The Final Call

Minister Ava Muhammad on 'Repair to regeneration'

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• Motherhood: Ascending to the highest level of self (FCN, 05-22-2006)

Minister Robert Muhammad and Minister Ava Muhammad. Photo: Stacey Muhammad

“It is our focus, as a community, on repair that is preventing us from progressing,” said Min. Ava. “We are not looking to be fixed, we are looking to give ourselves new life,” she added. The address was viewed on web cast across every Mosque and Study Group throughout the Southwest Region, which includes Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas and New Mexico.

“Regeneration is very distinct from repair,” she told the audience. “In human beings, injury leads to wound repair. If you get a cut or burn, at that sight your body will mend that wound. It will use a different material than what was originally there. So we end up with a scar or wound or a keloid and there will always be an indicator that we got hurt. Even though you are able to continue functioning, you are bearing the scars of that wound,” she said.

“In regeneration, the body advances to its capability, and not only repairs the sight but regenerates the tissue so that the tissue functions like it used to and it looks like it used to,” she said.

She went on to state how Black people do not look and function as we used to. The crowd responded with a thunderous applause after she explained that we have to move up to a higher level in order to regenerate.

She concluded with, “We honor the fathers today because it is Father’s Day, but in actuality, we should honor them each and every day.”

The previous day, Min. Ava was also the keynote speaker at the monthly M.G.T. Brunch. The fourth Saturday of each month women from all over the city of Houston and the surrounding areas gather and have workshops such as women’s health, proper child rearing, financial security and others topics relevant to women. Min. Ava told a crowd of over 100 women, “One of our duties to one another is to prevent our Sister’s suffering.”

She explained that if you go through a learning experience, be it painful or joyous, it is your duty to your Sister to share it with her so she can possibly avoid the same pitfall or have the same joy. “We should not wait until we have mastered an experience or situation, we should share the triumphs and defeats that we have along the way so as to possibly prevent another from going in that same direction. If you chose to wait, you may never get the chance to share it because you may never master it,” she said.

Southwest Region M.G.T. & G.C.C. Captain Valerie Muhammad stated, “We were so honored and blessed that Sister Minister Ava came to share with us her vast experiences from her perspective of being a mother, wife, daughter, attorney and Sister in this day and time.”