JABRIL.MUHAMMAD
On the front cover of the book; Is It Possible That The Honorable Elijah Muhammad Is Still Physically Alive??? And with yellow words on the front cover we can read this: With a letter from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad on his escape from a particular death plot.
From the same book we can read an excerpt of an interview:
Emerge: That must have been a rough time for you, when you first broke away. You were torn, in a way. You tried to work with Warith, right?
Farrakhan: That’s correct.
Emerge: What was going on in your mind then?
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan: I loved Imam Warith Deen Muhammad, from a young boy… . Out of love for him, I did my best to try to keep the Nation together and stay with the Imam … . But I did not like, at a certain point, the way he handled his father. And when I could not feel comfortable anymore under his leadership, I backed away, but not with the thought of raising a counter-movement. I was just going to quietly fade into the night and maybe go back into show business and do something to feed my family.
Minister Farrakhan then stated that he met me “ … in September 1977 in Los Angeles. And he gave me a book to read that he had written. When I read that book I was so inspired that I decided, at that moment, to rebuild the work of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.”
Now, although the Minister covered a lot of ground in this interview, he did not go into every point as deeply as he could have and has, on other occasions. Among the details he did not touch was one that I covered earlier to a limited extent, and which I’ve covered more extensively in talks and in other writings (over the years.) It was the fact that either in the latter part of 1976 or early in 1977, the idea began to rise in his heart to lift the name and rebuild on the foundation left by his teacher, before we met in September 1977.
(I strongly suggest that you who want to go deeper, into this area of his experience, at that time, ought to search through all of the speeches Minister Farrakhan has made, time consuming as that will be. Start with the early 1980s.)
When I walked into the restaurant, in a hotel in Hollywood, California, and saw my Brother, Minister Farrakhan, I immediately thought back to the time when I recall first meeting or seeing him. It was in a restaurant the Nation of Islam through the local Temple, as it was called then, in New York City leased. Anyway, I think we were leasing the property. But it felt like we owned it.
I was working there when I first saw that beautiful countenance and smile of Minister Farrakhan. He is the type of Brother who is very easy to love.
Now twenty-two years had passed. I smiled too as I was happy to see him. The last time I saw him in person was December 1974. I wanted to talk to him, but could not, like I wanted too. For one thing others were always present. My time was limited. Allah would not allow it. I next spoke to him the next year, in February, 1975. That was a closer call. But such a meeting was yet to come.
Now was the time. And in a restaurant. On the other coast too. In Hollywood, as far West–as far as I was concerned–as we could meet.
We left his table and went to the counter where we waited for the waiter to give him his change after he paid his bill. There I had a chance to gain a brief sum-up of his thinking on key subjects. He spoke on vital points. As I listened I thought to myself, “He is such a beautiful Brother, who is just below a thin sheet of ice. This is going to be easier than I thought.”
We then went up to his room to put the brown shopping bag up on a shelf in the closet of his room. Then we went for a long three hour walk. During that time he brought me up-to-date on the last thirty months. It was like watching a fantastic movie.
We went back to his room where after some good conversation I left and he began the process of reading most of what was in the brown bag.
Now, at the right time, and in fulfillment of His own holy word, given through the prophets, and in response to a specific prayer of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad for Minister Farrakhan, and at the precise time, Allah Himself brought about that which was needed to trigger in Minister Farrakhan that which was already in him–for His own perfect purposes; for His own glory.
I am using the word trigger as defined in dictionaries as “anything, such as an act or event, that initiates or precipitates a reaction, or a series of actions and reactions.”
The next question put to Minister Farrakhan, by the interviewer of Emerge, was a very natural and routine question, given the context and flow of the interview.
It was: “What was the name of the book?”
Minister Farrakhan responded: “I don’t think Brother Jabril had even named it at that time. It’s a book that has not been printed. It chronicles the life of Jesus and compares it to the life of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and the rise and fall of the Nation to the rise and fall of the early church when Jesus went to the cross.”
The interview went on successfully and covered many other important areas. The public was well served in that effort by both Minister Farrakhan and Emerge.
Somebody wrote a book and couldn’t figure out what to call it. Besides, it was never published. So what difference does it make? Ordinarily I might say that. But because of what I’ve been blessed to see into the mission of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, I think my answer is relevant to the purpose of this book. So, what follows is my answer to Emerge’s question, in the light of what I’ve been blessed to see of Minister Farrakhan’s identity and his overall mission
It is not the book I wrote that I wish to focus on as it was not the realities to which it pointed and described. A book is a reality in itself. It is a thing that exists, unless or, until it is destroyed in some manner. But, some books, as we know, describe–with varying degrees of accuracy–very important people and events. Let’s look at the people. Let’s look at the events.
What Minister Farrakhan did not cover, in his answer to the question of the book’s title, was that which he was not necessarily thinking about at that time. However, it forms an essential part of my answer. It’s about himself–as best I can see–from the viewpoint of God.
Minister Farrakhan’s answer to Emerge contained two parts. The first part was:
“I don’t think Brother Jabril had even named it at that time. It’s a book that has not been printed.”
I’ve already stated that an event, or a combination of events, in 1974 settled my mind on just what I was to do with the book I had written. I was not to publish it. I was to give it to Minister Farrakhan. I did.
I knew what I knew, at that time, when I wrote what I did. Of course, there were many things I would learn more clearly and other things I would learn for the first time. Only then–be it Allah’s will–might I be able to write that book about Jesus. I’ve not yet written it. But I pray Allah He blesses me to do so.
Ordinarily, people give titles to the books, while they are writing them; even when they are not finished. If they have not settled on a final title, they give it a temporary one called a “working title.”
I had written more than one temporary title, on the cover page. Among the titles I tentatively gave it were Jesus: Then and Now; The Jesus Book; and It Is Finished!!! None of them really satisfied me even though all of them fit, to a certain extent.
So, at best these were “working titles.” With respect to this book (which Emerge and Minister Farrakhan briefly discussed) the term “working title” fit, because in a special sense it was incomplete.
As mentioned above, Minister Farrakhan’s answer to the question of the book’s title, simply could not cover that which he was just not thinking of, at that time. Nor did he know the struggle I was experiencing with the book’s title–over a period of several years.
Yet his answer forms an essential part of the answer he has given, in his person and work, here in America and elsewhere, since he arose to rebuild the Nation of Islam, in 1977.
More next issue, Allah willing.
