe that the White race … is opposed to the God of justice setting up a kingdom of righteousness, which is natural, and is preparing to make war against God to the death, to prevent the establishing of such kingdom over their evil and wicked world of today. Therefore, God will destroy them and their world because it is time that the righteous live under a rule that will rule by the Law of justice and righteousness.
“Now in the change of ruler and worlds, God makes Himself manifest that He is the God and Ruler of the next world … .
“The Supreme Being, the Originator of God is a man. I will prove that He is.”
(In early 1968, when we were generally referring to him as “Messenger” I wrote the following.)
“One day, in the early fall of 1931, in Detroit, Michigan, Messenger Muhammad heard from his brother, Charlie, that there was a man teaching things he ought to hear. Charlie was excited. Among the “things” the man was teaching was Islam.
“At that time the Messenger had the wrong idea of Islam. He would later say that he thought it was a ‘heathen religion.’ However, he was told enough to want to meet the Teacher and hear His teachings. He also felt this was the One he was expecting. He was told that the man’s name was Mr. W. D. Fard and that He was teaching a few people in a basement. Elijah rushed to the place but did not see Him. He was told the man was there earlier.
“He went to other meetings, held there and elsewhere, but continued to miss Him until the night of the 22nd of September. He (the Messenger) was eager to see and hear Mr. Fard because he had a strong feeling of this man’s identity.
“As soon as he saw and heard Mr. Wallace D. Fard he knew Him to be the One the world had been expecting for the last 2,000 years. It came to him that the man he beheld was the very man expected by the prophets, and others, Who would come in, or under, many good names; Jesus included.
“That which Mr. W. D. Fard said and did at that meeting convinced the Honorable Elijah Muhammad of the truth of His identity. The Messenger would later say to his followers, and to the world, that the first thing that struck him about Mr. Fard was that His words and actions tallied with the Bible’s prophecy about what the coming One would say and do on His arrival.
“Mr. Fard began speaking on the origin of things. He went on to teach of the measurements of the earth, its weights, the distances between the earth, the sun and other planets. He spoke of their rotation, measurements and so on.
“The Messenger could not but compare what he was listening to with prophecy of the coming God in the book of Habakkuk and elsewhere in the Bible.
“Mr. W. D. Fard said much about the nature and history of Black and White people. He spoke about the future, including the coming judgment of this world and of the new world to be established after this world’s power was broken.
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“Mr. Fard Muhammad went on to say that we were not in our own names, that we were in the names of White people, that He had come to give us our own names (names of God and our people). As he listened, Elijah said to himself: ‘This has got to be the man.’
“When the meeting was over, he got in line with others to shake the Speaker’s hand. When his turn came, Elijah told Him that He was the One Whom the Bible’s prophets foresaw coming along about that time, about 2,000 years after Jesus, or the Son of Man.
“Almost simultaneously Mr. Fard Muhammad looked around to see who else heard that and then looked at Elijah a little sternly. His smile followed the look. He bent His head close to him, put one hand on his shoulder, and the other on his forehead. Pressing His mouth against Elijah’s ear, He whispered:
“ ‘Yes, I am that One. But who else knows that but yourself?’ ” God continued that he (Elijah) should keep quiet about this.
“He would let him know when to make that known. Then, gently, He nudged Elijah away and began talking with the others nearby.
“Excitedly, Elijah left the meeting, telling his brother (Charlie) that this was the man. However, his brother did not see what he saw. Nor did the others.
“A short time later he wrote Mr. W. D. Fard a letter. He told Him what he couldn’t say in public. About a month after their first meeting, the Messenger received an answer through his wife (who attended a subsequent meeting) from Mr. Fard. The message was that he could start teaching where he lived in Hamtramck, which is a section of Detroit.
“So the Honorable Elijah Muhammad started teaching that this man, Mr. W. D. Fard, was the answer to the Bible’s prophecy of the coming of Jesus. He boldly declared that the Son of Man was present.
“Bold as he was he stayed within the limits set by his Teacher. He wasn’t allowed to go too far into the truth of His (Master Fard Muhammad’s) identity. In fact, the Messenger was told by his Teacher not to talk too much about Him while He was present. He could do that after He was gone.
“That He (Master Fard Muhammad) was God Himself, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad knew. Others took Him to be a prophet, or at the least a very wise man. In any case they did not see Him as He really was nor as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad saw Him.”
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Without understanding and accepting the nature of Minister Farrakhan’s authority we won’t get through the dark hour.
More next issue, Allah willing.
