JABRIL.MUHAMMAD
[Editor’s Note: This article was published online on May 26, 2006.]
“And certainly We sent Noah to his people: ‘Surely I am a plain Warner to you, to serve none but Allah. Verily I fear for you the chastisement of a painful day. But the chiefs of his people who disbelieved said: ‘We see thee not but a mortal like us, and we see not that any follow thee but those who are the meanest of us at first thought. Nor do we see in you any superiority over us; nay, we deem you liars.’ ” (Holy Qur’an 11:25-27)
“He said: ‘My Lord, help me against their calling me a liar.’ So We revealed to him: Make the ark under Our eyes … and speak not to Me in respect of those who are unjust; surely they will be drowned.” (Holy Qur’an 23:26-27)
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan continues his answer to my one-question interview of January 10, 1996 in Phoenix, Arizona.
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Minister Farrakhan: Now, let’s look at the quality of the persons with whom the Master first dealt. What was their condition? They were totally in the dark. They were a very ignorant people. So Master Fard Muhammad, to Whom praises are due forever, taught them in a language that was the way you teach babies. You teach babies using words that conjure pictures. The picture is not the truth, but the truth is contained in the picture. As long as the picture remains in the brain as you mature in understanding, then you can reach into the picture and extract the principle of truth that lies therein.
So the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was teaching me this lesson one day, as he was spanking me for reciting the history of Jesus as he taught it 40 years earlier. He said, “I don’t want you to teach it like I said it 40 years ago. I want you to give the meaning of the history.”
Thus, when he said, “And loosen the knot in my tongue,” ‘tongue’ here represents the language of revelation. God’s grace to him came in the words that He gave him, which was a complement to the Qur’an. It was an opening or a key to unravel the depth of the Qur’an. But the lessons themselves had to be unraveled over time.
We must remember that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that baby language should not be used by us. We thought at one time that baby language meant profanity, and certainly that is baby language. But baby language means an immature understanding of the Word that Master Fard Muhammad brought. We must remember that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad gave the answers to the Lessons when he was three-and-a-half years old. That is a baby. Therefore, he said, “Oh, if I could answer those questions now, I would answer them so much deeper, with so much breadth and depth.”
So when he said, “Loosen the knot in my tongue,’ it meant unravel the wisdom that is contained in the message that Master Fard Muhammad brought, that the expanded helper working in the expanded dispensation or aspect of the mission of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad would be a more mature representation of the message of Master Fard Muhammad. That more mature message would allow him to speak to all humanity.
So the work of his helper is an outgrowth of his–the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s–work and it complements his work; and his work lays the foundation for the work of his helper.
I would conclude by saying this, that I heard the Honorable Elijah Muhammad say once that two-thirds of the Qur’an were for him and one-third was for some other man, and I would let that other man worry about his part. Well, he said the book that the Saviour gave him was the Qur’an, but two-thirds of it, which deals with faith, that would be established before he departed. But the other third would be established under his guidance from another place in which he would be.
He said that he was like a guided missile; that God was off in a secret place guiding him. He’s a guided man. Now, he has grown up into that kind of power where he can be where he is and guide his man in the fulfillment of his third. So this helper doesn’t really have to worry about his part. All he needs to do is to reach up into his brain for the guidance that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad will continue to give him.
So in my conclusion on this subject, in 1972 when he stood the Minister up before the followers and said, “This is one of my greatest preachers in the bounds of North America.” And then he said, “When you see him, look at him. When he speaks, listen to him. Wherever he bid you to go, go. Wherever he bid you to stay from, stay from.” And then he said how, “This Brother would get you across the river on his shoulders. And when he gets you safely across to the other side, he will not say, ‘Look what I have done.’ He will say, ‘Look what God has done,’ for he is a humble man.”
Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you,”–but you can’t do it unless you learn of me. Learn my spirit. Learn the nature of me, the inside of me that makes me who and what I am. And if you learn of me, you will learn that I am meek and lowly of heart and you will find rest in your soul.
So his helper has learned of him and is meek and lowly of heart. Therefore, his soul is at rest, because he knows he is being guided to fulfill the work and mission of his father. So in leaving, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad also said, “His preaching is a bearing of witness of me and so continue to hear my Minister Farrakhan.”
What did he mean, “continue to hear my Minister?” He meant that his followers should continue to listen to me, for my teaching would bear witness of his being alive; of his continued growth into power; of the great commission that God had given him.
He also said in his Theology of Time lectures, “If you continue to listen to me, I will have you so smart that you will have the devil around your finger as a little string, and you would not even know that he was present.”
What did he mean, “if you continue to listen to me?” If you continue to hear my servant, whom I am continuing to guide and grow, then you will grow out of the thought that the enemy is any burden to you, any more than a piece of string on your finger would not be a burden to impede you in doing anything that you desire to do.
Yakub’s grafted man may be a burden to you if you refuse to allow yourself to grow up into the wisdom of God; and you cannot do that unless you continue to hear his Minister Farrakhan and his witness of his master and teacher, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
Brother Jabril Muhammad: Thank you, Minister Farrakhan.
Minister Farrakhan: You are welcome.
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How does his view of his mission involve ours, as a member of God’s Kingdom? How does his self-concept involve our self-concept?
More, next issue, Allah willing.
