The Final Call

Marriage & Family Workshop: Make yours a happy home

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CHICAGO—This year’s marriage and family workshop at Saviours’ Day 2019 was hosted by Marcus and Cecelia Muhammad of the Marriage Keepers, the Atlanta couple devoted to helping couples communicate better and hosts of a yearly marriage retreat.

“The most critical thing to our nation is divorce,” said Cecelia Muhammad, repeating guidance from the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.  “We must reflect. We have to compare this to a car accident. We get out of that wreck and get in another car and get into another accident.  We have to realize the common denominator is you.

“We have to know how critical our marriages are in the Nation.  As Muslims our Supreme Wisdom must be applied to every area of our life at all times,” she said.

The first panel welcomed Student Regional West Coast Minister Tony Muhammad and his wife L’tonya from Los Angeles and Student Minister Abdul Hafeez Muhammad from Muhammad Mosque No. 7 in New York.

“Women need support emotionally,” explained Hafeez Muhammad.  He talked about the different scenarios that today’s woman comes from.  “If you don’t want her reality, you really don’t want her,” he said.

“If men are the maintainers of women, men have to be emotionally stable to deal with women.  Be kind, tolerant and loving. I heard the Honorable Minister Farrakhan say about marriage to rely on Allah and the Messenger.  They will keep you cool in the hot furnace of life.”

Tony Muhammad told the standing room only audience that married couples in the Nation were like crusaders for Black neighborhoods.

“They are used to seeing us shacking and pimping.  Being married, we are super heroes for our community.  I try to use everything the Minister has given us to be successful.  Do strategic planning for your marriage,” he said.

“Write down your goals.  Start with spiritual goals.  We wanted to be able to recite the Supreme Wisdom.  Make prayer together, especially the morning prayer (Fajr).  Pray for each other.  Find an ayat (verse) in the Qur’an.  This is love making mentally.  Put God (Allah) first.  Your wife will help God (Allah) shade your Negro tendencies.”

The next panel, “Who wants to be successful in their marriages?” featured young couples.  Nasser and Jazmin Muhammad from Washington, D.C.’s Muhammad Mosque No. 4 and Abdul and Khadeejah Muhammad from Atlanta’s Muhammad Mosque No. 15.”

How did they know this person was the right one?

“I was looking for someone of my faith, but she also had to be of my flavor.  When I found those two things in Jazmin I called her father with my father at my side.  Her father gave me his permission to court his daughter,” Nasser Muhammad said.

For Khadeejah, she investigated Abdul through his family.  “I wanted to know what he was like before the Nation of Islam.  I went to family events.  Spoke to his grandmother and cousins.  I got to see him 360 degrees,” she said.