by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan
(The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan delivered a near five-hour presentation Feb. 27 as Saviours’ Day 2022 was commemorated in Chicago at Mosque Maryam and the National Center of the Nation of Islam. His subject was “The Swan Song.” Below are excerpts from this amazing address and part 3 of our continuing presentation of this incredible message. We encourage readers to get the full message on CD, DVD, or MP3 by visiting store.finalcall.com or call 1-866-602-1230, ext. 200.)
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
I offered this man, Elijah Muhammad, my life. My songs were transformed from a nasty calypso or a stupid ballad into songs of the cause that brings about Resurrection. In 1957 at Elijah Muhammad’s sixtieth birth anniversary I sang for him, “This Is The One.” It’s on record. You can get it. Then in 1957, Brother Malcolm was writing in the Amsterdam News. His column was “God’s Angry Man” and Malcolm wrote “A White Man’s Heaven, Is A Black Man’s Hell.”
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But I sang the song and it became an underground hit in the 1960s in the movement, “A White Man’s Heaven Is A Black Man’s Hell.” I went into RCA Victor Studios in 1959 and my brother Thomas Jehad went into the studio with me. His job was to watch the engineer to make sure he didn’t mess up my song.
I’m showing you what commitment is.
One day Brother Malcolm asked me, “Brother Louis where did you get that song?” See we are little thieves at times. So Malcolm was testing me because he knew where I got it, but he wanted to know if I would say it. I said, “Oh brother Minister I read your column and I wrote the song.” It’s exactly the truth.
If you want to know why I’m going up yonder, I earned my way. I earned my way.
I sang. I wrote plays. I preached. Every gift I had I offered it to my Teacher. Can anyone in here deny that? Hell no! You can’t. You don’t know anyone like me. I’m not boasting. I’m not bragging. God made me for Elijah.
So after that night at Dunbar High School in Chicago, the next morning, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, “Brother so you’re back there again? Brother your talent is great but your greatest gift is in the spiritual,” he said. I didn’t know that. He said, “Would you give up all of that music for me?” I didn’t even hesitate.
I said, “Yes sir.” I said it so fast, he said it again, “Would you give all this music up for me?” Because then he was going to teach me into the Spiritual Word of God that he alone knew that the Saviour taught him. I gave him my all. I’m not embarrassed. What did you get for it? How much money did you get? Nothing.
I came and sat at the table with my Teacher. He said, “Brother Louis, a man came and offered $750,000 for the master of your song.” The master of your song. He knew who wrote it. He knew who it belonged to. He said, “They offered $750,000.” This was back in 1956. Three quarters of a million dollars. So he asked me, “Should I offer it to him?” I said, “No sir, dear Apostle.” The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was trying to raise money to build a center. He needed money. Three quarters of a million dollars was on the table.
“Would you give me permission to offer it to them?” he asked. “No sir, dear Apostle,” I said. Then he asked me, “Why not?” He’s locating me. The man asks you a question, once he locates you, he knows who the hell he is dealing with. He’s not going to lay something on you and you’re not fit. So he has to try you.
Is three quarters of a million dollars a big enough trial? “No. I don’t care that we sell it because somebody will give you three quarters of a million dollars just to keep the song on the shelf. And Black people that I wrote the song for, put the truth of your teachings in that song, was so that they will be quickened to life.”
Where is the proof of what you say Farrakhan?
My brother Captain Sam, who became known as Abdul Rahman Muhammad, a great minister of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad. My brother was in Miami and he was selling Muhammad Speaks newspapers one day. Muhammad Ali, who was still Cassius Clay at the time, was across the street. And he shouted out, “Why are we called Negroes?
Why are we deaf, dumb and blind? Why is everybody making progress and we seem to be lagging so far behind.” And the Rock said, “Hey man you hip, you hip to the Teachings.” How did he get hip to the Teachings? It was a sound made by Louis Farrakhan.
I offered the Hon. Elijah Muhammad my life. So he begins spiritually teaching me. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad put Dr. Lonnie Shabazz on the national radio program representing him. He sent for me. “Brother, how did you like Dr. Lonnie’s teaching?” I said, “I love it dear Apostle, he was teaching your Teaching and I gained a lot from it.” See he wanted to see if I was a kind of arrogant jackass that would say, “I can speak better than he.
Why didn’t you let me have the program?” See Negroes can’t hide. You can’t hide. He took Dr. Lonnie Shabazz down and put up Bernard Cushmeer. After Bernard Cushmeer, now known as brother Jabril Muhammad, started teaching, the Messenger called me. “What did you think of Brother Bernard?” I said, “It’s wonderful. Dear Apostle, he’s very knowledgeable. Anybody that knows, as you know, he’s a very knowledgeable brother.”
I passed those two tests, then the Honorable Elijah Muhammad sent me a letter saying, “Brother I was looking at you all the time.” Character. I don’t care what you think you know. Your knowledge isn’t worth a damn, if you don’t have character that goes along with your knowledge. … I’m saying all of that to say this. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad put me on the radio. The first four lectures he gave me a hint in the Teaching, he gave me a sentence or two and then I would take it from there. I sent the lecture out to him.
He passed it. The next week he passed it again. The next week he passed it again. The next week he passed it again. He said, “Well, little brother you can keep going about six months or so.” And I used to say every week, “The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, that great preacher of freedom, justice and equality to the Black man and woman of America, we’re waiting his return to these microphones.” Are you lying? No. People lie once they get that lollipop and start sucking it.
For three years, I used to write out every single word. Then I would study each word, and if I could say it better by using another word, I would change that word for another one. Then I would rehearse and I would broadcast.
After three years, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, “Brother, you don’t have to do that. Get a thought in your mind and a few scriptures and stand up and let God speak through you.” That’s why you don’t see me with notes. I don’t give a damn about notes. I have studied so long and so hard, the notes are written on the inside.
Excuse me for saying damn. I have a little problem. But when you’re dealing with us if you don’t curse sometimes, you’ll be a killer. Don’t you know we’re a hard people to teach? So don’t tell me, “I’m a coward and I quit.” I got 67 years on you. …
These are personal stories, but they’re telling you something about why I’m going and why He’s allowing me to come.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, “Brother, I want you to tell the people that I will be back next week.”
After five years I done got the lollipop, sucked it until it’s almost down, then you going to ask me to give you back the lollipop? That’s a trial. I came back home and I went to writing, “Harken to the Voice of God”—because that’s who my Teacher is. I laid it out. He called back, “Oh, brother, you may continue next week.” But what was he telling you, and what was he telling me, that I was so slow to accept? That I had become the Voice of God.
Now the biggest test that he gave me: Tony Brown, the great commentator, was inviting all the Black leaders to be on education channel. He invited Elijah Muhammad. Elijah Muhammad sent for me. He said, “Brother, I’m not going to do that; I want you to do it.” I said, “Me?” “Yes. I’m going to show you how,” he said. And he starts teaching me how never to be afraid when you represent Divine Revelation.
I was down in New Orleans and the preachers were cutting up. One of my brothers said, “Minister, boy, you got to bring it.” Like I’m some singer in some night club and I got to bring it. When I got finished, the place was tore up. And I said to my brother, “this is not a competition. A man that doesn’t know the revelation of God, how can I ‘compete’ with him?’ ” At Rosa Parks’ funeral, they invited me. All the preachers were up there and I’m one of them and we’re trying to get along. Just walk this journey with me.
At her homegoing I said, the preachers are listening, “If any man would be my disciple. Jesus said, he must first deny himself, pick up his cross and follow me.”
Look at your brother. You can’t tell me I’m not a true disciple because I gave up everything. You have never picked up a cross like I picked up. Because I’m kicking the butt of Satan and all his minions, the Jews and their power, the government of America, the Pope of Rome, the Imams of Mecca. I’ve got my cross. Where is yours? I not only picked up the cross, I followed closely in the footsteps of my Teacher.
I’m at the end of this part because it’s a very important part: We’re going up yonder and I want you to know where I’m going, why I’m going and what I’m going for. I’m having such a good time.
So the Messenger called me for three weeks straight: “Come out to Chicago. I want to prepare you.” A student being called by the teacher. He wants to prepare me; ooh I was so happy. He said, “Now, brother, don’t you be afraid of none of them because they have nothing to compare with what I’ve given to you. Stand up on it.” Yes sir! Finally the day arrived, me and Brother Abdul Akbar Muhammad, and another brother, we’re in downtown New York. I went out and bought a new suit. I was getting ready. I had laid out the Messenger’s Teachings and I was fasting and studying and praying.
Finally the day had come. They were having a sound check in the studio and I had to be there at two o’clock that day, so at one o’clock I called my Teacher. “Dear Apostle, yes, I’m on my way to the studio.” Notice the sound of my voice, you don’t talk to the Boss raising your voice. You better show some submission here.
I said, “It’s that day where that program is going to air.” “What program?” asked the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. “Oh it’s the program where all the Black leaders have been called,” I said. “And who said you were one?” he asked. “Oh no, dear Apostle,” I said. Then he hung up the phone. Let me tell you something, God taught the Honorable Elijah Muhammad how to try a person in such a way that whatever was hiding deep inside of them, they will not be able to hold it. If you try them as God taught him to try.
Real talk man. I am the proof. I’ve lived the life; I’ve suffered for the cause. You can’t tell me I haven’t. Forty-four years this mosque is here, the school is here, Salaam restaurant is here. Do you know the first paper that the Nation had? What was it called? The Final Call to Islam. I’m trying to help you to see where I am going. I’m trying to help you to see what qualified me to be the one to go. Do you know when I started trying to rebuild the Nation of Islam, I didn’t believe Elijah Muhammad was alive.
Brother Ishmael Muhammad, he sat me down in a little school where he and his brother and sister were going. He said, “Brother Minister, you do believe that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is alive, don’t you?” I said, “No, brother, I don’t believe that.” His face turned up a little strange. I said, “Son if he’s alive, he’ll make me to know it. He’s not here so we got this work to do.” But I did not believe that Elijah Muhammad was alive.
So I kept on working. Jabril Muhammad, when it was time for me to go to work, found me. I had just come back from Mecca in Arabia, kissing the Black Stone, loving what I saw. But I was concerned because I said, “these people look like they’re worshiping this stone. The stone doesn’t have any power. What it symbolizes is where the power is.”
But the way people were fighting just to kiss it. I did too and I kissed the stone but I knew I was kissing that which was a sign of a man that I loved … Elijah Muhammad.
I sent a postcard to Brother Jabril, Brother Cushmeer at the time, and when he got that postcard, Brother Jabril knew I was ready. So he found me in California at a Hyatt Hotel owned by Gene Autry. I was on the twelfth floor and Jabril came, I hugged him. We hadn’t seen each other for a long while. He gave me a book to read about Jesus. And there was an appendix to the book which became a book. The book is titled
“Is It Possible That The Honorable Elijah Muhammad Is Still Physically Alive.” He offered that to me. I said, “Oh poor brother. I saw a body and it looked like my Teacher and I kissed the body on the forehead. And I said, ‘Oh father of my life.’ ” I was hurt; he was gone. Before he left, he had a series of lectures from this place called “The Theology Of Time.” In July 1972, he had forbidden me to come out here. I would ask him.
By the way, when he hung up on me while I was in New York waiting about the Tony Brown television show, I waited awhile and asked my friends, “what should I do?” They said, “Well, why don’t you just call him back and ask him?” So I called him back, he was having a diabetic coma so he couldn’t come to the phone. Well, it was time for the sound check, I wasn’t there because I wasn’t going anywhere until he gave me permission. Finally he comes on the phone. I said, “Dear Apostle.” In a sharp tone, he said, “Well brother what do you want to do?” I said, “I want to be with you, dear Apostle.” He said, “Well come on then.”
I got on that plane and got to Chicago. He was going to do the broadcast all along. If I was the average Negro or devil … he set me up like that. Oh man he’s terrible. (Smile.) Yes. But he had the soldiers out there. When I told him I was coming out, he had Supreme Captain Raymond Sharieff sitting by me. He wanted to make sure that was where I really wanted to be. He didn’t care if I messed up, he was going to fire me that night. See if you’re with God, Brother Malcolm, what happened?
Fired him. Oh well. See the great teacher. You can be great in your own eyes and great in the eyes of thousands of people, Elijah Muhammad doesn’t care anything about that. He said, “If I lost the whole of New York City, it wouldn’t affect me.” That’s my Teacher. One more mistake I made where he turned it into a trial in a lesson: When I got out there to Chicago, the broadcast came out. I was by his side and I was bearing witness, “Go ahead, dear Apostle teach!” You could always hear me wherever he was teaching you would hear me bearing witness.
When I first arrived for the broadcast, I said, “Dear Apostle, I’m happy to be here with you.” He said, “I hope so.” He took his pen, he said, “What is the name of this program?” “It’s called ‘Is It Too Late,’ ” I said. “Is It Too Late.” Well it sure would have been too late for me if I didn’t pass that test. I’m sneaking up on the song that you have to hear sung.
It’s your song because after Elijah Muhammad left, I have done forty-four years absent my Teacher. He gave us time to take a test and Imam Warith Deen Mohammad was the professor that gave us the test. And most of us failed, including me. What do you mean test? What are you talking about? In order for you to get to the next level, you have to be competent at the level that you function on. So he taught us that God is a man—don’t forget that. He said that man, Son of Man, came from the East like it is written and walked among us. That man that came, Master Fard Muhammad.
He’s the Master of that Wheel. I’m trying to get to it so be patient with me. Because I’m going to call your number in a minute. No. Don’t pull the plug on your phone, I have your number. I’ll be dialing you in a few minutes. Look at this, the Messenger knew how to try us because people that are around him, he has to know who we are. The only way he’s going to know is he listens to what you say, watches what you do and then sits you down sometimes for examination that you don’t even know you’re being examined. See that’s a Master Teacher. I didn’t come under no dunce. Listen to me, look at me. I had a Master for a Teacher.
How could I go to Mecca? My son, Mustapha, can bear witness, the head of the Islamic League Dr. Abdullah Nassif heard me do a marriage ceremony in the National House. He was so impressed he wanted to introduce me to 150 imams in America, who were not thinking too well about the Nation of Islam. I said to Dr. Nassif I would like for you to arrange for me to come to Mecca and meet the scholars about our Teachings. He said, I’ll do it and he sent for me.
Brother Leonard F. Muhammad is here. Brother Mustapha is here. Brother Jabril is watching. I want you to listen to this. My brothers were there. There was a Sheikh Zindani from Yemen. He was my first teacher that day. He came and from one hour and a half he taught me. I took out a pad and I wrote down his questions, his responses and after he finished it was my turn. As Allah is my witness, I took everything that man said and with the Teachings of my Teacher I went to the root of what he was saying and taught him.
Listen now, the next day he came back and I came back the second day. He did the same thing and I did the same thing. On the third day they invited the great scholar Mohammad Kati, an Egyptian scholar. His brother is the founder of a great Islamic movement, The Muslim Brotherhood. He comes and now it’s on Master Fard Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad. I wouldn’t lie to you if they put a gun to my head. See the truth is so powerful, but if you don’t have the courage to stand up on what you believe, you’ll be rolled over.
But that day my son was in the back, he told me he was weeping because he saw his father with the scholars at Mecca. And when I talked about the Saviour and I talked about Elijah and defended them, one of the things I said, “Now all Muslims that are here you read the Qur’an. Name me one incident where Allah punished a people for their iniquity that happened again under Prophet Muhammad?” I’ll wait.
I’m not going to have to wait long because it never happened. I said, “We’re living in America. If Moses came back, he would run away if he saw Pharaoh, the Pharaoh I’m dealing with and Elijah Muhammad has been dealing with and the Black people that are torn to pieces by this devil.” I defended him. I defended us. After it was over Sheik Zindani and I were walking together to perform Asr prayers. He said, “Brother, well we’ll just have to agree to disagree. I have not slept in three nights.”
See a little Negro student of Elijah Muhammad coming to Mecca. You haven’t seen me operating on the international scene at Al-Azhar University in Egypt. You don’t know your brother. You are meeting him today probably for your first time. Excuse me for raising my voice. I just want you to see that I got one to raise and it ain’t weak. I just want you to know God is with me, and if you are with me, God and the Messenger are with you.
Brother Leonard, my son and Jabril are witnesses, there was a tape of those three meetings. Brother Jabril had it and a fire took place and it was lost. You weren’t with me in Iraq in 2003 when 750 Muslim scholars came, war was imminent with American troops in Kuwait, and they will tell you I didn’t back down from Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq. He was calling for a Holy War. I said, “Holy War is not for Saddam Hussein.” I said it. His second in command was there. I said it. I did not go to Walmart to pick up some cojones.
God gave me strength to stand up in Mecca.
God gave me strength to stand up in Iran. Any of you that have ever traveled to Iran, you know they love the Mahdi. They’re sworn to die for the Mahdi. Eighty million of them altogether. But I have witnesses, I met the supreme leader of all Shia in the world and I said to him, “I represent the Mahdi.”
There were five hundred ayatollahs and generals, all that in the room, and he gave me 15 minutes to speak. And I talked about Al-Mahdi, who came among us. I said, “I’m from Him.” I spoke to generals. The very general that they killed in Iraq, Qasem Soleimani, came in the room where we were and I was talking about the Mahdi.
I asked the general a question, I said, “Do you know anything about the Wheels, unidentified flying objects?” He said, “We have drones that can equal anything of the enemy.” I said, “I’m not talking about drones.” Did you hear me? I told the generals. See this is old Persia with a new name. And when Prophet Muhammad sent an emissary to talk to the Kourosh of Persia and told them that Muhammad was the Messenger of Allah and asked the Kourosh of Persia to bow, the Kourosh sent a man to go find the emissary and kill him.
When I finished, I said to the generals: “You can do with me what you please.” Did I say it? You have to understand what courage looks like even if you don’t have it. But you have to get some before this is over.
To be continued.
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