According to the Sufi Masters and Aqtab, Shaykh al-Arif Billah al-Mujahid Umar ibn Said Tal al-Futi

(ra), Shaykh Abdul-Aziz ad-Dabbagh (ra) and other Spiritual Masters, the 'Diwan', or Divine Council of godly men convenes in the Cave of Hira'. It consists of the Support of the Age (Ghawth az-Zaman), the seven Pivots (Aqtab), the Wakil and other godly men & women from among the living and the dead:

"I heard the Shaykh say--may Allah be pleased with him--'The Diwan is in the Cave of Hira', which is where the Prophet undertook pious devotions--may Allah's blessing and peace be with him--before his mission. The Ghawth sits outside the cave. Mecca is behind his right shoulder and Medina is in front of his left knee. On his right are four Pivots (Aqtab) who are Malikis, adherents of the school of juriprudence of the Imam Malik ibn Anas--may Allah be pleased with him! Three Pivots are on his left, each one an adherent of the three schools of jurisprudence.

Women are present in the Diwan, though their number is small. There are three rows of them. This is in the area of the three Aqtab, who are on the left, above the circle of the first row in the space between the Ghawth and the three Aqtab.

Angels are also present in the Diwan. They're behind the rows. And the perfect Jinn are also present. They're the spirit beings. They're behind everyone and they don't amount to a complete row.

On some occasions the Prophet is present in the Diwan, and if he's present--may Allah's blessing and peace be upon him--he sits in the place of the Ghawth. When the Prophet comes, along with him come lights that can't be supported. These are lights which burn, terrify and straightway kill. Theyre lights of awe, majesty and grandeur. If we were to imagine forty men whove attained an unsurpassable degree of bravery and they were suddenly overcome by these lights, theyd immediately fall down unconscious. But Allah bestows on His Friends the power to receive the lights. None the less, only a few of them can cope with the matters that emerge at the moment hen the Prophet is present. He speaks with the Ghawth. When he is absent, the Ghawth possesses penetrating lights so that the people of the Diwan are unable to approach him, but they sit at a distance from him.

Those present in the Diwan who are dead come down to it from the Barzakh. They fly by means of the spirits flying. Then when theyre at a certain distance--not far from the Diwans location--they come down to earth and walk on their legs until they reach the Diwan. They do this out of politeness towards the living and out of feat of them. Its the same with the men of the invisible realm (Rijal al-Ghayb), when one of them visits another. He comes traveling by means of his spirit.

Syriac (Siryani) is the lanuage of the Diwan because of its conciseness and its combining numerous meanings, and also because the spirits and the angels attend the Diwan and Syriac is their language. They only speak Arabic if the Prophet is present out of politeness toward him.

They decide among themselves hat will happen everyday in the sublunar and Translunar worlds.

"When the people of the Diwan gather together in the Diwan, they agree on what will happen from that time up to the same time the following day. And they discuss Allah's Sublime Decree concerning the coming day and the night that follows it. They have the power of control and disposal (Tasarruf) in all worlds, the sublunar and the translunar, even in the Seventy Veils and even in the world of Raqqa, written with 'Ra' and a doubled 'Qaf'. Raqqa is located above the Seventy Veils. They're the ones who have the power to act in it and power over its people, over their thoughts ad hat suddenly occurs in their hearts. Indeed, nothing suddenly enters their thought except by permission of the people of the power of free-disposal (Ahl al-Tasarruf)--may Allah be pleased with them one and all! Now if this is the case with the world of Raqqa, which is above the Seventy Veils, which in turn is above Allahs Celestial Throne, then how do you think matters stand with regard to the other worlds? And I (al-Lamati) asked him whether the Diwan occurs anywhere else besides the Cave of Hira, to which he replied: Yes, it does. Once during the year it occurs somewhere else. This place is called Zawiyat Asa, outside the land of Sus, between Sus and the land of Western Sudan. The Friends of Allah of the Sudan attend it and among them are those who only attend the Diwan on that night. Allah allows this and conducts the people of all the horizons of these lands and they assemble in the said place one or two days before the night in question as well as afterwards. And an immense quantity of gold dust is brought together in this market.

I (al-Lamati) asked, Does the Diwan convene anywhere else besides these two places? He replied, Yes, they do convene besides the two places mentioned but only about ten of them. This is because the earth cannot support them since Allah wants them to be scattered across the earth and among mankind. But Allah knows best!~Kitab AlDhahab al-Ibriz min Kalam Sayyidi Abdul-Aziz ad-Dabbagh (ra)

So, w hat in the world was Elijah Muhammad talking about when he taught on the "24 Scientists"? To properly understand Elijah Muhammad and his teacher Master Fard Muhammad, one must understand the reality of the Twenty Four Scientists. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught that Allah was a Man, a Divine Man, Who presided over a Divine Council which consisted of twenty-three other Black Men who are gods like Him but of a lesser degree. The twenty-four of them make up a Secret Order, the most secret of all Secret Orders. They are variously referred to as the Twenty Four Scientists, the Twenty Four Elders or the Council of The Gods. Muhammad teaches that these twenty-four men govern the universe and the Black Nation. Of the twenty-four, there are Twelve Major Scientists and Twelve Minor Scientists. They constitute the best minds of the Original Nation. Of the Twelve Major Scientists, One of them sits as Judge above all the others because He is the Best Knower. This One is called Allah.

These Twenty Four Scientists have nine main duties. Their first duty is to write history. But writing history for these Men does not mean recording events after they happen. They write the history of the world BEFORE it transpires. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches that at the beginning of every 25,000 Year Cycle, twenty three Scientists would go out from the root of civilization (Mecca) to all four corners of the Earth; to every nation, among every kindred and tongue, and live among the people for a period of time studying the culture of that people. They would "tune in" to the thinking of the people. By tuning in on the thinking of the people, they could look down the line of time, and according to the dissatisfaction in the minds of the people, could predict exactly what the people would do and the time in which it would happen, for the next 25,000 years.

According to THEM, "There is a significance to the number 24 Scientists and the 25,000 years. The number 24 Scientists used is in accordance with the hours in our day and the measurement of the circumference of our planet. Our planet is not exactly 25,000 miles in circumference, it is 24,896 and we, according to astronomy, don't have a full 24-hour

day, but near that, 23 hours, 56 minutes and 46 seconds. The change made in our planets rotation at the Poles is about one minute a year and takes 25,000 years to bring about a complete change in the region of the poles. The actual poles are inclined 23 1/2 degrees to the plane of its orbit. The original nation uses 23 Scientists to write the future of that nation for the..