In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad has taught us, and life bears him witness, that life is a gift from God. Life is a gift from God. Those who receive the gift of life prove worthy of that gift by coming through tests and trials that make them fit to run the race of life.
The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad has shown us that before we come to birth out of the womb of our mothers, we go through three great trials. Before we are formed as a child, or an embryo and a fetus, we are tested to see whether we are worthy to even begin the journey of life.
I want you to consider, my dear beloved brothers and sisters, the 76th Chapter of the Holy Qur’an, which is the Book of scripture of the Muslims, titled Al-Insan, which translated means “The Man.” The definite article (“the”) is telling us that a man is going to be produced that will be an example for all men.
A ‘Son of God’ is one fathered by God’s Wisdom
The 76th Chapter of the Holy Qur’an, “The Man,” is a chapter that gives us hints in a mathematical way of the kind of man that we should expect at the end of the present world, the world of Caucasian rule.
Since the diameter of The Universe is 76 quintillion miles, and we get that diameter by the diameter of the sunlight, or light of The Sun, then as the light of The Sun is the source of life, light, energy and warmth to all of the planets, the man that God will give to the world, at the end of the rule of the darkness of this world of disbelief and wickedness, is a man that is compared to The Sun.
As The Sun gives life, gives light, and gives energy, this man whom Allah (God) would bring into the world, or create like He created The Sun, will be a source of light for a people that walk in darkness.
He will be a source of life for a people who are morally, mentally, socially, spiritually, politically and economically dead.
He will represent warmth, and he will take them out of a cold existence, an existence where hatred dominates their lives rather than the warmth of love, where they will be cold toward one another in their expressions.
But if they come into the light of his truth, that light will warm them up toward themselves and toward one another, and life will be produced from that light. A life-giving Sun (s-u-n)! But he is also called, in the scriptures of the Bible, “The Son (s-o-n) of God.”
Most Muslims do not like the Christian terminology of this great one being called the “Son of God,” for in Islam it is considered an abominable assertion that Almighty God would have a son, or a child, from a woman in the same manner that we as men do.
But if we look deeper into the words “Son of God,” it does not mean that Almighty God, The Creator of the heavens and the earth, actually fathered this man in sperm as the way ordinary men, or great men, come to life, but it does mean that this man’s mind being lit with The Light of Almighty God, being lit with The Majesty of His Truth, would be fathered by God.
Any man who comes to righteousness in a wicked world can claim God to be his Father, for God alone is The Father of Righteousness, God alone is The Father of Truth, God alone is The Father of Divine Inspiration.
When we are moving from The Light of God, when we are acting on the principles of His Truth, when we have committed our lives to His Righteousness, then the life that we live is not the life of our physical father, but the life that we live is the life of our Spiritual Father Who is The Lord of the Worlds.
So each of us have an opportunity to become a son of God, or a child of God, if we will allow God and His wisdom to father in us new and spiritual life.
‘Life is a gift,’ but to attain the state of perfection, tests are ordained
This one that Almighty God would bring to the world as “light” and “life” to a world in darkness and death is called in The New Testament “Jesus.” He is called “The Messiah.”
He is called “The Christ.” He is called “The King of kings,” “The Lord of lords,” and “The God of gods.” But the interesting thing about this great one who would come at the end of the present world is that he is a man born of a woman who grows and develops as you grow and I grow, as you develop and I develop, but the difference between this man and us is that he is chosen before he comes into the world.
The scriptures of the Bible (Jeremiah 1:5) teach: “I knew you before you were formed in the womb of your mother. I knew you, and I called you forth, and I ordained you to be a prophet to the world.” This is beautiful, if it is understood.
Read the first two verses in the Holy Qur’an (Surah 76) about this man, in the section titled “Attainment of Perfection.” Verse 1: “In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful. Surely there came over man a time when he was nothing that could be mentioned.” Now let’s stop and think about this for a moment.
This man who is going to be the example for men, not only for his time but for all times, is spoken of as a man that there came a time over him when he was “nothing that could be mentioned.” Verse 2: “Surely We have created man from sperm mixed (with ovum), to try him, so We have made him hearing and seeing.”
Our first state is sperm, and sperm is nothing to speak of, it is nothing to be considered. We don’t consider sperm in the family of human conversation to be decent conversation, though this is the first state of all men.
It was the first state of Jesus The Christ, it was the first state of Moses and Abraham, and Prophet Muhammad, and all of the prophets of God, it is your and my first state, and it was something, at that time, that we would not speak of.
Nevertheless, out of that sperm mixed with ovum comes The Man, The Great One, The Mighty One. Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 9:6) says of him: “For unto us a child is born, for unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and he shall be called”—notice “he shall be called,”
Meaning he is going to be born, but as he matures, as he grows, he is going to be called—“Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” He is a man born; he is going to grow up to be called a Mighty God. He is a man, he is a child, but he is going to be a God!
Well, that’s interesting… The scripture teaches “Surely We created man from sperm mixed (with ovum) to try him.” Life is a gift! But when God gives you life, He puts you into a trial.
This could be why it takes 30 days for the woman to know that she is expecting life; it takes 3 x 30 days for her to know that the life is implanted well within the womb; and then it takes 3 x 3 months for the child to grow into its fullness to be ready to come forth under the number “9”.
The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad has taught us that while you and I were yet sperm, Almighty God tried us to see whether we were fit to live. Notice beloved, that the sperm is emitted into the vaginal track, which is a hostile environment for the life of the sperm. God is teaching us from the time that we are “nothing to speak of” that a hostile environment will test whether or not you are fit to live.
Brothers and sisters, now that you are in an hostile environment, and now that you feel that all of the forces are arrayed against you and your life, and the lives of your loved ones, and you feel beset on all sides, you wonder can you make it, can you survive?
I ask you to think with me back to the time when you were considered nothing; when you were sperm cast into a dark place, and you were tried by the hostile environment of the female tract: Did you make it? You must have, you are alive! You are here! You are (reading these words)! You did indeed make it.
“Test No. 1,” you survived that hostile environment! And that is to teach you, beloved Black people of America, who want to give up hope because you don’t have a job, who want to give up hope because things seem overwhelmingly burdensome: If you survived the hostility of the vaginal tract, don’t you think you can survive the hostility of this world?
The second test was that when the sperm was emitted, hundreds of millions (or billions) of sperm were emitted at the same time though the scholars and scientists of biology tell us that only one sperm can impregnate that egg to form the cell of life.
So the chances that you and I would come to birth were one in a hundred million/one in a billion. (Those kind of odds would discourage any number player, gambling!) Nevertheless, the odds were one hundred million to one, or one billion to one, that you would make it on the earth.
This teaches that you showed strength in the hostile environment; you competed with the other sperm who swam for the egg, and evidently you made it because you are here.
The third test (trial) was the trial to swim up the vaginal tract, like the salmon who swim upstream against a mighty current. We had to buck, or go against gravity, for the weight of gravity is pulling things downward; but the sperm had to swim up against gravity to get to the egg. This teaches us that the force of gravity that keeps man inclined to the earth can be overcome by a man who perseveres.
Revolve Around The Man Whose Love is The Source of Light, Life, Energy
In the Holy Qur’an, Chapter 76 (“The Man”), the third verse teaches: “Surely there came over man a time when he was nothing that could be mentioned. Surely We have created man from sperm mixed (with ovum), to try him, so We have made him hearing, seeing. We have truly shown him the way; he may be thankful or unthankful.”
Black people in America are like that sperm, “nothing to speak of.” … Nevertheless, Allah (God) said “Surely there came over man a time when he was nothing that could be mentioned.”
Almighty God is saying to the world of man that out of this despised and rejected, unloved and unwanted mass of Black humanity, Almighty God is going to bring out of us “The Man.”
Allah (God) is going to bring up out of us The Man that all the prophets spoke of; The Man that all the prophets wished that they could be a wayfarer just in that time to see The Man.
The Man who is not “man,” but “Man + God”! The Man who, in his earthly form, had a physical father who fathered him with sperm mixed with ovum, but a Man whose wisdom and whose mind is fathered by The Almighty God Himself!
“The Man,” yet a man like the light called “The Sun”—for if you will revolve around The Man, and take your light from The Man, that man will give you light and life and energy, and power, and you will begin to grow and master that which yesterday mastered you!
Who is The Man, that we may know him? Who is The Man, that we may revolve around him? Who is The Man, that we may submit to him? For in submitting to him, and in believing in him, we have taken the right course!
For then we are saying “Thank You” to Almighty God for giving a people that walked in darkness this marvelous light, this marvelous truth, this marvelous wisdom, this marvelous man… He is called in the scriptures “The Son of Man.” Think it over! Not the son of “Spirit”; though he is produced of The Spirit, he is called “The Son of Man.”
When Noah preached to the wicked in the days when Noah was alive, the wicked would not hear him, the wicked rejected him. Noah came and he offered them life. He said, “Follow me, and submit to The Lord of the worlds.”
But it was the leadership of the people who didn’t like Noah, and they considered Noah’s followers to be the meanest of the people; and they saw Noah as a man deluded, and so they mocked him and they ridiculed him.
Noah represented life to those wicked people. And in their rejecting Noah, they were ungrateful and unthankful to Almighty God Who gave them a warner and a clue of His intentions against that world.
So when the water began to come down, day one and day two, and day three and day four, then by the seventh day they began to reflect on what Noah had been telling them.
But then it was too late, for Noah was in The Ark, and the Ark was shut! And many were trying to come to The Ark, but it was too late—and Jesus prophesied that many will be trying to get into the door at the last hour, but it will be too late.
It is a good thing to hear while you have time, to open your ears while you have time, for the ear will be the organ through which salvation will come. …
It is so beautiful when The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad tells us that he was visited by The Lord of the worlds. Yes, a man; but not “a” man, The Man! The Man that The Qur’an was talking about; One perfect, One that obtained to perfection.
Yet a man, a man born; yet, born to be God, born to be Ruler, born to be King of kings and Lord of lords! Born to be Jehovah, that we might be His witnesses. Think it over, beloved!
And the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, in the midst of White America, “I met with The Man. Allah came in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad.”
In the Holy Qur’an, Chapter 2, verse 28, the question is asked: “How can you deny Allah and you were without life and He gave you life? Again, He will cause you to die and again bring you to life, then you shall be brought back to Him.”
Beloved Black people in America, I ask you: How can you deny Almighty Allah (God), and the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, when through the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad we received the gift of life?
The gift of life that has come to us from God through the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad has put us, now, into a trial: We may be thankful, or we could be unthankful. It is entirely up to you! But we have partaken of The Light of God from the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
He has shown us a life to live that would prosper us! He has guided us, and given us a program that would make us successful if we follow the elements in that program!
So many of you who know of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad want to follow his economic program, but you don’t want his spiritual program. How foolish can you be?
How can you deny that the man is from God, and yet take an element of his program? You are just like the hypocrites of the Holy Qur’an and Bible that want to take a piece of The Word of God, because that pleases you, but you want to reject that part of the Book that doesn’t please you.
Mother Tynnetta Muhammad, Wife of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, once said that he taught her when she opens the Holy Qur’an, she must
- Put The Qur’an to her forehead,
- She must kiss The Qur’an, then
- She must turn it over on its back, press it to her forehead, and kiss The Qur’an again, and
- Then say Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. A’udhu Billahi Minash Shaitan-ir Rajeem (“In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful. I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan”), and then open the Book!
But the placing of the Book to your forehead and the kissing of the front cover, and the placing of the back of the Book to your forehead and the kissing of the back cover means that you cannot accept a part of the Book that pleases you and deny the part that displeases you.
You must accept The Word of God from one cover to another, from the beginning of the revelation to the end of it; it is all yours! And you are tested by those parts of the revelation that may displease you.
Jesus had some crazy followers like that. They came to Jesus and said, “Master, how can I obtain the kingdom of heaven?” He said, “Do the law of Moses,” and the young man said, “I’m already doing that.” Then Jesus said, “Go take your possessions, sell them, give away your wealth to the poor, then come pick up your cross, deny yourself and follow me.”
The man said, “Later, Jesus!” (Smile). [Those who say they are followers] want the results, but they don’t want the sacrifice. They want the good of the revelation, but they don’t want to keep up the covenant.
How can you deny Allah (God), and you were without life and He gave you life? But He promises that you will die, and again bring you back to life—and this is exactly what has happened in the life of The Man, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. The Man, the light of the world! The Man, him who walked among you! The Light that was in the darkness, but we comprehended it not!
But after the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad left us, many of us denied him. And in denying him, we denied the light; and in denying the light, we denied the way that the light pointed out! And the way that the light points out is the way of life and belief and gratitude.
And when we denied that light, and denied that life, and denied that way, we became ungrateful. And now, those who once followed the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad have degenerated into the death that they were in before they met him.
But it is not totally lost! But you must recognize The Man! “The Man” is the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad: He is a man, yet a man made into a God by The Lord of the worlds!
Not a prophet, but the end of prophets. In his first days among us, he came among us as a “messenger” delivering a message; but that is his first state.
In his second state, he is crowned Lord of all! This is what your Book tells you! The Christ, The Anointed One, a man, yet God! And if you believe in him, he will give you power to become The Sons of God.
Listen to the words of your brother! This is not the word of any common preacher that you listen to day-in and day-out, this is the word of a young Black man who never went inside the schools of theology, except when they invited me and they sat there marveling over The Wisdom and Light of God coming from the mouth of this servant of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad!
I never went to their schools of theology, but I was taught “theology” by that man, The Man; that Man with The Light, that Man Who is The Way, The Life and The Truth. I was taught by Jesus The Christ! His Name is Elijah Muhammad! He is The Man!
May Almighty Allah (God) bless each and every one of you. May the light of The Man (the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad) attract your mind to his truth from Almighty God, that you may come up out of this abject state of nothingness…
Even though there is a time over you that you can be considered nothing, if you would accept this light and this truth, you will become, indeed, a great man and a great woman.
[Editor’s note: The following edited article is derived from the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s message delivered as the sixth part of a weekly radio ministry series themed “Respect for Life,” that was broadcast live from The Final Call Administration Building in Chicago, Ill., on Sunday, October 24, 1982. ]
