[Editor’s note: The following article contains a distillation of the five-part lecture series delivered by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan titled “How To Give Birth To a God,” from The Final Call Administration Building in Chicago, Illinois (from July-August 1987). To order this message in its entirety on DVD, CD or MP3, please call 1.866.602.1230, ext. 200, or visit store.finalcall.com.]
In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.
The woman, if true to her feminine nature, is really an advance over the man. Not because of her beauty, her accomplishments, or even the nature of her love when correctly awakened, but because she possesses the womb, “the laboratory,” wherein are fashioned those who will inhabit the world. The womb is where she co-operates with, or is “an Assistant to Allah,” in the formation, the reformation and the final completion of the human being; so, there is no reformation without the reform of a woman! But how do you reform something that has been rejected from birth?
Focus your attention on the rise of women all over the Earth to speak up and to speak out againstinjustice. It seems that this is the day when the oppressed of the Earth will speak out against their oppressors.
The Exaltation of Women all over the Earth
If we are oppressed in America, it is nothing but right and justice that we speak out against our oppression. But as we speak out against our oppressor, and our brothers and sisters in Africa and the Caribbean, and throughout the world, speak out against their oppressors; and as persons of different and varying races and colors speak up against oppression, we notice that women, all over the world, are speaking out against not “perceived” oppression, but a very real and tangible oppression.
In the United States, which is one of the most advanced societies presently on the Earth, women are looked upon as “playthings.” So it is with Europe, where the woman is also looked upon as a “plaything.” In an advanced society, women are looked upon as playthings? How advanced, then, can that society be? And in many parts of the Islamic world, although we pay lip service to the great liberation effort of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, men relegate women to a less than human position in society—or no role at all. And in many cultures, women are definitely oppressed.
How advanced can this world be if the leaders of the world have denigrated the position of woman? And if those so-called primitive societies have not elevated the woman, then the nations of the world are depressed, oppressed, and suppressed. And the greatest of oppression and suppression is the kind fomented byignorance.
Because of this ignorance of the value of women, and worldwide acts of oppression and suppression, Allah (God), in His Infinite Mercy and Power, has set the Earth on flame with two great powerful forces, which the Holy Qur’an calls Gog and Magog (in Arabic: Ya’juj and Ma’juj).
In the Holy Qur’an, Surah 21 Al-Anbiya (“The Prophets”), verse 96 reads: “Even when Gog and Magog are let loose and they sally forth from every elevated place”; and in Surah 18 Al-Kahf (“The Cave”), verse 99 reads: “And on that day We shall let some of them surge against others and the trumpet will be blown, then We shall gather them all together.” According to Qur’anic scholars, it is Gog and Magog who will “surge against each other.” Allah says to us that Gog and Magog are such powerful forces that when they are let loose in the Earth, it will create upheaval; and nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. It is after this upheaval, and nation rising against nation, that “The Kingdom” comes.
What “kingdom”? “The Kingdom of Heaven” that Jesus spoke of; “The Kingdom” that the prophets heralded—this Kingdom comes on the heels of a Great Battle between Gog and Magog. And according to the Teachings of the Qur’an, Allah says, “I have created some of My servants, whom no one can destroy but Myself.” Who are “Gog and Magog”? The scholars say that Gog and Magog are the “Teutonic,” or “Slavic” races of people (otherwise known as Europeans, Caucasians) of the Earth. Well, we have seen through history that the European powers have emerged as the great powers of the Earth, and these European powers have “sallied forth” after a wall built to hold them inside Europe tumbled down, allowing them to go West and East, North and South, seeking whom they might devour.
I want you to study this carefully, now, because in the conflict of these European powers (Gog and Magog) over the spoils of the world, the Dark People of the world have become their victims. And out of this conflict has come “democracy” and “capitalism,” which claims to exalt the right of the “individual” over the “masses.” In reality, it is the exaltation of a few individuals, where these few might enslave the masses of individuals that they may work for little or nothing for the benefit of the few whose greed and lust for the material goods of the world has exceeded the limits.
Practitioners of a ‘dirty religion’: Those who exalt ‘Mary, mother of Jesus’ but degrade and abuse women
This European that came westward, to Western Europe and America, they lift up “God” with their mouths, but their hearts are far removed from the practice of godliness or righteousness. I am sure that you can agree with this truth. They promote Jesus (and it is a “public relations thing”) as a Caucasian to Dark People with the mind to get Black, Brown and Yellow people to worship the Caucasian image.
It is a sin to promote Jesus’ color and hide his goodness; to promote his color and hide his message, so that you get a watered-down concoction of scripture from Europeans who mixed up truth with falsehood, and then hid the truth while they knew—and put “Jesus’ name” on what they concocted. Their evil practice under the name of “Christianity” is why Muhammad called it a “dirty religion.” Not that the name Jesus, or his teachings, is “dirty,” but the practice of so-called Christians is a dirty practice: To kill off the Indians, to enslave the Blacks, and kidnap us and rob us of the knowledge of self, is a dirty practice; to go into Mexico and Central America and give the people “Jesus”—and take their land and leave them in poverty and want—is a dirty religion.
We know that Jesus was clean, but the practice of so-called Christians, in his name, is a dirty practice. And in this dirty practice at the same time they claim to exalt Mary, the mother of Jesus, a marvelous woman, they actually make mockery of Mary and womanhood by making the woman, whether she is White or Black, harlots, “cheap women”; women who wear clothes that would make a dog stand up and take notice. They mock Mary by creating dances for Christian women and girls to dance to that a dog would be ashamed to dance to; creating lust in the hearts of women and men, that the private parts of both the women and the men are parts of the body that are absolutely worshipped.
So a woman is degraded, used and abused in so-called Christendom here in the West, while on the other side of the world you have the other part of the European (Teutonic, Slavic people) of Gog and Magog coming up with “Communism,” which is a denial of God.
But yet, it is all a progression, because the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said to us that when Gog and Magog are “let loose” and they “sally forth from every exalted place”: This means that there would be worldwide communism that would start striking from every exalted place, challenging the greed of capitalism—challenging the suppression and the oppression and the abuse of the working force; and challenging the oppression of women.
So everywhere in the world that I have gone, where there was a Socialist country, I have seen women freer and taking part in the building of a society. They don’t talk so much about “God,” but they talk about “the exaltation of the man and the woman”—which is a step in the right direction. Remember, “All things work for good, for those that love the Lord.”
Since the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that “communism” will be the “stepping stone” to “The Kingdom of God,” “The Kingdom of Islam,” then if you look at the definitions for communism and capitalism, these two systems are fighting against the rise of Islam: a.) communism is a system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single, often authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the people; and b.) capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market.
It was former President Richard M. Nixon who said, “The real threat to Democracy is not Communism. It is Fundamentalist Islam.” America’s mainstream political and spiritual leaders are not more worried over Communism, than they are worried over the rise of Islam.
Worldwide clashes give rise to Third Force (The Nation of Islam)
In 1977, I was in Cuba; and after I left Cuba, I went to the tiny island of Barbados. There in Barbados a press conference was held at the airport, and a reporter asked me, “How could you, a religious man, have visited Godless Cuba? And what is your purpose in Barbados?” I said: “Jesus made a parable of two sons. Both of them were asked to do the Will of the Father. One said he would, and didn’t; and the other said he wouldn’t, but did.
Now, which one did the Will of the Father: The one who said it, and did it not? Or the one who denied that he would, but yet did it? I just came from Cuba where, when you all were in power, they were 90 percent illiterate. But now they have erased illiteracy. You don’t have to have money to be healed if you’re sick; you can go to the hospital. Education is free. Women are exalted and respected. Now, you claim to love God and Jesus, but Jesus said, ‘Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Shelter the homeless. Visit the sick and the imprisoned.
And if you have not done it unto the least of these, my brethren, you have not done it also unto me.’ Here I am in Barbados, where the poor have to have money to have an operation. You have to have money to get past high school. You have to have money to get this or that. So they said they wouldn’t do the Will of the Father, but it seems to me the Will of the Father, is being done. You said you would do it, but you lied—you have not done it. So, don’t blame me for traveling and making observation, and then on the basis of observation, [give] condemnation and guidance!”
And now I say to you: The condemnation of capitalism, and the greed of it; the condemnation of Godless materialism, and the falsity of it, must give way to the proper worship of God and a change on the Earth. And that change cannot come except there is a change in the status of women.
I want you to think, now: So here is “Godless Communism,” challenging “Godless Democracy” and “Godless Hypocrisy.” Here is the greed of materialism from the East, challenging the greed of materialism in the West. And so today it is this constant battle between Communism and Capitalism that is giving rise to a Third Force in the world: The sleeping Nation of Islam.
When I say the “Nation of Islam,” I am not just talking about the Lost and Found Members of that Great Aboriginal Nation that are found in the West, I am talking about over one billion Muslims that are on this Earth today who are asleep under the rubbish of Arab nationalism, asleep under the rubbish of their own nationalism, and asleep under the domination of “spookism” and “unreality.”
But with the sallying forth of Ya’juj and Ma’juj (or “Gog and Magog”), now The Third Force is arising in the world. And the Third Force, which is Islam—the true religion of Allah; the religion of entire obedience and submission to His Will—it is that great religious force that is rising up today to give balance to these two materialist forces: “Godless Communism” and “Godless Capitalism” under the Hypocrisy of Religion.
Now Islam is coming up; but in its coming up, it has to “pull the cover off” of itself. It has to purify itself. It has to cleanse itself and make itself ready to bring in The Kingdom of God. Islam has to be reformed; it must be revived; it must be made pure. And so, in the Islamic world, you see clashes—Muslim against Muslim—because there’s a desire to bring the religion back to its fundamental purity.
There is a desire to cleanse Islam from the Marxist/Leninist doctrine that has crept into some Islamic socialist thought; there is a desire to cleanse Islam from the Western Imperialist Thought that has crept into it, and so “Mullah is against Mullah,” “Shiite is against Sunni,” “Sunni is against Sunni,” and “Sunni is against Shiite.” Countless numbers of Muslims have died as a result of the atrocities by warring factions in Islam, so that the entire World of Islam is in convulsion! But all things work for good, for those who love Allah! And remember, this is a part of the revolution and the evolution toward the ultimate Kingdom of God.
“Thy Kingdom come; Thy Will be done on earth …” not as it is in “the sky.” But The Kingdom of God is coming to the Earth. And if it is coming to the Earth, what will the United States government’s place be in it? What will the Russian government’s place be in it? How will Palestine’s political parties fare in the Kingdom of God? How will France’s government fare in the Kingdom of God? How will Germany’s government fare in the Kingdom of God?
The governments of this world are to be removed, and a new kind of government is to be set up. This new government—of the people, by the people and for the people—will be based in the Law and Commandments of God.
With worldwide revolution giving rise to women, what is the man’s duty?
As “Gog and Magog” are let loose, and the fighting is raging in every quarter of the globe, the oppressed that cry out for liberation are coming up, for Godless Communism says, “Let us inspire revolution, from the worker and the oppressed class.” And so, those who love Marxist/Leninist Thought are busy in Central and South America, in Africa, in Asia. They are all over the planet, stirring up revolution; stirring up the masses to revolt against terrible conditions. But in the wake of that stirring up, women are being stirred up, too.
Women are coming forward in Socialist societies showing their power, their prowess and their intellectual capabilities. And now the religious societies are being challenged: “What have you done to your woman? What have you done with your woman?”Socialist societies don’t have beauty pageants where they parade the women half-nude, that men may see the measurement of her bosom against her waistline and hipline and look at her legs. We should not be interested in the woman’s bosom except for the work that the bosom does. We should not be interested in the woman’s hips except when they do the work that God wants those hips to do.
Am I degrading women? No, for between those hips is carried the womb that Allah (God), in the Holy Qur’an, admonishes us that we should reverence. We should have a deep respect for our girl children. We should have a deep respect, love and awe, as though they are something sacred. And when you have something sacred, you put it in a sacred place.
There is no Jew that will leave the Torah in an unworthy place. There is no loving Christian, or loving Muslim, that will leave a symbol or relic of their religion in an unclean or un-reverential place. So, when Allah (God) says the woman should be in the home, He is not saying that a woman should not move abroad. But if abroad is contaminated, keep at home, woman, where you can be protected, because you are sacred! And when you are sacred, you deserve to be in a sacred place!
Men who understand God, love God and know the workings of God will kill nations to protect the womb of their woman! We are so hateful and disrespectful of ourselves that we allow the womb of our women to be contaminated with the filth and debris of every nation and people. Oh Elijah Muhammad … Thank you for teaching us that where there are no decent women, there are no decent men, for the woman is the Mother of Civilization!
Men: If you don’t elevate your woman, you have no nation. I don’t give two cents for your worship of Allah (God) if you will then turn around and degrade your woman! If you truly love Allah (God), you will protect that womb, and you will exalt your woman. As men, you will put her in a place, like a sacred vessel; and you will not allow anybody to defile your vessel with wine, and strong drink, or disease. This is your duty and mind as a man! This is the duty of the men of every nation on Earth! If we’re going to make a change on the Earth, if The Kingdom of God is going to come to the Earth, it will be birthed through a woman. And this is why Mary is exalted!
Mary is not exalted because God wants you to worship her. She is exalted because it is only when the woman is exalted that you can bring onto the Earth The Kingdom of God.
