Saviours’ Day, the annual Nation of Islam convention, is returning to Chicago for the first time in physical form since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. With the pandemic putting a halt to the usual weekend of workshops and activities, the focus for 2022 is the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s keynote address, titled “The Swan Song,” which will be delivered at the Nation’s headquarters, Mosque Maryam, on Feb. 27 and streamed live.
Saviours’ Day is a commemoration of the birth of Master W. Fard Muhammad, the great, divine teacher of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad. Master Fard Muhammad came from the holy city of Mecca in fulfillment of divine prophecy with the power to alleviate the suffering of the Black man and woman in the wilderness of North America, to elevate a people who had been destroyed and to obliterate their enemies. He made himself known on July 4, 1930, in Black Bottom, Detroit.
“Without Master Fard Muhammad, we could not have the body of knowledge and that Supreme Wisdom that He shared with us. And we would not have had the Honorable Elijah Muhammad from which was produced giants that the world had never seen before coming out of Black America,” said Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad, National Assistant to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, to The Final Call.
Master Fard Muhammad fulfills the scriptural prophecy of the coming of the long awaited Messiah of the Christians and the Mahdi of the Muslims, a divine being who ushers in a new world and a kingdom of peace. He was born February 26, 1877, in the Holy City of Mecca with a predetermined mission and purpose to seek and to save the Lost-Found Black man and woman in the West and raise a new nation.
A man made by Master Fard Muhammad and the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has inspired life. With Allah’s (God’s) guidance, he has taken the light and power exuded by those two divine men and spread it to Black people and to the world.
Min. Ishmael Muhammad listed out some of the things Master Fard Muhammad taught, such as: the origin of Black people, that Black people in America are the chosen of God; the origin of the Caucasian; the time we are living in; the judgement of America and this present world; and that a brand new world is coming in to replace the old world of rebellion to God, sin, wickedness, evil and immorality.
“Such a marvelous, magnificent human being worthy and deserving of honor and praise and thanksgiving. Because everything that we have been successful in doing in the Nation of Islam for 92 years, we all owe it to Master Fard Muhammad,” he said.
Min. Ishmael Muhammad also described the significance of Minister Farrakhan holding his keynote address at Mosque Maryam.
“He wanted to deliver what could possibly be his last major address from that house that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad purchased in 1972. And one day the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, he took the Minister and they drove right outside of the mosque that was a Greek Orthodox church at the time. And the Honorable Elijah Muhammad told the Minister, ‘I would love to see you preach in that house, brother,’ ” Min. Ishmael Muhammad said.
Excitement across the country
Muslims traveling to Chicago and those watching the keynote from the comfort of their homes or local mosques are looking forward to hearing from Minister Farrakhan at this year’s one-day event.
For Nation of Islam 7th Regional Student Minister Patrick Muhammad out of Miami, Saviours’ Day is personal. Before accepting the Teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, he was in a gang, drank heavily and used drugs. But when he heard Minister Farrakhan for the first time, “Tears came down my face. I was being awakened. I was being saved,” he said.
Every year, Muslims in the Nation of Islam send a token of appreciation and gratitude to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, known as the Saviours’ Day Gift. Min. Patrick Muhammad said the spirit of the Believers rallying for the Saviours’ Day Gift has been “off the charts, because we know that the God is with us. We know that the God loves us when He gave us the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.”
Energy surrounding Saviours’ Day is high in Memphis, Tenn., Student MGT (Muslim Girls in Training) Captain Stephenia Muhammad said. She said the mosque is festive, with the Muslim women planning their own Saviours’ Day celebration.
“God has come. We’ve already been saved. We just got to know it. We’ve already been saved. We just got to get on the boat. He’s given us a life preserver. We got the paddles on; we got the pulleys on the arm. He gave us everything to be able to survive during the time,” she said.
Every Saviours’ Day, save last year, Willie Muhammad and her husband Student Minister Aaron Muhammad of Albany, Ga., offered bus transportation for big families and others traveling to Saviours’ Day.
“I’m so looking forward to Saviours’ Day, even if we just have to stand outside,” Willie Muhammad said. “I just want to be there.”
She described the excitement of Saviours’ Day as “a feeling that you get inside that is irreplaceable, and you can’t receive it any other place.”
Amirah Muhammad, a 20-year-old violinist attending the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, expressed how Saviours’ Day is “like a glimpse of heaven, like a glimpse of the hereafter.” She serves in the Research and Education Department for the NOI Youth Committee. To her, the in-person Saviours’ Day is a statement.
“We’re back. We didn’t go anywhere. We stayed strong through this and now we’re coming together again, physically, to hear from our Minister with his message ‘The Swan Song,’ ” she said. “It’s very significant to the strength of our Nation, the strength of our Teachings, really, because that’s what kept us going throughout.”
On Feb. 14, the committee presented a project titled, “Saviours’ Day: A Present-Day History,” where they interviewed young people in the Nation to capture the Saviours’ Day experience. They are also working on their second NOI Youth Retreat. The first one was held virtually as a part of Saviours’ Day 2021.
“Leading up to Saviours’ Day, I think the main thing is we really want to get our people to be able to hear his message, considering it may be one of the last times that we hear from him publicly. So that’s kind of the atmosphere, at least for me,” Amirah Muhammad said. “I’m trying to reach out to people that I know that I go to school with or friends that I know that have been kind of seeing what we do in the Nation from a distance, but now this is a really perfect time for you to really just step back and open your hearts to receive his message.”
The Swan Song
Minister Farrakhan titled his Saviours’ Day address “The Swan Song,” which means “the last act or manifestation of someone or something.”
When Amirah Muhammad saw the title, she was in transit to her next class and had to stop to process it. “He’s done his work. He’s given us everything we need. We have all the tools. He’s spoken on every topic that we have, that we can work on, and especially as youth,” she said.
Min. Ishmael Muhammad described the title as “the finale of a message” and divine warning that Minister Farrakhan has been faithfully delivering for 44 years from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
“The significance of the choice of the title and the prevailing circumstances, developing circumstances that we see in the country and in the world should cause us to want to hear what God will say to us through the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan,” he said.
“We should set aside the time on that Sunday at 1 p.m. CDT and spread the word and invite others to tune in to hear our brother, our Minister, our teacher, give us a perspective on what is happening in our community, society, country, world and what is on the horizon.”
For more information about Saviours’ Day, visit noi.org/sd2022
