An Interview With Minister Rahman in New Orleans!

MR-Thank you Minister Willie for this interview.  It was in 1955 in the summer months. One of my friends in Atlanta Ga., told me a man was in town teaching a teaching that I never heard about.  At that time he didn’t event give me the name of it.  He just told me a man was talking about how rich we use to be and how white people use to live in the caves of Europe.  He asked me did I want to listen to it and I told him yes.  So the minister at that time here in Atlanta was Bro. James.  He caught a streetcar from the Eastside and came to the Westside.  We went into my friends’ room and he began to teach about Islam and the Hon. Elijah Muhammad and about us being enslaved for 400 years and God would give us a messenger at that time. I believed it right away.

MW-The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan talked about how you were one of the most successful ministers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad because you heard and you obeyed.  Can you talk to us about what allowed you to do so?

MR-Well you know when you believe that Allah came and we believe and know that he came, because the results that we have accomplished from following the Teachings of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad.  When you know God has come and you know the Hon. Elijah Muhammad is His Messenger, like we know today the Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan is the voice of God in our midst.  We call Him the Reminder, we call Him the Comforter, we call Him the Spirit of Truth and we know God is guiding and directing Minister Farrakhan.  I knew that with the Hon. Elijah Muhammad and knowing that about Him you don’t want to displease God.  So everything He told me to do I was willing and I did it.  It wasn’t a hardship for me carry out the orders of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, because He never asked me to do anything wrong.  Everything He asked me to do was progressive; it benefited the Nation of Islam and our people here in America.  It was easy for me to follow His instructions.  Now my thing today is that I wish the Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan had ministers like the Hon. Elijah Muhammad had.  Cause many of us did everything that he said. I think Minister Farrakhan just pointed me out as one example because I am the only one around today.  But I am quite sure we had other ones, but anyway I wish and pray to Allah that Minister Farrakhan gets ministers who obey Him like we obeyed the Hon. Elijah Muhammad.

MW- What are some of your most memorable moments with the Hon. Elijah Muhammad and the Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan?

MR- Well, I think that the most profound thing about the Hon. Elijah Muhammad in my time with Him, outside of Him making me a minister, I am very elated over that and the way He did it. I think the greatest moment was at the Uline Arena in 1959 when He spoke in Washington, D.C., that was a dramatic moment and a historic moment that we in the NOI will cherish and nurture on forever.  With the Minister Louis Farrakhan we’ve got so many great victories under His leadership.  We’ve had the Million Man March, which is unmatchable.  I remember back in the 70’s Minister Farrakhan had a Black Family Day in New York, where over 70,000 people came to Randall’s Island to hear Him speak and plus enjoy themselves as well.  The light that was shining on the little things we thought we knew, He shines even brighter light on these things today. For me to have a personal relationship with Him, really makes me thank Allah more and more for allowing me to live in this dispensation of time.  I have really had the chance to be somewhat more like a buddy with Him more so than I did with the Hon. Elijah Muhammad.  Everything I did with the Hon. Elijah Muhammad was strictly spiritual and strictly business, not that He did not have humor.  We laughed and talked a lot of times, but me and Minister Farrakhan just go so far back.  He taught me to study and prepare myself in the ministry, so I listened to what He told me and I did that and now I have a great memory.  I can remember scriptures, I can remember things that people have told me, you know.  I owe those things to Minister Farrakhan; He is such a good minister.  When He use to come to Chicago when I was a lieutenant there, He was a minister in Boston.  He would come to the FOI meeting and He and I in some kind of way would end up being partners practicing martial arts and calistinics.  In later years sitting on the rostrum with the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, looked like He and I would always be sitting on the side of one another. Not by plan, just seemed to happen like that. Even upon the Hon. Elijah Muhammad leaving.  He and I are the only ones on this side that were with the Hon. Elijah Muhammad when He left.  Minister Troy, Minster Lucius and Minister Abdul Allah have come along after Minister Farrakhan got going, so I am thankful and happy for those old companions of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad and me and Minister Farrakhan.

MW- You have had the blessing of being a minister under the leadership of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad and the Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan.  Some who have had the experience of growing up in the ranks with the Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan now find it difficult to be a follower of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad under the guidance of the Hon. Min Louis Farrakhan.  What has helped you to not fall victim to that?

MR- It is really simple but then it is not simple.  I know it says, “A sheep knows its shepherd’s voice.” When I hear Minister Farrakhan, I don’t hear Him as Brother Farrakhan or as an individual. When I hear Him I hear the Hon. Elijah Muhammad.  When I listen to Him sometimes I can hear Him and I can hear the Messenger.  I am looking at two people, who are one person, so I see that.  But beforehand, the Hon. Elijah Muhammad somewhat prepared me to be with Farrakhan and I did not know that was what He was doing, but I am sure He knew what He was dong.  Cause He told me once He cracked Brother Farrakhan and He said it to me three times.  I went and checked the problem book out and it didn’t say Mr. Shah it said, “Mr. Muhammad cracked an atom into 10 million parts.”  From that I assumed that Minster Farrakhan was going to get all of us because at that time there was 30 million Black people, so the census said. So I said that the Minister was going to get all of us and then going back to what the Hon. Elijah Muhammad had said, “That through Minister Farrakhan He would get all of His people.”  The Messenger told me I was going to make it.  I thought He was talking about high finance, but He was talking about making it in the religion, being a Muslim.  With that and when Farrakhan stood up to build the Teachings of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad I was so happy I did not know what to do.  I was ready to resume this work, because I had been really betrayed by the followers in Atlanta at that time, when they wanted to get rid of all the ministers of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad.  You know they got up and lied on me so they could move me out of Atlanta.  I was somewhat fed up until I kept seeing Farrakhan on the battlefield.  One day the Hon. Elijah Muhammad tuned in on me and told me, “Go back to the mosque”, we called it temple at that time, “go back to the temple and help Minister Farrakhan.”  I could hear His voice as well as you can hear mines now, so I did that. I got up and said my prayers and began to process myself back into the Nation so I could help Bro. Farrakhan.

MW-Several months ago the first Flowers While You Live Celebration was held in your honor and you had a double blessing by being honored at the Flowers While You Live Banquet this past Holy Day of Atonement Oct. 16^th along with other pioneers of the Nation of Islam.  When you reflect back on those two occasions how did that make you feel?

MR- The night of the Flowers While You Live in Atlanta although the committee came up with the idea and everything I really owe the blessings of that night to the Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan.  Cause He stayed on top of things, He joined the committee and made it happen.  By Him joining and heading the committee He made it happened.  He loved me so much so He said He was not going to have His brother being honored and then we come to the affair and I get dishonored with no one being there. So He got right on top of it and had the Muslims to sell the tickets and everything and I think by Him doing that people came from all over the country-California, Phoenix, New York, Philadelphia, Miami everywhere.  We had over two thousand people there.  City officials honored me, the mayor gave me the highest honor that could be given to a civilian-the Phoenix Award.  The governor sent best wishes; a Republican governor of Georgia sent me best wishes, because evidentially they knew of my work under the Hon. Elijah Muhammad. But out of all of that it came to me that night by being a follower in NOI under the Hon. Elijah Muhammad.  My little talk after Minister Farrakhan introduced me and spoke, I made the statement that the greatest thing that ever happened in my life was that I lived in that time of Elijah and that was to me my greatest accomplishment that I was able to recognize this Man of God and submit to what He wanted us to do.  To live in this life and get to be one of His disciples that is worth more than the Grand Canyon filled with diamonds and gold.

MW-What advice would you give to new believers in the Nation today? 

MR- I would really highly, if you don’t have the Supreme Wisdom Book that Master Fard Muhammad when He questioned the Hon. Elijah Muhammad and the Hon. Elijah Muhammad gave Him those answers.  I would request that they all get those Lessons and study those Lessons and study the Teachings of Islam.  Come back to the language of Muslims such as, “If a brother has a bowl of bean soup, his brother has the other half.  Word is bond and bond is life.  I’ll give my life before my word shall fail.”  Then come back to some of the basic things that make us successful.  The Restrictive Law is the key to our success.  The Law is something that protects us and not nothing that punishes us, so we love the law cause we are righteous people.  Those aspiring to be a minister for the Minister Louis Farrakhan, prepare yourself by studying the Bible and Holy Qur’an.  I say Bible because lot of us don’t like the Bible, but many of our people are buried in the Bible, so you have to be like Minister Farrakhan who can shine light on the light that the people think they got in the Bible.  So we as Ministers must learn to do the same that Minister Farrakhan is doing, putting light on the light of what people think they believe and give people a better understanding of that so they can really see who the real Jesus is and that man is the Hon. Elijah Muhammad.  So study hard and be true to the law.  We don’t backbite, we don’t lie we don’t steal, we don’t cheat, we don’t use drugs, we don’t fornicate, we don’t commit adultery.  We live to the law and we will be a happy and successful group of Muslims. 

MR- Thank you sir.