Index:
Introductory Material to Study Guide 19 by Sis. Min. Ava Muhammad
Introdution by the Honorable Louis Farrakhan
Letter to the Students by the Honorable Louis Farrakhan
Study Guide 19A Reference Material
Introduction to Study Guide 19B by Sis. Min. Ava Muhammad
Study Guide 19B Reference Material
A BRIEF COMMENTARY ON THE COURSE
Sister Minister Ava Muhammad
In "The Will of God (Part I)", the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan writes.
"Everything in Creation is the manifestation of the Will of God...when He says 'Be!' He summons the Power of His own Being, His Creative Mind and Will, to bring about that which He Wills."
In light of these words, we can attribute nothing to coincidence (mere chance). The Course he wrote, entitled "Self-Improvement: The Basis for Community Development", was first a lecture, delivered in the city of Phoenix, Arizona, September 21, 1986, by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. "Phoenix" is the name given to a legendary bird of extraordinary beauty. Reputedly the only one of its kind, it lives more than 500 years in the Arabian wilderness. At the end of that time, the bird burns itself completely, then rises from its own ashes, brand new, to live another cycle of centuries. It's image is a symbol of immortality. Three months after that historic speech, the Minister introduced an entire course centered around the study of self. Here are two brief excerpts from his letter of introduction:
"The rising to life of the spiritually dead and the Great Resurrection are one and the same. And the first stage of in our spiritual resurrection occurs through the stimulation of our self-accusing spirit; that is, when the inner voice speaks, guides, warns, reproves, exhorts and accuses us of going contrary to what is right... This phase of our development is designed, by the Help of Allah (God), to bring about a transformation or complete change in our lives. This is done by stimulating self-analysis and self-correction in us. Our self-improvement actually brings into fruition the awesome power of Allah (God) to 'make complete his (our) whole make'; {H.Q. 75:4}" (special emphasis added)
The image of the phoenix burning itself and rising from its own ashes is a mere illustration of something even more extraordinary. Those who submit themselves to "this process of heeding truth and right guidance" are destined to be transformed. i It is critical for us to realize that the Course is inspired. As its title indicates, the Course is a teaching device; however, it is not an academic exercise conceived by the Minister to impress us with his range of knowledge. Those who perceive it as that, fall off the mountain before the climb begins, because they immediately begin to compare it with the work of various intellectuals among us. When that happens, they become bored and abandon the Course for something more "challenging". Alexander the Great wept because he had no more worlds to conquer, but he died an alcoholic at the age of 32. When people are allowed to have power and authority with no self-awareness, we all suffer.
Review the Minister's letter of introduction. The curriculum is explained "study sessions" on both theoretical and practical levels. It is not a treatise written by a theologian sharing his thoughts. It is Revelation to a servant of Allah (God) for the salvation of a people. This is a man who is speaking through life's experiences. When he says, "there is a difficulty factor attached to everything of value:, he knows what he is talking about. Without practical application --- if the student does not use the principles in daily life --- the Course will not produce thought reversal and we will not experience a change.
However, if the student does apply the theory to life, then upon completion of the units currently available, he or she will begin a new cycle but on a higher plane, at a quicker vibratory rate.
Let us take, as an example, the very first study guide, entitled, "Mixed Feelings & Controversy: How Do We Handle It?". When Minister Farrakhan went to Phoenix in 1986, mixed feelings and controversy surrounded his presence. At that time, he spoke in Plaza Symphony Hall.
In 1995, he was again surrounded by mixed feelings and controversy, within a whole new reality. He stood in front of the nation's capitol and addressed a gathering of nearly 2 million Black men. Obviously, some growth had occurred in that 9-year period. He was back to Study Guide Number 1, but this time the journey through the Course was measured in months instead of years. Immediately thereafter, he embarked upon his World Friendship Tour, creating another storm of controversy and moving at yet a faster vibratory rate. The time within which he was able to execute it.
Allah's (God's) Plan decreased even further, measured in weeks instead of months.
The only request the Minister makes is that the student apply the principles; use them. It is only their use that will give them real meaning and confirm their truth.
More than one study guide grew out of a serious difficulty encountered by an individual. It will come as a surprise to you that Study Guide 16, "The Law of God", evolved from a letter written to a Laborer. Study Guide 14, "Respect for Authority", began as a letter the Minister wrote to a young woman who had been wrongfully imprisoned. As I recall, she was in such conflict with the prison officials, her sentence could have been lengthened. As a direct result of the Divine Guidance she received through our Leader, she was able to successfully complete the time and has rejoined our struggle for liberation.
Similarly, Study Guide 13, "The Price of Redemption" was written for a particular event in the Nation's history: the repurchase of our Mosque, which the Minister named "Maryam".
I simply cannot overemphasize the power that is contained in this Course. Perhaps the Minister's generosity in giving this Divine Wisdom away so freely has been misinterpreted. Is it possible to make someone recognize the value of what he or she has deliberately thrown away? It is not easy; the person obviously threw it away because he placed no value in it. Perhaps if he is shown that his miserable condition is directly related to being without it, then he is allowed to see it one more time, he may be able to change his mind about its worth.
More than a decade has passed since the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan presented us with the first of the 18 units of study we have received thus far. It is known throughout the world that Allah (God) gave the Minister the gift of teaching. However, I am not sure if we all realize he first and always maintains the attitude and posture of a student:
"I met a man who taught me and I am not the same old Negro I once was. I am a man now with healing in my wings and yet I am a student of another man... We have got to give credit where credit is due. I met a man and that man is a doctor. He doctored on me, so that I could doctor on you. That man is Elijah Muhammad." (Saviours' Day, October 9, 1993)
Many people love to teach, but care little for learning. Over the years, I have watched the Minister as he listened intently to clergymen, physicians, lawyers, educators, politicians, businessmen, artists and athletes while they answered his sincere questions about the details of their field or profession. Long after others have become bored or distracted, he remains alert. He loves to learn. He does not envy achievement, he admires it.
Those who desire to be successful should also take note of yet another rare attribute the Minister possesses. I have been in the Nation of Islam for 16 years and have worked closely with Minister Farrakhan for 11 of those years. I have never, ever, known him to engage in idle conversation of any sort. Yes, he is pleasant and he has a sense of humor. But he is committed to the Work of his Father, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
Time is never wasted in his company. He is completely devoted to Allah and His Messenger. I have spent hours at a time, alone with the Minister in his office, and he has always been the most excellent example of proper conduct -- in speech as well as manners. This is a man who not only respects women, he teaches women to respect themselves. I can declare without fear of contradiction: anyone who would ever charge this man with indecency can only belong to Satan.
If asked to describe the Minister's 'aura', in one word, I would choose "serene". Even in the heat of battle with the most vicious enemies of our liberation, the serenity remains. The Peace of God cannot be shattered. The question for us is, how do we achieve the peace and tranquility our Minister possesses?
Beloved, we marvel at the Works our Minister performs but where is the "complete change" in our lives? Can't we see that he teaches us only to make us greater than himself? Yet, we lag so far behind, we have become a burden to him as well as ourselves. How long will we be permitted to ask for what we already have? The study guides are the means of our transformation! iv
What will finally bring an end to the long, dark winter of our disappointment with life? Where, when, how will we find real love, spiritual fulfillment, success and recognition? The gravitational pull of "what is" makes it very hard to implement "what ought to be". Moving out of the darkness of ignorance into the Light of Knowledge is not just a step, it is an odyssey.
After engaging in this study, we should want to "rise above Emotion into the Thinking of God". Emotion will not change our circumstances. When all is said and done, only faith, hard work, and the Holy Qur'an's assurance that "Allah is with the steadfast:, will get us to our goal.
The Thinking of God is unbound by space or time and embraces an appreciation of the value in each and every one of us. Never underestimate the power in your own ability to perceive worth in every human being --- particularly yourself. It will absolutely determine the extent of your success in life. This can be proven in no limit of time.
In the aftermath of the Million Man March, the most blind among us can see it was Divinely-inspired. Nearly two million Black men came together in nearly perfect love and peace. Many of our most virulent enemies have acknowledged that were it not for Minister Louis Farrakhan, the Million Man March simply would never have happened. Just as the number of persons who argue that Jesus was a Caucasian has steadily dwindled, only the insane will fight against the self-evident.
Even more significant for us is the reality that no one else could have thought of the Million Man March. How do we know this? Because there is nothing within the framework of the white man's world that would allow any of us to have such a thought. Therefore, we know that it was the Thinking of Allah (God). In order for Allah (God) to use us as a conveyor of His Thinking, we have to have the kind of thoughts He has.
One way we can measure our progress in life is by calculating how long it takes to complete our various goals and objectives on a daily weekly, monthly, yearly basis. A spiritually and intellectually developed person is effective in dealing with people and getting things done.
Again, as pointed out in the beginning of this Commentary, look at how long it took Minister Farrakhan to carry out Allah's Idea for the Million Man March. Two years? Five years? It was accomplished in a matter of months. His World Friendship Tour was accomplished in a matter of weeks.
What are your thoughts and feelings about your future? What are your plans for tomorrow? Next week? Next year? Are you struggling with painful personal problems? Are your relationships (spouse, parent, child, friends, etc.) what you want them to be? Is there drug addiction, illness or disease to contend with? Financial instability? Now expand your mind to include the concerns of our community, our Nation, the world, It is difficult and confusing to even acknowledge the existence of these problems, so most of us don't.
We depend upon Minister Farrakhan to lead us, guide us, teach us, think for us, singlehandedly protect us from the enemies of our liberation. Is it rational to expect our blessings to flow from him or are we guilty of being unjust? Many of us will not even make the effort to develop spiritually, intellectually and materially, though he has given us the resources we need directly from Allah Himself.
We are like a man in a house where another has brought in good food and cooked it, but the man still starves to death because he is too lazy to eat. Many of us have been exposed to the Teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad for years, without any improvement whatsoever in ourselves or our circumstances. Some of us are actually a burden to our Minister and the Nation. How long do we think Allah will permit it?
"And the judging on that day will be just, so as for those whose good deeds are heavy, they are successful. And for those whose good deeds are light, those are they who ruined their souls because they disbelieved in our messages. And certainly We have established you in the Earth and made therein means of livelihood for you; little it is that you give thanks!" Holy Qur'an 7:8-10
(by Minister Ava Muhammad)
"The Knowledge of God has Power to separate and manifest the Believer and the Disbeliever. It is the Key to all other knowledge." - Minister Louis Farrakhan-
It has been more than a decade since our Leader, The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, introduced "Self-Improvement: The Basis for Community Development." Between 1986 and 1991, he gave us eighteen (18) units of study, in a course which he described in his letter of introduction:
"...Each study session is designed on the Guidance of Allah to produce: self-examination, self-analysis, self-correction and, to quicken in each of us the Self-accusing Spirit. For it is only when we are awakened morally that we have to face the Self-accusing Spirit which leads to our Resurrection. Resurrection is that process that begins with the Self-accusing Spirit and does not end until we become one in perfect harmony with Allah and His Creation."
To demonstrate the profound Wisdom that Allah has given us, not only from the lips, but from the pen of Minister Louis Farrakhan, let us choose just one word contained in the above paragraph --- quicken -- and examine it. "Quicken" means "to accelerate, to give or restore vigor or activity; to rouse or stimulate, revive, or restore life to; to become alive, receive life; for a child in the womb to begin to manifest signs of life."
To be "quickened" by the Self-accusing Spirit is to have our vibrations increased from the slow tempo of the physical plane to the fast tempo of the spiritual plane, increasing more and more until we are able to comprehend even God Himself. Minister Farrakhan has taught us that while this quickening comes from within, when the inner light has been turned off, we need someone from the Original Power Source to reactivate conscious awareness of God. After completing this Unit, "Who Is God?", you may conclude that Minister Farrakhan himself is such a person among us today.
Study Guide 19A is a magnificent revelation which will come as a surprise to those who have clamored, "When is Study Guide 19 coming out?" The power of "19" alone has made this study guide the Nation's "most wanted". But, like Hagar, we have been looking for that which has already been given to us. The substance of Study Guide 19 actually preceded Study Guide 18 in existence.
Beloved, even if we saw and heard Minister Farrakhan deliver the Message, "Who Is God?" on February 24, 1991, it can be proven in no limit of time that we missed the "essence" of it. Just look at what he has done since 1991 and look at what you and I have done since 1991. To say he has accomplished that which no one else has done is an understatement. He has accomplished that which no one else has thought of doing.
There are no words to express the sensation of seeing and hearing our Minister in person. And there is nothing wrong with audio and video tapes. Indeed, their value is almost immeasurable. However, there is no substitute for the written word. If you desire to grow into power and influence in this life; if you are serious about knowing the Mind of God, you must become proficient in reading.
I feel compelled to emphasize the need to read at this point, because it is only through reading and discussing Study Guide 19A that you will learn it contains the precise solution to any problem which plagues you at this moment. Furthermore, upon completion of it, there will be no doubt that Minister Farrakhan is a Divinely-Guided man. It will confirm the faith of the Believer and inspire the Believer---once and for all--to translate that faith into action.
As you read, you will see that central to Study Guide 19A is the number 12, beginning with the meaning of "Point Number 12" of "What the Muslims Believe". {The speech contains approximately 12,000 words} Minister Farrakhan teaches us the spiritual and historical significance of the Number 12.
In Study Guide 19A, Minister Farrakhan takes us into the "Rules of Interpretation" set forth in Surah 3 of the Holy Qur'an. He discusses the Making of History (Bible, Holy Qur'an, 25,000-year cycle); the Transmission of the Wisdom of God through human beings; the Great Trial (mishandling of knowledge); the 66-Trillion Year Fast and the Feast at its end; how and why the Knowledge of God became a Secret; the Self-Creation of the Originator, His Law of Life and Death and how He escapes His own Law. The Minister identifies the "most mysterious force" in the Universe; explains the important difference between the Brain of God and the Mind of God; describes the origin of Thought that gave rise to the Brain. He asks and answers the question, "Why is Jesus called the Son of God?" He explains the name, "Adam".
He teaches of the Infinite Power of the Mind of the Creator and explains why the Universe itself cannot contain the Mind of the Creator forever; why we do not bow to or make physical images of worship; the awesome declaration of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad that "God is a man"; the meaning of "Messiah" and "Mahdi"; the meaning of "everlasting life"; the making of devil and why devil was made.
He teaches of the Secret of God found in the woman; of the relationship between Revelations 12 and Surah 19; of the pivotal role of the woman in the closing of one world and the bringing in of another; the meaning of the biblical words, "and a virgin shall conceive".
He teaches us of the birth of Master Fard Muhammad and proves Who He is; he proves Who the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is and tells us of his own Mission as a Witness Bearer of the Messiah.
Do you think this Study Guide might be of some interest to you? One thing is certain: It is time to end this introduction, because it is keeping you from your studies (smile).
May Allah bless you with the Light of Understanding as you drink the pure words of Study Guide 19A.
Sister Minister Ava Muhammad February 23 1997
NATIONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE HONORABLE ELIJAH MUHAMMAD AND THE NATION OF ISLAM
IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE BENEFICENT, THE MERCIFUL.
February 23, 1997
As-Salaam Alaikum.
Dear Believers and Students:
I am writing this letter to introduce you to Study Guide 19A, entitled, "WHO IS GOD?"
The most controversial aspect of the Teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhamad with respect to the world of religion, is the fact that He claimed to have met with God in Person and to have been taught by God in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad.
This critical point of belief of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad (and those of us who believe as He believes), was the cardinal point around which the Nation of Islam had its demise.
There were those who said the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was deceived; others said there was an error of interpretation on His part. But the Honorable Elijah Muhammad steadfastly held the position He states in Point Number 12 of "What The Muslims Believe": "We believe that Allah (God) appeared in the Person of Master W. Fard Muhammad, July, 1930; the long awaited 'Messiah' of the Christians and the 'Mahdi' of the Muslims. We believe further and lastly that Allah is God and besides HIM there is no God and He will bring about a universal government of peace wherein we all can live in peace together."
Some have said that near the end of His time among us, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad expressed something different with respect to Master Fard Muhammad. To my knowledge, He never changed this cardinal point. The belief in Master Fard Muhammad was critical with Him and it became the reason for the dismissal of His son, Warith Deen Muhammad, from the mosque, the Nation and the early rejection by the family.
There is no way one can be a follower of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and dismiss this cardinal principle, for if Master Fard Muhammad is not Who the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said He is, then the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is not Who we believe Him to be, and the body of knowledge He brought should not be taken as seriously as we have taken it.
Those of us who dismissed this cardinal point of belief have seen the effect of that dismissal almost instantly: the loss of moral strength, organization, direction, guidance, health, well-being, beautiful appearance and the honor and prestige we gained from our own people as a result of our belief in this cardinal principle and the actions that followed.
Certainly, the "orthodox" Islamic world does not believe as we, but the Honorable Elijah Muhammad respects it and so do we. The knowledge in the orthodox Islamic world is a great knowledge that should and must be respected by all; however, Allah cannot be said to have completed His Favour on us until He gives us complete understanding of His Favour. Allah has given us a marvelous book, the Holy Qur'an, wherein He tells us plainly, "And none knows its interpretation save Allah. And those firmly rooted in knowledge they say: 'We believe in it, it is all from our Lord'" (3:6)
We could not have complete understanding until He sent a Messenger with the true interpretation of the book. Only then could we say that He completed His Favour upon us. I may give you a beautiful automobile, but if you do not know how to drive, you might run into a brick wall and hurt yourself as well as others. In order for my gift to be complete, I must see to it that you know how to properly us what I have given you.
Certainly there is power in the book, for with the Holy Qur'an alone, the Muslims were able to conquer the known world and lay the base of a new world order as a sign of what was to come 1400 years later. However, we have to admit that Satan has the better hand over the world that Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) was bringing in for the betterment of all human beings.
How could Allah's Favour be complete while we cannot keep Satan from overrunning the House of Islam?
The Muslim world needs to be guided back to the path that Prophet Muhammad placed it on 1400 years ago. Thirty-two (32) times a day, we say the "Al-Fatihah", asking Allah to guide us to the straight path, though He has already guided us there once. Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) spoke of The Mahdi, because he knew that the time would come when we would need guidance back to the straight path.
The duty of The Mahdi is to guide a people who have lost their way. Not only are we in North America lost, but the people who first received Divine Favour through the revelation of the Holy Qur'an are lost. They, too, are looking for The Mahdi.
Who is The Mahdi? He is a man, a human being, yet in Him is the Guidance, Knowledge, Wisdom and Power to bring religion back to its right state; to destroy the enemies of the True Path of God; and to lay the base for the Kingdom of Islam, which Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) was appointed to give a sign of.
The very ritual of Hajj is a sign of what the world will be like in totality when The Mahdi establishes the Kingdom of Islam. In that day, there will be no racism to corrupt the Spirit of Islam. There will be no sexism, there will be no materialism and there will be no nationalism. All of the corrupters of the True Spirit of Islam will be completely destroyed.
The Holy Qur'an, in its application, is preparation to live in the Hereafter. The "Hereafter" is here, on Earth, after the destruction of the power of the wicked to interfere with the establishment of the Kingdom of Islam. In that new world, there will be no need for a law that punishes adultery, homosexuality, rape, murder, theft or any offense, because there will be no lawbreakers.
The Holy Qur'an teaches that in the Hereafter, there will be "no vain discourse", only peace. This implies a place where there is only righteousness and complete submission to the Will of Allah, for there is no peace without submission to His Will.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that Islam as we know it will not be in the Hereafter. The principles will remain, but there will be a totally new knowledge. He said that the hereafter is a continuation of this life on the highest plane of existence. It is the life we knew before the Fall of Adam. The One who brings about this Reality is not a prophet, He is the Manifestation of God.
We know that flesh and blood is finite, therefore we cannot worship it; we also know that flesh contains wisdom that can live far beyond the container. According to the Bible, when the body of Prophet Elisha was set down in a grave, the bones of a long-dead soul began to move. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad asked me, "Do you know what that means, Brother?" I answered, "No, Sir." He explained, "It means he ruled the hearts and minds of men from beyond the grave." Can anyone say, with truth, that Prophet Muhammad is dead? The grave holds his remains, but he rules the hearts and minds of men from beyond the grave.
The Wisdom that The Mahdi brings has no time limit on it. It is Eternal. The Holy Qur'an is not eternal; it carries us to the door of the Hereafter, but does not admit us in. The Holy Qur'an bears witness of its own limitation, "Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it entered the hearts of men to conceive of what lies ahead."
The Holy Qur'an cannot and does not give us that Guidance. The Mahdi brings that Guidance with Him. He raises a Messenger and gives him Knowledge, Wisdom and the True Interpretation of the Book that will confer Power to overcome the polytheists, no matter who is averse. All Praise is due to Allah.
We are commanded, in the Bible, not to bow down to images or make images of God. How is it possible to make an image of God? When we worship the flesh of a person, which is finite, we are making an image of God. The flesh is the clothing that the Earth puts on the Spirit as the Spirit moves through Eternity. The Earth itself will abide until Allah makes a new one.
In Surah 19 of the Holy Qur'an, we read of the Spirit of Allah (God) embodied in flesh, appearing to Mary, inspiring Mary to produce a child called the "Messiah": Then We sent to her Our Spirit and it appeared to her as a well-made man." (19:17)
Is this not what Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) saw in the cave of Hirah? He heard a voice commanding him, "Read.", but there was no book! He said, "I cannot read." The voice spoke again, "Read." The words commanding him to read were a sign of the book that was coming. Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) looked in four directions and saw the form of a man. He recognized the form to be Jabril, the Messenger of Allah (God). And though it was Jabril who brought the Message, Muhammad never referred to himself as the Messenger of Jabril--he referred to himself as the Messenger of Allah.
Once a man dressed in white came to Muhammad asking questions about religion. When Muhamad answered the questions correctly, the man walked away. Muhammad turned to his companions and asked, "Do you know who that was? That was Jabril." Jabril was a man who walked and talked and sat, but he was also a man who carried a Message direct from the Lord of the worlds.
It is within this context that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad speaks of Master Fard Muhammad, The Great Mahdi. Master Fard Muhammad is a man born of a woman; a man who studies and prays. He is a man with Divine Wisdom, Divine Power and Divine Guidance.
Every man is born of a woman, but the Spirit of Allah (God) is Everlasting to Everlasting, and the flesh and blood man who receives the Spirit is the Chosen One-- The Anointed One.
Master Fard Muhammad, The Great Mahdi, came to North America by Himself. He is a Master with the Knowledge and Understanding of the root of this world. His Knowledge enables Him to uproot this world and begin a new one. His complete understanding of our illness and the illness of the entire human family enabled Him to design a medicine to heal us. Master Fard Muhammad is the Conduit through Whom the Message from the Lord of the worlds came to us. He is Alive and has Absolute Power to bring His Will into fruition because His Will is in complete harmony with the Eternal Will of the Originator of the Heavens and the Earth.
If Master Fard Muhammad is so Powerful, why does He pray? He would not have such Power if He did not pray. Through His prayer, He draws from the Power and Creation of The Originator at the point of its origination.
In the only picture we have of Master Fard Muhammad, we see Him reading. He gave the Honorable Elijah Muhammad an Arabic Qur'an and said, "Read." The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, "I can't." Master Fard Muhammad then said, "When you can read Arabic, I will give you a Qur'an written by My own hand."
Allah came to us in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad. Before Him, all we knew of Allah was His Mercy, which we could see in His Creation, but had never experienced in our lives. Allah, in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, intervened in our lives. After the Coming of the Saviour, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad never said, "I am the Messenger of Master Fard Muhammad." He said, "I am the Messenger of Allah."
May Allah bless each of you with the light of understanding.
As-Salaam Alaikum
I Am your Brother and Servant.
Louis Farrakhan
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan Servant to the Lost Found Nation of Islam in the West
This message was delivered by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan at Christ Universal Temple, Chicago, Illinois on February 24, 1991.
In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His Messenger.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, for 44 years, taught us that God is not a mystery. He is not a spirit, He is not a spook, God is real. He is a real live human being, differing from you and me only in that he is Supreme in Knowledge, Wisdom, Understanding and Power. This is what The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us.
Of course, this upset the Muslim world and it upset many of our Christian brothers and sisters: that a Black man, born in America, born in Georgia, said that he met with God and God taught him night and day for three and one-half years. He then went away and left him here with a Mission to raise the Black man and woman of America up from the grave of mental death and ignorance.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was laughed at, mocked, scorned and ridiculed----but not by white people. They did not laugh at him, they knew better. When war broke out in 1941, the President of the United States (Franklin Roosevelt) had the Honorable Elijah Muhammad taken off of he streets because they did not want a Black man teaching Black people the proper use of themselves. America wanted to use our bodies to prosecute a war that was not in our interests, even as President Bush is using the bodies of Black boys and girls to prosecute a war that is not in our best interests.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad made may ministers and sent them into the cities of America. He produced the most disciplined, organized and progressive group of Black people ever to be seen in the Western Hemisphere, yet he only had a fourth grade education. He taught Malcolm X, who had an eighth grade education. With the Teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X confounded the scholars of the world.
Cassius Clay was just another great fighter until he met with and was taught by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Then he burst onto the scene as Muhammad Ali. He was one of the greatest fighters that ever lived, but he was a different kind of fighter; he had a message in his mind and heart. He stood for a principle. He fought the government of the United States against the war in Vietnam, and he prevailed. Even though he was stripped of his title, he came back to win the championship two more times.
My point is, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad had to know something to teach what he taught, to do what he did, to live in America when Black men lost their lives for just thinking what he was bold enough to speak.
Louis Farrakhan is known throughout the Earth and is honored and respected in many circles of our people, but I was just a common musician. I never graduated from college, but the Honorable Elijah Muhammad took me from there and taught me.
He is not an ordinary man, but an extraordinary man. How do you know? Wisdom is known of its children. If you are wise, you do not produce a fool. I am the child of my father, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. I know no other father but him. My biological father died when I was quite young and even before he died, I did not know him.
When I met the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, I met my father. He fathered me in knowledge, wisdom and understanding. He brought out of me what The Creator had put in me for the service of my people. If I am anything of value today, it is because I had a good father, a good example and a good teacher. And so I stand before the world today, to challenge the scholarship of the world on the most important of all subjects: "WHO IS GOD?"
We all talk about Him, certainly we love Him and we bear witness that He is the Greatest. We live in His Universe. There is nothing to compare with it, so there is nothing to compare with Him. But Who is He? We want to know our Creator, we want to know God.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad stated on the back page of our newspaper (then "Muhammad Speaks", now "The Final Call") in Point Number 12 of "What the Muslims Believe":
12. We believe that Allah (God) appeared in the Person of Master W. Fard Muhammad, July, 1930; the long-awaited "Messiah" of the Christians and the "Mahdi" of the Muslims. We believe further and lastly that Allah is God and besides HIM there is no God and He will bring about a universal government of peace wherein we all can live in peace together."
Many of the scholars of Islam have said to me, "Brother Farrakhan, why don't you take that off of the back page?" Many of my Muslim brothers and sisters who love Allah and love Prophet Muhammad and love the Holy Qur'an, find this unIslamic. They say, "Take it away, because Allah has never appeared in the form of any man". They say Allah is not a man, but they cannot tell us what He is.
The Scholars of the world of religion-- Jews, Christians, Muslims, whatever your religious persuasion may be-- we have to know today Who God is that we not make a mistake and serve other than Him.
The Bible teaches us that God made man in His own image and His own likeness. It teaches us that He breathes, sorrows, sees and hears, loves and hates. The stench of wickedness reaches His nostrils. The Bible teaches us that Abraham met Him in the plains of Mamre. Three men came to Abraham and the Bible declares that one of them was the Lord. Sarah came out of her tent and said, "Lord, if I found favour, pass not away. Lord, if you are hungry, I will feed you. Sit down, Lord, it you are tired." How can you feed a spirit? How can you sit down if you have nothing to sit down on? I am not finished with the Bible. It says that Enoch walked with God. Moses walked with Him and spoke with Him face to face as a man speaketh to his friend. All throughout the Bible, we are taught of a man, not some spook or formless spirit.
What about the Holy Qur'an? The Holy Qur'an uses the personal pronoun "I". The "I" belongs to whom? It uses the soft pronoun "We". Does God have associates? Does He have partners? Why say "We"? God Himself revealed the book and knows best the language. Why did He use the language of a human being?
Who is God? The Attributes in the Holy Qur'an are not the Attributes of a Spirit, they are the Attributes of man in whom the Spirit dwells. Allah is the Beneficent, the Merciful, the Powerful, the Life-Giver, the Sustainer, the Securer, the Destroyer.
I shall never take that point from the back page of the newspaper, regardless to how many scholars don't like it. I visited Mecca and sat with the scholars. This (Point Number 12) was the main issue we wrangled over. When we finished, the scholars shut their mouths. They never had heard an exposition like that. What I gave to them, I am giving to you. Mecca could not defeat the argument I presented, though I am born in America and have never been taught in any Islamic school by scholars or scientists. I was taught by the unlearned one, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
Look at "Point Number 12" of "What the Muslims Believe". Why did the Honorable Elijah Muhammad make it Number 12? Why not Number 10 or Number 11? Why did he have the word "Messiah" in quotes and bold? What is "Messiah"? Who is "Messiah"? Why did He have the word "Mahdi" in quotes and bold? What is "Mahdi"? Who is "Mahdi"?
The word "Messiah" is well-known to Christians and Jews. The word "Mahdi" is well-known to Muslims. Why did he us those words? When you place quotations marks around a word, you sometimes do that to draw particular attention to that word. If you italicize it or make it bold, you want it to stand out because you are trying to suggest something to the reader. The world is looking for the return of Jesus Christ. The Jews are looking for the "Messiah" and the Muslim world awaits the appearance of the "Mahdi". They are all looking for a man.
If the "Messiah" comes, are you looking for a spirit to come out of a closet? You are looking for a man. If Jesus Christ is to return, you are looking for the return of a man if flesh and blood. If you are looking for the "Mahdi", you are looking for the coming of a man. What kind of man is He? He is an extraordinary man, but he is a man.
Why should "Mahdi" and "Messiah" come in the form of a man? It is because man and woman have been degraded. Man and woman have become beasts in human form. Man and woman have degenerated. Man and woman have fallen. You don't know the resurrected man, the elevated man, the man made in the likeness of God, the Original man. You do not know yourself, therefore, you have to become acquainted with yourself. God sends One to you in your own form, but Mighty in Power and Wisdom; One who not only carries Light, but is the Light.
The Bible reads, in the Book of Revelations, "But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished." (10:7)
"Mystery" means "that which is unknown". The Bible also declares, "God will come." Where has He been? The Holy Qur'an speaks of the "days of Allah". Where has Allah been for all the other days? Isn't every day His? Why is there a specific and particular reference to "days" of God?
Beloved Muslims, Surah (or Chapter) 3 of the Holy Qur'an is called "Al 'Imran": "The Family of Amran". In Verse 6 of Surah 3, Allah reveals to us the rules of interpretation for His book. Every person who has some degree of love and scholarship will want to read the Bible and the Holy Qur'an and will try to interpret such magnificent books. Allah (God) does not want you to be one to mislead yourself or mislead the people, so He gives us rules governing the interpretation of His Word:
"He it is Who has revealed the Book to thee; some of its verses are decisive --- they are the basis of the Book --- and others are allegorical. Then those in whose hearts is perversity follow the part of it which is allegorical, seeking to mislead, and seeking to give it (their own interpretation). And none knows its interpretation save Allah. And those firmly rooted in knowledge {They say:} We believe in it, it is all from our Lord. And none mind except men of understanding."
Allah (God) does not want us to give His Word our own interpretation. We who study the word have to restrain ourselves from trying to give His Word our own interpretation. Why?
It takes more than just going to theology school to interpret the Word of God. To interpret God's Word, you have to get up into His Mind and you cannot get there, except by His Permission. You cannot play Beethoven well if you do not study Beethoven. Before attempting to play Beethoven's Fifth Symphony", it would be wise to study the man who wrote it. When you study the composer, you study the condition he was in when he wrote. You become one with his mind, one with his spirit, every nuance in it; you can feel it and then you can make Beethoven live, even though Beethoven is dead.
You cannot interpret the Wisdom of God until God brings you into oneness with Him. Only then will you begin to know Him in a hint; know Him in a sign; but how many of us are like that? Of course, the vain among us will think and say, "I am" and the foolish among us will say, "Me, too." But "fools rush in where wise men fear to tread" and interpreting the Word of God is a fool's paradise. A wise man will step back from that because it is dangerous to play with God or with His Word. To deceive people and mislead people in the Name of God is a dangerous thing to do.
After Allah (God) gives us rules for interpretation, He says, "And none knows its interpretation save Allah." Allah is the Only One Who knows the hidden meaning of His own Word. {The scholar says} "those firmly rooted in knowledge say, 'We believe in it, it is all from our Lord.' And non mind except men of understanding."
When I was in Mecca, the scholars, in their closing statement to me, said, "Brother Farrakhan, when you get sick, you go to a doctor. You do not tell the doctor what is wrong with you, you ask the doctor to tell you what is wrong. When you are not knowledgeable, you come to the scholars and ask the scholars, that they may teach you." And I responded, "Who are the scholars?... The doctors don't live any longer than their patients. I cannot trust the doctors' advice. It appears to me the scholars of religion are the ones who have ruined the world of religion. It seems to me, from my understanding of the Book---and you must bear with me, because I am just a child in this, but I am not a foolish child":
"Satan said to Allah, 'Because you have caused me to remain disappointed, I am going to come after them (meaning your people) in Your straight path. I will come from before them, behind them, from their left side and from their right side. You will not find most of them thankful. I will make all of them deviate.' Allah said to Satan, 'Whosoever follows you, I will certainly fill hell with you all.' In another place in the Holy Qur'an, Allah says, 'You will get all except my purified ones.'"
I know we all think we are the purified ones. We would not like to believe that Satan has us in his hip pocket right now, with our crosses around our necks and our Bibles in our hands; our crescents and stars on our shoulders and our bow ties or long white robes. We would not like to believe that Satan got us.
I said to the scholars, "Every time the prophet of God came, when that prophet left, Satan came and divided the prophet's community. Is the Muslim community divided? Are you at odds among yourselves? Why, then, should I follow you? Show me the proof of your scholarship." That is the way we left it.
I did not go to Mecca to follow them. I did not go there looking for an agenda; I had one when I left. I had one when I came back. Allah (God) does not want us following anyone today but Him. He does not want us worshipping anyone today but Him. God and God Alone has come to be our Leader, Teacher and Guide. Only those who submit their will entirely to do the Will of God will be successful teachers of the people. Only those who bow down and humble themselves and refrain from trying to make themselves more than they really are would be successful teachers of the people today.
God is setting down all false leaders--- no, not setting them down, hurling them down, throwing them down. Everybody you want to worship as a god beside Him--- He will destroy them to show you that none today is worthy of worship but God. That brings us back to the question, Who is He?
He answered the question in "Point Number 12". Earlier I asked, "Why 'Point Number 12?'" It is a very significant number. We have twelve (12) signs in the Universe. There are twelve (12) inches on a ruler and the ruler enables us to draw a straight line. We want to go straight today. We have been crooked so long, but we cannot go straight until we have a ruler that will give us a straight line to follow.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad chose "Point Number 12" to introduce the New Ruler. The white man is not going to be a permanent ruler. He will be set down by God. All of the rulers of the world are to be set down. Isn't that what your Bible teaches? Why put your trust in Bush? Don't put your trust in Saddam Hussein. Don't put your trust in King Fahd. Don't put your trust in Don Xi Ping.
You had better look for the New Ruler and make a straight way to Him, because all the others are going to be set down. In fact, America is boasting now---you notice how chesty she's become. America says, "In just a matter of days, we'll knock off Saddam and we are going to set up a New World Order." Not you, Mr. Bush. You are not the one to set up the New World Order; you are so ingrained in the old order and if you do not make a change quickly, you are going out with the old order. But you do not see it. You are just like Pharaoh, proud and arrogant. Your arrogance has blinded you to your own destruction. You have been pulled into something that is bigger than yourself, so be careful, Mr. Bush. It looks easy, doesn't it, Mr. Bush? Keep going---keep going.
"Who do you think you are, Mr. Farrakhan, talking like that to the President of the United States?" I am just one who has met with One bigger than the President of the United States, and if he isn't careful, we will be here, but he don't. "Are you threatening?" No, no, no. I am saying no more than Moses and Aaron said to Pharaoh.
There is another Power on the scene today. I am here today to acquaint you with that New Power, so you don't have to quake when Mr. Bush calls. You can tell him, "I am not answering my phone today." When he calls for you to send your sons and daughters into the (Persian) Gulf, tell him, "Not now. This is not my war." The white man taught us, "thou shall not kill when we were thinking about killing him. "Thou shall not kill" is all right in Mississippi, where we can't kill the lynchers, the burners, the rapers and robbers of our mothers and fathers. Then "thou shall not kill" is fine in Saudi Arabia and Iraq, because Saddam Hussein never called me "nigger".
Saddam Hussein hasn't done anything to me or you and he has not harmed one American. All he did was try to take back what was originally his. President Bush knows he (Bush) was wrong when he said his cause was just and morally right. This is only phase one of a battle of a war that has started, which is the War of Armageddon. The war you see going on in the East will engulf the whole Earth. You will see it--it will not be long-how he loves to bomb the cities.
I want to acquaint you with the New Ruler. A new world is coming, a better world is coming. You have been praying for it, my Christian brothers and sisters: "Thy Kingdom come, They Will be done, on Earth even as it is in Heaven." It is on its way now and Bush is not the head of it. The Messiah, The Mahdi--God is the Head of the new government.
The Holy Qur'an and the Bible are two wonderful and magnificent books. The Bible is the base of the Christian and Jewish world. The Holy Qur'an is the base of the world of Islam. These books are called "scripture". Moses and Jesus brought a 'scripture'. The Holy Qur'an is a 'scripture', although it is called a 'book'.
The word scripture means it is part of a great writing that is bigger than the book. The book is just a part of it revealed by chosen servants of God. They did not write it, they revealed it and there is a difference.
Muhammad had nothing to do with writing the Qur'an and Moses had nothing to do with writing the Torah, nor did Jesus have anything to do with writing the Gospel. These are men to whom God revealed His Word; the Word He revealed to these great men were a part of a big book--written by whom?
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad has pointed out to us the Book of Revelation, Chapter 5. There was a man sitting on a throne-- not a spook, a man. There were twenty-four (24) elders seated around that throne and the twenty-four (24) were lamenting. They were weeping because the one who sat on the throne had a book in his hand, but no one in the heavens or earth was worthy to come and take the book out of his hand.
They were searching for who would come when there came a Lamb as though it had been slain from the foundation of the world. The Lamb took the book out of the hand of him that sat on the throne and opened it. The book had seven seals and he began to break the seals. As he began to loose the seals of the book, the twenty-four (24) began to praise God. The twenty-four (24) then took off their crowns and cast them at the foot of the Lamb, saying,
"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." (5:12)
Who is the Lamb and what kind of book was that he took from him that sat on the throne, when even the twenty-four (24) that attended the throne could not receive? Who are the twenty-four (24) elders found in the Book of Revelation? How do the twenty-four (24) elders square with "Us" in the Bible and "We" in the Holy Qur'an? Who is the "us" and who is the "we"? Since God is One and has no associates or partners, who is "we"?
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that there are twenty-four (24) wise men (scientists) who do the work of producing Bible and Qur'an. He said we make History {or Bible or Qur'an} to equal the circumference of our home (Earth): one year for each mile. So the book that is written contains twenty-five thousand (25,000) years of history written in advance.
There are twelve (12) major scientists and twelve (12) minor scientists. Back to the Number 12 again. Whenever the time comes for a certain part of the writing to be fulfilled, one of the major scientists will speak to someone among the people. He will reveal to that person a part of the writing (scripture) and give him an assignment or mission. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that He Who rules that cycle of History is called"The Supreme Being". "Supreme" means "highest"; "being" means "that which is".
Anything that exists, exists in one of three stages: liquid, solid or gas. We do not see God as liquid and we do not see Him as gas. Some of the old writers called Him, "The Rock of Ages". You can stand on Him, depend upon Him. He is solid. If He is solid, He must be animate or inanimate. We do not look at God as an inanimate object. We see Him full of life and spirit: A Life-Giver. We have to say He is animate. "Animate" means He is either animal, plant or human. We do not speak of God as a plant, even though some describe Him as the "Rose of Sharon" and the "Lilly of the valley". We do not speak of God as vegetable, but we do speak of Him in terms of the animal kingdom.
In the animal kingdom, we have the lowest form and the highest manifestation. The highest manifestation in the animal kingdom is man or woman, male and female. Why is God a "he"? Why can't God be "she"?
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that before the making of Moon, we used to write history every thirty-five thousand (35,000) years, for the Moon at that time was a part of the Earth. Those who sent their contraption up to the Moon brought back samples of rock and they smelled an odor that smelled like gunpowder.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that the Earth and the Moon was once one planet; but, one of our scientists wanted the entire planet to speak the same dialect. He could not enforce his will, so he drilled a shaft into the part of Earth then called Moon; filled it with high explosives and set if off. It proved to be a great test of wisdom, for the part called Moon was shot out twelve thousand (12,000) miles into space and fell thirty-six thousand (36,000) miles from its original pocket. As it was turning over, all the water on Moon fell to this part of Earth.
We now have an Earth that is three-quarters (3/4) water and one-quarter (1/4) land, and a Moon with craters that once held water. There is no water on the Moon but the Moon is constantly trying to get back what it lost, so it pulls on the waters of the Earth. The woman's cycle is like the Moon. We will get to this in a second; I want to talk about the woman.
Brothers and sisters, this may sound strange to you, but the Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that it has been sixty-six trillion (66,000,000,000,000) years since the knowledge of God was made known to the public. Before that, the public knew God and knew the Reality of God. But since that time, God hid His Face from humanity and has remained a secret. It is the most carefully guarded of all secrets: The Knowledge of God. Why would God hide Himself from human beings?
Long before there was a white man on this Earth, we had problems with ourselves. I do not want you to think the white man is the source of all of our problems. The source of all our problems is a problem within Self. The problem within Self is the negative side of the original life and it became manifest when one of our own scientists became frustrated that he could not force his will on the people and decided to destroy the whole human family. It was then that God hid Himself from man until the proper time. The scripture says, "in the fullness of time, He came." The scripture says, "After the workings of Satan, God comes."
There is a problem in us, original people, and God would not come and show Himself and make Himself manifest until everything in us was fully exposed to us. Then, when we are fully exposed and all of our weaknesses made manifest, the human being could be perfected. Only then can you make a perfect human being. In the scriptures, Jesus says, "Be ye perfect as I am perfect." But there was no perfection until the Coming of this Person that the Bible calls Jesus and the Qur'an calls Muhammad. Allah says, in the Holy Qur'an,
"This day have I perfected for you your religion" {your nature, your being}" and I have chosen for you Islam as your religion."
The Muslims say to the Christians, "If you don't accept Islam, we are through with you, because the Qur'an says you have to accept Islam." Muslims, it means that all of us must accept religion, not in name, but we must all bow down and submit our will to do the Will of God, or we will never be accepted by God. You and I are not equal to God; we don't know what He knows, therefore He demands of us obedience.
Dear brothers and sisters, the Muslims and Christians have been at odds with each other over Jesus and the concept of God. We want to try and straighten all of this out with the Help of God.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that God Himself is not begotten. The Christians say, "God had a son from a virgin." Don't be angry with me. This is our teaching, but do we understand it? Virgins do not conceive. If a virgin conceives, she is no longer a virgin.
But the scriptures say, "And a virgin shall conceive." How did she conceive? The scriptures say, "The Holy Ghost came upon her." It uses the word, "upon". Who is the Holy Ghost? Your daughter better not come home to you and tell you she was walking by the church and a ghost came out and that is why she is pregnant, some body caused it. You don't say something caused it, you say somebody, because in order to create life there must be the germ and the sperm of life. The sperm of life is always carried in the male.
God, in the beginning, allowed everything to create after its own kind. If a ghost had a baby, the baby would have to be a ghost. Since the baby was a human being of flesh and blood, and the mother carried it in the womb, with fainting and pain for nine months, you have to bear witness there was a father there, It is written in your Bible, but very subtly:
"Concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of Holiness" {Romans 1: 2,3}
Joseph was of the lineage of David. Any father can produce flesh and blood, but only God can make a prophet. Only God can father the mind into the spirit of righteousness. No earthly father can give you that. No earthly father can pass that on; that comes from your growth into the Mind, Wisdom and Will of God. Jesus is called the "Son of God", but not because God was in Palestine getting little virgin girls pregnant. Reverend, that is the wrong way to understand the scriptures.
The Jews knew Jesus and the Jews asked, "Is this the carpenter's son?" God is not a carpenter. He is the Master Builder. They said to Jesus, "We are not born of fornication." There were some extenuating circumstances around the birth of Jesus, like there are extenuating circumstances around most of our births. The Bible says, "Can any good come out of Nazareth?" The world is asking today, "Can anything good come up out of Black people?" The world is going to be shocked when it finds out what is coming up out of this Nazareth. I am trying to keep these points tied together.
I want to go back to God being "not begotten." The Holy Qur'an says, "He begets not, nor is He begotten." The Muslims say this is why God could never be a human being, because all human beings are "begotten".
I want you to follow this very carefully. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that before there was a sun, moon and star, before there was light, God was Self-Created. God created Himself out of the material of darkness. Before there was anything there was darkness, but it was a substantive darkness. What we see at night is not real darkness--it is called the absence of light because we are just in the shadow of the Earth. We live in a Universe of Light, where once there was total darkness. But matter was in the darkness. Even though matter was in the darkness, it is considered nothing, because it was without aim and purpose, Anything without aim and purpose is considered nothing.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that electricity is the most mysterious force because no one knows its origin. When you have electricity and matter in the darkness, you can produce the first germ of life. Whatever happened with electricity and matter, the first atom of life sparked in the darkness. There is intelligence in the life-germ. Our own beginning bears witness to the beginning of the Universe. The very secret of how the Universe began is wrapped up in how you and I began.
You don't know the Universe, because you don't know God, because you don't know yourself.
Look at the sperm. There is intelligence in the sperm; it knows exactly what it want to do: it goes straight for the egg; that is intelligence. The sperm does not have a brain, but it has a head and a tail. When the sperm makes contact, it's the first cell of life. That cell starts looking for a firm resting place, then it builds a clot. There is intelligence in that clot. Then the cells produce brain. That's the firs thing formed in the new life. Without a head, you don't need arms. The thing that is going to direct the arms has to be first. It is the head that calls the arms and feet into existence.
This is why the white man works to destroy your leaders. Without a head, you cannot call a body into existence. That is why you are always without organization: you never have leadership. Your leadership comes up and when they spot it as good leadership, they wipe it out.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that God had to develop brain in order to think through darkness. It took pain and eons of time for God to build Himself up in the darkness. He was Light of Himself and had Light in Himself. Since the basis of His Life is electricity, He had Light in Himself. From His own Brain, He envisioned Sun and then called it into existence.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said Allah formed Himself--not from a mother, but out of the dark womb of space. Space and the darkness of it became His womb and He came out of that darkness.
Then, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said before there was Sun, there was a Woman. Allah came out of the womb of darkness with a womb within Himself. Every man has a woman in him. If you notice, the male has the X and Y chromosome, which has the male and female part. The female has the X chromosome. As Allah came out of that womb--the Holy Qur'an calls it "triple darkness"--He had a womb within Himself. He studied Himself and from Himself He fashioned Woman. She is His First Act of Creation.
This is why you don't understand the woman and you cannot deal with a woman; you think she is a man's woman. She is the Woman of God.
Women are fascinated with men who are doing things; men who are going places; because they are born from a God Who did things. Women do not like to be saddled down with a man who is going nowhere and doing nothing and is without an aim and a purpose.
The Holy Qur'an teaches, "From a single essence, He created the male and the female and from them, many men and women." The "single essence" is God Himself. You are born out of the very Nature of God.
The woman is made after the womb out of which God created Himself, and in the woman is the Secret of God.
The reason you are far away from God is because of your attitude toward women. You will never find God and you will never grow to honor God, as long as you are a mistreater and disrespecter of women. The woman is the secret and she contains the secret. In the Bible, Sampson put it in crude language, saying, "If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have learned the secret of my riddle." The riddle has been with God, but the secret of the riddle is in woman, and unless and until we become better acquainted with who she is, you may never see who you are.
In the 12th Chapter of the Book of Revelation, there is an extraordinary woman:
"And there appeared a great wonder in heaven -- a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." (12:1)
John the Revelator saw her running in the wilderness; he saw the dragon standing before the woman as she was about to give birth to a man-child---a child who would rule the nations with a rod of iron. But the dragon stood ready to devour the baby as soon as it was born.
In the Gospels, King Herod stood ready to devour Jesus as soon as he was born, forcing Jesus' mother, Mary, to flee with her baby out of Palestine into Egypt, Africa. The mother of Jesus was an African woman. I don't know why you are looking for a white Jesus when his mother was an African woman. The Bible describes Jesus as having "hair like lamb's wool" and "feet like brass burned in an oven". You are looking for the wrong Jesus.
There are three (3) points I would like to make and the first point is that God made Himself up out of matter, so He is material, yet spiritual. Allah (God) says in the Holy Qur'an, "I give life and I cause death." God Himself set up the Law of Life and Death. How, then, did He escape the law He set up for everything? He is called the "Ever-Living"; no death comes to God. How could that be?
You who are electricians, you put copper wire in as a transmitter of current, or electricity. The current is greater than that which is transmitting it. The copper can wear out. When the copper wears out, the electricity is suspended until you get another transmitter to transmit that current.
God conveys His Spirit in the human form. This is the best form. There is no form better that the human form. It is not perfect, but its is a good conveyer of the Spirit of God.
This Universe is material, but the essence of the Universe is spiritual. The core of the Sun is not fire; the core of the Sun is the thought projected by the Will of God which forms the Sun. When you look at the Sun and are warmed by the Sun; that is a blessing. But to understand why God made Sun, you have to go into the Mind of God, for His Mind is at the core of what He created. But if you do not pierce the veil of the physical, you will never find the essence.
This is why we don't know each other until we are gone. You did not know Dr. Martin Luther King or the Honorable Marcus Garvey until they were gone. You didn't know Jesus until he was gone. Why? The physical is a veil that covers the essence of the person, but when the veil is taken away, you can come to grips with the essence of what makes that person who and what he is.
I am not Louis, that is the name my mother gave me. I am a vessel. I was not made by my mother, I came through my mother. My origination is God. You know what I look like, but you don't know me. I know what you look like, but I don't know you. In order to know me, you have to look beyond the way I am fashioned. You have to look into me and when you look into me, you will find the same that is in you and that is God.
He is called the "Ever-Living", Who never dies. The body goes back to the Earth, but God never dies. There is always another form coming up that will allow Him to transmit His Knowledge, Wisdom and Power through that physical form. He is not a spook or a spirit; He looks like you and me. But we are not allowed to have His picture and Moses taught that we should not make any images or statues of God. Why? Because the image will change, but the Wisdom of God will never change.
So you must never have a picture of God, because the body will only last so long, but God is Forever. Don't make any images or statues and don't bow down to any image, because no image or likeness of God is worthy to be worshipped-- not the flesh, because the flesh is finite. The flesh is not God, but it is of God. God can dwell in this house. Don't get excited, Muslims; the Ka'bah at Mecca is made of stone and it is called the House of God, but God doesn't live there. You call Christ Universal Temple the House of God, but God doesn't live here. The human body is God's House.
Allah (God) can dwell in you, if you will open up and let Him come in. If you will let His Wisdom come in, then act on that Wisdom and grow into Knowledge, Wisdom and Understanding until you are able to exercise Power in His Name, that is God walking in you, God talking through you, God living in you; then there is nothing in existence but God.
Where, then, did the Devil come from? If God created everything, did He create the Devil? Since nothing has been in existence except what God brought into existence, where did the Devil come from? God brought the Devil into existence!" You say, "I can't see a Good God bringing a devil into existence!" You re being emotional. God knows more than you.
Why did God let it happen? Let's question Him; He can speak. "God, why did you make a devil?" Ask Him, He will tell you. You want to know, "Why are You letting this man drop bombs and kill so many people and do all these things? Don't You have power to stop this?" He says, "Yes, I do. But I am working out your Salvation. The Devil is part of your Salvation."
Are you surprised? You will remember that I spoke about the original scientist who tried to blow up the planet Earth. That is the way white people think right now. Those who are in power---if they are unable to stay in power-- will kill everybody. Why would they have enough atomic weapons to kill every person on Earth a hundred times over? It is because they are thinking, "If I am going to be taken out of power, I am going to take everybody out of here." They won't be able to do it, but that's their thinking. Some of you are like that.
Some of you become possessed with power. Some of you get possessed of a man or a woman. "If I can't have him, I ain't gonna let nobody get him. I'll kill him first." Or, "She ain't leaving me. I will kill her, then kill myself." What makes you like that? What drives you like that?
You become frustrated and disappointed and in that disappointment, you don't handle it well. It drives you to insanity, then you want to kill somebody. That's how a devil is made. It starts with a wrong thought coming up in your brain. God took the wrong thing in the original Man and gave it form and expression and power to rule. "Oh, Brother Farrakhan, I can't believe that." Then open the Holy Qur'an.
Allah says, in the second chapter, "I am going to place a ruler in the Earth", and the angels say, "What will you place in it, except that which will create mischief and cause the shedding of blood?" Allah said, "I know what you know not."
Some scholars take the writing and say that God is going to place a temporary God into power, but one that will create mischief and cause the shedding of blood. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that it represents the Caucasian rulership. It has been a mischiefmaking rulership that has shed the blood of every member of the human family. It has destroyed not only human life, but animal, plant, sea and all life. He is called the blood-shedder in the Book of Revelation, but God gave him that right. For what purpose? So you could see all that is in yourselves. You are your own worst enemy.
Did you know that the Caucasian only brought out of us what was in us? You cannot say the Caucasian made you a homosexual. He brought out of you what was in you. All of the trouble we are in, that is the trouble that was in us and he drew it out with his contrary way of civilization. We have a problem and that problem means we have to be saved.
That is why Jesus is so important in the Bible; because he is born to save the people from their sins. He is born of a woman; a virgin.
Let us return to Revelation 12 -- a woman clothed in the Sun. It could mean that she is pregnant, but it could also mean that she is wrapped in Divine Light. She has twelve (12) stars in her crown. It could mean that the twelve (12) major scientists have approved of this woman being in heaven. Standing on the Moon means that she is standing on the word of the prophets. A woman would come forward, and through that woman a child would be born and that child would be Messiah; that child would be Mahdi. That child would manifest the Presence of God coming from a woman. That woman is styled in the Holy Qur'an as Maryam, or Mary.
The Holy Qur'an says of Mary, she was honored "above all women". A whole surah (chapter) is given in honor of her name. Not the mother of Prophet Muhammad, not the mother of Abraham, not the mother of David, but the mother of Jesus. Sisters, Mary is a prototype of you. If you look at the "Marys" that were around Jesus when he went to the cross, there were six (6) women around him. The women never failed Jesus, but all the men except John walked out on Jesus. When he went to the cross, women ministered to him all the way.
What is there in a woman when she knows and recognizes a man of God? That woman will move heaven or hell to back that man of God. What is it in woman that makes her so faithful? What is it in men that makes them so fickle?
Brothers, as men, we are creatures of power. God put it in our essence that we demand power and rule. Even when there is another man exercising power, we will walk with that man, but sometimes with the mindset, "I am better than he is, if I could just overthrow him, I'll be the one." You don't ever read of women walking with divine men plotting to overthrow them. When they recognize God in the man, they have found what they are looking for and they walk with God in that man. But a man wants to be on the same level with another man, therefore he will betray you. He will undermine, plot and scheme on you.
The disciples of Jesus argued among themselves about who would be uppermost in the Kingdom: "Will I sit at the right? Will I sit at the left?" The women said nothing. All they wanted to know was where the Master walked.
There were several named Mary who walked with him. Each one of those Marys is a "type" of you (Black woman). There was a Mary who was a "low-life" woman and there are some like that in here. But when you meet Jesus, like that Mary met the Master, she came up out of that low life and walked with that Divine man. There was Mary, his mother, a holy woman, and there are some of you like that in this audience. Every one of those Marys is a type of the different qualities and characteristics in women. The woman is the key to a new world order. The woman is the Key to the Kingdom of God.
The whole world is looking for Jesus, the Messiah and the Muslim world is looking for the Mahdi. Where will they show up?
Beloved, Master Fard Muhammad was born February 26, 1877 in the Holy City of Mecca. His father was one of the twelve (12) majors scientists and His mother was a woman from the Caucasus mountains. He was a specially made man to go after the lost sheep. The lost sheep were Black people lost among white people.
To all white people who are listening via satellite and who may be here in this audience, you must be made to understand your nature. You are made from the opposite side of God to manifest what is in all of us. You were to serve a Divine Purpose. Now that purpose which the evil in white people was to serve is over, because the evil in them manifested fully the range of evil in us.
Jesus said you cannot put new wine in an old wine skin, lest the skin break and the wine spill out. You cannot put the Wisdom that God wants to put in you until you undergo something that will make you a perfected vessel for His Glory.
Master Fard Muhammad had to have a color that would allow Him to get in among white people and not be discovered. The scripture says He came "as a thief in the night". He came "without observation". He came "in sinful flesh to condemn sin in the flesh". His mother was a Caucasian woman. Why a white woman? Now, don't you Black men get crazy and run out of here and get a white woman; the purpose has already been fulfilled.
You remember the story of Jesus casting seven (7) devils out of a Woman. This was a "wonder in heaven", this woman from the Caucasus mountains. She was approved by the scientists to give birth to a son. The father would anoint the son, but the son would grow to be greater than the one who anointed him. The father would send the son, but the son would be greater than the one that sent him.
Master Fard Muhammad was born with the capacity to understand the mysteries of the Universe. How is He born to understand the mysteries of the Universe? He was called into existence by The Originator. When The Originator wanted to perfect His Universe, its perfection had to wait until one was born with a perfect knowledge of how to perfect the imperfect.
This young child was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. He grew in Wisdom and Power. At the age of six (6), He saw Himself pushing the Fords, the DuPonts and the Rockefellers into a lake of fire. At six (6) years of age, He came into the Knowledge of Who He was.
Today, they start your little children in school at six (6), but if you train them right from the cradle, at six (6) they will know exactly what they are born to do. You train your children all wrong, feeding them lies instead of Truth. Feeding them foolish fairy tales, making them think bunnies talk; that rats and pigs and wolves talk. You are killing your babies' minds with fairy tales. Feed your baby on truth and one day your baby will become a Master of Truth.
We are not born into the Brain of God, we are born into the Mind of God. Mind is not brain and brain is not mind. Brain is the source of mind. Brain is the root of mind. Brain is the repository of electrical energy. Brain is a transmitter and a receiver. If it receives right, it will transmit right. What you see out here is not the Brain of God. You are born into God's Mind. Everything you see came out of His Mind, therefore, if you feed on His Mind you can grow into His Mind.
In the Holy Qur'an, the name given to the temporary ruler, called Adam, is "Khalif". The word "Khalif" means "he who supplies the place of another who has perished or died. The successor to and the deputy of." Man is the deputy of God.
Does God die? Only the physical. When the physical goes, another one stands and the Wisdom comes right through that one; that one is deputized to carry out the Wisdom of the Originator. The Will of the Originator is carried out by men who live and die. You don't know their names. You don't know their faces. Their names and faces are irrelevant. There is only one Do-er in this Universe and that is God. He is the Only Reality. There is no other Reality but God.
You say, "Satan is a reality." Yes, but it is God acting through the left side. The scriptures say that God has a right hand, but He also has a left hand. Satan is a left-handed expression. He is the negative side of the original nature. He is the misuse of power, knowledge, sex, water, air and fire. He uses power from God on the negative side. God's Coming is after the workings of Satan. This child born in Mecca was born to overturn Satan's world. He was born to destroy it. He was born to discover it at the foundation, expose it and uproot it, leaving neither root nor branch. He was born of woman, but born to rule:
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government of peace there shall be not end." (Isaiah 9:6,7)
How is He going to make Himself manifest? He grows and He becomes the Power. He knows how to destroy. He knows how to govern creation. He can give life and cause death. He is Beneficent and Merciful, but He is a human being.
The scriptures say He came "without observation". In Habakkuk, it reads, "God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran." (3:3) Mount Paran is in Arabia. Teman is in Arabia. "Teman" is a man from man. Teman was one of the sons of Adah. So if He came from Teman, one of the sons of Adah, then He is the son of a man. Any your Bible reads, "And the Son of Man will come." Not son of spirit, the Son of man.
"For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For wherever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together." (Matthew 24:27,28)
The symbol of America is the eagle. She has flown higher than any other bird. She has ascended above the clouds yet the scriptures say "I will bring you down to the sides of the pit to hell." This enemy has become more powerful than any other nation on the Earth in the annals of the last six thousand (6,000) years of history. She is powerful. How did she become powerful? She killed off the Native Americans; she brought our fathers out of Africa and robbed us totally of the knowledge of self. She sold the people of God---not for a decade, not for a century, but for four centuries. God said, "I, even I, will search the Earth for my sheep that is lost and I will bring my sheep again." Here we are, the lost people, the lost sheep, the lost tribe. Lost in America, lost in the way of white people.
All in Adam died and we died in the way of white people. You are not a living Black man and woman, you are considered a dead Black man and a dead Black woman. You are no longer what you once were and you need to be raised to life. But who can give you life? He said, 'I am the Resurrection and the life. If you believe in me, even though you are dead, yet shall you live'---I am a human being. I am the 'Light of the world' -- I am a human being. I am the 'Good Shepherd' --- a human being. I am the 'Bread of Life'-- a human being.
Messiah, Mahdi -- He came to North America by Himself. He had no associates. He came alone. He came to seek and to save what was lost. He found one man among us. He was like a ghost. People saw him but did not know who he was. You sing it in the church, "Sweet little Jesus boy, born in a manger. Sweet little Jesus boy, I didn't know who you were." The Bible puts it like this, "And the light shined in the darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not. He came unto his own, but his own received him not." We did not know, but He came. God came to you --- to visit you.
Who are we that God would visit us? We are the people of His choice. We are the stone that the builder rejected. God now wants to make us the headstone of the corner. Who are we? We are that foolish people God would make into the wisest that ever lived. God said, "I have come to be your God and you My people and I will put My Mind and My Spirit and My Will into you. When the people want to find God, they will have to find Me among you.; Yes, you are the people that are going to produce the Jesus the whole world is looking for. It's you.
You ask, "How do you mean we are going to produce the Jesus?" He was born of a virgin and you are a virgin people. You know that "virgin" territory is territory not cultivated, not developed. You are the most uncultivated, undeveloped, wild and crazy people in the world today. You are a virgin {you can never say you met a man}. If you met a man, where are your men? If you meet a man, he will make a man.
The reason we are in this condition is because we are not men. A man does not beg another man for a job. A man will get up and make a job for himself. A man doesn't beg another man to give him rights. A man will take the rights that God has given him. The white man cannot give you rights, God has already given us rights. Stand up like a man and let us take the rights that belong to us.
You (Black people) are a virgin. If you met a man, you could produce one. The "Holy Ghost" came under the cover of darkness and you became pregnant with a Servant of God.
That little man, Elijah Muhammad, frightened all of us. He was a man of God, made, fashioned, taught, molded and shaped by God. Now he is gone, but he would not leave you comfortless. To prove that he is exactly who we say he is, he made one. I am not of his physical bloodline, I am from his mind and heartline. He made me for you and there is no doubt about it. There is not another Black man on Earth today that is confronting this beast like Louis Farrakhan. Who made me like this?
I do not say the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is dead, if He is the Messiah and I believe He is. I am a witness that He is the Messiah. I don't say He is dead. The Messiah escaped death. They thought they got him. You say, "Well, there was a funeral." Sure, there was, and there is a death certificate. There is a coffin and a body in it. Sure there is. It is easy for God to fool a fool. You ask, "Why would God do a thing like that?"
The Holy Qur'an said he was made to appear as though He was dead, but Allah (God) raised him to Himself, exalted him to Himself. When he was seen, he looked like he was slain from the foundation of the world, because he was in bad shape when he got to the throne. But he was able to take the book out of the hand to Him that sat on the throne.
That which you call "Unidentified Flying Objects"; that which you and white people put "Above Top Secret": that is real. There is a plane out there made like a wheel. Ezekiel saw it five hundred and fifty (550) years before Jesus was born. A wheel in the middle of the air, run by the Grace of God, with "eyes" all around it, meaning with people in it. It is not from another planet. It is made by the Son of man to destroy this world. It is up there now, forty (40) miles above us. It is like a city in the sky. "And I saw as it was a city come down from heaven." It has 1500 little planes on it. They follow me everywhere I go. You can take it or leave it. I am not trying to impress you.
I know the Power that is behind that wheel and the Power of the wheel is the Power that Guides me. I am not before you of myself. I am a Guided man. That's why the white man is tearing his hair out, because he has plotted against me at every turn, but he can't seem to get me. Maybe God will deliver me into your hands to deliver me from your hands.
Brothers and sisters, don't you fear this man. There is a Power today bigger than Bush. There is a Power today on the scene. He is not to come, He is Real, He is Alive and He is in Power. It is not Saddam Hussein or Bush, it's God.
God has it locked up. He is controlling it all. Don't be afraid, because the white man's day to rule is over. God has come to end his rule and He is going to make you into a giant and give you the Kingdom. That is what they know and what they are trying to keep from you. They are tricking you night and day; filling our young people with drugs and alcohol and foolishness, so that you will blow your Salvation.
Wake up, Black man and woman. I don't have long to be among you. I don't see death coming, but a time has come now for me to stop talking, because I have been a Faithful Warner to you and I will not stop talking because I don't love you. It's just that the Power that is behind me is pulling me in, because you have not acted like you should have acted. You have turned to be a vicious people against yourselves.
You have become your number one killers. You don't love your woman, you rape her. You make a cheap prostitute out of her. So, God is angry, because you know better. As it is written in the scriptures, God sent a Son of man down among the dry bones in the valley and the Son of man spoke the Word of God to the bones. The bones began rattling and shaking in the valley. The Word of God responds to your nature's call and need. Wherever Farrakhan goes, they come by the thousands. They hear and enjoy, but Farrakhan is not an entertainer.
I am not here for you to applaud and say things like, "Go head man, rap!" No. Jesus said it like this, "I piped to you all the day long, but you have not danced." I have mourned to you, but you have not lamented." You are not in harmony with God. You hear the word while you sport and play. You "boogie" and you party.
After this lecture is over, you will go and get your reefer. You will fade into the night and get some crack, snort some coke, chase some brother or sister. You liked the message, but did you like it enough to choose the New Ruler and draw a straight line with your life? He will make the crooked things straight and the rough places plain. He will exalt the valley. Will you allow God to exalt you? Will you allow Him to take the crookedness out of you and me? Will you allow God to purify you and make you a perfect vessel for that revealed word to come to you? Will you allow Him to make you what you once were, before your fall? Will you allow Him to do this?
When the Son of man could not get the bones to act right, He went back to the Lord and said, "Lord, they are not responding well." The Lord said {in words}, "Don't talk to them anymore, talk to the winds and let the winds blow on these slain of God." After the winds blew, they stood up.
My time to talk to you is just about over. It is time for the winds now to whip you and me into shape. It is not going to be pretty. The very white man you love is going to be the means of your total destruction. He is so powerful, now that Russia seems to have weakened. He can laugh in your face and won't even sign a civil rights bill, yet he has an army filled with Black men and women ready to die for him. He doesn't care anything about you. He has already enacted the Federal Emergency Management Act which gives the President extraordinary powers. As this war goes on, he may say, "I am sick and tired of Farrakhan." He may seek me, arrest me. It is written. I don't worry about that and I don't want you to worry.
The scriptures said, "Let not your heart be troubled over these things", because I am not troubled in the least. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. It is He Who maketh me to lie down in green pastures, not white folks. If it was up to my enemies, they would have stopped everything from coming to me, but my God spread a table for me in the presence of mine enemies. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear nothing. Not the arrow that comes by day, or the one that flies by night. I am wrapped up in the bosom of that New Ruler that I represent. He anointed by head with oil. My cup is running over. There is so much that I have to tell you that I could not even get to, because time just will not permit it, but my cup runneth over.
What I shared with you today is not for today alone. It is for you to take and feed on for years to come. So, my dear and beloved brothers and sisters, I thank Allah, Who begets not, for His Self-Creation. I thank Him for the Wisdom that He showed in creating Woman from Himself. I thank Him for His Majesty that made the Universe His Workshop and out of darkness He keeps on bringing new things forward. I thank Him. As the scriptures says, "I thank you, Father in Heaven, for keeping those things from the wise and prudent man and revealing them unto babes."
The fast is over and it is time for the feast. What is the Fast? The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, "When you are in the presence of God, you don't need to fast anymore." God hid His face from us for 66 trillion years. God has Arrived. Our Saviour has Arrived. The fast is over and it is time for the feast.
After Ramadan, we have the Id Feast and after Hajj, we have another Id Feast. We are pilgrims journeying through the darkness of the night to come back to the Light and the Face of God. It is time for us to feast. Feast on what? Manna from Heaven. Knowledge that has never been revealed in 66 trillion years. He is now giving it to you but that is a great trial on you; because if you do not act right by that Knowledge, God said He will punish us with a chastisement that he never gave a people before in history. He has not revealed Himself before and the burden is on you now. You have to decide who you are going to serve. I choose to serve the Mahdi. I choose to serve the Messiah.
I believe that God came in His Person. Not that the person is {God}, but what is in the person is {God}. The person is that which holds what it contains. I believe that the Messiah is God manifested in a human. The Messiah opens the eyes of the blind, makes the deaf hear, the dumb speak, fashions a bird out of dust and makes it fly, by Gods' Permission. He raises the dead by God's Permission.
Only God can give life to dust. Only God can make the blind see, the deaf hear, the dumb speak and raise the dead to life. When you see a man doing that, it is not the man doing, it is God doing in the man. That is why when Elijah comes, it means "God is Present". God is in the world. "Emmanuel" means, "God is with us" and that is what I am trying to demonstrate.
When you listen to Farrakhan, your eyes come open. Your ears come open. If your eyes and ears come open, then your tongue begins to speak what you have seen and what you have heard. When you meet your Brother, you are on a dead level, but after he speaks to you, you find yourself being raised to Divine Life.
You are like fragments of dust, but God breathes on you and you are formed like a bird, meaning you lift your intelligence and fly above what used to hold you down. That is the Work of the Messiah. I am doing His Work. I am a Bearer of Witness of Him and what I am trying to tell you is the Messiah you have been looking for is The Honorable Elijah Muhammad. The God, The Mahdi, you have been looking for is Master Fard Muhammad. You might as well come on now and unite with them and let us go and build a New World of Peace and Brotherhood.
Thank you for listening, as I greet you in Peace: As-Salaam-Alaikum.
"All things should be known at the proper time." The Honorable Elijah Muhammad Messenger of Allah
SOURCE
Study Guide 19A is based upon a message delivered by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan on February 24, 1991 at Christ Universal Temple, Chicago, Illinois. It also takes its title from that message.
SCRIPTURE
>Holy Qur'an 3:6 (also see, footnotes 387, 388, and 389) Book of Revelations 5 Book of Revelations 12
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Page 40 (Page 52 in original Study Guide)
GLOSSARY
Page 45 (Page 59 in original Study Guide
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
SECTION I: POINT NUMBER 12
1. Is it important to you that we answer the question, "Who is God?" Why or why not?
2. Do you remember when and/or how you first became aware of Point Number 12 of "What the Muslims Believe", which appears on the last page of the Final Call Newspaper? What was your reaction? Has your perception of God changed since that time? If so, how has it changed? What caused it to change?
3. Do you think it is absolutely necessary to believe Point Number 12 in order to be a Muslim Follower of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad? Why or why not?
4. Minister Farrakhan stated, "I shall never take that point from the back page of the paper, regardless to how many scholars don't like it."
Have you ever been questioned or challenged about Point Number 12 of "What the Muslims Believe" (which appears on the last page of the Final Call Newspaper)? What was the nature of question or challenge? How did you respond? What was the reaction to your response? Do you think you were effective in your explanation? Why or why not?
5. Why did the Honorable Elijah Muhammad choose the Number 12 to assign this cardinal principle? What is significant about the number 12?
6. Why did the Honorable Elijah Muhammad use the word "Messiah" and the word "Mahdi"? What do the words mean? Why did He place quotation marks around each word?
7. Discuss Revelations 5. Who are the 24 elders? Why are they 'lamenting'? What is the nature of the book? Who sealed the book? What is the relevance of this to the Number 12?
SECTION II:
RULES OF INTERPRETATION
1. What are the rules of interpretation revealed in Surah 3, Verse 6 of the Holy Qur'an?
2. Why are we given these rules of interpretation?
3. The Holy Qur'an warns of "those in whose hearts is perversity" who are "seeking to mislead and seeking to give it (their own) interpretation." What kind of persons might be at a high risk of falling into this category? How does one avoid becoming such a person?
4. What enables a person to interpret the Word of Allah (God)?
5. What is "scripture"?
SECTION III:
THE MYSTERY OF GOD
1. Has the knowledge of God always been a secret?
2. How and why did knowledge of God become a secret?
3. What is the process by which a perfect world can be achieved?
SECTION IV:
THE BIRTH OF JESUS
1. Why is Jesus called the "Son of God"?
2. Why is it important to know the lineage of Jesus and the circumstances surrounding his birth?
SECTION V:
THE SELF-CREATION OF GOD
1. How do we unwrap the secret of how the Universe began?
2. Discuss the means by which God enabled Himself to "think through darkness". What resources did He have?
3. Discuss the statement, "Mind is not brain and brain is not mind." What is the difference between the two?
SECTION VI:
THE WOMAN
1. Discuss the significance of the following statement: "Every man has a woman in him."
2. How is understanding the woman relevant to finding out Who God is?
3. Who is the woman in Chapter 12 of Revelations? Discuss this "extraordinary woman". Discuss the significance of the Number 12 as it relates to this woman and to Point Number 12 of "What the Muslims Believe".
4. Where can the woman in Chapter 12 of Revelations be found in the Holy Qur'an? Who is this woman a prototype of?
5. How do you explain the fact that all the men except John walked out on Jesus in his time of trouble, but none of the women failed him?
SECTION VI:
THE ESSENCE OF GOD
1. Does God die? If not, how does He escape the Law of Life and Death which He Himself set up? 2. What is the real core of the Sun? 3. Why are we prohibited from making and bowing to images and statutes?
SECTION VII:
THE MAKING OF DEVIL
1. Who or what is the devil? Where did the devil come from? 2. Why did God allow the devil to be made? 3. What is the thinking of those who are currently in power? 4. Have you ever occupied a position of power or authority? What effect did it have on your view of others and the view of others toward you? Have you ever lost a position of power or authority? How did you handle it?
SECTION VIII:
MASTER FARD MUHAMMAD
1. Discuss the Birth of Master Fard Muhammad. Is His lineage troubling to you in any way? Why or why not? 2. Who called Master Fard Muhammad into existence? For what purpose? 3. At what age did Master Fard Muhammad come into the knowledge of His purpose? How can you insure that your own children will know what they are born to do by that age? 4. Use the Bible to demonstrate that God is a man and He would come to us from Mecca.
SECTION IX:
THE COMING OF GOD AND THE END OF FALSE LEADERSHIP
1. What qualifications are necessary to be a successful teacher of the people today? 2. Are there false leaders and teachers of the people today? Is Allah (God) doing anything about false leaders? If so, what? 3. Do you actually believe that God would visit us? Why would He choose Black people in America?
SECTION X:
THE HONORABLE ELIJAH MUHAMMAD
1. Is the Honorable Elijah Muhammad alive? How do you know he is or is not alive?
2. Do you believe the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is the Messiah? How do you know he is or is not the Messiah? What is the Work of the Messiah?
3. Who is Minister Louis Farrakhan? What is his relationship--if any-- to the Messiah and the Mahdi? What is the nature of his Work among us? Discuss his statement, "I don't see death coming, but a time has come for me to stop talking."
4. What has Minister Farrakhan demonstrated to you in this Message, "WHO IS GOD?"
5. Has Minister Farrakhan accomplished anything since delivering the Message February 24, 1991, that would prove his statement on page 30, "I know the Power that is behind that wheel and the Power of the wheel is the Power that Guides me."?
6. Have you been inspired by studying this Message? In what way?
GLOSSARY
CARDINAL: "Of prime importance; chief; principal; fundamental; something on which all other things hinge.
INTERPRET: "To set forth the meaning of; explain; to construe or understand in a particular way."
MASTER: "One who commands; one eminently skilled; one who directs or controls; qualified to teach and carry on his work independently; one whose teachings are accepted and followed by others; a victor or conqueror.
SECRET: "Done, made or conducted without the knowledge of others; secluded, sheltered or withdrawn; designed or working to escape notice, knowledge or observation of others; a reason or explanation not apparent.
SUPREME: "Highest in authority; the highest quality, degree, character, importance."
TEACH: "To impart knowledge of or skill in; give instruction in; to enlighten; discipline; educate.
TRANSMIT: "(Physics). To cause light, heat or sound to pass through a medium. To convey or pass along an impulse, force or motion.
By Minister Ava Muhammad
"My mother knew she was in trouble. She went to God. 'Lord, Help me.' The more she prayed, all of her supplications and prayers were going on down into the womb. She was making me a man of God without even knowing what she was making. It was uncertain circumstances -- do you hear what I am saying?.... I am here to tell you, if you do not have a man, remember God. My mother did not know that the circumstances around which I was conceived in her womb would make me that man that I am today. Now, she wanted a girl. What does that mean? It means that she would make a child with characteristics that represent the feminine side of the Nature of God: Mercy, Compassion, Forgiveness, Long-suffering. It takes that kind of person to redeem a people in the condition that we are in." -Minister Louis Farrakhan-
The only value of my introduction to this phase of the Course lies in the "moment" that it provides. The "moment" is that brief pause when the student recognizes the magnitude of what is being taught. I opened with the excerpt from Minister Farrakhan's historic address to women only (Atlanta, 1994), because in a few words it offers profound insight into the teacher as well as the subject.
After transcribing the message which forms the text of Study Guide 19B, I realized that we (male and female), in our ignorance, have relegated the words, "A Nation Can Rise No Higher than its Woman" to a motto. In reality, it is Divine Law. At the core of this Study Guide is Surah 19 of the Holy Qur'an, named "Maryam", after the Mother of Jesus. It is my sincere belief that the Minister's sensitive analysis of this exquisite woman--and his completion of the revelation concerning who and what she truly represents--will take us to a new level of thought. And from that new level of thought we will produce the new reality.
The willingness of each of us to understand, accept and live in accordance with this higher aspect of "self-improvement" will determine whether we can continue on the journey into Oneness with Allah (God). This advanced level of self-examination may prove to be difficult to handle, because it is in direct opposition to the white man's framework of exploitation.
What I am trying to point out is that this world, even in the so-called "God-fearing" societies, rejects the feminine side of the Nature of Allah (God). For centuries, both men and women have been taught to view the female as a lesser being.
The Minister summarily dismisses all time-honored labels of inferiority and demands that the Black woman reconnect with Allah (God) immediately. His challenge tests the emotional stability of men and women, because even in the Nation of Islam, many of us have remained comfortably immersed in the white man's concept of the Black female. This Message rejuvenates.
Beyond the physical and literal "virgin"--long lost to most women-- the Black woman can become the spiritual Virgin Mary: a truthful woman; a woman untouched by the need to be validated by a man; a woman who cannot be overpowered by emotion, seduced or humiliated; a woman who measures her self-worth through the Thinking of Allah (God). I sincerely hope that men, as well as women, will appreciate the wonderful opportunity for growth and change that is contained in this study.
We have been severely handicapped as a people because of the woman's absence from the deliberative process in government, business, education and especially religion. We have not been able to benefit from the intelligence and problem-solving skills of more than half of our population. The most insidious self-inflicted injury has been the resistance to hearing the Word of God through the female. We must take heed to the Minister's words:
"The world is in trouble because the world has no respect for woman. And if the world has no respect for woman, the world has no respect for God. When you respect God, you must respect woman, because the womb of the woman is a place of sacredness. Woman should be held in awe, because of the majesty of her womb. When God and woman cooperate, Jesus comes forth, Moses comes forth, Abraham comes forth. But when women are estranged from God, then the womb produces a bitter fruit. The woman must be reconnected to God, so that the fruit of her womb will once again be the kings, the rulers, the masters of every discipline, whether male or female. These are the fruits of God."
Sister Minister Ava Muhammad February 23, 1997
IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE BENEFICENT, THE MERCIFUL, WHO CAME IN THE PERSON OF MASTER FARD MUHAMMAD TO WHOM PRAISE IS DUE FOREVER. WE GIVE HIM PRAISE AND THANKS FOR HIS COMING AND FOR HIS RAISING UP AMONG US THE GREATEST OF ALL OF THE TEACHERS AND GUIDES THAT HAVE EVER BEEN BEFORE THE HUMAN COMMUNITY. A MAN THE LIKE OF WHICH NEVER WAS BEFORE AND A MAN THE LIKE OF WHOM SHALL NEVER BE AGAIN, THE HONORABLE ELIJAH MUHAMMAD, THE MESSIAH, THE EXALTED CHRIST.
To Sister Charlene Muhammad, who is Chairman of the Board of the M.G.T. and G.C.C., to Sister Captain Aishah Muhammad, to all of the Laboring Staff, Officials of the M.G.T. and the Vanguard.
I am very thankful to Allah, to have this opportunity to be in your company. I have a lot on my mind and I am just getting back from a bout with the flu. But there is so much that I wish to share with you. I want you to pay very good attention to what I am about to say.
Most women look for and seem to need, the approval of a man to make them feel special to themselves. It is sad, because if you do not get approval from some male, does it mean that you are less? Mother Tynnetta Muhammad designed a garment that is called "Dress 19" and the 19th Surah of the Holy Qur'an is called "Maryam". That Surah is so important that I would like to call a few things to your attention, so that from this day forward, you will never again need the approval of a male to make you feel as God intends for you to feel. Once you feel dependent upon someone's approval, they can use that need to manipulate you and make you act or do other than how you should act or what you should do. For any female, in 1996, to be that weak mentally, is to say that we have a long way to go to get where God wants the woman to be.
(The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan delivered this lecture November 16, 1996 to the women of the M.G.T./G.C.C., Chicago, Illinois, at the National Center of the Nation of Islam.)
I am very honored to be in this class this morning and very honored to have the privilege of sharing a few thoughts with you. Surah 19, which is a very important chapter, starts like this: "In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. Sufficient, Guide, Blessed, Knowing, Truthful God." Look at the words. "Sufficient". Sufficient for who? Sufficient for Maryam. Sufficient for you. But if you are weak in your connection to Allah (God), then you will be what any man wants to make you and there are not too many good men out here that want to make anything of you but what the devil has already made of you.
I am going to get as deep as time and circumstance will let me. I want you to take these words to heart. "Sufficient". Is He really? No, He is not. If your connection with Allah (God) is weak, then He is not sufficient for you. Therefore, you will be looking from pillar to post for some man. And if a man does not come along in a timely fashion, all of a sudden your world crumbles, because there is no "man" in your life. Then you are a victim. You are not the woman yet that Maryam was, because Allah (God) was sufficient for her. It is clear to me that a lot of the brothers do not want righteous women.
And it is clear to me that if you just want a "n....r", then you can find that anytime, anyplace, anywhere. But that is not what you are being trained for. Everybody needs companionship, but what kind of company is this that you want in your life? If it is the same company you have had in your life, then you need to stop right where you are and make Allah (God) sufficient for you. Naturally, you do not know how to do that. Therefore, you are victimized, daily, hourly, by the minute and by the second, because you have not found sufficiency in Allah(God.)
He is called "Guide". If He is "Sufficient" as a "Guide" for you, then who do you really need to talk over problems with? Look at the people you take for friends; look at the people you consult with when you have a problem. And Allah is usually last on the list. You do not confer with God. You look for some other female, whose condition is as bad or worse than your own; or you look for some man from your past life or present life and you end up with that feeling of emptiness on the inside, because you, as a female, have not recognized your value to Allah (God), your need for Allah (God) and His sufficiency for you in all circumstances.
You look at your children, saying, 'I have all these children. I need Joe (or John, or Henry, or Frank).' Wait a minute. You have a need all right, but Joe is not the Life-Giver. Neither is John, Henry or Frank. When Allah (God) decrees that life enters the womb, Allah (God) nurtures what is in the womb. Then if you and Allah (God) make life, who do you need above him who gave you the sperm? You need Allah (God) in you life. And there is no man who is an actual substitute for Allah (God). I don't care how good the man is, Allah (God) has no equal, no partners.
He is Unique, Incomparable. Neither I nor your husband can approach him, except as a servant. Who is your consort in this matter? What is this class all about? This is not just a group of women coming together to talk about white folks and what the devil has done to us. Is that what this is? Just learning how to cook a little bean soup and clean your house? If that is all this is about, then go and take a home economics course somewhere. That is not what 'M.G.T. and G.C.C.' is all about.
And if that is what your concept is of this class, then everybody needs to sit down and be taught all over again. "Blessed, Knowing, Truthful God." He is not a liar. A Husband will lie. A boyfriend will lie. Allah (God) is the Truth! What you need in your life is not mere lies and deceit. You need, first of all, to be a truthful woman. And the only way you can be a truthful woman is to be connected properly to the Truthful God. Surah 19 (Verses 2-6) continues, "A mention of your Lord to His servant Zacharias--When he called upon his Lord, crying in secret.
He said: My Lord, my bones are weakened and my head flares with hoariness, and I have never been unsuccessful in my prayer to (You), my Lord. And I fear my kinsfolk after me, and my wife is barren, so grant me from (Yourself) an heir." "Grant me from Yourself an heir." It all starts and ends with Allah (God) and our relationship to him "(Give) me from (Yourself) an heir...(who) should inherit me and inherit of the Children of Jacob, and make him, my Lord, acceptable (to You)."
You cannot even produce a child that is worthy, without the Help of Allah (God). Since you are the producer of the Nation, your relationship to Allah (God) has to be intact, otherwise your womb will produce your destruction. All of us want to be pleased with our children. And those of you who have not had children yet should consider yourself very fortunate, because at least you can prepare. This "hit and miss" that we have been involved in--maybe we will get it right.
We have produced from our own loins and wombs, Cain and Abel all over again, all over again, all over again, but Mary "hit it" the first time. You do not want Cain. You do not want to produce one good one and one no good one; one who will believe in Allah (God), one who won't believe in Allah (God). You don't want that in your life. But if you don't want that in your life, there is a change you have got to make and not tomorrow.
The problem is, you are in the world and the world exercises such a strong pull. Most of us do not really know how to ward off the pull of the world and a lot of us do not care to ward it off. We have one foot--maybe not even a foot--in the world of Allah (God), and all other members of the body dabbling in, wallowing in the world. It really looks nice to see everybody dressed in their uniforms. But Allah (God) doesn't care about anybody looking nice.
We all know how to look when we come to the Mosque. It is not how you look when you come here, it is how you look when you are not here. That is the real you. Surah 19 (Verses 7-9) continues: "O Zacharias, We give thee good news of a boy, whose name is John: We have not made before anyone his equal. He said: My Lord, how shall I have a son, and my wife is barren, and I have reached extreme old age? He said: So (it will be). Your Lord says: It is easy to Me, and indeed I created you before, when you were nothing."
That is an easy thing for Allah (God) to do: to decree that your womb will bear a beautiful life. Even if you are trying to have children and you do not have any, do not despair. Just keep on preparing yourself. So many did not even prepare--they just had one. And one is Cain, one is Abel. More Cain than Abel. Now look (Verse 16): "And mention Mary in the Book." Mary was a woman that screened herself from men. That is something very hard for a woman to do.
We dress for other women, but we dress for men. We get our hair done for other women, but we get our hair done for men. We like men to notice how nice we look and to even make a comment. Some of us don't know an insult from a compliment. Some of us take insult for compliment and compliment for insult, because we want to attract attention to ourselves in a manner that is not the best. We mentioned the number "19".
As the Honorable Elijah Muhammad has taught us, and you have heard Mother Tynnetta Muhammad say it many, many times, "9" is the number of completion. It represents, of course, our 9 planets and it represents the female, who is carrying life to term which is 9 months. If you look at the numbers from right to left, rather than left to right, the "1" is behind the "9", not in front of it. The "1" behind the "9" is generating itself through the "9". And that is why "19" could be called Maryam. She did not miss; she produced for Allah (God) the first time.
I do not know why they call you "Miss". Maybe the father "missed", because he was after a boy, and when you got here, he "missed". Think about it. How in the world could somebody have "missed", when they produced you? You see, even the language of the world is against the female. Usually all men want to see themselves first. If the baby is a girl, you see this look of disappointment. In some societies, they literally go off. But they never "missed" when you were born.
That was a "hit", if there ever was one, because Allah (God) has come to make Himself known to you, and through you, to the entire world. But you have got to give Him the chance to make Himself known. The class is supposed to be preparing you so that you can allow Allah (God) to make Himself known through you. Now, here (Surah19) is this woman, Maryam. She "Screened" herself from men. And then Allah (God) said, "We sent to her Our spirit and it appeared to her as a well-made man." (Verse 17) And when the man showed up, even though Allah sent him, she said, "I flee for refuge from (you) to the Beneficent, if (you) art one guarding against evil."(Verse 18).
She is taking no chance that this is the wrong man, so she is fleeing to Allah (God) to take refuge in Him. She says, "Even if you are one guarding against evil, I am still going to take refuge in Allah (God), because I do not need any evil in my life." "He said: I am only bearer of a message of your Lord: That I will give you a pure boy. She said, How can I have a son and no mortal has yet touched me, nor have I been unchaste?" (19, 20) Do you see how powerful that is? Here is a woman. She has a need.
She is a female--like you. She would need, I think, for a man to say, "Mary, you certainly are beautiful. Mary, you are so fine." But she is saying, "No. I am not for that." He tells her, "I came to give you a pure boy." But she is not convinced. "You can say that, but how can I have a son and no mortal has touched me, nor have I been unchaste." In other words, "and I do not intend to be unchaste now." Wouldn't it be something if you could be like that?
You would create a revolution! All of these men would absolutely get right. But they can get you too easy. And when it becomes easy to get you, they play with you. And when they finish playing with you, they play with somebody else. But if this was a class where there was no play at all; that if they ran into this one it was a stone wall--they ran into the next one, it was a stone wall-- then you would hear decent conversation among the FOI. "I tried, but she said she sought refuge in Allah.
The minute I approached her, I reached a stone wall. She froze me with a look on her face." But you don't freeze anybody; your look is inviting. You are just the opposite of what you are supposed to be; just the opposite. Don't smile at them; what are you smiling for? Until they become better, what do you look like being an invitational queen? You are not seeking refuge.
When you are seeking refuge in Allah, you get that firm look. He says, "Wait a minute, sister, I just came to ask you if you need a ride." "I have a ride. That's why I have that car outside." You have to look at what is out there, but you have to look within first. You will regret that you were not as strong as you should have been. Why bite your nails with intense regret, simply because you were weak and did not seek strength from the Source of strength; One Who was "Sufficient" for Mary; One Who can and will and wants to be sufficient for you--but you won't let Him.
When we named the Mosque "Maryam", it was because as Allah (God) helps us understand who we are and particularly who you are, then you must understand your value and you must not cheapen your value. Have you seen people who don't understand the value of what they have? What do you call a person like that? Somebody just said it: they are foolish. A foolish woman is not a good thing. And for you not to appreciate your own value, Sisters, is to make yourself foolish.
Allah (God) came to North America by Himself for you. Think about a God that has been in hiding--for 66 trillion years, the knowledge of God has not been out in the public. Just think about that. That is enough to blow our minds. People talk about God, but they don't know Him. They talk about Him and they see the marvelous handiwork of God, but they don't know Him. They sense and feel His Spirit and His Presence, but they don't know the Person Who carries that Spirit and is the Source of that Spirit. And then He decides He will make Himself known.
He chooses a people that are no people at all and He says, "I can sit on top of the mountain, and say that the most beautiful nation is in the wilderness of North America." He came for you, to make you special to Him. And He called you, "Muslim Girl". Girl. Some of the sisters got insulted, "I ain't no girl. I'm a woman." Be quiet. To Allah (God), you will always be a girl. To me, you are my sister. But to Allah (God), Who has come to be your Teacher, you are a girl to Him. He wants you in the spirit of a girl, so that He can shape you and mold you.
That is why the Bible teaches, "except you come as a little child, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven." You are not just anybody's girl, you are His little girl. Do you know how a good father does over his little girl? The little girl can get anything she wants from the daddy. Just smile at him, talk sweet to him. I remember my daughter Khalliday when she was a year and a half. I was the minister in New York--I was troubled. Poor, raggedy and troubled.
I was laying in the bed, and she walked into the room. She knew something was bothering Daddy. All little girls are very very sensitive; not only to their fathers, but to their mothers as well. She came over and put her little hand on my chest, patted my chest and laid her head down on my chest. I just looked at her, and I thought, "The Messenger's Teachings are certainly right. These sisters are born to comfort and console the man." Now, you are the little girl of Allah (God). I want you to try what I am about to tell you.
If you jut try to be pleasing to Allah (God), anything you ask Him, He will give it to you. I want you to try this out. Here is a God that is so crazy about you--the Black Woman--that He comes 9,000 miles Alone. Even the scientists may not have agreed with Him. He said there was no one to uphold Him so His own right arm upheld Him. He came alone "to seek and to save that which was lost." And when you hear this taught, you say, "He came to save the man. He came to save the brothers."
You leave yourself out of this equation. But He cannot save the brothers, unless he saves you, because you produce the brothers. If we are ever going to have a great future, it is going to have to come through you. His aim was you. When He came, He threatened the Messenger--over you. "Set the class up. Let no man in that class." Why? Why not let men in here? If you let a man in a class like this, he will just go crazy. Most of them cannot take your love. It is really sad.
There are men who cannot take the love of their own daughters. If a man will try to sleep with his own daughter, who loves him, what chance do you have? So keep them out of here. Get them out of your affairs. Since the Minister is trying to be a good man, He will allow him in every now and then. And he doesn't stay long. [Response from audience]. Yes, I think you are right. You do need for me to stay longer than I do stay. Sisters, I think I can bring some closure to this.
Allah (God) sees you as so special to Him. You may not be special to Minister so-and-so, or Captain so-and-so or Lieutenant so-and-so. So what? To hell with them all! They are not important, except in their service of God. So because your captain doesn't like you, so what? You did not come here for her. You did not come to the Mosque for the minister or the captain. You came here for Allah (God), and don't you forget it!. At least, you are supposed to have come for Allah (God).
I don't know what your motive was, but we can clear that up today. Even if you came for the minister--away with that! You came for the captain--ahh, please! That's nothing! They come, they go, they're up today, down tonight, in today, out tonight! You don't come for any of them! Allah (God) is Eternal, and so is the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and don't forget it! My dear and beloved Sisters, Allah (God) loves you so well, He appreciates the least little thing you do.
Your husband may not even notice it. Your mother, your father, the sister captain, the brother captain, the brother minister, may not notice it. But Allah (God) notices every little thing you do to please Him! To some of my sisters who have gotten time out when they should have had time in: I just want to remind you of something. Here are people that can give you time out, but they can never take Allah (God) away from you. Nobody wants to get time out--not in your right mind.
But take it! If you notice, you were out there all by yourself, but there was a God right out there with you. You didn't have a whole lot of FOI around, but Allah was Sufficient, He was right there. And even though you were upset and angry, yet Allah (God) kept you in your right mind. "Yes, I did my time. I got fornication, I did my little time." Allah (God) sees all of that. He says, "Yes, that's My little servant. She's weak today but she's going to be strong tomorrow.
That's My little servant, I am going to get her strong." Any little thing you do. Just like going home and looking at your house. "Oh, it doesn't look like it is supposed to look, so I am going to clean it up." Why? For some man to knock on your door? No. Allah (God) has already knocked on your door. "Oh, Allah loves my house when it is clean!" Allah (God) says, "Look at my little servant, she is trying to please Me." When she goes into the kitchen, He is going to make that bean soup real special for her body, because she is trying to please Him.
When she goes to the mosque, tired, and meets a grumpy official, "Step over here, sister!" Allah (God) says, "Look at her. She takes this from a grumpy lieutenant. I am not going to let that lieutenant sleep well tonight. I will let my servant get in and get something out of the teachings, but that grumpy official will get nothing today!" Let me tell you something. You are so special to Him, that He rewards you double, triple and quadruple, for any little thing you do. That is why I want you, today, to make Him sufficient for you.
Not any man! God, in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, and His Servant. You make Them Number One in your life and see if you don't make a change! I just want you to try it so I can come back in a month or so and you can testify. "I tried what you said!" Think about something you want Allah (God) to do right now. Have you got it? Now to prove that He loves you, ask Him for what you want and ask Him to make it a blessing to you. Because sometimes you ask for things, and when you get it, it is not a blessing.
You know what I am talking about. It is the same way that a father is very hard pressed to deny his daughter. I remember one of my daughters was getting married and she wanted a big wedding, which cost big money. I was trying to squeeze pennies at that particular time, and she said, "Daddy, I have been obedient and I have not gone out in the street. I have been a decent person. The least you could do--" That was the end of that. She made her case.
It was so strong, so compelling, because she could have been out there, cheap and loose, but she strove mightily to be who she was. I said, "Go ahead and have the big wedding!" This is what Allah (God) wants to do for you. Not give you a big wedding, though maybe He will do that too, but He wants to show you how favoured you are in His sight. I don't care who says you are ugly. I don't know what that "ugliness" means. Some of you don't think you are too pretty; you have low self-esteem, don't you?
And when a so-called pretty sister comes in the mosque, you give her a hard time, don't you? "Who does she think she is?" Don't screw up your face because she "appears" a certain way. Allah (God) looks all the way in. While someone's outer appearance may please you or me, it may be ugly as sin in the sight of Allah (God). All of you that believe are beautiful to Allah (God). He has the Power to take your belief and turn it into absolutely indescribable beauty.
You can come here ugly, pimply-faced and hair so short you can't twist it with a tweezer. I don't care how people think you look, or how you think you look. The moment you say you believe in Allah (God) and start trying to be what Allah (God) has asked you to be, He turns the beauty of your faith into an indescribable charisma that makes you draw all people unto yourself. It is true, true, true! You can have the prettiest face, but if your faith is not there, you drive people away from you.
Now, Sisters. I would like for you, today, to take Allah (God) as your Principal Friend and make Him Sufficient in your life for you. Here is what I would like for you to do. You are a natural person, and you don't overcome this desire to be wanted, needed and appreciated by men overnight. But once you believe this is real--and it is-- and you say, "Allah (God) came for me and He is going to make a world from me and through me. The least I can do is try to please Him.
Now I am going to see if Allah (God) will be Sufficient for me." Then you try it. And when something comes up in your life that makes you a little weak, turn right to Allah (god) and say, "Allah, I know you are Sufficient for me. I don't need this, I need You in my life. I am going with You." Some of you are hanging on to bad relationships. Perhaps you should, because it might get better.
But when it gets to the point where it is going to make you other than yourself and destroy the Purpose of God's Own Coming for you, hold it. Allah is Sufficient. Stand on the Sufficiency of Allah (God), knowing that He will not forsake you. But you have to know this. Try Him; He tries you. Try Him; He is Sufficient. How do I know these things? Because if I didn't know it, I would be walking in total fear. This devil is angry, angry, angry with me and he wants me dead just as sure as I want to see you with Allah (God). But I do not care what he wants.
I am like Mary; I am the male Mary. All messengers of Allah (God) are styled as women in the symbolic language. Even in the Problem Book it says, "Ask your Teacher and she will teach you quickly." It is really talking about the Messenger, but He is given a feminine character, because Mary is to Allah (God) as the Messenger is to Allah (God). If Allah (God) was Sufficient for Mary, He has to be Sufficient for the Messenger.
If He is a Guide and He is the Blessed, and He is Truthful, then all of my blessings come from being close to Him and doing what I believe will please Him. Look at the prayer that Zacharias sent, "I have never been unsuccessful in my prayer to You." You want to be like that, whatever you ask for. The Messenger told me before He left, "Brother, ask for anything of Allah in my name and He will give it to you." Try that now.
You have tried everything else. You have tried all of the beauty tips. You have washed your face in this soap or that one, tried this cream or that one. You have tried all the hairstyles; added it on, pulled it off, straightened it out, curled it up, made it tough as steel. You have done it all, haven't you? Still dissatisfied, aren't you? You have put on nails, taken them off. You have dressed up your foot, dressed up your ankle, put several things in your ear, in your nose. You have done everything--trying to be pretty, I imagine. Try Allah (God).
As the woman of Allah (God), how wonderful you will feel today if you make that commitment. I have come home to spend my time now inside this house. I do not know how long Allah has for me, but I do know that I cannot leave you in the state that you are in Unless Allah says, "I am sorry, you have spent enough time with them, you come now." Then, that is on you. But I have taught you well. I have no regrets. I desire to clean up the house, with your help, of course. Only if we clean up, can we expect victory.
I saw the fight with Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield. I was so hurt when Mike lost and I saw my brother stumbling around that ring. I knew he was being hurt by the blows raining down on him and at a certain point, he did not know where he was. He was literally almost senseless. I thought about how humble Mike was when he came out of prison. How humble he was.
He knocked people out so fast, he began to become full of his own powers and if you listened to his language as he spoke about Holyfield, "I'm gonna deal with you, etc.". Allah (God) was not in the conversation. On the other hand, here was Holyfield. The underdog. But don't you think for a moment that God doesn't answer Christian prayers. Allah is God and He answers the righteousness of your call. Holyfield knew he could not win, except the Spirit came with him. So while he was getting in shape, he was doing something else.
He was commanding the Holy Spirit to come with him. The Bible says, "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord." When Holyfield came in the ring he had a little smile on his face. He was confident--not in himself--in the Power of God that he felt with him. And early on in the fight I saw Mike struggling to manhandle him, but when Holyfield hit him--boom!--I could see Mike stop.
It was almost like a bull, when you hit him in the head and he knows he has been hit with something. It wasn't just Holyfield's power, it was the Power of the Spirit behind the blow that was punishing the brother to make him humble. After the fight was over, in the press conference, Mike was very humble, the way he should have been before the fight. I say to Muslims don't you ever think that because you know God, that you can play with Him.
Don't you ever think that because you know what you know, God will be with you if you don't do what you are supposed to do with what you know. Allah will allow a disbeliever to beat you, to make you see why you need to be more in tune with your God. There is work that has to be done on the inside of this House and I thought that it is fitting and proper that it start with you.
Try today to make Allah Sufficient for you. Will you just try it? In the little thing where you are weak, resist it now. When you are "hit on", as you will be, just gird up yourself. "Allah, I am calling on You. I seek refuge in You from this that is coming in my face." When you are able to resist successfully, you will produce a slight change in the heart of the person that has been victimizing you to this point. A slight change.
They will be back, because they don't believe it. "I'll try tomorrow." And they will sweeten the pot a little. If you are just as strong tomorrow as you are today, and as strong the day after tomorrow as you are today and will be tomorrow, then all of a sudden, the brother will say, "God has come into her life." Then you tell the brother, "Now go and get God into your life." After a while, the whole mosque will take on a different feel. It will start with you. You are the key.
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"The woman is the Key to the Kingdom of God."
SOURCE
Study Guide 19B is based upon a message delivered by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan on November 16, 1996 to the women of the M.G.T./G.C.C, Chicago, Illinois, at the National Center of the Nation of Islam.
SCRIPTURAL REFERENCE
Holy Qur'an, Surah 19
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Page 62 (Page 83 in the original Study Guide)
GLOSSARY
Page 64 (Page 86 in the original Study Guide)
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Surah 19 is named after a woman: Maryam, the mother of Jesus. Yet it opens with a narrative about a man: Zacharias, the father of John. Who is John? What lesson do you see in the early reference to Zacharias? Is this narrative relevant to understanding relationships between the male and the female as we near the year 2000? In what way?
2. Do you agree that most women seem to have a need for the approval of a man in order to feel special to themselves? Why or why not? If you agree, to what do you attribute this apparent need?
3. Is there a so-called "accepted" standard of dress and behavior for women in America? If so, how would you identify and explain it to a first time visitor to this country? In your opinion, does the appearance of a woman have any effect on how she is treated by men in this society? Explain your answer.
4. Recently, a six-year old girl was brutally raped and murdered in Colorado, apparently in her own home. In the wake of this heinous crime, numerous photographs of the child wearing heavy make-up and seductive costumes were released to the public. The mother acknowledges entering her child in "beauty pageants" since the age of 3. Beyond the pathology of the actual killer, does society have any role or responsibility in creating an environment where such an act is possible? Explain your answer.
5. Why is it so difficult for women to dress modestly in this society?
6. When Minister Farrakhan tells women, "You are victimized daily, hourly, by the minute and by the second", what does he mean? Do you agree with his position? What solution does he offer? Do you agree with the solution? Does his solution create any difficulties? What are they? Are the difficulties worthwhile? Why or why not?
7. Minister Farrakhan says that some women "don't know an insult from a compliment." Can you give an example? What is the cause of this confusion?
8. (a) What is the first step a woman must take to overcome dependency on someone's approval? How long does it take to overcome this dependency?
(b) Why did Minister Farrakhan give this lesson to women? Why is he exposing this lesson to men? Will this study guide make men and women cold, even hostile toward one another? Explain your answer.
9. How do you (male or female) know when it is time to end a relationship with someone? How do you (male or female) know you have met the right person for you; what criterion should you use?
10. Would Allah (God) ever allow a disbeliever to have victory over a believer? Explain your answer.
11. Minister Farrakhan writes, "If Allah (God) was Sufficient for Mary, He has to be Sufficient for the Messenger." Mary is very special, but doesn't the Messenger of Allah (God) have such unique, complex needs that his requirements would be greater? Explain your answer.
12. Why are messengers of Allah (God) styled as women in the symbolic language?
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CHARISMA: A divinely conferred gift or power. Special spiritual power or personal quality that gives an individual influence or authority over large numbers of people.
CONSOLE: To give solace or comfort. To alleviate or lessen the grief, sorrow or disappointment of. To cheer up.
GIRL: [OE gyrl - (in gyrlgyden-virgin goddess)]; Female child or young person; a daughter.
SCREEN: (verb); To shelter, protect or conceal. To select, reject or consider (people, objects or ideas).
SEDUCTIVE: (SEDUCE); Enticing, captivating, beguiling. To lead astray, as from duty, rectitude; to corrupt.
SUFFICIENT: Enough. Able to satisfy the need or purpose.
VICTIM: A person who suffers from a destructive or injurious action; a person who is deceived or cheated, as by his (or her) own emotions or ignorance, by the dishonesty of others, or by some impersonal agency.