“Make No Distinction”

Question [ from a GODBODY/5%er ]:

If you are 14 or 16 and you explain to somebody like your Mother and Father or an adult about-- like you in the the 5% Nation of Islam, right? And you explain to them what it's about, they ask you, "why don't you eat pork?" They ask you, "why don't you stay a Baptist?" "Why don't you stay a Catholic?" What would you tell them? And what do you think about the 5% Nation of Islam? Because there are a lot of Muslims who say that the 5% Nation of Islam is a bunch of "gangsters" and street...huh street, you know, "garbage". And that we don't give-- the 5% Nation of Islam do not tell the true righteousness and that the true righteousness is in the Bilalian and Muhammad Speaks. Also that a lot of the Brothers that are Muslims started off as/in the 5% Nation of Islam and they forget all about it.

Answer [ by the Hon. Minister Farrakhan ]:

Thank you. You heard him, didn't you? There was a Brother who was in Temple #7 in New York City under the name of Clarence 13X... (At this point a person makes an inaudible statement and the Minister addresses the person in the audience) No, don't do that, don't do that. The Holy Qu'ran says evil is a bad name after faith. You may not like Clarence 13X and what he did but Brother and Sister if you don't have any works that you can show for your faith, why would you knock a man who you don't think have faith? A lot of people inside the House who didn't agree with the way the House was being run and they left the House. And one thing that that Brother did, he taught the Lessons of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to young Brothers and Sisters. And many of those who Brother represent, that are a part of the 5% Nation, they didn't take this fall that we (people of the Mosque) took because they were rooted in the Lessons of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad. And that's why the Hon. Elijah Muhammad before he left us (faked his death), he kept telling us to "Study the Lessons, Study the Lessons, Study the Lessons!" Because the Lessons weren't just for yesterday, they are for yesterday, today and tomorrow. And because we forgot the Lessons, we fell victim to deceit.

All right. Brother, I'm telling you that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad respected those young Brothers and Sisters who called themselves the 5%ers (Five Percenters). Now, I talked to the Hon. Elijah Muhammad about that group that was developing in New York and now spreading. He said, "That's good. That's good. They are studying that which Allah (in the person of Master Fard Muhammad) questioned me on and they are studying my answers to those questions."

Now, How would you answer when your Mother tells you, or you tell your Mother that you shouldn't eat pork?

When you go to your Mother, you must understand that your Mother is your Natural Teacher. And when a child comes to the parent with new Knowledge that the parent never heard before, the first reaction of the parent is, "Boy, you don't know what your talking about, now listen boy, shut your mouth." Not that she really wants you to shut your mouth but she feels kind of cheated that she's supposed to be your teacher and here you come teaching her. Well, she'll get over that after a while but it's how we represent it.

I went home to my Mother and I went to the kitchen to my refrigerator and I started throwing out the pork that was in the refrigerator and my Mother knew that I had lost my Mind because she had reared me on pig all her life and my life, not all her life but all my life. And here this "nut" was attacking pork chops, throwing them out the window. I wasn't going about it intelligently and that's something that you have to grow into, the Knowledge of how to use Wisdom.

So if I had gone to my Mother and said to my Mother, "Mother I don't care to eat any pork." And she says, "Well, why son?" I'll say, "You know Mother, I was reading in the Bible..." And since Mother loves the Bible and she wants to be a good Christian... Then you open the scriptures and point where Moses told Israel not to eat or even touch the carcass of the swine. Then you turn and you have to become Knowledgeable where your Mother is at. If you don't know where your Mother is Mentally, you can't bring your Mother to where you are.

And you can't go to your parents or to those older than you in a very dogmatic way "Well, it's this way or that way." You see we handle Truth in a cheap way because we are yet babies in the Truth and don't know how to defend the Truth or represent the principles of the Truth. But my Brother, if you show respect to Mother and are gentle with your Mother and set a good example in front of your Mother and then learn how to take the scriptures that your Mother believes in to show her the Truth of what you believe (or know). Mother will say, "Thank you son, the scripture is right, a little child shall lead us".

But I also want to say to you that the older generation is fashioned in a way that they may not understand the way the young generation wants to move. But never be disrespectful of your parents because they produced you and they cared for you when you couldn't care for yourself. Never raise your voice at your Mother because she says to you "Why don't you go join the Baptist Church?" She's only saying that because she loves you and in that she feels is salvation for you.

But if you can take the scripture again and teach your Mother, you can bring your Mother right where you are. My Mother heard her son and she thought I was crazy by the way I acted. After, I got a little more intelligent, she saw her son had changed and she said I better go and see what has caused this change in my son and she became a follower of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

[Note: The above was transcribed from a question asked by A GODBODY (5%er) to the Hon. Minister Farrakhan,

at the end of a lecture (“Is the House Divided”) in 1977, at the Arizona State University.]

"We say: 'Take it or leave it.' We have millions of people to believe (and know)."

-T.H.E.M.

Proper Evaluation Always Cultivates Elevation