Excitement is building as the Nation of Islam prepares for its Saviours’ Day 2024 convention happening in Detroit from February 23-25. The convention will take place at the Huntington Place, formerly the TCF Center. The highlight will be the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s keynote address, titled, “What Does Allah The Great Mahdi and The Great Messiah Have to Say About the War in the Middle East?”
Student Minister Troy Muhammad, the Muslims of Muhammad Mosque No. 1 in Detroit, and the Central Region have been spreading the word about Minister Farrakhan’s coming, crisscrossing the cities and states surrounding Detroit.
“We’ve been out going door to door, getting the message out. I’ve been on radio shows, TV shows, promoting the coming up of the Minister, and the people are so excited about it, as well as the mosque,” he said to The Final Call. “We’re doing everything. Every type of push, passing out flyers, doing all the things necessary to make sure that every ear knows that the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan is coming to Detroit and that he will be delivering a message on February the 25th.”
Saviours’ Day is a commemoration of the birth anniversary of Master Fard Muhammad, Allah (God) in Person, born on February 26, 1877, in the Holy City of Mecca. Master Fard Muhammad traveled 9,000 miles to North America to seek and to save the downtrodden Black man and woman.
›He appeared in the city of Detroit, where He raised and taught the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, who convened the first Saviours’ Day convention. The tradition of Saviours’ Day has been carried on through the work of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.
“This is the home of the Nation of Islam. It’s where the Nation of Islam began,” Student Min. Troy Muhammad said. “When he comes back to Detroit, it’s like coming home and allows all the members of the Nation to come and walk on the ground that the Master walked on.”
Detroit is a city that loves Minister Farrakhan, he said.
“You have many who are already connected in a lot of ways to the Nation of Islam through family, through just relationships, knowing a Muslim family,” he said. “Every elected official that we’ve talked to is excited about it. The community leadership is excited about it. Everybody wants to participate.”
Convention schedule
Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad, National Assistant to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, provided an overview to The Final Call on what the Saviours’ Day weekend will entail.
The Saviours’ Day weekend is filled with plenary sessions, workshops and social events. This year’s convention theme is, “We are fighting for Islam and we will surely win.”
The weekend will kickstart with an opening plenary titled, “Our Saviour and The Mahdi and The Messiah.”
Following the plenary session will be Salat-al Jumu’ah (Friday congressional) prayer service on the afternoon of Feb. 23. That evening, several social events will take place, including an inaugural Awards Banquet plus symphonic orchestra, a second annual chess tournament, a showing of the documentary, “Answered Pt. 2: The Coming of God,” an old school jam session and a singles session.
“We plan to have a banquet Friday at 5:30 p.m. to honor some of the dedicated believers of the Nation of Islam who have made a sacrifice for their Nation, who have been committed and devoted to the mission of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad under the leadership of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, and at that banquet, we will be featuring a symphonic orchestral ensemble highlighting the gifted and talented young members of the Nation of Islam,” Student Min. Ishmael Muhammad said.
Saturday, Feb. 24, opens with private F.O.I. (Fruit of Islam) and M.G.T. (Muslim Girls’ Training) classes, for the registered men and women of the Nation, followed by a private graduation for newly registered Muslims.
In October, Minister Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam filed a lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and their leadership for 1st Amendment violations and defamation. On Feb. 24, a plenary session titled, “The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan & The Nation of Islam vs. The ADL & The SWC: Destroying the False Charge of Anti-Semitism” will take place.
Closing out Saturday will be the highly anticipated and always popular drill competition with teams from all over the Nation. The finalists in the Jr. M.G.T. category are: Atlanta, Chicago and Washington D.C.; in the Jr. FOI category: Atlanta, Chicago and Houston; in the M.G.T. category: Chicago, Atlanta and Houston; in the M.G.T. Vanguard category: Houston, Newark, Miami, Atlanta and Chicago and in the F.O.I. category: Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, Newark, Chicago and Houston.
The annual Mother Khadijah Farrakhan’s Children’s Village will take place at Huntington Place on Feb. 23 and Feb. 24 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Children’s Village, which is always a highlight, will include face painting, arcade games, bumper cars, crafts, inflatables, a play area for toddlers and a robotics workshop. Aviation in the Nation, a program that teaches children the science of aviation, is returning to the Children’s Village, along with Mother Khadijah Farrakhan’s Gift Center. Register at https://www.childrensvillageonline.org.
“It warms her heart every year that she can provide activities to make all of the children feel a part of Saviours’ Day and to have a wonderful experience,” Student Min. Ishmael Muhammad said referring to Mother Khadijah.
Workshops will occur on both days, Feb. 23 and Feb. 24.
“The workshops, the plenary sessions, the drill competition are all open to the public,” Student Min. Ishmael Muhammad said. He said there will be workshops on family, youth, marriage, the science of mating, health and the importance of urban farming and gardening. He also shared that there will be a workshop dealing with exonerating those who have been incarcerated and making sure the incarcerated aren’t forgotten.
Vending and a historical museum featuring the Nation of Islam’s 93-year history will be ongoing throughout the weekend.
The Saviours’ Day convention will close with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s keynote address, which will be delivered at Huntington Place on Feb. 25. The address will be streamed live at noi.org. The program begins at 2 p.m. CST.
For the first time, attendees can select their seats but tickets are going fast. At presstime, 50 of the 61 total sections were sold out. The venue is out of tier one ($100), tier two ($50) and tier three ($35) tickets. Tier four ($20) tickets are still available for purchase.
Detroit: A spiritual center
For Saviours’ Day 2024, Student Min. Troy Muhammad and his team printed flyers in both Arabic and English, to share with and to promote to the Arab community in the Detroit area. Statistics show that the state of Michigan has the largest population of Arab Americans in the U.S., with metropolitan Detroit having the largest population of Arabic speakers out of the country’s metro areas.
“We’re doing some different things, and we pray that just like when he was in 2020, that the venue is sold out and it’s overflow,” Student Min. Troy Muhammad said.
In February 2020, Minister Farrakhan delivered the historic message, “The Unraveling of a Great Nation,” from the TCF Center. Shortly after his address, the weather intensified, COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic and the world erupted into chaos.
“Four years ago, we observed Saviours’ Day in Detroit in 2020, and the subject of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan was ‘The Unraveling of a Great Nation.’ And a few days after Saviours’ Day, the American people were made aware by its government that this virus, COVID-19, which was in China and Asia, had come into our borders.
Little did we know that that unseen virus would cause the unraveling of a great nation, the unraveling of the government and the shutting down of the country,” Student Min. Ishmael Muhammad said.
“The polarity in this country has only increased, and now we go back to Detroit with … a conflict in the Middle East that has the attention of the whole world on Israel and Gaza. But everybody that has said something about this conflict, we have not heard what God has to say,” he continued.
“Jerusalem is in the Bible, it’s in the Qur’an, and it is the focus of the War of Armageddon, scripturally speaking. So, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has taken the subject, ‘What Does Allah, The Great Mahdi and The Great Messiah Have to Say About the War in the Middle East?’ That’s the highlight of Saviours’ Day weekend.”
“Detroit (is) a very spiritual city. It’s a city that has so many churches and great spiritual leaders throughout the city and the Christian faith as well as Islamic faith. I think it’s very significant that the man of God is coming here to speak to set this thing off,” Student Min. Troy Muhammad said. “We’re all looking forward to it.”
For more information about Saviours’ Day 2024, visit https://noi.org/sd2024 or scan the QR codes on this page for updates.
