It was my intention to take this space to tie together and present, in an orderly and concise form, the primary ideas of the last few articles, so that the material that follows it would be easier to grasp. This I have done. Be it the will of Allah, that material will appear two issues from now.

But there is something we must first look at. My articles are primarily in the nature of a "running" commentary on certain aspects of the person and mission of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.

The teachings and persons of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Minister Farrakhan are so rich, so full, and really, are rooted in principles so deep and universal, that brief comments�such as mine�on these two men, or on any part of this vast body of knowledge, may not always or readily be understood. Therefore, it often goes unused.

If this is true of mere comments on these two men and their teachings, then how much more true is this of these two men and what they teach? If this is true, why is this so?

In the process of learning, in any field of knowledge, we must understand a sufficient amount of prior preparatory knowledge, or we just cannot properly grasp what comes next. This is in the nature of things.

If we say we are going to take a course in book writing, and can�t read nor write, we will have a very hard time with that course. In fact, the probability is extremely high that we will fail that course.

If we say that we are going to take a course in business mathematics but don�t yet know how to add, subtract, multiply or divide, one does not have to be a prophet to say that we will have no chance of success in that course.

Most of us will acknowledge that we have had difficulties, from time to time, in making progress in our present studies or courses, even where we have passed the prior preparatory courses.

As this is often true in the course of our studies, this is often true in the journeys of our lives. We hit what we call "snags." According to Webster�s Dictionary, a "snag" is "a concealed or unexpected difficulty or obstacle."

This brings me to Minister Farrakhan�s study-guides.

In the course of defining one of what this world�s scientists call "defense mechanisms," namely "denial," in my last article, I briefly mentioned Minister Farrakhan�s study-guides. My point was, and is, that his study-guides contain vital keys that have the power to solve problems that "defense mechanisms" cannot solve. His study-guides are intended to help us see and get rid of concealed or unexpected difficulties or obstacles that are impediments to the process of our resurrection.

Our meetings, which were divinely established (in the Nation of Islam) several decades ago, include discussions of study-guides that were divinely ordered by Allah through Minister Farrakhan. These particular meetings take place on Friday nights.

These study-guides contain spiritual medicine of the highest order. They comprise a distillation of the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the Bible and the Holy Qur�an, through the heart of a special human being�Minister Louis Farrakhan. They comprise a divinely intended course of study and practice, especially for a specified period of time, which we are passing through.

As we know, or should know, all courses of study have a beginning and an ending. There are mini tests that are given, from time to time, as we take most any course. These tests help us to measure our progress in our study, and should also encourage us to actions that will improve us where we are lacking. They also help us to prepare for the final examination.

These Friday night meetings are like going to an outpatient clinic facility, on the orders of a knowledgeable doctor, whose empathetic heart is full of love for us. These sessions provide us (the patients) with the opportunity to be involved not only in the process of solving our own personal problems, but also to develop our capacity of empathy. Without empathy, the golden rule, or the law of love, can�t fully come into effect.

The study group leaders serve somewhat in the capacity of therapists, but understand that they are patients too.

It is written in the Bible, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them." An example of the presence of Allah in these meetings is when one looks down on another, or unjustly says of another, to themselves: "He [she] thinks he [she] is so smart. I don�t like that so and so."

Then later, either during that same meeting or at the next session, that person, about whom we thought evil, then speaks words which provides us with beneficial insight right into the heart of some problem with which we are struggling. We are shocked. We know that this other person could not possibly know our business.

True. That other person did not know our business. But Allah does. He caused us all to come together for His own wise and good purposes. And in that instance, when that other person spoke words of benefit, right into one of our problems, we are compelled to reevaluate the other as well as ourselves. This is the doings of Allah.

Allah loves us. He was with us when we were in our homes studying these guides to our overall study. He was with us in our study group sessions that night when He made us to have deeper respect and love for each other. And why should we not think He was there in our homes (when we studied) and in our discussions, when He ordered them through our Brother, Minister Farrakhan for our benefit�which is intended to ultimately bring us to Him?

Now, more often than not, those persons who do not attend these sessions, or meetings, do so from what Caucasian scientists of human nature call "defense mechanisms."

Again, what are "defense mechanisms?" Here is another of their definitions of this term and three illustrations of it. A defense mechanism is "any of a variety of unconscious reactions used by individuals to protect themselves from feelings of anxiety or enable them to modify reality to make it more tolerable. Common defense mechanisms accepted in psychoanalysis are denial, in which the person simply denies that the anxiety or anxiety-causing circumstance exists; repression, the prevention of unacceptable ideas from entering the conscious mind; and displacement, the release of dangerous impulses in a substitute situation or through disguised activity."

Before going further into these definitions and examples of "defense mechanisms," let us keep in mind that the Caucasian scientists, who developed their sciences of psychology, psychoanalysis, out of which they developed their psychotherapy, do not know the varieties of human nature as Allah does. He�not they�is the best knower of human nature in every respect.

The source of Minister Farrakhan�s knowledge of human nature; his knowledge of the nature of the ills of humanity, generally, and of Black people, in America, in particular, is divine. So also is his knowledge of the "medicine" or the cure for the ills for all. Therefore, the knowledge he presents in his study-guides is infinitely superior to anything you can get from the scientists of this limited world, whose wisdom is exhausted.

Now, an examination of the definitions and examples of what are called "defense mechanisms" will further demonstrate the superiority of the wisdom of Minister Farrakhan over and above that of this world�s spiritual doctors, healers and educators.

Furthermore, such examination may help us see that we have not opened our hearts as we ought, to the study of Minister Farrakhan�s study guides, to be resurrected or freed from the "defense mechanisms," or Satanic thinking, or "snags" or, as he worded it "impediments" to our rise into divine power.

(For those who have studied this area of knowledge, I intend to mention that which are also called "defense mechanisms," but are not Satanic in nature.)

In addition to the definition given above (and in my last article) the following definitions and examples of "defense mechanisms" further makes my point.

One source states: "defense mechanism, in psychoanalytic theory, is any of a group of mental processes that enables the mind to reach compromise solutions that it is unable to resolve. The process is usually unconscious � ."

Another states: "defense mechanisms protect us from being consciously aware of a thought or feeling which we cannot tolerate. The defense only allows the unconscious thought or feeling to be expressed indirectly in a disguised form."

The righteous don�t need thoughts and feelings which "protect" them from an ever clearer view of their own true selves. They do need that which exposes and removes that which is not of our nature, but that help develops the qualities of our nature.

Minister Farrakhan�s study-guides provide the very opposite to the various Satanic "defense mechanisms," the very energy of which is dying its natural death.

Some of us recently looked at how we would feel if Minister Farrakhan slipped into one of our Friday night study sessions and some of us were not there and learned of his visit the next day.

More importantly, how would Allah look at us?

More next issue, Allah willing.