JABRIL.MUHAMMAD

How seriously ought we to view the report about Pope John Paul II’s statement about this being the time of the end of this world, which appeared in Weekly World News, a tabloid, dated April 11, 2000?

The headline reads: Last Days Warning of Pope John Paul II, The sub-titles read: Ailing Pontiff’s final message predicts: War in America! Nuclear Hell on Earth! Rise of the Anti-Christ! Death of Billions as World Ends!

*********

Advertisement

I won’t go into the circumstances by which the Pope is alleged to have written what he supposedly wrote and how it supposedly became public. Time will tell if he actually said what he is alleged to have stated. I only want to narrowly focus on his alleged statements, which, in effect, he allegedly stated that right now we are all living in the time described by the prophets of God as the end of this world and the establishment of His kingdom.

One of the statements attributed to him is that “The forces of Good and Evil will clash for a final time, as the Holy Scriptures have warned, in the Holy Land.”

As a follower of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad under Minister Farrakhan’s leadership, I agree with the above statements, whether the Pope really wrote them or not. The thing that I find very curious, however, is the way that so many leading scholars depict the United States of America and the Black man and woman in America in their overall description of what we may expect at the end of this world’s time.

There are literally billions and billions of words spoken through the radio, television, articles, and books, every day, all over the earth, about the end of the world. But the words that are spoken and written, here in America about the end time, almost never show America to the Americans, as God showed America to His prophets.

Likewise, almost no one shows Black people to Black people as God showed Black people to His prophets. The exception to this, on both subjects, is the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and those who are with him. There are a few others making an effort in this direction. However, at present, they are off the mark in significant areas.

The Holy Qur’an teaches that there is not a nation, or a people, whom Allah neglected, or failed to provide divine guidance for, by means of His prophets, messengers and warners. Read Surahs 10:47; 16:36; 35:25.

So what people did Allah ultimately have in His mind as that people, or nation that never had one from Himself to guide them. One of the most brilliant lectures, I ever heard, which included this subject, was delivered in New York City by Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, in December 1957. His speech included such passages as I have just mentioned from the Holy Qur’an that there are no people who have been without divine guidance up until today.

Then with mathematical precision he preceded to show that Black people in America were made into an (altogether new people) by reason of the manner and method used to bring us to this country and then the impact of slavery on us. He proved, that day, that there were not another people who ever lived or who existed now, like the Black man and woman of America. He proved, that day, that a new people were produced through the furnace of the profoundest kind of affliction.

In the course of his speech he demonstrated to his audience that in Black people here in the Western Hemisphere, we have a new people who had never had the benefit of divine guidance until today. Before today, we only knew what we knew of God, His prophets, etc., by means of our evil slave-masters. These same slave-masters are the ones who robbed us of the very basis of self-respect.

So it is natural, given these circumstances that they would not teach their slaves the truth about, nor from, nor of God. And they didn’t.

Of course, I’m not saying that the Imam’s father had not already dealt extensively with that subject. He did. I’m only writing from the impact of that experience, which I had that day, sitting in Muhammad Mosque (called Temple at that time) No. 7, as the Imam delivered a powerful speech.

I don’t want to go too far away from my purpose in mentioning the alleged statements by the Pope. However, I do find it of great interest that at least three times in the Holy Qur’an we read that not only was there not a people to whom no divine warner was given, or raised, but that it (Holy Qur’an) was revealed among a people who had never received such divine warnings before.

For example, Surah 32 verse 3 reads in part: “…it is the Truth from thy Lord that thou mayest warn a people to whom no warner has come before thee that they may walk aright.”

Muhammad Ali writes in footnote 1958a that “Makkah had not seen a prophet before the advent of the Holy Prophet Muhammad…”

Surah 36 verse 6 tells us that “a people” are being divinely warned “Whose fathers were not warned. …” And then in Surah 28 section 5, which is called “A Prophet like Moses,” we read in verses 43 through 46, the following:

“And certainly We gave Moses the Book after We had destroyed the former generations–clear arguments for men and a guidance and a mercy, that they may be mindful.”

“And thou wast not on the western side when We revealed to Moses the commandment, nor wast thou among those present; but We raised up generations, then life became prolonged to them. And thou wast not dwelling among the people of Midian, reciting to them Our messages, but We are the Sender (of messengers).

“And thou wast not at the side of the mountain when We called, but a mercy from thy Lord that thou mayest warn a people to whom no warner came before thee, that they may be mindful.”

Muhammad Ali wrote in his footnote (#1883) these words: “This verse throws light on the significance of the foregoing verses: Thou wast not there, but it was Divine mercy that put a prophecy into the mouth of Moses regarding thee. This is made clear by the words a mercy from thy Lord that thou mayest warn. … The people to whom no warner had come before were the Arabs.”

His words remind me of other words he wrote, right in his footnotes, which wherein he contradicts the text of the Holy Qur’an.

For example, even though the text of the Holy Qur’an clearly states that Abraham and Ishmael taught and worked in Mecca, he writes that Mecca had never seen a divine prophet of Allah before the time of the revealing of the Qur’an to Muhammad.

Additionally, Muhammad Ali, as well as a whole hosts of translators of the Holy Qur’an, and other scholars quite freely point out that Allah raised several prophets among the Arabs in Arabia before the Qur’an was revealed to Muhammad.

More next issue Allah willing.