Minister Louis Farrakhan

Development to outgrow confinement

By the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan | Last updated: Jan 27, 2015 - 10:13:41 AM

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[Editor's note: The following article contains excerpts from an address delivered by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan to the inmates of Statesville Correctional Facility in Joliet, Illinois on September 7, 2004.
Click here to order this lecture in its entirety on DVD or CD.]

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

We give Him praise and thanks for His mercy and His goodness to the human family, that whenever we stray from the Divine path that would give us God's Divine Favor, He never punishes us before He raises one from among us to guide us back to His straight path. I am a student of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and I could never thank Allah enough for His intervention in our affairs, raising one from among us to lead, teach and guide us back to that straight path that we might once again come into the favor of Almighty God, Allah. I thank Allah for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and I greet all of you, my dear Brothers, and all the guards and members of the staff of Statesville Correctional Facility, with the greeting words of peace: As-Salaam Alaikum!

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Brothers, I want to say how honored I am to be in your company, to be here at Statesville and to see you. My reason for coming is hopefully that I might say something that would inspire and encourage you to be the best that you can be, because the walls, no matter how much time you have or indefinite time you have, the walls cannot hold you if you determine not to be held. I'm not talking about breaking out; I'm talking about maturing in a way that the wall can't hold you anymore. I realize that it is a struggle, but hopefully what we will say to you in the few minutes that we will be with you will encourage you and make you to know that you were created by Almighty God, Allah to overcome any obstacle in the pathway of your progress. There is no impediment—I want you to hear me well—no impediment that is impossible for you to remove. Once you come into that kind of knowledge and faith that makes you to know who you are and who God is, and your connection to Him, then the rest of it is easy like “1 + 1 = 2.”

Know your direct connection to God

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said to us that this was a universe of total darkness. Scientists say that matter can neither be created nor destroyed. However, material was in the darkness, but it was considered nothing because it was doing nothing. The material had no existence because it had no aim and no purpose, but the Creator, in the darkness, said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. From Him we came. You are not just some fellow that had a bad time on the South Side or the West Side of Chicago, or wherever you live, and you just happened to be here and this is your lot for the rest of your days. No, no, no! See, The God that you are connected to says it in the Qur'an like this, “I created you from a single essence and created your mate of the same and from these two, I spread many men and women.” Again, Allah (God) says in the Qur'an, “I created you into tribes and families that you may know one another.” So, if you are created from The Creator, then that one essence from which He created the human being is Himself. You come directly from God, so a bit of Him is a part of you.

Those of you who are Christian, those of you who are Muslim, those of you who are Hebrew or whatever your religious persuasion may be, the Bible and the Qur'an teach that our eventual return is to Allah (God). Well, how could you return if you didn't come from Him? If your eventual return is to God, then you came originally from God. The flesh, the blood, the bone is of the earth, so when death comes the body returns to the earth, but the essence of us returns to Allah. If you came from God, then there is a Divine Essence in every human being. But the human being is not like the animals; the only thing that separates the human from the beast or the lower forms of life is that we have the ability to think, and knowledge must be a requirement of a human being in order for us to manifest God.

Cultivate the Essence of God in yourself

Have you noticed even before you messed up, there was a still small voice inside saying, “I wouldn't do that if I were you”? This means that you never do wrong without right telling you, “Wait a minute.” But you overcome that right voice, which is called conscience—the Divine Essence of God in the human being. In the Bible, when Peter was with Jesus and he asked Peter, “Lovest thou me?” Peter said, “Yes sir! You know I love you.” Then Jesus said, “Well, feed my sheep.” When Jesus was telling Peter to “feed my sheep,” he was saying, “Don't tell me you love me; do something that demonstrates your love for me.” When Jesus asked Peter for the third time, “Lovest thou me, Peter?” Peter said, “Master, you know I love you,” and Jesus responded, “Well, feed my lambs.” Jesus wasn't talking about giving them government cheese, or some handout in physical food. The Essence of God within every human being must be fed and must be cultivated in order for you to grow into God.

What do you mean, “grow into God?” The Bible teaches that you were made “in the image and likeness of God,” so how could you not be able to reflect God? That is a contradiction. In the Qur'an, it says it differently: That the human being is called khalifah; he is the successor of God. Khalifah reigns in this level and by God's permission, he is made to rule. But how do you get to rule if there is no guidance coming to you; no knowledge coming to you to feed God within you?

God never steals. God doesn't even borrow. He says, “Be,” and it is. Well, how could you be from God, and you have to use your brain power to trick somebody; to steal from somebody? That's not your role. That is you in an adulterated low form. Not cultivated as you could be and as you should have been. You live in a world that spends more money building buildings, and no money hardly building human beings. That is why uncultivated human beings tear down buildings, tear up streets, destroy cities and towns because we have never been truly cultivated.

Overcoming great odds to see your value

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said to us that no prison can hold us if we evolve, as we should evolve, into a manifestation of God. “How can you prove that, Farrakhan?” You once were, what the Holy Qur'an says, “made from worthless water.” Do you know what “worthless water” is? Sperm. It only has value if it is placed in the right place, at the right time, then sperm mixed with ovum started your life and mine. When I came in, you stood and honored me, but I also stand to honor you, because I am not greater than you. What I am manifesting is already sitting up inside of you, only needing an avenue and opportunity to manifest itself.

When you were sperm, how many sperm were released at one time? Some say 100 million; some say 200 million; some say 1 billion. But only one sperm could fertilize the egg, so the odds that you were going to be here was 100 million to one, or 1 billion to one. That is greater odds than the five-number lotto. That is greater odds than anything that Las Vegas offers. You, personally, were emitted into a hostile environment. The vaginal tract of the female is a hostile environment, so don't complain, “Oh, it's hostile in prison.” Yes, it is, but you overcame that when you were sperm. Do you believe that you can't overcome it as a grown-up human being?

Why does God give you an initial test of a hostile environment to prove that you are worthy to come forth out of the womb? Because life has to be tested. You have to be worthy of life. In your effort to compete against hundreds of millions of sperm, you made it. Then, you had to swim upstream against gravity, so don't tell me that you can't come up. I don't care how down you are—you can get up. You overcame a hostile environment; heavy odds. What are the odds that you are going to make it out of here? Some people are already betting, “Not him. He ain't making it.” But if they had been around when you were sperm, they might have bet even a greater chance that you wouldn't make it, but you made it. And if you made it as a sperm, then you can make it as a developed and developing human being.

Once you are properly evolved and developed, you can never accept confinement. So now, what is your role here, at Statesville? You don't serve time—you let time serve you.

Read: Free yourself from the cage of ignorance

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I'm sure you all have heard of Brother Malcolm X. He was in prison like you. Some of our most brilliant Brothers and Sisters—White, Brown and Black—are in prison because they refused to bow to the system or got involved in that which says, “I'm not going to submit to that.” Malcolm was like that; he went to the 8th grade of school. When he was in the 8th grade, his teacher said, “Malcolm, what would you like to be when you grow up?” He said, “I would like to be a lawyer.” And his Caucasian teacher said, “Oh Malcolm, if you became a lawyer your own people wouldn't hire you and my people never would either. But you would make a wonderful carpenter.” So, that's like sticking a needle in the brain so that you will never think beyond your slave master. You will never think in ways that can challenge his rule of you. So Malcolm left school and became a criminal, but while he was confined, the message of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad reached him. Then he went to the prison library in Norfolk, Mass. and read everything that they had of value in the library.

The library in your prison must be equipped with the type of book that will enable you to grow. You may say, “Well, I can't read. I wasn't good at reading in school,” but we have an answer for you. The first word that Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, ever heard when he was called into the prophethood, was “Iqra!” (Read!):

“Read in the name of thy Lord Who creates—Creates man from a clot, Read and thy Lord is most Generous, Who taught by the pen, Taught man what he knew not.” (Holy Qur'an, Surah 96, verses 1-5)

A non-reading, non-intellectual people is as ugly in their development as a clot is in its development. A clot has potential for life, but it is very ugly because it must stay in the womb until it evolves and develops into something of beauty. So it is with an unlearned people who refuse to read. Prophet Muhammad could not read, yet he had a heart and a mind and a soul and a spirit that God wanted to use for the liberation—not only of His people—but for all of humanity. That man who could not read was chosen, and in the end, he read; in the end, he wrote, so don't you ever say that you can't do anything. The word “can't” is not in the language of someone who comes from God. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, “When Almighty God, Allah created the heavens and the earth, and the universe from nothing, He destroyed the impossible.” So there is nothing impossible. Get that word “can't” out of your language. Never use, “I can't do.” Say, “I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me.”

***

Brothers, you've been given a number while you are here. That number does not accurately describe who you are. It's you in the lowest form of your evolutionary development, but the moment you confess a belief in Allah, God—the Highest Power—and seek knowledge, then you begin to grow. And as you grow humanly, you grow morally. There is no such thing as a true human being who will steal from another. No. That is not a human. That is allowing the urges of the flesh to dictate to the power of the mind.

When you use drugs, you get high and stupid, and then you do stupid things and then you have to go back and do some more. But if you keep getting more knowledge, then every round keeps getting higher and higher until you almost have wings. And if you take a book and open it up, it's like wings. The more you try to study to improve yourself, then you must also improve your relationships with your fellow inmates.

Become a force of unity

Brothers, how many of you are affiliated with one of the street organizations? Do you know why Africa is struggling today? Because in Ghana, in Nigeria, in Kenya, in Zimbabwe, in South Africa, wherever you go, tribes sometimes are more important than the nation. Even though God created us into tribes and families, in the evolutionary growth of the human being, you start off with a tribe, but you grow into a nation and then into a world. You started from one cell, now your body is composed of billions of cells. But it's still one body. How could you, as a member of a street organization, hate your Brother who is a member of another street organization, because you use a different sign? A different handshake? A different color that you wear? Live in a different neighborhood that none of you own, but you go and call it your turf? Brothers, we are a family, and we must outgrow the things that divide us and grow into that which unites us as one family because that is the only way you can change reality. You must be a force of unity.

We have on our planet Black, Brown, Red, Yellow and White, and what we have known of each other is the worst of each other. This is because the educational system of America was set up to support the false premise of White Supremacy. White folk are victimized by that madness, and so are we because when we meet each other, we meet each other as adversaries. At some point we have to outgrow stupidity.

The type of language you use sets the state of your mind and attitude, so don't call each other “My dog.” Stop that. As the word “dog” is “god” spelled backward, when you treat one another like a dog, you are a product of God turned backward. And stop using the term “nigger.” If you stop it, they'll stop it; but you can't make an ugly term look good by using it. You should be showing the world, “I'm confined, but I'm going to get out of this. I'm going to show the world that I'm a dignified human being crafted by the Creator, Himself, and I refuse to let anybody make me less than that. Nor will I make myself less than that.”

Why don't you practice calling each other “Brother,” and then be a Brother to one another? How did Jesus and the prophets greet the disciples? They said Shalom in Hebrew, or Salaam in Arabic, or “Peace be with you.” That is the best greeting you could give one another in a place like this, rather than “good morning.” How could it be a good morning? “I'm confined. I don't know when I'm going to get out. I haven't seen my wife. My girlfriend left me. Something is going wrong. Good morning?” No. Say, “Peace, Brother. Peace be with you.”

Now, you don't say it out of your mouth, alone. If I say “peace” to you, do you know what that means? This means that nothing from my lips; nothing from my hands will disturb your peace. This means that I am your Brother, and I will protect you in righteousness and I will defend you in righteousness. I am your Brother.

Respect those in authority over you

If you look at the guards in here that are around the wall, these are persons who have been given the responsibility of guarding you. That's not a fun job; this is not an easy life. These men have to go home to their wives and their families, and sometimes if there is a hostile relationship between those in authority and those that they have authority over, it causes friction; lots of friction. What you want to do is to make your stay here as peaceful as possible. How do you get peace? The Qur'an tells it so beautifully, “Respect those in authority over you.” Well, you're here now. These people are the authorities. They have rules. Every place has rules, and when you get out of here, God willing, and you set up your house, you're going to have some rules in your house. You came out of your mother's house, and she had rules. Your mother told you when to come in, when to go to bed, and where to sleep. She said, “No. You don't go to my refrigerator. I put the food in there, and I'll tell you what you're going to eat tonight.” Your mother was a loving dictator—but she had rules. Everything that runs must have rules and regulations to keep order. That is what this is all about. So if you respect your Brothers and those in authority over you, there shouldn't be a problem.

Now, sometimes you're forced into an ugly situation, but if you are not forced into it, respect those in authority over you, whether they respect you or not. And if you do that, soon they will respect you.

***

Throughout the world, the people have become so frustrated that they have become savage. Injustice can make a person insane, and when a person feels that nobody is listening to them, and they have no court for the redress of their grievance, then they decide to take matters into their own hand. And justice, which is symbolized by a woman blindfolded, holding a scale, when that scale is tipped, the weight of truth hidden and punishment overriding the facts and the truth, then you have imbalanced a human being. And when the human being is imbalanced, they can do terrible, terrible things.

Let peace reign in here. Don't shed each other's blood. Find ways to dispel conflict; resolve it peacefully, and make your stay here as good as it could possibly be, then the walls have to come down because you're too big. You've grown too much to be held in a prison.

May Allah bless you as I greet you in peace, As-Salaam Alaikum.