(Taken from “Commonomics: Developing a Post Yakub Economy”
http://noimoa.com/product/commonomics-developing-a-post-yakub-economy/)
Black Germ: Lessons from “Closing the Gap”
I would like to thank Minister Jabril Muhammad for his wonderful work entitled “Closing the Gap”. We thank Allah that he was in place to help the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan recover his sight after the departure of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and for his ability to ask tough questions to Minister Farrakhan in the proper manner and put them together in this book for our study.
When I read through the “trials” of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and the “tests” that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad put him through, I asked myself if I could have passed those tests. The trials and tests that Minister Farrakhan was put through and his passing all of these tests made him fit to sit in the “Mercy Seat” of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Subsequent trials and tests were faced by him on the rebuilding of the Nation of Islam of which he has brilliantly executed and passed, that can be attributed to the mind, the heart and the will that was developed under the tests and trials of the Messenger when he was among us.
I want to focus just on the trials and tests before the departure of the Messenger as outlined in “Closing the Gap”. The majority of the trials and tests that I will mention are found starting on page 347 of “Closing the Gap”.
Just reading these trials, and imagining myself going through them as Minister Farrakhan did, had an effect on my heart and mind. Therefore, I thought that some type of helpful framework for self-analysis and personal development could be produced using those tests and trials. So I have developed this tentative test that readers of “Closing the Gap” can use to help them in their self-analysis.
Minister Farrakhan has stated that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad had promised him that the new “Book” from Allah would come through him. I am putting forward the hypothesis that Minister Farrakhan, himself, is that “Book”. Minister Farrakhan is the executioner of the Word of Allah and the first new Man, new Adam, of the New Era of Man. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad told us to look at Min. Farrakhan and listen to him. Then during Minister Farrakhan’s visit on the Wheel, the Minister said that he felt as though something was downloaded into him and that it comes out over time based on the time and circumstances as he works to rebuild the Nation of Islam, and ultimately save humanity.
Believers may see Minister Farrakhan as fulfilling Scripture or the lives of the prophets, and that he has done. However, according to the Minister, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad gave him a name but not its meaning. The Messenger also told the Minister that it was a good name and an attribute of Allah. Therefore “Farrakhan” represents a new attribute of Allah that we must become familiar with by studying and observing Min. Farrakhan. Min. Farrakhan becomes a standard for the future. He represents the best among us at this time and the best potential of us.
Unlike Jesus, whose actual written works we do not have, and what we have of his words in the Bible is hearsay, we have Min. Farrakhan’s own writings plus volumes of speeches and presentations on video and audio media. We now have an in-depth set of interviews from Bro. Min. Jabril Muhammad that reveal the motives of our Minister as he was executing the Word of Allah or manifesting the Word of Allah as taught to him by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. According to Min. Farrakhan, his every step is presently guided by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Master Fard Muhammad on the Wheel. They are hidden but he is the executor of their commands and intent. Therefore to see and understand Minister Farrakhan is to understand an aspect of Allah.
Now down to the test. I have chosen 19 trials and/or tests. Others may find a different set of trials or tests. The four categories of responses are defined as: 1. “Passed”, I know I would have responded like Min. Farrakhan, 2. “Maybe”, but my circumstances are so different from Min. Farrakhan’s that I can not be completely sure, i.e. Min. Farrakhan gave up his music career, I gave up playing football, but I know that I was not pro material, while Min. Farrakhan was getting paid quite well for performing, 3. “Unsure”, I really don’t have a clue about what I would have done in that particular situation, and 4. “Failed”, I know I would have failed said test or trial at my past and present level of development.
I have given a numerical score of 3 for “Passed”, 2 for “Maybe”, 1 for “Unsure” and 0 for “Failed”. Therefore the highest score would be 19 x 3 or 57. Since Minister Farrakhan passed all of these tests, his score is 57.
I took the test and my total score was 25. Now I am not going to tell you specifically which tests that I think I would have passed or failed, because that’s my business. However, my score is very sobering.
My score tells me that I have a long way to go to come up to the standard of a “Believer”, “Follower” and “Executioner” of the Word as exemplified by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Therefore, I pray to Allah to forgive my faults and forgive how my faults may have hindered someone else from properly seeing, responding to and helping the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. However, I can now work towards changing my heart, mind and character to be more like the Minister’s and ultimately become more useful to both the Christ and the Mahdi. Remember, this is a personal test for each of our hearts, not something to be shared with others or compared to others.
With this brief introduction here are the cryptic representations of the tests that I gleaned from “Closing the Gap”. You have to read the full text of the events in “Closing the Gap” to really understand how to make an evaluation of how you might have responded:
- Giving up his musical career.
- Put in as Captain in Boston instead of Minister.
- Suffering extreme poverty in Boston.
- Falsely accused of stealing someone’s play.
- Test of loyalty between his mentor, Malcolm, and his leader, the Messenger.
- Reading a letter about him but not addressed to him in relations to how leadership in Chicago viewed him.
- Accepting a name without knowing its meaning and not bugging the Messenger about it.
- Giving back “lollypop” I: Tony Brown’s radio program “Is it too late”.
- Following orders by the Messenger to mock the leaders in Atlanta.
- Someone under the Minister being invited out to see the Messenger more than himself.
- Messenger seemed to reject the people of Min. Farrakhan’s birthright.
- Sitting in the Messenger’s seat during the “Theology of Time” series.
- Accused of being weak for allowing the Black Panthers to body search him.
- Accused of using secretaries to spy on the Messenger in the National House.
- Giving back “lollypop” II: Weekly national radio broadcast.
- Never hating the Messenger’s laborers or family even though they worked against the Minister’s success.
- Not taking money from other treasuries other than the minister’s salary treasury even though given permission by the Messenger to do so.
- Not killing or removing Sec. Maceo and Capt. Joseph after they messed up the Temple’s finances.
- Accepting seeming rejection when The Messenger asked the Minister to get a plane load of Black business people to fly to Chicago, and the Messenger seemingly snubbing them.
As Minister Farrakhan has matured and developed, he produces so much light that all you have to do is see him and you feel better. Of course that depends on which side you are in the black-brown dichotomy. Is his strong attractive power attributable to just eloquence of speech or charismatic personality? Or are we so strongly attracted to him because of the love that he spreads like a sun in our midst? Do we have to go through such trials as he did to burn out the brown germ and make the black germ dominant in our lives? Good questions…