JABRIL.MUHAMMAD
I know that some people have written books about the history of Black people in America. Does this involve the history of the Nation of Islam in America and the Supreme Being, Himself?
At the very end of 1953, a Brother asked me to go with him to a place. I did not know what the purpose was fully, but we were close friends. I knew his mother and his sister, and we had other friends. Most of us lived in the Bronx. I went with him to this place and I brought one of my drums with me. I intended after going to this place, with my friend, that I would go and play with my band.
This place was called, at that time, Muhammad Temple # 7 and it was located in Harlem.
I didn’t know the meaning of the name of it and what it was all about. I only went because he promised me that if I go to his meeting, then he would come and hear me play in my band.
So I went to this meeting and they sat me on the front row. I was the only person on that front row and the only new person at that meeting that night.
I saw our National Flag (The half moon and star)–but I didn’t know what it was–I thought to myself, “this must be some Communist meeting.” I then went off to sleep.
I heard the very beginning of a minister’s lecture that day. But I went to sleep. When I woke up there was another Brother giving the announcements.
Then I left. And went to play in my band and we stayed up all night playing.
Later, in January 1954 this same family called me to meet a Brother. I did not know fully the reason, but I got there and I met a Brother by the name of Minister Malcolm X.
It was a very interesting meeting that lasted for three hours. (I did not go to sleep on him) Allah willing, I will go into that later.
Many people write articles or books on persons without learning the full truth of the person they’re writing about. If the person is dead, you cannot learn the full truth of that person’s life or experiences that produce his/her experiences. Therefore, what’s the real purpose about writing about anyone in that situation?
At the end of June 1954, on my mother’s bookcase I saw a book that she had among many other books. I took it down and read it for a straight 1 1/2 hours. I don’t know why I chose that particular book, but, it was concerning Black people. It affected me so much, that I picked up the telephone and called the author of the book.
A few days later, I called my friend, who first invited me to the Temple a few months earlier and told him I wanted to go back. We went a few days later. This time, I did not go to sleep. I was stunned by what I was hearing. I went for 4 straight days, and then I accepted. I could have accepted the first of those four days, but I was too stunned by what I was learning. Finally of the fourth day, the Captain came and tapped me on the shoulders. I then went to the secretary.
At that time, I did not see or know of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. I didn’t know or see the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. I didn’t even know how to pray to Allah. I didn’t know that God was a man! I was 100% ignorant of any aspect of the truth that came from God, The Supreme Being.
Now, I intend to finish this part of this series when I first saw and met the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and a very short aspect of my reaction to them after I met Minister Malcolm X and his Brother, Brother Philbert and why it’s important to know it.
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In the previous article I wrote:
“I did not know, at that time that his words were referring to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan when he first saw him. I was not there to hear his words. But later I came to know that he asked Allah to send him a little helper. That ‘helper’ was and is the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.”
Allah willing, I’ll finish this series that involves when I first met the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and why it is important.
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In this book Closing The Gap: Inner Views of The Heart, Mind & Soul of The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Please read this:
Brother Jabril: Brother Minister, several times in the 1960s and the early 1970s, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, at his table, both in Chicago and in Phoenix, he spoke about mud.
Sometimes he would talk about mud as that which the wicked put on him. On other occasions, he would talk like Allah (God) was putting the mud on Him.
He would use the word mud in very interesting ways. He said and wrote that he was to live, for a time, the life that we live and he explained the reasons why this had to be.
The implications of his words are that certainly after he met Allah (God), he would live a life seemingly like us, in some respects, but with Wisdom Allah (God) would have by then brought to him and would later lift him up from this life. Please comment.
Minister Farrakhan: When the Honorable Elijah Muhammad met with Master Fard Muhammad, he said he was so deep in the mud that only his eyeballs were out of the mud. This means to me that he was covered with mud.
He talked about his people being in the mud of civilization. Well, what is mud? Mud is earth that is full of water, it is not firm. If you stand on it, you will sink. He said the people threw mud at him, then you said he said some times Allah (God) put mud on him. The thought that came to me was an ayat of the Holy Qur’an, “Betake yourself to the mud.”
In that state, when you place mud on your skin, allow it to dry and then take it off, it becomes a means of purification. That means to me, enemies who look for things to muddy your reputation–if they throw enough mud on you and you survive it–it will be a means of your own purification.
So mud-slinging, in the cheap sense, is when people throw things at each other that they know of one another’s weakness or fault or sin. That is called mud-slinging.
Why did the Honorable Elijah Muhammad say, if they took out full-page ads and cursed him out, word for word and line by line, they would only be helping him?
His whole attitude toward mud was different from one who is like a child playing in mud. The child comes in and gets mud all over the floor and all over the furniture. This enrages the mother because she has to clean it up.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s attitude toward mud was that no matter what they slung at him, it only ended up being a means of his purification, which was also a means of his elevation.
Since that was his attitude, what should our attitude be? It should be the same as his; for he is taking us from the mud and if mud is slung at us there has to be truth in it, because water is in the mud.
So, whenever somebody is throwing mud, there is truth in it that is a means of purification.
More next issue, Allah Willing.
