Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Economic Blueprint

By Cedric Muhammad
-Guest Columnist- | Last updated: Aug 31, 2007 - 10:56:00 AM

The Study Guides of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Economic Blueprint of The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad

“…For the very work that the Father has given me to finish and which I am doing testifies that the Father has sent me.” - John 5:36

“I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.”—John 17:4

Some of my clients, friends and associates often express their disappointment to me regarding the slow pace of economic development among our people, in general, and the growth of Black-owned businesses, more specifically. In response, I simply ask, ‘Are you practicing the principles of unity that make for success in business among your own circle of family and friends?’ The answer is always a ‘no,’ in some form.

Among my Muslim family, I make my response to such questions more specific—‘Are you practicing the economic blueprint of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad among fellow Believers, family and friends from childhood, high school and college?’ The answer, usually amounts to ‘no.’

Part of the explanation as to why this is so, dawned on me, powerfully, on August 23, 2003. On that day, as part of my representation of the work of the Nation of Islam’s Atonement Commission, in the area of Trade and Commerce, I had the privilege of speaking at Mosque Maryam. At a certain point, I finally said publicly what had been in my heart, privately, for years. Those words, to paraphrase, were, “Who would have thought it? But there is the most intimate relationship between the Study Guides of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and working the Economic Blueprint of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.”

It is hard to put into words, but it was almost as if the audience swooned. Their verbal and non-verbal reaction to what I said made it very clear that what I said resonated with them, deeply.

Over a period of decades the Honorable Elijah Muhammad essentially attributed our economic woes to the following factors:

• Distrust among ourselves

• Being deceived by others outside of our community

•The neglect of economic matters by our own leaders

• The control of our economic affairs by those outside of our community

• Thievery and robbery among Black leadership prior to his being raised

• Being enamored with the wealth of America

• Our ignorance of the science of business and sound economic principles

• Fear

• Laziness

• Our lack of the knowledge of self, others, the time, and what must be done.

Over the past 30 years, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has deepened our understanding of all of these factors. A ‘small’ example is his words regarding the science of business, contained in the book, Closing The Gap.

But it is his Study Guides—“Self Improvement: The Basis For Community Development,” which represent a goldmine for all of us looking to understand why we have been so slow to ‘do for self.’ By guiding us into a process of self-examination, self-analysis, and self-correction, the guidance, if followed, would better qualify us to 1) become entrepreneurs (I define an entrepreneur as one who perceives an opportunity and creates an organization to pursue it) and 2) develop the character to become trustworthy business partners of one another.

On the first point, too many of us do not know how to turn an idea into a vision, and then into a plan, followed by continuous action in the face of adversity and difficulty factors. The Study Guides provide keys on how ideas are formed; how to develop and feed desire, converting it into strong will power; how to internally and collectively debate and discuss ideas, testing them for truthfulness and practicality; how to maintain balance, while navigating change and overcoming obstacles; and how to relate and coordinate action with others.

In short, by directing us into a deep knowledge of our individual selves, strengthening our belief in ourselves (self-improvement), while in dialogue and interaction with others (community development), Minister Farrakhan has enabled us to practice, on a more permanent basis, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s Economic Blueprint, which implores us to collectively pool our talents, skills, interests and resources in united action. Minister Farrakhan has done so by taking us into the divine root of creative and critical thinking.

That the Study Guides come to us after the Economic Blueprint of his Teacher, represents, to me, Allah (God)’s timing in the outworking of the plan of our salvation, resurrection, and eventual complete economic self-sufficiency. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that one day we would become so independent that we would not have to rely upon another nation through international trade to satisfy any of our needs.

If we would take these Study Guides, make them a centerpiece of our entrepreneurial and business development and planning, and combine them with the steps the Honorable Elijah Muhammad told us to take, like studying the economic practices of ethnic communities like the Chinese and Japanese, as well as Whites, we would have all we need for our individual prosperity, economic and community development, and the total elimination of what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad referred to as the ‘business hypocrite’ and ‘double crossers’—those individuals who ‘come in claiming belief and then go out disbelieving.’ All of us, if we don’t do what the Study Guides tell us, have this horrible potential of becoming hypocrites and enemies of the very entrepreneurial and economic idea we claim to believe in and aspire to establish or fulfill within a community or partnership relationship (consider this in terms of what is written in part of Surah 38:24 of the Holy Qur’an, “…And surely many partners wrong one another save those who believe and do good, and very few are they!”

One of the areas that all of us need to improve in, is how to handle the offenses, slights, disagreements, transgressions, sins, imperfections and shortcomings that we embody, commit or receive, while seeking to unite with others. Beautiful teachings from the Holy Qur’an on settling differences, the Study Guides, and the practice of the long forgotten (smile) Eight Steps of Atonement are all we need to make the proper course corrections.

If we are to truly fulfill the economic blueprint of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, regain and surpass the wonderful example of the business accomplishments of The Nation of Islam and Black America, prior to 1975, we will not do it without overcoming the forces (anger, envy, fear, greed, hypocrisy, jealousy, lust, pride and vanity) that are re-directing our will in our effort to unite with one another.

In other words, we can’t fully work the economic program of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad without proper use of the Study Guides of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.

It is that simple.

(Cedric Muhammad is a business and political economist who advises entrepreneurs and small businesses through his company, CM Cap (http://www.cmcap.com/). He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected]. His weekly “Cedric Muhammad and Black Coffee Program” can be viewed every Wednesday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST at The Black Coffee Channel by visiting www.blackcoffeechannel.com/.)

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