ATLANTA—Believers in Atlanta and the Southern Region of the Nation of Islam were excited and extended a warm welcome to Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad, National Assistant to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, who visited the city and spoke on Jan. 25 and Jan. 26.
Believers, friends, family and guests filled the conference room at the Atlanta Airport Marriott Gateway ready to hear his Sunday keynote address, titled, “Survival in a Time of Trouble.”
Though Student Min. Ishmael Muhammad has recently traveled to many different cities, he expressed that he “couldn’t wait to get to Atlanta.”
“Georgia. The state that gave birth to Dr. King. Gave birth to a lot of great men and women, and you’re still giving birth. But not too far from here, a very special child was born, and a very special child was given, Elijah Muhammad,” he said, referring to his father, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam. “These are hallowed grounds,” he said.
During the message, he spoke about recent weather events, the political system and the need for Black people, the chosen people of God, to separate from America and go into a free direction. He lifted scripture to show how God used nature to force pharaoh to let His people go.
“Turn the waters into blood. Call upon the locusts. Bring down hellfire. Plague after plague, because pharaoh is not going to let them go, so I’ve got to stretch out my hand against pharaoh and the Egyptians,” he said.
“I love my people, and I don’t want them to suffer, but they’re in the house with the enemy, so some are going to get touched. Some are going to lose lives and property by the plagues that I (God) bring upon the land and the people. But afterward, pharaoh is going to let them go,” he shared.
America’s evil has caused God to send extreme weather events that have been gripping the country, such as the fires in California and the recent winter snowstorm in the South, he explained.
“The worst of her evils and the worst crime that she has done and she has not atoned for is to take a people against their will from their own land and their own people and make them slaves and deny them justice to this very day.
They robbed us, brothers, of the knowledge of self. They robbed us, sisters, of our language. They robbed us, brothers and sisters, of our culture, of our God, of our religion and denied us the right to know for 300 years,” he said. “She’s never atoned for her original sin.”
As a result, it is time, now, for Black people to “come out of her,” and the country is having birth pains and contractions to force Black people to separate.
Student Min. Ishmael Muhammad described this current period as a time when intense darkness is overspreading. “This darkness is the absence of God’s light,” he said.
He spoke on the importance of faith as a guiding light and let it be known to the listening audience that the light of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, coupled with faith in God dispels the darkness.
“It is faith in God, Minister Farrakhan said, that stretches you towards him. It is your and my faith in him that makes you and I move closer to him to connect with him,” Student Min. Ishmael Muhammad said.
“He’s forcing us in all of our little situations to say ‘Oh Lord, Oh God,’ because there’s no other source, no other power for us to look to and see but the power of God Himself,” he said.
“It’s time for the kingdom, and I want to be a part of the kingdom. I want to serve God, His Christ, His Messiah, and I’m happy that this world is coming to an end. I accept God’s will to do away with a world like this and bring in a brand new world,” he added.
He concluded the message by encouraging listeners to atone, forgive, put a stop to evil thoughts actions and think better of one another.
“I do study a lot. I do read my Bible. I keep the sabbath. I have been Baptist, Catholic (and) Pentecostal. But what he said today is so profound about the end times,” longtime Atlanta resident Sister Marsha Thadison said to The Final Call.
“It was a confirmation, for me, about trusting God, trusting the Word.” She expressed her love for the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and how heartwarming it was to see the numbers of Black men in attendance.
“I enjoyed it. I thought he spoke very well. I like how he speaks about God. God is first in everything,” Brother Lucky Johnson, an elderly Atlanta resident who attended with his wife, said to The Final Call.
“I loved how he talked about what’s to come and continues to give us forewarning for what we can expect and how we can prepare; not just prepare physically but prepare mentally and also spiritually, and to recognize the signs that are here and just ensure that we’re on the right path and striving to be upright,” said Sister Tiffani Herron, 26, who is processing to become a registered member of the Nation of Islam.
