The Final Call

Growing in faith and belief for today’s circumstances

What's your opinion on this article?

Minister Farrakhan: To capsulate it. It is a picture of the day of judgment, that each human being will be called to account for what that human being has done with what that human being was given. So in the parable of the talents, there is a man who was going away in a far country, and at the time of that parable was spoken, the means of transportation was such, that if a man was going away into a far country, with the means of transportation that was available at that time, it would take that person an awfully long time to go into and return from a far country.

I think the parable was trying to tell us, that the person would be gone for a while. The absence of that person was a test for the servants of that person. So he calls them before he goes and he gives to each talents. One he gives five, one he gives three, one he gives one.

In those days a talent or talents were money and he goes. The man that he gave five increased it to ten. The man that he gave three increased it to five. The man that he gave one, he buried it.

When the Master returned, he called his servants. Now this is the day of judgment. What did you do with what I gave you?

One servant said, ‘You have given me five and I increased it to ten.’ And the Master said, ‘Well done thou good and faithful servant, because you have been faithful of a little, I’ll make you ruler over much.’

And then he called the man that he had given three talents. That man too had increased his to five. He could have doubled his, like the man before him, but he only got two more than what he was given, but still the Lord was pleased with him because of an increase.

But the man that he had given one, he buried it. He never put it to use. He wanted to give it back to the Master the same way he received it. Needless to say the Master was greatly displeased with him and took from him his talent. He did not give it to the man that had three and increased it to five. He took that one talent and gave it to the man who brought about the biggest increase.

The man with the one talent begin accusing the Master. ‘Ah, you’re a hard man. You reap where you have not even sown.’ He is making excuses for his lack of proper use of his talent.

Well, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that the talent here represents faith. The greatest money that a person has is their faith in God. But faith counts for nothing except it is put to an exchange, as money should secure you some of the things that you would need to make life more comfortable and the quality of life better for you and your family, it is putting faith to an exchange that will improve the quality of your life.

The man that buried his faith was in a ‘time warp.’ He refused to grow. He was comfortable with the one that he had and didn’t see any need to improve on what the Master had given him. He thought he would be accepted by giving back to the Master what the Master had given him.

He found himself cast into outer darkness and that which he had was taken from him. [My note: Minister Farrakhan shuddered a bit as he paused and then said: “My Lord! My Lord!”]

What I see in that, is that everyone whom the Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught, who claims belief in him, has to put their faith to an exchange. For as surely as the day follows the night, he will return and we will be called into account for our use of our faith; our use of our life; our use of our gifts; skills and talents.

If we have not done properly, then we will suffer the judgment of our Master, rather than the joy of having pleased him and being made governors and rulers over territory, and what not, in his name.

So it would behoove all to come out of the comfort ability of what you believed yesterday, because what you believed yesterday and the way you believed yesterday may not be acceptable in today’s circumstances.

However, you cannot come into today without a guide. So Allah says, “I will not leave you comfortless. I’m going to give you somebody who will guide you in the absence of your Master, as a comforter but also as a guide to a higher level of comfort after the difficulty of change.”

Unfortunately, the rejection of that guide, as the continuation of the work of the Master (the Honorable Elijah Muhammad) is absolutely confining us to a stage and a period of time that sentences us to death.

Brother Jabril: You just reminded me of something I said to some of us the other day. You know, we of times, refer to you as reminder. We of times say this in our opening statements before an audience, or whatever, and sometimes in their prayers, thanking Allah for ‘reminder’ in yourself. But the Holy Quran also says, in more than one place, that “If you reject this reminder then chastisement is coming.” So, I want to bring up that point in this context.

Minister Farrakhan: Yes, they’re not confident that he is guiding them aright, so they stay in that which they were sure of that was sanctioned by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad when he was among us. But they do not realize that this new stage of their development was and is also sanctioned by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

So when it says, “Go you both, I give you a criteria now. I give you an authority.” This tells us that as Moses was given an criteria and an authority and so Aaron was also given the same. But those who came up under the man like Moses did not have the same trust in the man like Aaron. So they were more comfortable teaching that which they didn’t have to struggle to grow to understand.

Brother Jabril: So then we have that warning, in the Bible, that tells us, in symbolic form, that all twenty years old, and older, were divinely done away with. So those nineteen years old, and younger had the big chance to make it. The youthful or the childlike eager state of mind, to learn and move ahead, as you’ve mentioned, these are all interconnected and key to our salvation today.

More next issue, Allah willing.