[Editor’s Note: This article was published online on September 20, 2005.]
Everyone has something to say about the impact of Hurricane Katrina. For me, however, the most insightful are the words of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Study the spirit of his words. Time’s running out to learn certain lessons.
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In a few talks I made in the Bay Area in 1960, on the subject of humility, I stated that I had never had an original thought in my life. I still haven’t.
What value does my stated ignorance—maybe yours too—have in understanding and benefiting from the assignment of the two Messiahs?
In September 1977, I was sent to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan to be of service to him. With others, that’s ongoing too. My personal benefit was, and is, to be blessed to follow him.
The stand he took in 1977 continues to benefit an unknown number of people. Its effects will go far into the future, even beyond that which most are now willing to accept.
In October 1967, I had some discussions with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad that led to the writing of “This Is The One.” In a few of those meetings, he gave me words he wanted in that book. He told me: “Write them as though from yourself.”
One set of his words were:
“Master Fard Muhammad aims to raise the Lost-Found (so-called Negro) into the knowledge and wisdom—the very ideas—of the Gods of the past.
“He also aims presently, to raise His people into His own ideas, in Himself, that the scriptures may be fulfilled: that those to whom He reveals Himself become the sons (and the daughters) of God—sons and daughters in the wisdom of God.
“He aims not only to reveal His ideas for the present creation of the universe, but also to give to man the nature and the creative wisdom to produce creative ideas as The Father of Civilization.
“This is what was prophesied: that God would make man like Himself. He aims to make The Nation of Righteousness, who will rule in the Hereafter, with the potential knowledge of producing and bringing into action, or existence, that which He has been able to produce. We call this ‘ideas.’ He aims to make each one into a God.”
These words are found in the last page of the eighth chapter of that book. After he departed, in 1975, I made known that he was the author of those words.
How many of us—right now—can create an idea that no one has ever thought of before? We can’t. That lesson has not yet been given. But it will be.
We need now, however, to think over the words of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to Minister Farrakhan, “I want your mind.” Could this process and event have occurred if Minister Farrakhan was not humble and submissive to his teacher, while being trained by him? No.
Minister Farrakhan exemplifies the principles in: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)
The words above, in bold, of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad show that we’re in the only course of instruction that takes us out of the dying wisdom of this world and into God’s eternal wisdom, that was promised through God’s prophets.
It ought to be among our prayers, for unselfish reasons, that Minister Farrakhan be blessed by Allah to see and get from his teacher (the Honorable Elijah Muhammad) that which he was promised, if he qualified. It seems to me that he has qualified according to what his teacher told him 20 years ago in his More-Than-A-Vision experience, September 17, 1985. There is additional evidence to this effect. But remember, he does not work, night and day, for personal gain. He works from his unselfish and unconditional love for Allah (God) and the people.
What was he promised? It’s mentioned in the sixth of the written lessons that Muslims have who are with Minister Farrakhan. It’s more widely known as that wisdom mentioned in the scriptures that God kept secret until the end of this world.
It’s this wisdom (brought by Master Fard Muhammad and taught publicly by the two Messiahs) that many refuse to study and some even mock, that is supreme over this world’s dying wisdom. This new wisdom, which we’ve been freely given, is the prerequisite wisdom that prepares us for the next wisdom. That next wisdom guides eternity.
According to “Webster’s Dictionary of Synonyms,” the word “prerequisite” applies to “things which must be known, or accomplished, or acquired as preliminaries to the study of a subject, the doing of a kind of work, or the attainment of any end.”
Broadly speaking (or writing), we can’t learn or understand or successfully do this before we learn or understand or successfully do that. This is an immutable (unchanging) law. Many, however, ignorantly reject this law. They think they can dismiss indispensable requirements for success and yet successfully enter the next phase of whatever they are studying, doing or trying to master. Taking “shortcuts” comes from a mindset that always lands us in the ‘wanna-be’ category.
The term, “mindset” refers to “a set of beliefs or a way of thinking that determine somebody’s behavior and outlook.”
We’re just out of slavery. We have much to learn. Pretending we can jump from kindergarten to college and succeed, without taking the proper steps, qualifies us to become a ‘wanna-be,’ unless we’re turned around fast and in time.
For example, we cannot bear quality witness to the rightness of the moves that Minister Farrakhan has made, is making and will make, without taking the required steps. One of those steps is the intelligent use of the thesaurus, dictionaries, synonyms and antonym books as we study his teachings and practice them.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad used them. So did, and does, his prize student, Minister Farrakhan. People everywhere use them who seek to increase their understanding of people, events and things and their ability to communicate more effectively. Minister Farrakhan continues to refer to himself as “a student” of his teacher. If we’re his students of God’s wisdom, we won’t be too lazy to do as he does. He is without false pride, jealousy and envy.
One day, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad told me, “Whenever I come across a word I do not know, I do not stop until I get to its root.”
With Minister Farrakhan’s impassioned (not angry) message to the Nation, today, on September 4, we’re 42 days from the 10th anniversary of The Million Man March—A WELL KNOWN DAY!
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At the end of a letter I recently received are these words: “Yes, it’s clear. Connect to the Source and Look, Listen and Follow the Minister.
“P.S. ‘Pajama day??’ That’s nothing. At the high school where I teach there is a ‘gender-bender’ day, where boys come dressed as girls (make-up and all) and vice versa. Needless to say, that’s a day that I take off! ”
More, next issue, Allah willing.
