[Editor’s Note: This article is a reprint and was published online Nov. 25, 2010; and The Final Call will continue to publish articles by our brother and friend, Minister Jabril Muhammad.]
“And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” (Matthew 24:12,13)
In “The Living Bible, Paraphrased,” in the book of Exodus, Chapter 4:1, 10—16, we read: “But Moses said, ‘They won’t believe me! They won’t do what I tell them to. They’ll say, ‘Jehovah never appeared to you! … ‘
“Moses pleaded, ‘O Lord, I’m just not a good speaker. I never have been, and I’m not now, even after you have spoken to me, for I have a speech impediment.’
“‘Who makes mouths?’ Jehovah asked him. ‘Isn’t it I, the Lord? Who makes a man so that he can speak or not speak, see or not see, hear or not hear? Now go ahead and do as I tell you, for I will help you to speak well, and I will tell you what to say.’
“But Moses said, ‘Lord, please! Send someone else.’ Then the Lord became angry. ‘All right,’ he said, ‘your brother Aaron is a good speaker. And he is coming here to look for you, and will be very happy when he finds you. So I will tell you what to tell him, and I will help both of you to speak well, and I will tell you what to do. He will be your spokesman to the people. And you will be as God to him, telling him what to say.’” [Emphasis mine. Explanations later.]
The implications of the above passage for this time was a factor causing me to interview the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan as I did on October 9. As Minister Farrakhan drove himself to get as many as he could of the leadership of the Originals and poor people generally to join him in what became the Millions More Movement, I thought of the problem of envy.
If you lived during the time of Moses and Aaron, could you imagine anyone from among the slaves whom God came to free becoming jealous or envious of Moses or Aaron–if they really understood that God chose them for the benefit of the people, as a whole?
Each man was chosen by the Supreme Being, Who best knows how to get done whatever He wants done. He wisely made His choices for the benefit of everyone, including the slave-masters.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad explained that the God Who raised him informed him that He was allowing adequate time for the slave-masters to repent of their evils done to Black people. At the same time, He was allowing adequate time for us to make the decision to agree with His plan for our salvation and future.
Everything tells us that that time is all but up.
I’m prefacing my statements about envy with a brief mention of some questions I intend to take up later. Why have there been so many revisions and new translations of the many previous revisions of the Bible into English? Has their number increased? Why did the Honorable Elijah Muhammad state that only God Himself, or one taught by Him, could accurately or truthfully interpret the Bible? How does this relate to the resurrection of the dead? How did Moses and Aaron finally convince the slaves that they should follow them and let Pharaoh go?
The subject of envy was a critical problem for Joseph to overcome in his successful effort to unify his family. Saul’s intention to murder David was envy. Pontius Pilate is represented in the Bible as saying that the prime motivation of those who delivered Jesus to him to be murdered was envy. The Bible informs us that envy was the motive of those who repeatedly sought Paul’s life.
Envy produces tragedies, which occur every minute in this country. Envy governs a great deal of the behavior between Caucasians and Black people in America. There is jealousy and envy on the part of Blacks towards Caucasians, and of Caucasians towards Blacks. The root causes are different, however. There is also jealousy and envy by Caucasians of Caucasians, and by Blacks of Blacks. The atmosphere is filled with the emotion of jealousy and envy.
Unity among us is impossible unless we confront the problem of jealousy and envy head-on and thoroughly destroy it.
Minister Farrakhan taught that unity would solve 95 percent of our problems. Minister Farrakhan confirmed his teacher’s Teachings while exposing and condemning these evils.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad once put me on a study of envy. One fact that stood out for me, in this study, was that envious people always slander others when this spiritual illness develops to a certain stage. Always? Yes, always!
Slander does not always come from jealousy and envy, but slander will always come out of people who are infected by jealousy and envy when the infection reaches a certain stage.
Slander was in the root of the idea of the formation of this world. It’s in its fullest bloom now. For example, there are many people who earn their living by including in what they do the slandering of others. And they are widely respected and imitated for it, too.
If you are in a position of leadership, you have the obligation to help rid our people of jealousy and envy–immediately. You must study its spiritual roots; The course it takes; the forms and disguises it takes on; the way it twists and distorts our perceptions; and the fact that this spiritual disease “attacks” or cuts across all (so-called) class distinctions.
We must understand why envy always leads to murder, if allowed to run its natural course, and finally, how to rid ourselves of it, if we are likewise infected.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad knew how to get up under envy. That’s essential to permanently uprooting and destroying it. Minister Farrakhan has demonstrated how to do this.
I was unable to travel, but I saw, heard and wrote some of it, as I watched my Brother, Minister Farrakhan, marching–like a general–throughout America, urging others to take a stand for the complete liberation of the Original People in this land and for the poor and oppressed. I thought to interview him and then make the kind of comments that would further stimulate and foster the idea of our looking more deeply than ever into the roots of Minister Farrakhan’s words, and then determine to be of greater help than ever to the cause that he represents–especially now that the meeting on the Mall in D.C. on October 15 has passed.
Again, it ought to be obvious to us all that basis to generating the power we need to truly overcome the obstacles we face in our rise toward becoming a unified and productive people is our need to overcome and destroy jealousy and envy from among us forever–with love. Why “with love?”
Numbers 14: 26, 27 reads: “the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, how long will this evil congregation murmur against Me?”
God threatened to destroy His people. How did Moses and Aaron react?
More, next issue, Allah willing.
