[Editor’s note: The following text is taken from a kutbah (sermon) delivered by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan on Nov. 29, 2002 during Jumu’ah Prayer Service held at Mosque Maryam in Chicago. For a copy of the complete message, visit store.finalcall.com.]
In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.
I would like to begin this kutbah (sermon) with a recitation from the Qur’an of the two closing chapters of this great book of guidance. These are called the chapters of refuge. If there ever was a time that the Muslims in America and the world needed to know of a place of refuge and to fly to that place, that time is now.
Allah says in the Qur’an, “In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. Say : I seek refuge in the Lord of the dawn, From the evil of that which He has created, And from the evil of intense darkness, when it comes, And from the evil of those who cast (evil suggestions) in firm resolutions, And from the evil of the envier when he envies.”
And the last chapter of refuge is called “The Men.” It reads: “In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of men, The King of men, The God of men, From the evil of the whisperings of the slinking (devil), Who whispers into the hearts of men, From among the jinn and the men.”
Most of us as natural human beings find refuge in things that we think can aid us in a time of distress or trouble. All children find refuge in mother or father because they don’t know yet the Lord of men, the King of men, the God of men.
They look to their parents as a place of refuge in a time of stress, trial or trouble. But, as we mature, we should never look to any source of refuge other than He Who created us and created the universe in which we live.
The Qur’an says, “I seek refuge in the Lord of the dawn” because the night, as it overspreads, is so intensely dark that we need to place our trust in Him Who has the light, in Him Who is the light, Who will bring us into the dawn of a brand new day.
We need to find and reconnect ourselves to Allah (God) because there is no guarantee that because we wear the name of Allah (God) that we will be spared His chastisement.
There is no guarantee that because we go to the masjid or make our prayers, or even perform Ramadan as a ritual, that this will cause us to escape the chastisement of Allah (God). There must be in us a true connection to Allah (God).
A true connection to Allah (God) is safeguarded by our constantly striving to be in obedience to Allah (God) and His Messenger, following the dictates of a Book (Qur’an) in which there is no doubt.
Why should I, or you, seek refuge in Allah (God)? It is because He is the Beneficent; He is the Merciful. He is the Most Merciful of those who have mercy. He is the oft-forgiving and the only One who has power to remove from us the consequences of our actions. Surely there is no God but Allah, and on Him let the Believers rely.
Why should I place my refuge in Allah (God)? It is because He is the Master of the Day of Requital, the Day of Judgment. He is Master of all circumstances, and nothing happens except by His permission. If He permits something to happen that may not be comfortable for me, then, if I put my trust in Him, surely He will take me through the darkness to the dawn of a brand new day.
Why should I seek refuge in Allah (God)? It is because He is the Mighty, the Wise and the Possessor of Power over all things. In Whom else should we seek refuge? Who do you know that is the All Mighty, the wisest of those who have wisdom, and One possessing power over all things? Is not that The One in Whom we should put our trust and in Whom we should seek refuge?
It is only Allah (God) Who can make us secure. It is only Allah (God) Who can make us Muslims by making us secure, thereby causing us to enter into peace regardless to what He brings or permits. We will be at peace because we have made peace with Him, and in Him we have our life and our state of being.
Allah (God) says in the Qur’an, “When the matter is decided, the devil will say, I had no authority over you except that I called you and you obeyed me. So blame me not, but blame yourselves for I deny your associating me with Allah (God) before.” The devil knows that he has no power except what Allah (God) permits.
So he will, in the final analysis, tell those who bow down to him that he denies our associating him with Allah (God). In Allah (God) should the Believers rely, and in Allah (God) should we, the Believers, seek refuge. In Him is our strength, our mercy, our sustenance, our guidance. And in Him is our protection to get us through the dark hour that approaches.
Dear Muslims, the time in which we live probably will become one of the greatest hours of challenge for Muslims all over the world. In every nation where there are Muslims, those Muslims who strive to follow the path, the Sunnah of the Prophet, Peace Be Upon Him (PBUH), are under attack.
Those who seek the pure path of Allah (God) and are calling their governments, who have deviated from the path, to the straight path are being persecuted in every nation. I’m speaking now of every Muslim nation.
There are those in leadership who have forsaken Allah (God) and His messenger and this Book, Qur’an, and have placed it behind their backs. If the Qur’an is the Light and we put it behind our backs, what then is illuminating your path? If these are the leaders of nations, then their followers are on their way to hell following their blind guides.
In the 17th surah (chapter) of the Holy Qur’an, titled, “The Israelites,” Allah (God) promises the Israelites, or the Jews, in the 4th verse: “In the scripture we have conveyed to the Children of Israel with certainty saying twice you shall create disorder in the land and shall surely become exceedingly overbearing and arrogant.”
So when the first of the two warnings came, in 588 B.C., the Qur’an says, “We roused against you some of our servants possessed of great valor and might in warfare, and they penetrated into the innermost recesses of your country and habitations. Indeed, it was a warning of Allah (God) bound to be carried out.”
Though we receive a prophet from Allah (God), if we are not careful in our obedience to Allah (God) and following the straight path of that prophet, there is no guarantee that Allah (God) will not bring a disbeliever to punish us for our failure to live up to what we said we believe.
This punishment came to the Jews. Then Allah (God) says, “We gave you back the power to prevail over these (enemies of yours.) That was historically through Cyrus and Zerubbabell and We helped you with various possessions and sons and we increased your manpower (militarily). (We said,) ‘If you did good, you did it for your ownselves, and if you did evil, it was only to the same end.’
So when (the time for carrying out) the latter warning came (We raised certain other people—Romans under Titus in 70 A.D., against you to destroy your glory), so that they might do evil to (you and) your leading men and invade and enter the Mosque (at Jerusalem).” It didn’t say temple. It didn’t say synagogue.
But entered your mosque or house of worship at Jerusalem “in the same way as others (of your enemies) had invaded and entered it the first time, so that they might destroy utterly all that they had conquered. Still it is well-nigh that your Lord will again have mercy on you, (through Islam) but if you return (to mischief, We warn,) We too will return (to Our punishment).”
These two punishments also happened to Muslims. Since Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said, “three generations after me will no longer be of me,” and many of the hypocrites who were in the ranks of the Muslims even to the time of the Prophet’s conquering of Mecca, when he forgave them, among all those that he forgave were hypocrites and vicious enemies of Islam.
Out of fear, they covered themselves. But later, they emerged and through their children even became Caliphas. Naturally, then, the Muslims would go off the path through their own leadership that was hypocritical to the Faith, or to the Sunnah (the Way), of the prophet.
The Prophet (PBUH) came with the Qur’an and the Qur’an had to be established first in order for justice to come after the word was established. Now the Muslim world is confused.
The Qur’an is not confused, but those who call themselves Muslims, in many cases, have gone off the path. Once you deviate, you can read the Qur’an, you can study the Sunnah, but there is no guarantee that you can come back to the straight path on your own.
If we could, all Allah (God) would have to say is “go back and study the Qur’an and follow the Sunnah of the Prophet and you will be back on the My Straight Path.” But Allah (God) promised a Mahdi because the Mahdi would be guiding us who lost the path back to His Straight Way.
What may happen with Iraq? What may happen with Syria? What may happen with Saudi? What may happen to the Emirates? What may happen to the whole Muslim world as an unbeliever with awesome power starts moving against Islam (the Muslim world)?
Could this be a punishment for deviation? We who live in the United States of America, those of us who follow the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, are acquainted with persecution for trying to establish Islam as we understood it. The foreign Muslims who are here who came from Africa, the Middle East and Asia don’t know the persecution of Islam as we know it.
However, since 9/11, the foreign born Muslims are getting very much acquainted with what this enemy can do when he fears our Faith. What 9/11 has unleashed is the hatred of many of these Christian evangelists against our Prophet (PBUH) and against Islam (our way of life).
There is no guarantee that the enemy will not one day come against us. There is no guarantee that the enemy who is building his case against me, and, therefore, against those who are with me, that when war breaks out that they won’t try to arrest me today as they did the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in 1942.
What is our response going to be? I seek refuge in Allah (God), the Lord of the dawn. It’s getting dark now and it’s going to get even darker as time goes on. However, I have a light within me. And I have the example of how to live that life so I cannot walk in darkness even though darkness may surround me. All true Believers will have light even in the darkness.
I seek refuge in Allah (God) from the mischief of created things. Here is an enemy who created mischief with an atom, created mischief with our sex organs, created mischief with biology and chemistry. He creates viruses. He creates death in chemistry. He poisons the water, the air, the Earth.
Then, he whispers into the hearts of men from among the jinn and the men. What is this whispering campaign for? It is to divide us one against the other. But the most important thing is to make us recant our faith and separate us from the love of Allah (God).
Why should we deny who we are and what we are simply because the enemy shows he does not love us? We have to be careful that Allah (God) loves us. Allah (God) loves those who pray; Allah (God) loves those who are dutiful; Allah (God) loves those who, when they are afflicted, say, Allah (God) is my patron and to Him is my eventual return.
Allah (God) loves those who are patient and steadfast under trial. When we have the love of Allah (God), we have the refuge that can take us through the dark and trying hour.
Be careful, beloved Believers, in this hour; not only for what people whisper to you, but what comes up from your own hearts to whisper to you against faith. Be careful of how you think when you are being tried. The enemy will make it easy for us to recant. The Qur’an teaches that they won’t relent until we come back to where they, (hypocrites and disbelievers) are.
We are not going back; we are going forward.
