THE NATION OF ISLAM S T U D Y C O U R S E FRIDAY CLASS WEEK 50 BUSINESS IS WARFARE By The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan (The Final Call Newspaper)
Study Course Instructions This study course is designed to be done both in a course room, mosque, study-group or self-paced at home. Certain parts of this course (Key Word Study) will be done with a partner. Other parts will be done independently (by yourself). When its time to partner, you and your partner (twin) are to follow the steps provided in this guide. The study course is laid out in the order you do them. It is important not to skip any steps of the guide. THESE INSTRUCTIONS ARE TO BE FOLLOWED IN OUR CLASSES. Purpose of this Study Course Guide: The purpose of this study course guide is to guide you through this course of study. Time to Complete: Although the hour and a half that we have for study this evening will hopefully allow you to progress through most of this study, however it is strongly recommend that you continue to work on this study course at home at your own pace. Important Note: During the study course session, if you have any questions raise your hand for assistance. Each believer (student) should have a copy of this handout and its instructions to take home and continue studying on their own. All steps may not be completed in the class sessions in its entirety. Study Course Steps Step 1: Key Word Clearing Key words are important words related to key concepts found in the reading. Having a good understanding of the meanings of these words will help each student better understand the important concepts and ideas of the study, as well as eliminate misunderstandings that come with misunderstood words. Use the key word list and definitions found in this packet to do the drill (exercise) a and b. 1.) Select a partner (closest to you) and study the Key Words together, through reviewing the questions and answers to master. (If done in course room or mosque/study group the time allotted is 30-45 minutes) 2.) First time through: The student has the questions and answers in front of him or her. The partner asks the student the question, and the student answers it. He/She can look at the answer if needed. The answer does not have to be word-for-word or memorized; just the concept must be correct. 3.) Second time through: Once finished with the drill the first time, you start again from the beginning, this time without the answers in front of you. Your partner asks the question and you answers. If the answer is incorrect, your partner shows you the answer. Look at the answer again and repeat until you have grasped the concept, then continue to the next one. Step 2: Independent Reading After completing step one, you may begin to read the selected reading materials. Step 3: Check Your Understanding Questions: Time Frame: 30 min Review the lists of questions. Each question is formulated to check your understanding of the key concepts and ideas found in the reading. Answer each question on a sheet of paper and be prepared to discuss your answers at the conclusion of this session. Sufficient time may not be given during class session to answer all of the questions. If you do not finish in class, please continue this step at home. 2
KEY WORD CLEARING What is warfare? Warfare is the process of military struggle between two nations or groups of nations; war. What does eternal mean? Eternal mean without a beginning or end; lasting forever. It means unchanged by time, especially being true or valid for all time; immutable What is meant by adequate? The word adequate is defined as much or as good as necessary for some requirement or purpose; fully sufficient, suitable, or fit. What is meant by relegated? Relegated means to send or consign to an inferior position, place, or condition. What is the definition of extract? To extract means to get, pull, or draw out, usually with special effort, skill, or force. What is a consumer? A consumer is a person or thing that destroys or expends by use; one that uses up; opposite of a producer. What is a producer? A producer is a person who brings into existence by intellectual or creative ability; one who makes or manufactures. What are raw materials? A raw material is material before being processed or manufactured into a final form. It is the basic material from which a product is manufactured or made. For example, the term is used to denote material that came from nature and is in an unprocessed or minimally processed state. What is the definition of surplus? Surplus is something that remains above what is used or needed. What does trade mean? Trade means the act or process of buying, selling, or exchanging commodities, at either wholesale or retail, within a country or between countries. What is commerce? Commerce is an interchange of goods or commodities, especially on a large scale between different countries (foreign commerce) or between different parts of the same country (domestic commerce); trade; business. What is the definition of observe? To observe means to see, watch, perceive, or notice; to regard with attention, especially so as to see or learn something. What is meant by operation? An operation is an act or instance, process, or manner of functioning or operating; a process of a practical or mechanical nature in some form of work or production. What is an excuse? An excuse is an explanation offered as a reason for being excused; a plea offered in extenuation of a fault or for release from an obligation, promise, etc. What does stewardship mean? Stewardship means a person who acts as the surrogate of another or others, especially by managing property, financial affairs, an estate, etc.; the responsible overseeing and protection of something considered worth caring for and preserving. What is a husbandman? A husbandman is a farmer; one that plows and cultivates land. Who are the Gentiles? A Gentile refers to a person who is not Jewish, especially a Christian. 3
Business is Warfare By The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan What is Required for Our Economic Independence? [Editor s note: Continuing with the theme of what Black people must know about the Honorable Elijah Muhammad s Program and Position for our survival and economic independence, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan delivered a masterful exhortation on these matters during Atonement, Reconciliation and Responsibility, Part 2 delivered on Sunday, October 16, 2011, live via webcast from Mosque Maryam in Chicago, Illinois. The following article contains excerpts from this message. In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful. I thank Allah for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad whom I see as The Eternal Leader of The Nation of Islam, Meaning that what God has given to him for us now, in the past, and what will come down in the future: We will be feeding on it and growing from it for a long, long time. I m going to acquaint you as best I can with the Greatness of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and why we are suffering today because we rejected him. We didn t pay adequate attention to him; as a result, today, we are suffering great loss. Hopefully there s time for us to reverse the loss. The headline of the October 18, 2011 (Vol. 31, No. 2) edition of The Final Call newspaper reads, We Are At War! Think about that: If you don t see that we are at war, then you must be raised in consciousness so that you can participate in The War, because The War is for Our Survival! As a people, we have to survive. And if we are ignorant in a Time like this, then our ignorance will be the means of our destruction. We are at war against forces within ourselves, and forces outside of ourselves, that keep us relegated to The Condition of poverty and want. To whom shall we look for jobs and justice? Do you think that our president, as desirous as he may be, can provide enough jobs for the millions of Americans that are unemployed, and our millions too? Does not history teach us that if jobs are needed by Caucasian people, and Hispanic people and Black people and Native Indigenous people, who will get the jobs first? If they are producing the jobs, then they re going to produce the jobs first for their people. And if you are lucky, one, two, three or four, or maybe even a few more, might come our way. But History is teaching us, because we have been crying out for this for years: Jobs! We need jobs! We must have jobs! We agree with you. But you are acting like children little beggars who are asking somebody else to do something for us that, with Right Guidance and The Will, we could do all of this for 4
ourselves and earn the respect of the entire world! We re going to have to get up from where we are and go to work in order to survive and in order for us to prepare a future for our children. 'If we are not the owners of land, and lots of it, then we will not be able to produce the things that we consume. So we will always be at the mercy of others who produce, and therefore we will be the consumer people rather than a productive people! And that is how people earn respect : by being productive.' In Message To The Blackman in America, pages 56-57, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad stated nearly 50 years ago: As a people we must become producers, and not remain consumers and employees. We must be able to extract raw materials from the earth, and manufacture them into something useful for ourselves. This would create jobs in production. We must remember that without land there is no production. The surplus of what we produce we would sell. This would develop a field of commerce and trade as other free and independent people whose population is less than that of the 20 million at that time, but nearly 50 million today so-called Negroes who are dependent in America. Well, that sounds very intelligent. If we are not the owners of land, and lots of it, then we will not be able to produce the things that we consume. So we will always be at the mercy of others who produce, and therefore we will be the consumer people rather than a productive people! And that is how people earn respect : by being productive. We have to have land. We have to have the intelligence to extract raw materials out of the land to make products that are useful to ourselves and others. If we can produce products that are useful to ourselves, what then does the Honorable Elijah Muhammad mean by sell the surplus? We look out for our own needs first, then whatever you have over you sell it to others! This opens up a field of trade and commerce. At the 10th Anniversary of the Million Man March ( The Millions More Movement ), we brought to us Nine Ministries that we must establish as a people. Among these Ministries was a Ministry of Trade and Commerce. Here you have people all over the Earth who would do business with us if we had a product that we could offer them! And if they didn t have money, then trade; barter: this for that. What do you need? What do your brothers and sisters around the world have? What do they need that we can produce? 5
Observe the operations of the White man Further on in Message To The Blackman (page 174), the Honorable Elijah Muhammad instructed us in his Economic Blueprint to: Observe the operations of the White man. He is successful. He makes no excuses for his failures. He works hard in a collective manner. You do the same. Does that sound like a racist or a hater to you? No! Now, you can dislike White folk; that s entirely up to you! But Elijah Muhammad was saying get past that and observe the operations of a man that has captured the world, and made the world bow down to his way of civilization Observe the operations of the white man. He is successful At least he was successful. He is not as successful today as he used to be, but that does not mean that we should not observe him and see how he went wrong, because God is going to give us the opportunity to replace him. Replace him, because he has ruined his right to the stewardship of land, resources and people! He has abused the land, the air, the water, and the people on the Earth, so God is going to take it from him, and give it to whom He pleases! And whether you want to believe it or not, He intends to give it to you, and then see how you act, because everybody looks good when we re all down in the barrel together. But when God raises you, and gives you power and authority over what you did not create, then He s trying us to see how we act! If God replaces the wicked rule of the wicked husbandmen of the Earth, who have ruled with injustice and evil, and then gives it to us to see how we act, then I ask you the question that I asked Philadelphia: If God reverses this and makes you the head, as you have been the tail, will you treat others as they have treated you and me? Or will we thank God for trying us with power; and then proving to God that our hearts are purified, and we are worthy to rule? So all this bitterness and hatred over what we have suffered: Our hearts have to be purified. As the Bible teaches, I didn t choose you for righteousness, because you weren t righteous. I chose you out of the furnace of affliction, so this Process that we re engaged in now is a Process thatpurifies the heart. So when you speak of bitterness and anger and hatred, and come into power, then you ll do exactly to others as they have done to you, so you are no better than those whom God is replacing! You have to be better! Well, I, too, would like for us to study the operation of the White man. And the White man who is most successful of all of them is the Jewish people. Farrakhan, are you an anti-semite? Well if I were, I wouldn t be studying them. See, it s something about hate, that when you hate something, you don t study it enough to find out the value that s in it! Study the Jewish Example: The once rejected who are now in power The Jewish people came here as immigrants; they owned push-carts right in downtown New York. Because the established stores did not want a Jew with a push-cart in front of their store, sooner or later the Jews united their dollars, and now most of the stores belong to them. They used to go to Miami, and the hotels would reject Jews. Go to Miami now and see who owns it. They didn t start the movie industry, but they were being portrayed so badly by the Gentiles that started it, they took it over! You want a job in 6
Hollywood? You have to go by them. Isn t that something to study? How did you do that? Occupy Wall Street who s running Wall Street? Oh, there are a few Gentiles and a few Blacks that are on the Federal Reserve Board, but who are the banking families that own the Federal Reserve? Who are the banking families that have owned Wall Street? Who owns The New York Times? Who owns The Washington Post? Who owns Time magazine, Newsweek magazine, U.S. News and World Report? See, it s Jews! But you, Black man and woman, have been here longer than anybody else! What do you have? Ebony- Jet magazine, Essence magazine, Motown, BET, Def Jam, Phat Farm: You used to have it, but who s got it now? We may own a little stock in it, but somebody gave us an offer we couldn t refuse, because you think that business is something nice to do. Business is Warfare: Because somebody is vying for that dollar that you are vying for! So if they can outsmart you, if they can trick you if they can give you an offer that you can t refuse, then they ll take your company from you, because you don t have soldiers! And if you don t have any soldiers, you will never be successful in business! But we, The Nation of Islam, have soldiers! *** Elijah Muhammad and The Nation of Islam started growing in The Womb of America, pulling from what America had to make ourselves stronger and stronger; not ready to separate yet because you re not developed enough. Ask your wife: No matter how pregnant she is, you can t be stupid and say, I wanna see my baby now! The best you can do is get an ultrasound and watch it in the womb developing. But you have to wait on development: Until when the tiny house (uterus) that holds that new life is outgrown by that new life. So when that new life has outgrown the uterus, which has grown the size of a watermelon, then the baby starts kicking: I want outta here! and it starts moving about. The feet are usually down at the opening, but in the last days, the head turns down. Why? What is that in nature? See, your feet can t lead you out: You ve got leaders that are feet! And you are still where you are because you have not recognized your head! But when The Head is ready, and turns down into The Right Position, then The Head Forges The Way To Freedom For The Body! So it is with us: We are growing now in this womb called America. To be continued. 7
STEP 3: Check Your Understanding The following questions are for discussion at the conclusion of the study session. The remaining questions can be completed at your own pace as you continue your study at home. You can use your book if you need help answering the questions. Write your answers on a sheet of paper. Questions For Discussion: 1. What title does The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan use in describing the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad? Why? 2. Why are we suffering today? Give clear examples. 3. What must be done to make our people aware of the fact that "we are at war!" 4. With whom are we at war with? How do you know? 5. Why are we instructed to observe the operations of the white man? What principles can be learned and applied? 6. Discuss The Honorable Elijah Muhammad's quote from Message To The Black Man pages 56-57. What is its relevance today? 7. How can we become a respected people? 8. Define the process we are all undergoing at this time. 9. Why does Minister Farrakhan use the phrase, "Business is warfare"? www.noi.org/gostudy 8