[Editor’s Note: This article was published online on September 19, 2006.]
“If we know what is said to us and what is written by the prophets for us to read, study and ponder over, and if we understand, we should not fall victims to misunderstanding and disbelief.” (The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, The Fall of America, page 59)
As we are, we’re in a state that will earn us Allah’s chastisement that is intended for Satan and his hosts. We must rapidly close the gap between the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and ourselves.
A Torchlight For America by Minister Farrakhan represents his thinking, heart, mind, soul and spirit. It is not an autobiographical work. That’s another book that Minister Akbar Muhammad and others are in the early stage of production. But in A Torchlight For America, Minister Farrakhan elaborates on what he has learned from his teacher, in a magnificent way.
Closing The Gap is altogether a different work. In it, he answers questions that reveal his heart. This should affect other books to be published about him.
The experience out of which came the question in my last article: “Can one be a wicked believer?” occurred in May 1966 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad knew that I was not perfect in my representation of his wisdom. But he indicated that he was satisfied with the stage of my growth at that time.
To claim perfection would be a form of insanity, vanity, self-righteousness and arrogance to the maximum. I am not yet where I could be, although I’ve been blessed to learn much since 1966. Among the most important things I’ve learned was not just that but some of the whys Minister Farrakhan was divinely made to set the standard for the representation of the Supreme Wisdom taught to us all by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
This has everything to do with the quality of his heart.
In 1966, the Nation was headed for a fall that practically none of us saw. But the Honorable Elijah Muhammad did. I first heard him indicate this to another minister and myself in May 1961. Understanding came gradually.
If a refusal to make the effort to understand and come to love the scriptures, as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was teaching back then, characterized the spirit of a growing number of Believers as early as 1966, what is our state today?
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad told Minister Farrakhan and a few others that the Nation would fall but it would rise again, never to fall again. In The Fall of America, pages 239-240, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote:
“The disbeliever believes that which he sees present and not that which is prophesied to come; that is why he is the loser and takes the course to hell, because he disbelieves in that which is prophesied to come about on a particular day.
“This is what the enemy is trying to do today with the Black Man. He is fascinating him with sports and play and indecency and the doing of evil to keep him from going to the God Who is present.”
One paragraph down, he continued, “Let us not classify the prophets as liars and ignore the prophesies, for we may cause our self-destruction through belief in the Devil instead of belief in the God of righteousness.”
The words I’ve made bold emphasize the principles that warn us that we must come to love scriptures, as he taught them, and now teaches them through Minister Farrakhan, as the interpretation is from Master Fard Muhammad.
Just think of students in a classroom who disrespect the primary textbooks they’ve been given to help them understand their teacher’s verbal and written lessons. How could they ever expect to get a passing grade if they disrespect these textbooks?
A failing grade today is qualifying us for hell fire.
In relation to the question, the Holy Qur’an reads, “If Allah were to destroy men for their iniquity, He would not leave therein a single creature.” (Holy Qur’an 16:61)
Over and over again, Muhammad is made to say by Allah, in the Holy Qur’an: “O you who believe” to do this and that and to stop doing this and that. As an example, in Surah 61:2, 3 we read: “O you who believe, why say you that which you do not? It is most hateful in the sight of Allah that you say that which you do not.” Should we view this from a self-righteous spirit?
It’s clear that the Qur’an was directed to a people who would have been totally destroyed, along with Satan, were it not for Allah’s mercy on us!
Ponder means: to think about something carefully over a period of time; implies weighing and suggests consideration of a problem, or a thing, from all angles in all its relations in order that nothing important escapes. Ponder the following.
Minister Farrakhan, like his teacher, is a manifestation of Allah’s mercy. There is a saying of Muhammad, that there are 100 parts of the mercy of Allah, of which He gave one part to the world, but He reserved 99 for the Day of Resurrection.
One day, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad brought the signed form letters of Believers, (showing their acceptance of God’s truth), to his Teacher, Who said to him, “These don’t pass.” He saw the Honorable Elijah Muhammad looking sad, and continued, “But for your sake, I will let them pass.”
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said to Minister Farrakhan, with witnesses present, that he was next to his teacher; that there was none between them.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad conditionally promised Minister Farrakhan that he would reveal the new teaching through him. It seems to me that Minister Farrakhan’s more-than-a-vision experience in September 1985 is among the clearest proofs that he met those conditions.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote: “We should be thankful for the attention, sympathy, mercy and forgiveness from such a Great One as God in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad. (How To Eat To Live, Book Two, Chapter 18)
Allah hates ingratitude.
Everyone follows a model. Simply put, the more we know of what the heart of a human being is and the more we know of the beauty of Minister Farrakhan’s heart and what makes him like he is, the more we are attracted to be like him, in terms of the principles that makes him what he is.
Minister Farrakhan, like his teacher, is one of those human beings (in history) whom God fixes for His service for the benefit of others. He, like his teacher, was divinely given to us, so to speak, to pull up by, to gain strength by, and to get us on the road to becoming our true selves.
Jesus delivered the Gospel. It was hidden from the “wise and prudent” of this world. Jesus commissioned Paul to represent him. Paul took his listeners/readers ever deeper into what Jesus taught. So it is with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Minister Farrakhan.
The arrogant always become delusional if they have enough time. This world’s scientists view Pluto as they view Black people. In both instances, their view conflicts with that of the Divine Supreme Being’s perfect view of Pluto, which the Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught is a sign of the Original Man in America.
Minister Farrakhan covers this wisely in A Torchlight For America.
More, next issue, Allah willing, on the conclusion of this article and of Pluto.
