RM: Why do you feel that there is such a great need for a Marriage Retreat?
TM: When you look at the word Retreat, the word retreat is used at a time of great antagonism from opposition of something attacking you or it’s used in the midst of a war. And sometimes when you are at war, a Retreat doesn’t mean that you are a coward. A Retreat sometimes means that you come out of an atmosphere that you are currently under to remove yourself at a Retreat so you can take a look at what you are trying to attain, or the purpose that you are trying to achieve or the goals that you are trying to reach and ask yourself the question, “Are we doing the right things to get to the goal?" In 2015, couples need a Retreat. Why? Because marriages are under attack! Family is under attack. The Family lifestyle is under attack. So we have to Retreat to ask ourselves are we using the proper tools that we have already received from the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan? So we Retreat to empower ourselves, to arm ourselves and to inspire one another. So I Retreat with other couples who are going through the forces of life and some of them may be successful in areas that I am not and I may be successful in areas that they are not but when we come together we bring together the body of Christ knowledge when it comes to marriages. So now I get a chance to borrow from you. You and I are in exchange at the Retreat so I come back whole, I come back inspired I come back realizing that I am not the only one going through what I am going through and there are other believers calling on God and using the wisdom and teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad that we were not applying, but after the Marriage Retreat, now we are going back home to apply it. You can’t take a dope dealer and heal him in the Crack house! You have to Retreat him. You have to take him out of that environment and take him to a Retreat or a remote location where that drug is no longer in his environment to key him in. And oftentimes you have to take a couple out of their home that they may Retreat or run to the hills so to speak to be nourished, to be invigorated and to be inspired to hang on to the mantle of marriage.
RM: What do you believe the impact would be on the participants of the 5th Annual Marriage Retreat?
TM: The number one goal of the Marriage Retreat is that every couple will walk away with his or her mind realigned with the thinking of Allah. We want each couple to leave this year’s Retreat knowing that marriage is half of our faith. We also want them to leave with the proper tools that will help them carefully diagnose what has gone wrong in their marriages and how to repair it. We want them to return home and become the vanguard and strong advocates for marriages in their cities. They will become the example for other couples who struggle that those couples can lean on them. We want each couple to become part of our Ministry of helping the believers and other couples to keep their marriages together.
RM: Who can attend the Retreat? Are Christians permitted or just Muslims? Is the Marriage Retreat just a Muslim thing? Does a marriage have to be in trouble in order for a couple to attend?
TM: The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan teaches us that all are welcome whether you are Muslim, Christian or Jew, and even if you don’t have a religion at all. If you want to know how to strengthen your marriage or keep your marriage strong or repair your marriage, this is for you. We want you to come as you are, but we want you to leave more invigorated, more knowledgeable and on purpose. You have multi-billion, and multi-trillion dollar companies that have Retreats. They are not having a Retreat because they feel that the company is having problems. The Retreat is sometimes because they wish to examine what is going right to make that a policy and a standard and a “how to”. We want couples that are having success in their marriages at the Retreat to come and help the rest of us! We say we want for our brother and sister what I want for ourselves. The Retreat is an opportunity for strong couples who are not having problems to tell the rest of us what they are using to be successful in the process of marriage. That couple may be able to say, “We pray every morning together”. And another couple may say, “That’s something that we don’t do”. The successfully married couple may be able to say that when problems and challenges arise in the marriage this is how we handle them. The Retreat is for couples involved in the process of marriage who are happy and unhappy because it’s going to be something there for all couples even if they are doing nothing but validating that they are already on the right course. The only thing that they may come away from this Retreat with is that they are living their life in accordance with the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and they feel more validated than they came. We want each couple to that they could become an aider and a builder to help other couples by arming them with the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad that they too could be the drum majors to help salvage marriages within the Nation of Islam.