[Editor’s Note: This article is a reprint that was published online on March 2, 2003; and The Final Call will continue to publish articles written by our beloved brother and friend, Minister Jabril Muhammad.]
This is being written before the Saviours’ Day speech of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. To comment on it here would be presumptive. He hasn’t delivered it yet. Presumptions and assumptions are dangerous. It’s worth looking into the definitions of “assume,” “assumed,” “assuming,” “assumption,” and “assumptive,” whether the matter involved is tiny or huge.
Example: Some assumed I’ve changed the logo over this column for some profound reason. I had no more to do with that than I do with the weekly headlines over it. Headlines are editorial decisions. This occurs with all newspapers. But, to me it’s no “big deal.”
The “big deal” to me is what Minister Farrakhan is saying and doing by the power of his Backers.
A scholar wrote (which I now paraphrase) that the Gospels are not biographies. Yet, one can gain insight into Jesus from them much more than one could get from full biographies on him, for the proper study of them allows one into his spirit.
When I began my witness to the truth of my Brother, Minister Farrakhan, one answer I would give about the time, respecting his work included this. The book of Acts opens with the departure of Jesus to his Father. The work Jesus told Peter he would do, after his departure, began in Acts. Peter’s work merges into Paul’s, which are signs and stages of Minister Farrakhan’s work. The work of Peter/Paul dominates the book of Acts. Throughout the history of Acts, Peter/Paul openly and gratefully acknowledges the backing from heaven of Jesus and his Father.
Acts gives the viewpoint of those on earth, in which Jesus goes “up” to his Father. Revelation gives the view from one “up” with Jesus. After a powerful introduction, Revelation 5 opens with Jesus arriving to, and entering into, the place where his Father was waiting for him. He looked to be in bad shape–as a slain Lamb. But he overcame.
He receives a book from his Father’s hand. He opens it, in stages, from the 5th chapter onwards. As the Honorable Elijah Muhammad opens the sealed book, things occur on earth, in Acts, where Peter/Paul’s (Minister Farrakhan’s) work is center stage. Acts ends with Paul on his way to Jesus. This has been going on since 1975.
Nothing that has happened or will happen, right up to the “end,” was left out of the scriptures–all of which serves Allah’s purposes.
Chapter ten of This Is The One, is a witness to what Minister Farrakhan has been saying/doing, in fulfilling the scriptures.
It reads, in part: “The Honorable Louis Farrakhan, has been the subject of the most intense slander campaign that any Black man in America–possibly anytime, anywhere–has ever experienced. (His teacher would be the only exception to this.) He did not wilt; fade away; run away or otherwise evaporate. He became stronger and bolder in every respect; and grew more powerful!
“Certainly, there are some who think otherwise with respect to him. Certainly, there are others who doubt Those Whom he represents. Certainly, there are more who are seemingly indifferent to this unique phenomenon–the Nation of Islam–of which the Honorable Louis Farrakhan is the leader. They are seemingly oblivious to his presence and work. On the other hand, there are millions whose developing understanding and acceptance of Minister Farrakhan, and the perspective he represents, about the issues of which he speaks so brilliantly, indicates the correctness and the significance of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.”
Later, I wrote: “The Honorable Louis Farrakhan is in the core of that which is generating the rapid changes taking place throughout America and the earth. If this is true–and it is–it follows that to understand him, and the Powers that guide him, is to enter into the understanding of the true nature of his success. Deeper, to rightly perceive him and the Nation of Islam, is to grasp what is really taking place at this time in our lives. Such understanding clarifies the root reason the world is in turmoil, and points to the way out to a better day.”
In a book published in 1963, entitled, A New Look At The Bible Tradition, Mr. Louis V. Bischoff wrote:
“According to what some call ‘orthodox’ Christian view and doctrine, the four Gospels contain the ‘good news’ or ‘glad tidings’ that God visited the human race on this planet IN PERSON, much as a Sultan, in lowly disguise and masquerade, might mingle with his subjects for an hour or two. The word ‘gospel,’ as most of us are aware, literally means ‘good news,’ the eminently good tale or tidings of God’s visit.
“The theory that God visited this lonely planet is a very engaging one, and if true, would be of truly momentous import for all of us. And doubts that we might entertain regarding (1) God’s existence, (2) God’s genuine interest in us, (3) God’s goodness, and (4) God’s provision for the immortality of our personalities, would vanish at one full swoop. It would be the be-all and end-all of all of our doubts.”
I commented: “The coming or visit of God to His people is no theory. He has come; just as the Bible and the Holy Qur’an predicted or prophesied that He would come. This fact is ‘of truly momentous import for all of us.’
“This is GOOD NEWS!”
In an article titled, The Opportunity, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote: “We have the greatest opportunity of any nation of the past, but this opportunity is on condition that we accept Allah (God) and His Religion of Islam (Peace) which was the religion of His Prophets, including Jesus. Islam offers love, unity, friendship, wealth, infinite wisdom, knowledge, and understanding … .”
On another occasion he wrote that the truth Allah gave him to give our people inspires justified “hope in them for a better future in a better world where freedom, justice and equality is the nature and rule of the people–where hypocrites and murders will not be tolerated. A future where every believer is the brother of the believers, and is carried into practice every minute of the hour.”
He continued that the world God is bringing into existence through us, with the aid of others, will be one in which equal justice, equal opportunity and an equal chance to bring into practice (or reality) “… every good faculty that is latent in him (us) will be a reality and not a promise!”
In still another article the Honorable Elijah Muhammad pointed out that: “Today, Allah’s offer to the Lost-Found members of the great Asiatic Black Nation is far greater than that offered 4,000 years ago to Israel. Allah’s offer not only includes a beautiful country, rich in everything, but promises a new life wherein there is no decay. The people will feel and look like teenagers of sixteen if they live a thousand years. They will yet feel and look like sixteen. Such life, the Holy Qur’an says, is worth praying for. The Bible also prophesied of a new life coming to the righteous in the hereafter.”
Let’s not, to use the slang term, “trip,” or as the Bible calls it “stumble” over the truth of Jesus.
More on him next issue, Allah willing.
