The Sun Rises in the West: The Brightness of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan

By Sultan Muhammad -FinalCall.com News- | Last updated: Sep 15, 2010 - 7:14:46 PM

Holy Qur'an 2:142 - The fools among the people will say: “What has turned them from their qiblah which they had? Say: The East and the West belong only to Allah; He guides whom He pleases to the right path.” (Maulana Muhammad Ali translation)

The following interview came more than 11 years after the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, received a very special cloak and staff from the highest spiritual teacher in the Muslim world the 104-year-old, Abunah Sheikh Muhammad Ahmed Al-Mahi, during an arranged meeting between the Minister and the Abunah Sheikh in Medina, Saudi Arabia, in January of 1998.

This experience would eventually unfold its most significant meaning and value several years later, while we attended the World's Islamic People's Leadership Conference of which the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan is the Deputy Commander with over 85 nations being represented in Tripoli, Libya, in November, 2009. When this cloak and staff were passed to the Minister, following a very brief visit with the Abunah Sheikh, the Minister was deeply moved and deeply concerned about what was meant by this gesture and pondered over the meaning for some time.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan with the Abunah Sheikh.

During the Libya trip we were accompanied by a very beautifully spirited brother by the name of Hassan Ali, who, just in conversation, mentioned that he was aware of the Minister's experience and meeting with this highly respected Sheikh of all sheikhs. The conversation led to the following most revealing interview about the significance of Minister Farrakhan in the world of Islam as determined by Abunah Sheikh Muhammad Ahmed Al-Mahi of the Mosque of the Prophet (PBUH) in Medina, Saudi Arabia.

Bro. Sultan Muhammad (SM): Bro. Hassan Ali would you please introduce yourself to us.

Bro. Hassan Ali: (Tripoli, Libya): I'm in the service of the Minister Louis Farrakhan and Bro. Akbar Muhammad and the American delegation to translate and do whatever they need me to do, primarily to do whatever they need me to do. I am the student of Muhammad Ahmed Al-Mahi from Medina, who gave the Tariqah (spiritual path of one's teaching) of Prophet Muhammad—May the Peace and Blessing of Allah be Upon Him—and all the related authorities to Minister Farrakhan during Umrah during his visit to Medina in 1998.

SM: Bro. Hassan, what is an Abunah Sheikh?

Bro. Hassan: Abunah Sheikh, literally means “our father sheikh” in Arabic, “our father sheikh,” and he, during his time (among us), he was (in the Orthodox Muslim World) the highest spiritual authority on this planet. This is evidenced by his living in the city of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and being the highest spiritual sheik in that city during his time. What's very relevant about it is his relationship with Bro. Minister Farrakhan and what he gave him (Minister Farrakhan), some which is known and some which is unknown.

SM: First of all, I learned that most people, regardless of station, as King or Prince, would have to wait to see him, is this true?

Bro. Hassan: That is absolutely true.

SM: However, I remember that when we first arrived, the Minister was asked to come up immediately. And I just learned from you that the Abunah Sheik was actually waiting for him?

Bro. Hassan: Yes sir, what I understand from his inheritor, one of his sons, who is presently in charge of the affairs in Medina, the Abunah Sheik was awaiting Minister Farrakhan.

SM: Now, I was present when the Abunah Sheik said to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, who did not even know the Abunah Sheik, had any knowledge of him, that he prayed for the Minister 500 times a day.

Bro. Hassan: A minimum of 500 times a day!

SM: This was a very privileged meeting of which it was a blessing and honor that I and a few others were allowed to meet this very special human being. We were allowed to take a picture of him and then, him and the Minister. I'll hold the significance of that event till later. Nevertheless, when this brief, but surreal meeting was over we were invited to go down to the floor below for tea, which is usually the gesture in a Muslim meeting of any kind. It was then that I heard some kind of clamor or dispute with someone upstairs and one of his sons; I believe the inheritor, came down and passed a cloak and staff to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.

I also learned that the clamor that I thought I heard was another son who strongly disagreed with passing this particular cloak and staff to the Minister. Because this was, in fact, the Abunah Sheik's own cloak and staff, which would now pass out of Medina into the hands of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan who would be heading out of Medina to America. Bro. Hassan, what is the significance of this cloak and staff which had not gone out of Medina?

Bro. Hassan: The significance of the cloak and the staff in the tradition of Islam, as most of the masters understand it, is the passing on of the spiritual authority of one on to another. The staff, because the Prophet Muhammad, Peace and Blessing of Allah Be Upon Him, always wore (carried) that staff and he wore a cloak. These two things are not light symbolism, it's very powerful symbolism. That cloak, it is a symbol … of the passing on of authority.

SM: The Minister was overwhelmingly humbled by this gift and having some knowledge of the extolled position of the Abunah Sheik in the Muslim world, he sat there for a short time and then went to our own hotel and sat in the lobby for some time. He questioned Bro. Sheik Ahmed Tejani, one of our traveling companions and translator about the meaning, but he was really too overwhelmed, I think, to get the full impact of what Sheik Tejani said. Bro. Hassan, I wondered if this was significant of the Abunah Sheik passing his authority to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, since this was not a cloak and staff, but the Abunah Sheik's cloak and staff.

Bro. Hassan: I'm not qualified to give an understanding in and of myself; however my understanding of it is, that he was absolutely passing to him some measure of authority, especially, in his domicile in North America, because this is an age of greatest spiritually and Minister Farrakhan has been mentioning that for the past couple of years if you study his teachings. No teaching is valid without authority and he's been given that. He's been given that by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and he was absolutely, given something by the Abunah Sheik.

SM: Bro. Hassan, this is what is in my mind. Now that the Abunah Sheik has returned to Allah and May Allah Be Pleased with Him, would it be correct or can you comment on whether or not the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, by tradition would be considered “the” or at least, “an” Abunah Sheik?

Bro. Hassan: That, absolutely, could be the case. I was not there for the meeting. I can't say it is or isn't. But we absolutely know something was given to him perhaps that was waiting for him in Medina before he arrived.

SM: Again, was that cloak and staff that of the Abunah Sheik?

Bro. Hassan: It absolutely was.

SM: And there is not a duplicate of that, is it?

Bro. Hassan: No! No! No!

SM: And that has been traditionally passed down?

Bro. Hassan: That is something that one Sheik will give to another Sheik or perhaps to a student whom he is elevating to the status of Sheik.

SM: You were a student of the Abunah Sheik also?

Bro. Hassan: Absolutely, and I'm presently serving his son, who is his global inheritor, Sheikh Abdul Qadir Al-Jayli, who is his oldest son, who has very high regard and concern for the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.

SM: Now, you are from America, right?

Bro. Hassan: Yes … My father came to Islam under the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. I was raised in the University of Islam at a very young age, so I was born and raised, Muslim. I traveled overseas to study. I went to my first Hajj in 1999 and the buzz for Minister Farrakhan was so reverberating in that region that I was surprised and I was seeking teaching in Suffism.

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A second interview was requested from Bro. Hassan Ali, December 3, 2009, following a second talk which revealed some very profound and humbling events which followed the Minister's departure from Medina.

Bro. Hassan: After Bro. Farrakhan exited the Kingdom (Saudi Arabia), a series of events, regarding Abunah Sheikh Muhammad Ahmed Al-Mahi occurred which were related to me by his oldest son, Sheikh Abdul Qadir Al-Jayli. He was the oldest son and the inheritor of the Abunah Sheikh in Medina. He related to me that soon after the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan exited the Kingdom, the Abunah Sheik gave a talk to his top students and that talk lasted for hours; so many hours—his oldest son related to me—that the men were getting antsy on their feet as if they were getting tired. The context of that talk … there's one man in Medina who was present and knows it, his name is Mohammed Mawlid and I will get it at a later date and give it to Bro. Sultan for the Minister to peruse.

A couple of important points:

One is that his son mentioned that he (the Abunah Sheikh) told those who were present (that) talk is more valuable than gold. So, it's important to find out what that talk was.

The second point is that after the Minister exited (Arabia), the Abunah Sheik had a practice of exiting his house every Friday at 11:30 for Jumu'ah at the Mosque of the Prophet, PBUH, and I don't know how many weeks after, it may have been the week immediately after, I'm not certain, but I can find out. One of his oldest sons would escort him on Fridays to Jumu'ah and (that son) would knock at his door every Friday morning at 11:30 AM and tell him it was time to leave.

This particular Friday, he knocked at the door and he told Abunah Sheik, “Abunah Sheik, its 11:30.” The Abunah Sheik says, “I know.” So, the son came back 15 to 30 minutes later, knocked again, and said, Abunah Sheik it's now 12 o'clock. The Abunah Sheik said, “I know.” The son came back a third time to tell him and the Abunah said to him, “Don't you think I know what time it is?” And that was the last time that the Abunah Sheik went to Jummah, ever. This was immediately after the exit of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Pertaining to the Sufi aspect of the Abunah Sheik's teaching, someone asked him what Tariqah is he? This is what the Minister inherited from him, this spirituality, this spiritual authority. He told the person it was called “Tariqah al Kamilah,” meaning the complete tariqah. Meaning whatever you look for of Allah and his Prophet, PBUH, can be found in it. So, that encompasses the whole of Islam.

SM: Did you not say that at some point you came back to America with his eldest son on another mission?

Bro. Hassan: Absolutely, I came here in August or September of 1999. I drove here from New York City, at the express order of the eldest son of the Abunah Sheik; one year later after the Minister had visited. His son came to see the Minister to invite him, as per the Abunah Sheikh's instruction to the Hajj and when we came we stayed with a group on Manchester Rd., the mosque of Omar, Inc., of which the leader of it had some affiliation with the Abunah Sheikh in the past. He claims himself the leader of Abunah Sheik's community in America which is not accurate. We were blocked. We had to rely on that group to get in contact with the Minister and it did not happen. I knew nothing about Chicago, so we had to rely on them. Not even a year after that the Abunah Sheikh went back to Allah.

So, this, I believe, is in keeping with what the Minister mentioned to us when he said he was invited to go Hajj with the Abunah Sheikh. He sent his son here to follow through on that desire.

SM: We understand that we actually met with the Abunah Sheikh in his room or apartment on the top floor. Did you say that even some of his children had never met him there and that no King, Prince, etc. had ever sat with him in that room and none had ever visited him above the second floor?

Bro. Hassan: He had several students and some children who had never gone up to the top story where he lived and did his prayers. I, myself, have never seen that room, physically. The highest I have ever been in that building is the second floor.

SM: When he met with kings or princes …

Bro. Hassan: They did not go in that room. No, No. He would meet them downstairs at the front door in an area called the host, like the front yard.

SM: During the Minister's Peace Tour in which he saw, yet tried to avoid the barbaric bloodshed which has now plagued Iraq, just as it has Afghanistan, we encountered difficulty when we wanted to continue to Mecca to make Umrah. We were to delay and wait for a better time when he could be received with the proper respect. Personally, I thought there may have been some trepidation, because of former President Bush's telegraphed move against Iraq and they were backing out?

Bro. Hassan: No, I don't think they were backing out. You see, the Minister has a base of support in Saudi Arabia that's built in, just because of what the Abunah Sheikh transmitted to him.

I would challenge anyone on the planet. I would find a million dollars to give them if they could find a picture of them with the Abunah Sheikh. The Abunah Sheikh did not allow his picture to be taken in Saudi Arabia. The only pictures that were taken in Saudi Arabia, were the pictures that were taken upon Minister Farrakhan's visit.

No one has a picture of themselves with the Abunah Sheikh.

SM: No one has a picture with the Abunah Sheikh other than Minister Farrakhan?

Bro. Hassan: That's it. He has one picture with his young daughter playing patty-cakes or something like that. No one else. I challenge any one to produce one. No one has one.

The last mention of Bro. Hassan Ali was that he was told that when the Minister left from the Abunah Sheikh's presence, the sheikh raised his fist and pumped it saying, “Shujah, shujah, shujah,” which translates “Courageous, courageous, courageous.”

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