God's Law Must Underpin Man's Law |
[Editor's note:
The following text is taken from a speech delivered Feb. 24 by Minister
Louis Farrakhan during Law and Politics day at Pilgrim Baptist Church in
Chicago. In the audience were Chicago area judges, lawyers and
politicians. To acquire an audio tape of the message click here.]
In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.
Law is very important and the administration of law is as important
as the law. For under law, Allah (God) created the heavens and the
Earth. There is nothing in this universe that does not function
according to a law. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught me that God�s
first law was motion. After you put something in motion, the second law
is order. You have to bring what you put into motion under order. Allah
(God) came and gave us order out of chaos. He gave us light out of
darkness. He gave us activity out of inactivity.
The sun functions according to a law, as do the moon and the stars.
But it is human beings that He created in His image and after His
likeness that He didn�t treat us as He treated the planets, the animals,
the foul and the fish. He gave them a law and they cannot disobey. He
also created us under a law, but He gives us free will. We can obey or
we can disobey. If we obey, there are blessings. If we disobey, there
are consequences and curses.
To be a judge is one of the highest callings of any human being
because to be a judge or a justice is to stand in the place of Allah
(God), judging the affairs of men according to a law. The law that you
use is a law that came from man. But the underpinning of the law that
came from man is the law that came from Allah (God). How can I judge
with man�s law and not be acquainted with Allah�s (God�s) law? How can I
be a politician knowing the art and the science of governance and not
understand the art and the science that Allah (God) uses to govern
creation? Is it just a profession or should I be more than just a
lawyer�one who is a practitioner of the law?
And what does that have to do with character? Can I be bought? If I
can be bought and I can be sold, then I can never represent true justice
because justice knows not who you are or what you are. Justice is
according to truth. But what I find in human beings is that we are lazy
in the search for truth. We are full of assumptions and theories. We are
not diligent enough in our search for truth, but it is only on the basis
of truth that justice and true judgment can be given.
Allah�s (God�s) law renders all equal. David, the Psalmist, said,
"I meditate on the law, night and day. The law is a lamp unto my
feet." How could I walk in darkness and know the law? If the law
is a lamp unto my feet, then I walk a path that is a blessed path.
As I studied this Divine Law of our Creator, I see that birth is a
law. None of us get here except we come through the same process�sperm
mixed with ovum in the right place at the right time. After fainting and
pain and nine months, we come forward. The Holy Qur�an says, "You
came forth out of your mother�s womb�complete yet incomplete."
And every human being that comes from the womb comes forth the same way.
It doesn�t matter what your color is. It doesn�t matter what your
station in life is. You could be rich or poor, Black or White, wise or
foolish, all of us come here the same way. We are born into the world,
the Qur�an says, knowing nothing. And isn�t it something that when we
are born we speak a universal language.
Isn�t it something that everyone of us, no matter who we are, how
White we are, how Black we are, how rich we are, how poor we are�how
wise we are, how foolish we are�if you came here through the law of
birth, you must, at some time, experience the law of death. The law of
death equalizes us all. And when we go out of the world, we go out
speaking a universal language, making the same sound (expiration of last
breath). But where the confusion comes is during the time of life.
Why should there be so much disparity during the time of life? It has
something to do with law and politics. It has something to do with the
lack of knowledge or our weakness in administering justice. It has a lot
to do with our misunderstanding of the Word of God. It has a lot to do
with our lack of understanding of life and the laws and principles that
govern life. That�s why the scripture says, "My people are
destroyed for the lack of knowledge." We are not destroyed
because we are White or we�re Black. We are destroyed because we live in
ignorance. Knowledge is a human need; knowledge is a human right.
Allah (God) has created no human being without giving that human
being a bit of Himself. Allah (God) is excellent, so there is no human
being that is mediocre. Every one of us are degrees of the manifestation
of Allah�s (God�s) excellence. But every one of us has a need to
discover what Allah (God) has put within and to nurture and cultivate it
and put it into the service of ourselves, our family, our community, our
nation, for the Glory of Allah (God).
The human being is the glory of Allah (God). But the glory of Allah
(God) is like a dung heap that Allah (God) is ashamed of�undeveloped
human beings; when we can go out into space and find things out there,
but cannot go into the souls of human beings and mine out the richness
of the human spirit. Something is wrong with a world that judges men by
their color rather than the content of their character. Something is
wrong in a world like this where you have to pay for justice; otherwise,
you get somebody (a lawyer) that may not care for you. Something is
wrong with a society that does not cultivate and develop the human
beings that live within it, giving us the chance to be all that Allah
(God) created us to be. And that�s why Jesus said, "I am the good
shepherd." Why do you have to put an adjective to describe your
shepherding that is good? It is because we have been the victims of bad
shepherding.
Something is wrong with a world like this that from morning to night
you sit in front of an ignorant box (television) looking at stupidity
and foolishness, filth and decadence. Yet, you, as a judge, have to
judge us because we are not properly trained, we are not properly
cultivated, we are not properly educated. And now society says that we
have no right to put a rod on the behinds of our children. That�s called
abuse. But every one of you good justices, every one of you good lawyers
know that your mother or your father was a dictator. You didn�t come
into a democratic form of government. It was very authoritarian.
You now have policemen who have to carry a glock or 9mm (pistol)
today. You�ve got a shotgun in the car at the ready. You�ve got a stick
with lead in it. You�ve got mace and a stun gun. What is this? This is
the animal kingdom. This is not cultured, civilized people.
Before we get into your courtroom to send us away or to punish us, we
need to look at this society and how this society has failed the people
of America. We have been failed by coming into an educational system
that is at its root White supremacy. How can that be the proper
education when it makes White people think they are better because they
are White and makes Black people think they are inferior because we are
Black? That makes both people sick.
As I sat here this morning looking at you in your robes, I wondered,
what does that robe mean? The blackness of the robe symbolizes the
universal darkness (of the womb) out of which we all came. And as your
head comes up out of that robe, your head represents light coming up out
of darkness. Without the light, you cannot give justice. I�m not talking
about the light of your law school. The law school has darkness in it
because we come out of law school with a mind for profit, not with a
mind for cultivating society and making society just, fair and
equitable.
I don�t think judges should be appointed by politicians because when
a politician helps to put you where you could not ordinarily go, then
sometimes they expect favors from you that may not necessarily be
justice. Anybody that corrupts a judge ultimately undermines the whole
fabric of the society and ultimately destroys the nation. There is no
act of corruption that does not bring its consequences either today or
tomorrow. We all pay for corruption. We pay for corruption from the
pulpit. We pay for corruption in the schoolhouse. We pay for corruption
in the courthouse. We pay for corruption in the business arena. Wherever
there is corruption, it brings a price. And ultimately the society comes
down.
How do we fix this? In my humble judgment, we have to know that
whatever we have, whatever we are is from a Source bigger than the
governor or the president or the mayor or the high potentates. What I
have, no mayor gave me. What I have, no governor gave me. What I have,
no president gave me. So, they can never take from me what they didn�t
have the power to give me in the first place. Therefore, I am un-bought.
You cannot buy Farrakhan. You cannot make me bow down to anything or
anyone but Allah (God) because nothing or no one gave me what I have but
the Lord of Creation.
There are people that don�t like me. Why don�t you like me? What have
I done? I�ve never been in your courtrooms. I soon will be 70- years-old
and I�ve never been arrested in my life. I respect humanity, all
humanity, but my passion is justice. And my passion is truth.
Thank you.
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