MEMPHIS—Elected officials, grassroots organizers, activists, and local media personalities were among the over 500 attendees that packed the Martin Luther King Jr. Labor Center (AFSCME Local 1733) on historic Beale Street, August 9.
As Student Minister Abdul Muthakkir Muhammad and the members of Mosque No. 55 hosted the National Assistant to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad, in the city of Memphis.
There were also attendees from surrounding cities such as Nashville; Somerville, Tenn.; Little Rock; Monroe, La.; Chattanooga; Holly Springs, Miss.; and Greenville, Miss.
Under the title, “Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad Speaks to Memphis,” the underlying theme was clear by the onset of the program: love, unity and a return to Allah (God) with an initial tone set by the varied lineup of speakers preceding the keynote.
“One of the problems we have inherited here in America, we have been taught to magnify our labels instead of our liberation. We have been taught to amplify our differences instead of embracing our shared destiny, but the Psalmist says how good and pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to dwell together in unity—not uniformity, but unity.
Unity does not require that we believe everything exactly the same,” opened Pastor Earle J. Fisher of Abyssinian Baptist Church, affectionally known as the “Blackest Church in Memphis.”
“Unity requires that we love our people to struggle enough for the common good and that’s why I am extremely honored and humbled and just glad to be here. Especially in a moment when our unity is a necessity, because our enemy has declared war on all of us, openly, and unity is the only way for us to fight back.
Unity is a spiritual power, it gives us, also, economic power and cultural power and political power. Every major advancement our people have made have come when we discovered that what unites us is greater than anything that divides us,” said Pastor Fisher. “So, I want to thank y’all for letting a Black Baptist preacher stand in this sacred space,” he concluded.
“It was stated by the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad that the unity of the Black man and woman of America is a weapon that is more powerful than atomic bombs,” said Student Minister Demetric Muhammad of the Whitehaven Memphis Study Group and member of the Nation of Islam Research Group.
“And this powerful weapon has yet seemed to be so elusive for us over the years, but perhaps, in this very critical hour, where we see very powerful forces arrayed against us, seeking to roll the back the progress of the past and seeking to make sure there’s no more progress in the future, I believe, I don’t know about you but I think we are more ready for unity, now, than we ever have been before,” said Student Min. Demetric in his remarks.
Additional speakers included activist Patrick “Lumumba” Alexander of Senatobia, Miss., and Attorney Van Turner.
During the program, there was also a proclamation presentation by City Councilwoman Pearl Eva Walker to Student Minister Ishmael “for his outstanding spiritual leadership, steadfast commitment to community empowerment, dedication to mentoring future generations, and lifelong service to humanity, and extends its sincere appreciation for his many contributions that continue to inspire hope, unity, and positive change.”
In his opening remarks, Student Minister Ishmael, a son of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, alluded to the naming of Memphis after the ancient Egyptian city of the same name, which was also known as the “City of the Dead,” proclaiming to the audience that there would be no funerals today.
“[There’s] going to be some resurrection, and we do have some waters to cross and we do have the rivers of Jordan to cross and we do have to walk and march around some walls of Jericho, and bring the walls of ignorance and falsehood and enmity and hatred of self and one another down, that we may be beneficiaries, recipients of the promise of God, but walls have to be broken,” said Student Min. Ishmael.
“A heart has to be purified. There has to be repentance. That’s the message of Jesus,” he said in a message that seemed tailor-made for the city often been referred to as the buckle of the Bible Belt.
Like a skillful tailor he threaded a needle that ran from Genesis to Revelations in the Bible, revealing the fabric that makes up the wretched conditions under which Black people in America live and the necessity to change our condition and turn back to Allah (God) in repentance.
“We were slaves, brought over here to help White folks build a new reality for themselves. This is history. This is not racism. This is just actual facts, truth. So here we are, a people who have been cast out, thrown out, despised, rejected, robbed of our names, our culture, our religion, and made slaves to another people in a strange land that is not our own, 400 years ago. But we claim the land because our sweat and our blood and our tears soak the soil of this nation,” he told the standing room only audience.
“This is prophecy, and it starts in Genesis with God talking to His servant Abraham. ‘Know of assurety, Abraham, that your seed will be a stranger in a land not of their own, and they will be slaves to another for 400 years.
But after that time, I will come, and I will judge that nation which they shall serve.’ It’s not talking about a people who call themselves Jews who went into bondage in Egypt.”
During his message, Student Min. Ishmael pointed out through the scriptures that those people being referenced could not be talking about those who call themselves Jews today, referring to their response in John 8, when Jesus said, “you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”
“Their response was, ‘How can we be set free and we have not been slaves to any man.’ We are worse now than we were when were in slavery. Worse now than the days of Jim Crow. Never has the condition of Black people been worse than it is right now.
Because in those days, we knew who the enemy was, but now we have become enemies of one another. Satan has done a job. Going up and down, to and fro in earth, seeking whom he may devour, he’s made us into himself,” he said.
“We have been made to feel good in our rebellion to God. So, the scripture asks, ‘What will He find on His return?’ And judgment starts in the House of God. (The) mosque got to get it together, church better get it together, synagogue better get it together, cause God ain’t playing.”
Throughout the course of the lecture, Student Min. Ishmael spoke on the failure of politics to address the needs of Black people, the divine value of the woman, and the power that is over our heads, the Mother Plane (Mother Wheel), as was prophesied in the Book of Ezekiel, representing the backing of God Himself against the wicked enemies of God’s chosen people.
“So, the coming of Christ is to pull us up out of bestial demonic conduct and not only give us mastery over the flesh, but to reach into that flesh to feed the divine essence that is in the flesh, so we become part of God, Himself, the sons and daughters of God.”
“I know that God could not have given Black people and the world of man, a better teacher than the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and his father, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Who is teaching us the knowledge of self? Who, dear sisters, on our planet, teaches the value and dignity of the woman, and your relationship with God—you are not the woman of man, you are the woman of God.”
Student Min. Muthakkir shared with The Final Call that it was a program of community unity. “I want to thank the Memphis community for coming out and make it a success. We thank all of our community from the religious to political to grassroots.”
Dr. Telisa Franklin, State Representative-elect for Tennessee House District 96, expressed how she felt so good to see so many accepting the call to join the Nation of Islam, especially the young boys.
“You guys are going to make them a better man and a better success [in] society,” she said.
Dr. Franklin shared that one of her key takeaways was related to the power of The Wheel. “Think [the point that] struck more was to deal with these missiles and these things we got in the air, we don’t know what’s going on and we don’t know about the security over the security, because at the end of the day, what I love about what the Nation does—everybody felt secure.
Like sitting in the space, I knew without a shadow of a doubt, I was secure. The men was securing the women and the children … and I just believe this is the way it should be. … I’m glad to know I am secured.”
This was the first time State Representative and U.S. Congress Democrat nominee Justin Pearson heard Student Min. Ishmael speak and found many points in the lecture that resonated with him from the spirit of solidarity to the need to really pay attention to the moment that we are in and what is going on.
However, he said, “more than anything, though, what I really value about what he was saying, in Memphis, we are in need of healing, we are in need of transformation and it’s going to require all of us standing up and working together in unity and I think the thing that is really profound is as a Black preacher of a Black prophetic Christian tradition [myself], is how he was so easily able to intertwine with the Christian faith and Muslim faith or Islamic faith traditions and showing those similarities.”
He added, “I think it was really powerful. Because that’s what we need to know, we have a lot in common.”
