Day of Separation Demands a United Community

Day of separation demands a united community

BY ERIC TURE MUHAMMAD -CONTRIBUTING WRITER- | LAST UPDATED: OCT 20, 2017 - 9:20:09 PM

http://islamicsciences.noi.org/separationdemandsaunitedcommunity

NEWARK— Official activities for the 22nd annual Holy Day of Atonement and Million Man March anniversary opened with an historic visit to South Orange Avenue and Masjid Imam Ali K. Muslim and traditional Islamic Friday prayers. After a warm welcome from Imam Abdul Akbar Muhammad, the kutbah, or sermon was delivered by Nation of Islam National Imam Sultan Rahman Muhammad and focused on separation from Satan and knowledge of the time.

“The Prophet stated for every age, there is a pharaoh. So, the question for us is, ‘who is the pharaoh of our age?” he asked. “Who is your pharaoh? We must ask ourselves these questions in this hour and time. For we, brothers and sisters, are in the time of separation.”

“This nation, the United States of America, styles itself after the Romans. This country is rooted in the arrogance of Satan himself. We have to have a method of separating our society from which they live in. That separation begins with the Muslim character,” said Iman Rahman Muhammad.The imam and great grandson of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad referenced the Holy Qur’an, chapter 30, verse 43: “Then set thyself, being upright, to the right religion before there come from Allah the day which cannot be averted on that day they will be separated.” The Holy Qur’an is the Muslim book of scripture. Chapter 3, verse 178 reads, “Allah will not leave the believers in the condition in which you are until He separates the evil from the good.”

The over-capacity masjid, or Islamic religious center, was thrilled with the show of unity and delighted in sharing love and histories between all of the various communities of Islam gathered on Oct. 13.

“The building next door. That’s the building (that) when the original group of Believers in this city in 1957, wrote a letter to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad asking if they could establish a temple in Newark. The Hon. Elijah Muhammad sent the money to buy that building next door. That is also where I went to school at. That was the Muhammad University of Islam,” Imam Amin Nathari shared with The Final Call. “He sent Minister James Shabazz with the check and he remained the Minister of this city until he was killed in 1973.” Imam Nathari along with Nation of Islam archivist and Student Minister Carlos Muhammad of Muhammad Mosque No. 6 in Baltimore confirmed that the first few meetings of the Nation of Islam then were held at Two Huterdon Street, before moving to the Masonic Temple on Belmont Avenue, swiftly outgrowing the first location.

The second part of Imam Rahman Muhammad’s kutbah dealt with Chapter 103-“Al Asr,” or “The Time.”

There are basic demands Allah (God) reveals in this surah, or chapter, he said. The decline of the day; the decline of the time; belief and the doing of good; and the exhortations of truth and patience, the imam explained. The decline of the day, he articulated, could be likened to America’s Happy Hour, where in the day’s decline of activity, worldly indulgence takes over, poisonous foods, wine and spirits and illicit behaviors. The decline of the time reflects the hour in which we must become even more aware of first the knowledge of Allah and that of his enemy and ours, Satan, the imam continued. He encouraged those gathered to understand an united Ummah, or community, must stand on truth, equipped with spiritual fortitude and willing to allow Allah (God) to use us in revealing winners and losers.

After the prayers offered, many gathered in the social hall of Masjid Ali K. Muslim, for a unity lunch where Imam Abdul Akbar Muhammad and his imams gathered in fellowship with Ishmael Muhammad, son of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad and assistant to Min. Farrakhan, and many of the Nation’s student ministers.He made time in his words to thank Allah for the late Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, a son of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad and Muslim leader. He thanked Allah for the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and asked that Allah continue to bless Minister Farrakhan and grant him strength. “The students of our teachers,” he continued, “delivered clear reality that we have a truth that cannot be conquered (and) cannot be equaled.”