Muslims in Minnesota were active in sharing their faith at the recent State Fair of Minnesota. In 2022 their booth was on the second floor of the Grandstand, and thus out of the main flow of foot traffic. In 2023 their booth was in the Education Building, a much more visited display.
The Greater Community Nabi
I seem to recall this wheel at the booth in 2022. I spun the wheel a number of times, and correctly answered the questions on the wheel. The gentleman at the booth exclaimed “You know so much about Islam! Why are you not a Muslim?” My answer was “Because I believe that God has spoken again. There is a New Message from God in the world.” I might have said something about the gentleman having trouble believing this. I might have had to think about what I was going to say for a moment, but I’m happy with what I said.
In 2023, I distributed some copies of “The Proclamation,” one of many revelations of the New Message from God. Anyone who is sharing their faith gives implied consent to me to share my faith with them. I answered some of the questions on the wheel. I offered the gentleman a copy of The Proclamation. He looked at it and asked “Who is this, Marshall Vian Summers?” This time I said “He is our Nabi.”
Nabis and rasouls
In the Qur’an. the Arabic word nabi is used to speak of a Prophet. Moses (Musa) is mentioned as a prophet 136 times, and Abraham is mentioned as a prophet 69 times. The Qur’an uses the word rasoul to speak of a messenger, someone calling the people to return to what was originally revealed. Some people are a nabi but not a rasoul (Jacob, Zechariah, Elisha). Others are both a nabi and a rasoul (Moses, Jesus, Muhammad).
The New Message from God uses the words prophet and messenger in the opposite way from their use in Islam. A Messenger brings a new reality. A prophet is someone who calls the people to return to what was revealed earlier. I consider Billy Graham and Martin Luther King, Jr. to be instances of prophets in 20th Century America.
The gentleman at the booth was calm and polite. He said “I know this cannot be true, as the Qur’an teaches that Muhammad is the seal of the prophets [the final prophet]. Yet, for your sake, I will read this.” I admire his openness and nobility.
In the following days, I spoke with students of the New Message from Muslim backgrounds. I asked them if this was consistent with the New Message. I told them I wished I said “He is the nabi for our time.” Two students considered this acceptable. One student remarked “You could have said the greater community Nabi for this time.” I am saving that for a future occasion.
The New Message from God doesn’t use the phrase “Greater Community Messenger.” But one of the distinctives of the New Message from God is that it is here to prepare humanity to successfully encounter a greater community of intelligent life. Life in a larger region of space. It is therefore appropriate to refer to Marshall Vian Summers as the Greater Community Messenger.
As of today, Google reports zero results for the phrase “greater community nabi.” This post may be the first searchable mention of this phrase. I hereby prophesy that many people will use this phrase in the future.
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