The Most Precious of All Knowledge
WEB POSTED 03-26-2001
The Most Precious of All Knowledge
THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD AND SELF
by The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan

[Editor’s Note: The following text is excerpted from a message
delivered by Minister Louis Farrakhan on March 11, 2001 at Mosque Maryam in Chicago]

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.


Life and how we use it is exceedingly important.
Solomon, the prophet, said, to know God and to find
God in your youth is a blessing. When you know God as a young person and live your life in obedience to God as a young man or a young woman, you have put your life in order and the blessings of life will come to you no matter how long or how short your life span is. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said it takes about 75 years to learn how to live, but most of us never get to that point.

The reason it takes time is because most of us have our own thoughts about how life should be lived. We don’t consult the Giver of Life, the Creator of Life. And if we consult Him, the way He wants us to live is a little bit much, so we say, "I’ll do it my way." And that’s why we don’t make it to 75. By the time we are in our 50s or 60s, we’ve lost our teeth and our hair. Some of us begin even to experience senility. Both the Qur’an and the Bible teach us that in the day when Allah is manifest, He comes to give us life and to give it more abundantly. This means that if you don’t know how to live in accord with the nature of your own life, then everyday that you live is death. But if you know how to live, if you know how to eat to live, if you know how to think on that which is life, then you can preserve the gift of life that God gives us.

Isaiah the prophet says that in that day a baby shall die at 100. But those that are of God, they will be like the planting of God, the trees of righteousness. You have trees that live 1,000 years. You have turtles that are 300- and 400-years-old. And you are the best of God’s creation with the best form of all of His creatures, yet we find it difficult to get to 70, 80, 90, and 100 without losing the vitality of life itself. So there is something that we need to know; there is something that we are missing. And that is what I want to talk to you about today.

Life is in understanding the word of God. Power is in understanding the word of God. One can be used as an instrument of revelation, and revelation contains the highest form of electrical energy. You are an electrical being; all of this [human body] functions because of electricity. You can be physically alive because there is electrical current in your body. But you are not really alive until you are alive on the mental and spiritual plane. You cannot be alive on the mental plane without knowledge that gives you the ability to deal with your life’s circumstances. You cannot be alive on the spiritual plane until you have the most profound of all knowledge, which is the knowledge of God and the knowledge of self. And the true knowledge of God and self gives you the highest form of electrical energy that literally turns your mind on so much so that your skin lights up and people see the mark of life in your face because of the way that you think, because the electrical energy of revelation has opened you up.

Man has not fully discovered his own potential. It is revelation from God that opens man up to grow. And when I say man, there is no man without woman. So revelation opens us up for growth, for development on the mental and spiritual level which manifests itself on the physical level.

Isaiah the prophet says, "The spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek." There are many eloquent people in the world, but eloquence cannot give life. It is wonderful to be able to express yourself, but the spirit of God comes from our belief in and observance of Divine Truth. When Isaiah says, "the spirit of the Lord is upon me … to preach good tidings to the meek … to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound," this is the Messianic Work that must be done in this day and time. People are not free, so liberty not only has to be proclaimed, it must be experienced. Somebody once sang a song, "Oh, I wished that I knew what it means to be free." To be a slave all your life—your fathers and grandfathers and great grandfathers as chattel slaves and you as a free slave, still bound to the same people that your great grandfather was bound to and you don’t know how to escape their power—you are a captive, brothers and sisters, of an alien idea; alien to the nature in which you are created. You are not only bound to your former slavemasters and their children, but you are bound in a prison of ignorance.

Many of us have great degrees from colleges and universities, and it seems somewhat insulting that someone would say that we are steeped in ignorance. But everybody is ignorant of something. That’s why everybody could teach you something if you are humble enough to learn. But there is a certain kind of ignorance that allows you to be a tool and a slave. The Bible says, "My people are destroyed for the lack of knowledge." You can have degrees, but it lacks that certain kind of knowledge that one must have in order to really be free. And that is the true knowledge of God and the true knowledge of yourself.

Isaiah asked the question, "Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? But thus sayeth the Lord." Listen to the strength of those words, "But thus sayeth the Lord." And there is one thing God can’t do; He just can’t lie. He has the power to make His word bond. You can say what you’re going to do and can’t do it. But whatever God says, He will do. Trust it brother. Trust it sister. He will do it because there is nothing that can stop His will.

"Thus sayeth the Lord. ‘Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away.’ " This is a prophecy about you. As the Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us, we are captives in the hand of our slave masters’ children. You think you are free, but they won’t let you go and they won’t give you justice. So you are just in their hands as a prey. "Even the captive of the mighty shall be taken away and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered." The Caucasian has been terrible in his treatment of our fathers and of us, the children of our fathers. And that is not something that has changed. He is so skillful today that he doesn’t have to kill you now. He has your brother so silly that your brother will kill you. So he stands back, he kills a few and we take care of the rest. But he has many more skillful ways of killing people today.

The book says, God talking, "I will contend with him that contendeth with thee and I will save thy children. And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh." This means that you can look for another type of war that Europe will be involved in and white folk will start killing each other. This also means revolution in the streets of America. You can believe it or let it alone, but I’m not here to play with you and I’m not here to tickle your ears. If you live you will walk right into this that God has said through the mouths of His prophets.

America is the place where God will make His power known. He will let no foreign bombs drop on this nation. She has destroyed cities in Europe and Africa and Asia, but no power has destroyed one American city. This is a reserved place and a preserved area for the God of Power to make Himself known, because everybody on this earth fears America. All you have to do is travel outside of this country and see the terror that America brings to little nations in Africa and the Middle East and in Asia. Her power is awesome. Her reach is awesome. America says, like the Bible says, "I sit, a queen and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow." Not so. America’s cities will come down under earthquakes, terrific storms, rain, hail and snow.

America has been blessed more than any nation on this earth. She is so blessed with produce. Sometimes in order to keep prices high she will throw food away, rather than give it to the poor. Yet, the greatest nation on the earth has nearly 13 million people homeless. The richest nation on the earth has millions in poverty and people going to bed hungry. Her insane asylums are filled and the prisons are bursting with people.

Then he says, "they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." The book talks about the day of vengeance of our God. That’s really some kind of language, to use the possessive pronoun "our" God. We know that Allah is the Lord of the Worlds. But here is a prophecy of God fighting for a particular and peculiar people—the Lord of the Worlds, but a focus on a people that were no people at all.

Jesus says, "I thank Thee, Father in Heaven, for keeping these things from the wise and the prudent men and revealing them unto babes." What do you mean, babes? God doesn’t waste time revealing heavy wisdom to little babies. So the baby is not a literal baby, but a baby here, or babe, is an innocent or inexperienced person. It’s talking about a people without the experience of a free people. They are considered babes. They are considered children because they have not matured mentally to take responsibility for themselves and their children and their future and their destiny. They keep begging their former slave masters to educate them, to give them a job, to build a home for them when they are capable of doing all of these things for themselves.

"I thank Thee for keeping these things," what things? Here are wise men, prudent men, and certain wisdom has been kept from them. The people that this is referring to are the rulers of the society in all spheres of human activity. There is wisdom that has been kept from them and it has been revealed unto babes.

What is revelation? When you say something is being revealed, that means you can’t go to the library and get it because it’s not there. I don’t care how many books you have the command of; there is knowledge that is not in the library. We are living in a universe of plenty of knowledge. But when God chooses to reveal knowledge, it means He’s disclosing or opening up truth that has not yet been known in the world. If it has not yet been known in the world, then the people that run the world, the people that rule the world, don’t know this.

When God chooses an innocent, inexperienced babe-like people to give them revelation, He is giving you the scepter or rulership over those that once ruled over you.

More next issue, Insha-Allah.

FinalCall.com


Copyright © 2001 FCN Publishing

" Pooling our resources and doing for self "

External web links are not necessarily the views of
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Gaining the indispensable quality of love

JABRIL MUHAMMAD
Understanding 'a valuable man'
Previous Column
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"Remember, at the beginning of his mission, when Moses had not gained a grip on his task, and felt unsure of himself. So, he asked God for a helper. His request came from his sense of inadequacy. God gave him his brother, Aaron. However, God made clear to Moses that He was sufficient for him. Nevertheless, He did give Aaron to Moses.

"This act, by God, in giving Aaron to Moses, did not represent a change of His mind. He was not giving in to Moses’ vision, which was limited, at that time. He did not give Aaron to Moses from any sort of weakness. He was looking at a time in the future, which Moses at that time did not see. He fore knew that His servant would have to return to Him for his next lesson. During that period of time, the condition of the people would yet require this special helper. Extra time was required, along with an unusual display of God’s power, to raise these people from their uniquely wretched state of condition.

"Part of what God would have to display, in order to save His people, was maximum mercy, or grace. So out of Allah’s mercy came Aaron. All of this, and more, was a major part of His planning for infinity."

The above excerpt came from the second chapter of "Farrakhan: God’s Man on the Straight Path," and is titled: A Valuable Black Man.

What I here am simply calling "the best knowledge" can be looked at in terms of three aspects of its reality. Simply put, it’s supreme. It was, and is yet, presented or taught to us supremely. It carries with it supreme proofs of its truth.

In the course of amplifying these three aspects of this "knowledge" I’ll comment on the three paragraphs, mentioned three articles ago, which were:

"I’ve learned that there were fathers in at least one of the audiences, around the country, who were teaching their little sons to say, ‘I love Minister Farrakhan.’ This reminds me of a certain prophecy.

"Let’s look at this prophecy and these words: ‘I love you Minister Farrakhan!’

"Can we love him or anyone else beyond the extent and the quality of our knowledge? No! What then, is the best knowledge that generates the most love for him and for each other? What makes it the best?"

I want to show, that more often than we might think, there is unusual value in such common everyday good, innocent and common observations, such as the ones I’ve just quoted. At the root of this is the fact that we are living in the time when the rays of the most significant of the divine prophecies (contained in the scriptures) are being fulfilled right in our faces.

Let’s start with two meetings. The first meeting was between Master Fard Muhammad and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. That was in September 1931. The second meeting was between the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. That was February 1955.

There never has been any argument or doubt that these two meetings took place. Certainly, many detractors reject the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s perception of Master Fard Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s perception of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. However, there are certain fundamental facts that resulted from these meetings about which there is no doubt. In other words, everyone who has studied this subject agrees on certain fundamental facts about these three men, despite fundamental disagreements over the significance of these facts.

The stupendous jump in the extent and quality of the knowledge of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad can only be attributed to the fact that Master Fard Muhammad educated him, in person, for three years and four or five months.

There is no denying that the stupendous jump in the extent and quality of the knowledge of Minister Farrakhan—beginning in 1955—can only be attributed to the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. This is so even though he was primarily under the tutelage of Malcolm X for the first nine years he was in the Nation of Islam. But, we must remember, he was taught the wisdom of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

We must also remember that Minister Farrakhan read articles and heard tapes by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Furthermore, he, along with others, went to various meetings where the Honorable Elijah Muhammad delivered speeches. And, of course, he was among those who were blessed, from time to time, to visit the home of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and be taught by him at a dinner table. Then there were times when he was alone with his teacher.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad told us that his Teacher continued to have guiding contact with him after His physical departure. Minister Farrakhan has told us the same with respect to his teacher. In my view, Minister Farrakhan’s more than a vision experience, of September 17, 1985, is—to this point—the most outstanding example of many such spiritual experiences he has had, which illustrate this truth of him.

Now, at one point, in his September 10, 1972 Theology of Time speech, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said:

"Being suspicious is a bad, bad disease, especially when you are suspicious of a man of God that raised him up to lead you into a better life. I want to see you living in heaven where you once lived in hell. I want to see you acting by each other as though both was brought up in the same family and by the same father and mother. That’s what I want for you. God has made me to love you, as He loved you Himself."

The Holy Qur’an tells us that we must avoid most of suspicion for most of suspicion is sin.

Do you think the God, and the man who spoke these words, failed to provide us with a man with the same kind of heart towards us after his departure in 1975?

Minister Farrakhan has a heart like His teacher, who has a heart like God, Who is his Teacher. You may not agree with this: That suspicion of him is sinful. This will get you in trouble with Allah and His Christ. Such suspicion is a manifestation of gross ingratitude and an act of deliberate spiritual stubbornness against Allah’s truths. As it was with his teacher, before him, so it is now. This rebelliousness, which appears in many guises, is manifested in the face of overwhelming proofs of the truth he teaches.

When you think over the suspicion of some respecting Minister Farrakhan—which is from shallow thinking, hypocrisy and Satan’s wicked suggestions—consider this verse and these notes about this suspicion, by two scholars of the Holy Qur’an. The Muhammad Ali translation 17: 36 reads: "And follow not that of which thou hast no knowledge. Surely the hearing and the sight and the heart, of all of these it will be asked."

His footnote number 1428, to this verse reads: "If this injunction were followed, all society gossip would immediately cease, thereby relieving many an innocent man and woman of the heart-burning which he or she suffers on account of evil and unfounded reports. The verse also forbids entering into discussions without accurate knowledge, or proffering uncertain opinion. In fact, peace and contentment would reign in society, instead of mutual strife and hatred, if the injunction were observed."

In the one volume translation of the Qur’an, edited by Malik Ghulam Farid (1969 edition) footnote 1619, to this same verse, we read:

"The verse cuts at the root of all sources of suspicion which in natural order are "the ear," "the eye" and "the heart." "The ear" is the first avenue through which most suspicions enter one’s mind. Most suspicions are caused by ill-founded reports which one hears about another person. Next source is that of sight. A person sees another doing a certain act and interprets it wrongly and is led to suspect the latter’s motives and intentions. The last, and most degraded, kind of suspicion is that which a person entertains about another person, not as the result of a bad report which he might have heard about him, nor in consequence of a bad act or deed which he might have seen him committing, but which is purely the figment of his own diseased mind. Thus it is not only human life and property (to which a reference has already been made in the preceding verse) which are sacred and inviolable, but human honour also is sacrosanct and an attack upon it also will have to be accounted for."

Be careful of your suspicion of Minister Farrakhan. It will get you in quick trouble with the Divine Supreme Being and the man called the Christ.

The above is critical to our own immediate future, and that of our families. Why? Look. Let’s be real. Either the Supreme Being exists, or He does not. If He exists, He has manifested Himself in the past or He has not. If He has made Himself known in the past, He must have done so for a reason. If He has, His reason must have some significant relationship to the origin, life span, presence and the end of evil. If the root cause of wickedness, as well as wickedness itself, is to have an end, then God must have the best reason for allowing it to grow and become dominant on His planet.

More next issue, Allah willing.


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Copyright © 2001 FCN Publishing

" Pooling our resources and doing for self "

External web links are not necessarily the views of
Minister Louis Farrakhan, The Nation of Islam or The Final Call.

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