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Minister Farrakhan shares message on self-mastery and manifesting power

By J.S. Adams, Contributing Writer | Last updated: Jul 18, 2019 - 12:22:53 PM

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National Training Seminar 2019 participants listen as Minister Farrakhan speaks, July 13, in St. Charles, IL.

ST. CHARLES, Ill.—The atmosphere inside the St. Charles Ballroom at the Pheasant Run Resort quickly changed.

Those learning new fighting techniques stopped as the announcement came: The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan was about to walk into the room.

First came Mother Khadijah Farrakhan, the wife of Minister Farrakhan and the First Lady of the Nation of Islam. Participants in the annual weekend martial arts conference flocked to the back door to watch her enter the large room, clad in a pink and black DeModest sweat suit. Soon after, Minister Farrakhan entered the room.

The crowd shouted, recorded video and snapped photos of his bright face as he took his seat. Trainees were excited to hear him share words at the 2019 National Training Seminar, organized by student Assistant Supreme Captain Abdul Azziz Muhammad.

After he watched demos from martial arts masters, the Minister took to the microphone offering a message of inspiration, growth, and insight into the gifts God has deposited inside every human being.

“Allah, the Creator, has never created one creature that he didn’t deposit something in that creature for other creatures like ourselves to study and learn from,” he said. “The greatest of his creatures is the human being. But we’ve been under such a terrible master who wanted to be to us as god and would punish us severely if we disobeyed him, letting you know that the road to self-mastery is obedience to a master.”

One of his main points was the path to greatness.

“... If you were made in the image and likeness of God, He gave each one of us a part of Himself that allows us to reflect Him,” he said. “Every student of a master here today, you reflect your master teacher. You want to walk like him, you want to talk like her ... but you start by having an object in front of you that you admire. That’s the way all of us fashion ourselves into greatness.”

Sometimes, he said, other factors get in the way of our talents.

“Each one of us has a gift that came directly from the Creator. He did not miss one of you. He is present in all of you,” he said. “But environmental factors, starting in the home, the school, the society, sometimes you lose focus on yourself and your gift, so you see other young people manifesting their gifts and sometimes you feel this awful sense of envy.”

Envy, he continued, is a terrible disease of the heart.

“All these masters are here demonstrating their mastery of what they dedicated their lives to,” he said. “Do you feel envious if somebody does it a little different, a little better, and you say, ‘man, that should be me.’ So instead of building your gift, you start hating on the gift that you see manifested in others and if you begin to dislike someone for the mastery of their gift, then God will put a veil over your gift, and you will never see yourself as an equal to the one that you are envious of in this sense.”Envy must be replaced with love in order to grow, the Minister said.

“Love is the basis of the discovery of God and self and love is the basis of discovering your purpose and God is the root out of which you spring and without acknowledgment of your Creator, you’re limiting your ability to grow. Envy will crush your ability to grow,” he warned.

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(L) eminar host Grandmaster Abdul Azziz Muhammad demonstrates technique with Shodan Demonet Bernstein. (Center) Shodan Gabrielle X of Chicago, IL. exhibits during martial arts demonstration. (right) Shihan Zahalea Anderson of Long Beach, Ca., exhibits during martial arts demonstration.

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(L-R) Student Minister Abdul Hakeem Muhammad, Minister Farrakhan, Mother Khadijah Farrakhan and Maria Farrakhan enjoy martial arts demonstration.

Great emphasis was not only put on caring for gifts, but also standing on righteousness in order to manifest the fullness of gifts.

“My mother used to tell me, ‘son,’ good West Indian mother, she said, ‘When you’re wrong, you can’t be strong, but when you’re right, you can always fight.’ Why? Because the power of God is in being right. So you can’t do wrong and then expect your art not to suffer. Very, very important that you be right,” he said.

With your gift, he said, you also have to respect your teacher.

“The power that you have, if you respect your teacher and honor your teacher and above all, honor God, the Originator of your gift, of your brain, of the power of your existence, then you can take what He gives you and then give light, life and power to all that will come under your voice,” he shared.

He encouraged listeners to do better with their lives.

“I ask you as you leave this place and go home, to start your life again,” he said. “This that you’re hearing, if you put it into practice, you’ll find yourself getting stronger, wiser, better, more fluid in your maneuvers because it starts with coming from a right mind, coming from a right thought, coming from a right intention.”

Sharing part of his journey

The Minister shared a personal story about his own growth and development, taking the audience back to 1955 when he first heard the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad at a Saviour’s Day convention.

“When I found Elijah Muhammad, I found the best of human beings. I found a man made by God,” he shared.

He told listeners that the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad gave him his assignment when he first looked at him. Then Min. Farrakhan told the audience of how he officially joined the Nation of Islam, and first entered the class of the F.O.I, the Fruit of Islam, the men of the Nation of Islam.

“I came into the F.O.I and when I saw all those brothers in the F.O.I showing all this love for this new one coming, tears came to my eyes and my captain said, ‘What’s this? A man coming into the F.O.I crying?’ But babies come into the world crying,” he said. “I said, ‘I’m going to take this word of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to every nook and every cranny of the United States of America.’ This the first time I took breath as a Muslim. And 64 years later, I’ve carried his word all over the world. My word is my bond. What about yours?”

“I met the master and the master started working on me,” the Minister said.

He also shared a conversation he had with the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

“One day [the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad] just looked at me and said, ‘brother, I didn’t make you.’ I felt terrible because I had no one to look at but him, a master. ‘Yes, you did,’ and I said that in a kind of loud voice, which you don’t do when you’re talking to the grandmaster or your sensei. You speak in low tones,” he said. “He said, ‘I didn’t make you brother,’ and I said it again ... ‘yes you did, apostle.’ He said brother, ‘I gave you the same teaching that I gave everyone else, but only Allah could have shown you how to take that teaching and put it together the way you do.’ Then he said, ‘no brother, I did not make you, God made you for me.’ ”

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Captain Robert Hibbert of Jamaica embraces Minister Farrakhan after demonstrating techniques of how to disarm an attacker armed with a firearm.

Participants from across the country—and from outside of America— traveled to the National Training seminar this year. Many were deeply impacted by what the Minister shared July 13, including young people.

“He’s on time as usual,” said Nzinga Muhammad, a 19 year old from Rochester, N.Y. “Everything he says, every time he comes to speak, it’s a blessing really because you never know what somebody’s going through and then he speaks as if it’s for you personally. So, I really, really love it.”

Lynda Muhammad from Barbados said she felt she received guidance from the Minister. “To me, it was like [he] was really giving us our orders of what we were to do when we go home and to search our hearts and check if you have the love for our people as much as what we should have,” she said. “So even if I say I love my people and I want to do a certain thing, if I’m not doing it, I need to get a deeper love.”

Khabirah Muhammad, a 22 year old who attended the training for the fourth time this year, said the message taught her humility.

“We have to really understand and be humble that the traits that we have and our skills that we have is all from Allah, Almighty God, and that’s very important,” she said. “Also, understanding that our life is extremely important. We only have one life. We have to protect that life; we have to cherish and nurture that life. Giving ourselves the right food, studying, preparing, just our life is important, and it’s only one of it.”

Kareem Muhammad, 26, said the Minister’s message encouraged him to develop his gifts.

“Me personally being an aspiring writer and a talk show host along with other things, Allah gave me those gifts and skills for a reason and with the Minister’s message, it really put an importance on how I need to use them, especially when it comes to advancing our Nation and advancing myself personally,” he said.

Not only did the youth enjoy a great message, but they also got to enjoy a youth social after the Minister’s words. Many of the recent Muhammad University of Islam-Chicago graduates were in attendance, along with some youth from around the country. They dressed up, danced and enjoyed a buffet of food prepared specifically for them.

Abdul-Rahmaan Muhammad, a 16 year old who traveled from Barbados to attend the National Training for the first time, thoroughly enjoyed his weekend, along with several other youth. He had the opportunity to be in the Minister’s presence and summed up that experience and his weekend with one word: “Amazing.”