The Final Call

How mood and state of mind relates to perception, understanding

What's your opinion on this article?

(I’m repeating an article that was in this newspaper a couple of years ago. Study it very carefully.)

In The Holy Qur’an 25:32, 33 we can read: “And those who disbelieve say: Why has not the Qur’an been revealed to him all at once? Thus, that We may strengthen thy heart thereby and We have arranged it well in arranging. And they cannot bring thee a question, but We have brought thee the truth and the best explanation.”

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan responded to this one question. Of course he did not know what the question was going to be before I asked him. This is his immediate response to me.

Brother Jabril: Brother Minister, I want to begin with the concept of mood and how mood affects our perceptions and our understanding of the critical word of Allah (God). You commented yesterday on this subject with reference to a recent Farrakhan the Traveler article, which included the bearing our moods have on our efforts to learn the word of Allah (God). Please give us the benefit of your comments.

Minister Farrakhan: What we bring to whatever we look at is what gives us our perception of that which we are looking at. Knowledge influences perception. However, if we do not know closing the gap what we are looking at, then, the perception we have of that at which we are looking is not as full or complete as it could be, or would be, if only we had knowledge and further understanding.

In the Holy Qur’an, there is a verse that reads, “We take Allah’s colouring, and Allah is best at colouring.” I believe it means we take Allah’s (God’s) view and how Allah (God) views His own creation is how the believer views Allah’s (God’s) creation.

But we cannot see His creation without His help. His help comes by introducing the knowledge to us of that which He created, and, the deeper aspect of perception is understanding the purpose for, which He created what He created. It is only when we understand the purpose for the creation of the thing, we are looking, and the lessons He intended in it, that we can say we have taken fully Allah’s (God’s) coloring.

There is, however, something that alters perception. As you wrote in one of your articles (Vol. 17 No. 41) recently, “mood” can disallow one to perceive properly. Sometimes mood cannot be controlled because of the things that happened in the course of a day that can alter one’s mood. That altering of mood from happy to sad, from peaceful to agitated and irritated can cause us to misperceive the reality of that at which we are looking.

I was with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad one day, and he had just finished reading a letter from his nephew, the son of his brother, Kollatt. He said, the night before he was laying in his bed reading his nephew’s letter and he had a negative view of that letter and the person who wrote it. But the next morning he read it again, and he perceived that letter totally different than he did the night before.

I do not know how anyone can perceive reality properly without Allah (God). The God-conscious individual is less likely to misperceive reality, than one who forsakes Allah (God). When we forsake Allah (God), we forsake Him who is the only reality and the creator of that which we are trying to perceive.

What altered his perception? It was that “mood,” that was created by the daily work of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad; the negatives of that day influenced his perception.

So I would imagine that in order to perceive anything correctly, we must first check the state of mind we are in, then ask ourselves, how much we do know about that at which we are looking at? How deep is our knowledge of this thing? How deep is our understanding of its purpose? And when we can answer those questions properly, then we can say whether we perceive or misperceive reality.

I do not know how anyone can perceive reality properly without Allah (God). The Godconscious individual is less likely to misperceive reality, than one who forsakes Allah (God). When we forsake Allah (God), we forsake Him who is the only reality and the creator of that which we are trying to perceive.

So only through the eyes of the only reality can we really perceive reality. One must, therefore, study the word of Allah (God) in order to perceive the reality of life better. One must study the word of Allah (God) to come into the proper mood and attitude for understanding.

Note: Minister Farrakhan went on to cite another occasion while he was at the dinner table of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad dismissed one of the believers who went to sleep at the table. Minister Farrakhan recalled that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad then said: “If you are talking to someone, and they don’t seem to be receptive to what you are trying to teach, it limits your will and desire to try to teach.”

Minister Farrakhan continued, in our interview, with these words: “So, the attitude of receptivity is the precondition for perceiving and receiving the word.”

Brother Jabril: We know that one day the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said to you that you did not have to study. You have said to some of us that this puzzled you. I bring this up in relation to your appointment of Sister Minister Ava Muhammad as a minister over a mosque in the Nation of Islam. Please comment.

Minister Farrakhan: As I came to understand the words of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, I came to see not that I should not study, but what he is going to bring through me and from me is that which is revelation. If it is revelation, I cannot study it, because I have no knowledge of what it is until it comes. After it comes through, then we can study it more deeply to understand and interpret it for those who believe.

I said that with respect to the appointment of Sister Minister Ava Muhammad as minister of the mosque, it was an act of inspiration. I had another person in mind. As I was sitting at the table, knowing I was going to make a change in Atlanta, I looked at Sister Ava, and in an instant, it came to me that she should be the one.

In order to explain my moves to others who might not understand, I said I am not an individual who sits in contemplation and meditation in planning the next step for the Nation’s development.

Everything we have done has come from inspiration that comes in an instant. I do not know when its coming, or in what context it is going to come. I only know that it comes, and when it comes, I am convinced almost instantly that it is something I should do.

Sometimes after I say it or do it, there are some reservations; there are some “misgivings,” if that is a proper word. But they are quickly dispelled, because the reservations and the misgivings come out of a fear, sometimes, of a consequence for the revelation, an inspiration that has been acted upon. Then, Allah (God) confirms me, so that fear or anxiety over what He has inspired me to say or do goes away.

Then, I go forward with zeal and strength and total commitment, knowing that Allah (God) is with me in what I am about to do.

More next issue, Allah Willing.