[Editor’s note: The following words were delivered by Brother Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad, on behalf of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, during The Ummah Reflects Podcast held on the last day of the observance of the Holy Month of Ramadan, Wednesday, April 10, 2024.]
Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim. In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.
All praise belongs to Allah, The Lord of the worlds. We thank Allah for His many blessings, His many gifts, His goodness and His mercy, and His grace to each and every one of us who believe in Him—and even the non-believer receives of Allah’s grace and His mercy.
As a student and follower of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, we have been taught to thank Allah for Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and this marvelous revelation from Allah in the Holy Qur’an. We thank Allah for Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.
›We thank Allah for His intervention in our affairs in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, The Great Mahdi, Who has guided us to His straight path by giving to us the Honorable Elijah Muhammad as one to lead us, guide us, and bring us into the path of righteousness and Islam with the great help of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. It is in their names that I greet you with the greeting words of peace, “As-Salaam Alaikum.”
I am honored to come on this wonderful prayer line this morning on behalf of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, who is a little under the weather, and he asked me to share a few words as we now celebrate Eid Mubarak, the end of this great month of Ramadan.
Beloved brothers and sisters, we have been purified through the fast; we have been purified with constant prayers, and the reading of The Qur’an, and performing acts of kindness and by feeding the poor.
In this month of Ramadan, we refrained from arguing and quarreling with one another, doing those things that Allah has forbidden us to do, and making Allah our exclusive object of worship. Now, brothers and sisters, let’s keep the peace and the spirit that this blessed month of Ramadan gave us!
We are reminded, in this Ramadan, what really matters in life; what is really important above anything that is important in our lives, and that is Allah. Ramadan was given to us from Allah so that we may exalt the greatness of Allah for having guided us, and so that we may give thanks.
In our prayer Al-Fatiha, we ask Allah to “guide us on the right path,” “the path of those upon whom He has bestowed favors.” Allah has guided us through His prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, to the right path. We, the Black man and woman in America who were taken from our people and land—and the enemy took away from us our religion of Islam.
But thanks be to Allah, The Great Mahdi, for raising the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to guide us to His path, that we may be successful in sending a light from The West to The East to give guidance to all who would be guided.
In our prayer, we are saying: “O Allah! Grant us your favor. Guide us to that straight path that will allow us to have Your favor.” Allah says in The Qur’an: “Surely this Qur’an guides to that which is most upright …” and “give good news to the believers who do good, that theirs is a great reward.”
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan said to us that “doing good” is that you may set up favor not only for yourself, but for your offspring; that the doing of good [is] not just because you want the reward, but the reward of God, he reminds us, is real.
So many of us, The Minister said in one of his speeches, or words on this prayer line a few years ago—I’m sorry, I don’t have the exact date, but he said so many of us will get into the competition for some kind of victory, a reward, and sometimes it’s a certificate, sometimes it’s money, sometimes it’s something you would desire. But the greatest desire of a Muslim is the reward of Allah; and that reward, The Minister said, is His favor.
And he said His favor comes in so many different ways: 1) “Favor” is when He delivers you from a painful chastisement; 2) Allah’s favor is you’re in an accident, and your car is absolutely destroyed, but you walk away from it; that is a favor from God; 3) When good comes into your life from whence you saw it not, that is a favor.
That is good, The Minister said, in your life: When you are blessed with divine guidance to get you out of problems and areas of trial. That is a favor from Allah! So, when those of us who fasted, so that we may do good, we are securing, and have secured from Allah many favors.
And the fast, and the observance of it, has also prepared us for favors that will be given to our offspring once we leave this planet. So, beautiful brothers and sisters, Allah says in The Qur’an: “Whoever believes in Allah and the last day, and does good, they have their reward with their Lord, and there is no fear for them, nor shall they grieve.”
We were blessed to do a lot of good in this holy month of Ramadan! We were directed by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan to not break our fast without thinking of our Palestinian family who are suffering greatly.
They are starving; they don’t have food, access to food. They are denied food, denied water. But what makes them so beautiful is that while they are pleading and making their petitions to Allah, and are in great pain, they have remained mindful of their prayers.
And many of them have observed this holy month of Ramadan. And with all that they are going through, brothers and sisters, guess what? They are not upset with Allah. They, and we, are Muslims. We say, “My prayer, my sacrifice, my life and my death are all for Allah.”
So, what they are suffering, what they are going through: They are not cursing God; they are not kicking Allah to the curb or abandoning their faith because of the horror of their suffering.
We are Muslims, and we can never complain or get upset with God for bringing something negative in our lives, or a misfortune. That is to test us to see whether or not we really are who we say we are as believers in Him.
In the 90th Chapter of the Holy Qur’an, it talks about “the uphill road,” and verse 12 raises the question: “What will make you comprehend what the uphill road is?” And the answer is given: “It is to free a slave, or to feed in a day of hunger an orphan near of kin, or a poor man lying in the dust. Then he is of those who believe and exhort one another to patience and exhort one another to mercy.
These are the people on the right hand.” This obligation from Allah to us, to feed in the day of hunger an orphan near of kin, and a poor man or poor people that are lying in the dust: We are living in these days, brothers and sisters, of great hunger and starvation on our planet, and on our streets in the very cities where we live.
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan directed us to go out in our cities all across the country to feed the poor. And from our hearts, and by the hands of the M.G.T. and F.O.I. of the Nation of Islam, we are grateful and thankful that to date we have fed over 50,000 people across the country. And if it be the will of Allah, The Minister will feed this week as we celebrate Eid, another 10,000 people. All praise is due to Allah!
But this, brothers and sisters, these acts of kindness, this good, we must do all the time! For verse 17 tells us, of the 90th Chapter, that if we do this, then we are of those who are on “the right hand of Allah,” and we are of “those who believe, and exhort one another to patience and exhort one another to mercy.” These acts and exhorting each other to patience during a great time of trouble and trial on our planet is what demonstrates that we are believers!
For the 103rd Chapter of The Qur’an said, “By the time! Surely man is in loss…”—but then it gives us an exception: “except those who believe and do good, and exhort one another to truth, and exhort one another to patience.” This is the example of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. This is the example of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan to us.
So brothers and sisters, as we end this great month of Ramadan, let us not forget Allah; let us not forget our duty. Let us remember Allah, as The Qur’an tells us, “the remembrance of Allah is the greatest force.” Remember Allah as we move, as we act and talk, go about our business and daily tasks. Remember Allah reclining, sitting, standing, walking.
There is a beautiful verse, as I conclude, in the Holy Qur’an, in the 13th Chapter, the 28th and 29th verses, that reads, quote: “Those who believe and whose hearts find rest in remembrance of Allah, now surely in Allah’s remembrance do hearts find rest,”—that is so beautiful!—and “Those who believe and do good, a good final state is theirs, and a goodly return.” Beloved brothers and sisters, when we petition Allah for whatever we need and whatever we want, know that He is listening.
To “find rest,” as this Qur’an is saying in these verses, in remembering Allah: “Rest” is peace, tranquility of heart and mind. Rest after agitation, rest while carrying a heavy burden. Rest, and peace, during a time of trouble. Remember Allah in all that we do, and we will find rest unto our soul.
So beloved, when The Qur’an says, “When My servants ask concerning Me, surely I am nigh; I answer the prayer of the suppliant when he calls on Me, so they should hear My call and believe in Me, that they may walk in the right way.” How comforting, how reassuring! He is speaking to each of us personally.
He hears your and my prayers, so do not doubt Him ever in your prayers! But remember, Allah hates ingratitude. Ask Allah whatever is your desire, but let’s precede it, our petition, with thanks: Thanking Allah for life! Thanking Him for His creation! Thanking Him for our mother and our father!
Thanking Him for His messengers! Thanking Him for the food that we eat, the water we drink, the clothes we wear, the dwelling places where we reside. The money we receive; though it may be little, but at least we have something.
And yes, even though some of us may be afflicted and suffering, may have lost a job, a mother, a father, a child, a relative, or your home; you may be afflicted with illness, struggling with diabetes or hypertension, cancer, or some life-threatening disease; have lost your sight, or may be losing your hearing, or have lost a limb.
Whatever the affliction, whatever the struggle is in your and my life, let’s take the right attitude towards those things. Because these misfortunes: There could be a fortune in the misfortune that we don’t get because we take the wrong attitude.
So let us give thanks, brothers and sisters. Express gratitude; don’t curse God because you have been faithful and dutiful, and a misfortune has come into your life. Let’s give The Lord, our God, thanks, and you and I will find comfort, relief and peace with expressions of gratitude.
So we thank Allah for His goodness, His mercy, His beneficence, His grace, His protection, His guidance! We thank Him for this book, Holy Qur’an, and the man through whom He revealed it, Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. We thank Allah for this blessed Holy Month of Ramadan and giving to us this prescription to guard against evil, and giving us self-imposed discipline to bring us closer to Him.
I thank Allah for His intervention in our affairs in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, The Great Mahdi. I thank Him so, so much for being in our lives to purify and resurrect us, and deliver us from Satan through His Messenger-Messiah, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.
Let us be a grateful nation! Let us be thankful and grateful for all that Allah has brought into our lives. But if we were to count His many favors, we could not count His blessings.
So thank you, Sister Nisa. Thank you, Brother Akbar. Thank you, Brother Muthakkir. Thank you, Brother Shahid. Thank you, Brother Jamil. And all of those who work in bringing us this wonderful prayer line, thank you so much for blessing us with this prayer line, and we thank all of those who shared words on this prayer line through the month of Ramadan.
May Allah’s peace and blessing be on every believer on this planet. We say to each fellow believer: “Eid Mubarak!” And thank you, Brother Minister Louis Farrakhan, for the honor to share these words on our program this morning, as I greet you in peace: As-Salaam Alaikum!
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