A Message From The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan Delivered by his Student National Assistant Minister Ishmael Muhammad
[Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from the continuation of the Saviours’ Day 2025 keynote message delivered at Mosque Maryam in Chicago on Sunday, February 23. To order this message in its entirety, visit store.finalcall.com.]
Beloved brothers and sisters, all that are listening, the man Jesus, he starts his ministry, or started his ministry—I think it was in … Galilee?—with these words:
“Repent …,” followed by, “the kingdom of God is” what? “At hand,” meaning it’s near; it’s right around the corner. But he is crying out to the people to change their hearts and lives, urging the people, “Repent!” He is pleading with the people to change their course from a way that leads only to death and brings upon them the wrath of God.
That word “repent,” it happens to be the fourth step, or stage, of an atonement process that the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan presented on the occasion of The Million Man March.
No Black man has ever called for a million Black men to present themselves, and that call answered, like we showed up on October the 16, 1995. And he introduced on that day the great principle of atonement that involves eight steps. And the first one is the most difficult:
“Point out the wrong.” Nobody wants their wrongs pointed out to them. And the second step is “Acknowledge the wrong.” After you and I acknowledge our faults, acknowledge our wrongs, then there has to be, Father,confession. I got to confess my faults.
But then there is repentance. Because if there is no change of mind and heart, then your apology, your so-called apology, your so-called “I am sorry,” is shallow. And that’s why some of us don’t accept a little simple “sorry,” because it doesn’t come from a contrite heart.
There’s too much ego. So easy to say “I’m sorry”… But a real offer of apology carries with it remorse, and I feel sorry that I have wronged you; I feel sorry for what I did to you, and I ask for your forgiveness.
And this is how you know that when we offer an apology, it’s not sincere: Because when we offer it, and that person doesn’t accept it, then we’re like this:
“Well, forget you. …”
That’s not the way it’s supposed to be … . Jesus was asked, “How many times should one ask for forgiveness?” What did he say? “Seven times” what? “Seventy”? That’s 490 times?
That’s a lon[g]—that’s a lot of times! But when it’s coming from a sincere heart, and I know I have hurt you, I know I have offended you, I know I have wronged you, every time I’m in your presence my head is bowing, because I am before God asking for forgiveness!
HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU ASK GOD, WHOM YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN, FOR FORGIVENESS, BUT YOU DON’T ASK FROM YOUR BROTHER AND SISTER WHO YOU SEE EVERY DAY?!
While I’m on that point! See, we got it all mixed up. You go, and we go, into prayer—“space.” It’s a communication, all right; it’s a “wi-fi” communication, it isn’t hardwired. I’m sending my message out, and I wouldn’t be praying to God unless I knew God hears.
But the real worship of God is not in song, it’s not in dance, it’s not in prayer, it’s not in fasting. The real praise and worship of God is how you treat your fellow human being.
Oh, we hypocrites. Notice I kept myself in it. See that’s hypocrisy. We don’t realize each of us are made in the image and likeness of God. Who’s sitting next to you? “Oh that’s that ni—I mean, that’s that brother,” or “that’s that sister.”
God, see? I have to bow in honor and reverence to God, His creatures, His creation. Bowing! So, it’s useless to pray “all day,” do all of that and then you come out of prayer to speak evil of another human being, to backbite another human being, to gossip against this one, to slander that one, to rob this one or that one, all in the name of Jesus, or Muhammad—or Farrakhan. Pick your messenger.
“To repent”: Change one’s mind, or change the inner self.
Then Jesus talks about the people seeking a sign of the end times. He said, “When it is evening you say it will be fair weather for the sky is red. And in the morning, it will be foul weather today for the sky is red and threatening.”
Hypocrites. You know how to discern the face of the sky but you cannot discern the signs of the times.” Then they asked Jesus to give them a sign of the time again and he said, “Hey, hey, hey, hey… You wicked and adulterous generation.
You’re seeking after a sign…”—uh oh, but then it gets heavy!—“…but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.”
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, from this very house of his, from that rostrum, he said these words: “You haven’t learned what the last man should look like, what he should do, or how the book teaches you that he’s a fulfiller. You don’t take the time to read what a ‘fulfiller’ is.”
He goes on to say: “When a man comes to you and is sent by another one, and tells you that he fulfills Jonah’s scriptures, well then, you should go and read Jonah and learn what Jonah did to see whether or not this man fulfills his work. Because ‘fulfill’ means to do the same work which that man did. If the man you’re talking to corresponds, then he is fulfilling.
However, if you don’t see Jonah’s work in this man’s work, then he doesn’t fulfill Jonah’s work. ‘Fulfill’ means to do what another one does.” And then he closed the point by saying, “So be careful about how you label people to be something that they are not.”
Just like Jesus: Of all the prophets, he lifts up Jonah. Why Jonah? Jonah is one of the more important prophets in clarifying the sign of the time. Jonah lived at the time of the great city of Nineveh.
And Nineveh, brothers and sisters, was a city that God was very displeased with, and He wanted Jonah to prophesy unto that city and tell them: “In 40 days, the city will be destroyed.”
Jonah had the assignment to call a people who were unconscious to their wickedness to think about their wickedness and hear the call of God. The Minister said, quote: What’s about to happen is going to be so great on the population of the earth that they must be still enough to understand why Jonah was given as the sign.”
Not “one of” the signs, but the sign, because it involves a man … A man with a prophetic voice, who now is running from the knowledge that he has that Nineveh is about to be destroyed.
Ancient Nineveh represented an important city within the ancient world, and with its strategic location in upper Mesopotamia, the city became a center of culture, civilization, economy, and trade. But she was wicked, cruel, and did a lot of evil.
Now check this out! When Jonah was called, he is the only prophet that’s found running. “Hey, hey, hey, Lord. Man, look … You got the wrong man!” “Who, me?? Nah, nah.” All the prophets that never felt that they were adequate enough for the job.
Moses, you know, he put up excuses: “… Look, I’m slow of speech. Surely, you’re not going to send me, an unlearned, uneducated man, up against Pharaoh, talking about ‘Let Your people go!’ He’ll look at me and say, ‘Get up out of here, man. You and your brother Aaron, get up out of here!’” But Jonah literally ran!
Oh, he was, he was running! And he boarded a ship from the city of Tarshish. And when he boarded this ship, look at what Jonah did: He immediately went below deck. And guess what he did?
He fell asleep! And while Jonah was asleep, a violent storm arose, and all the crew and its passengers were under a severe threat. And the ship’s crew and everyone aboard the ship was asked to pray to their God, but the storm would not cease.
The ship was under tremendous pressure. The people did not know why all of this was happening, but they have a knowledge—and maybe somebody on the ship knows what the heck is going on; and maybe somebody on this ship is responsible for what’s going on. Because evidently their gods didn’t stop the storm. …
He (Jonah) was asleep. Deep asleep. And the captain said, “What are you doing? Don’t you know what’s going on?? Why are you asleep?!” See, he’s talking about you, Jonah Derek, Jonah Destiny, Jonah Stephanie … Jonah John.
This nation is like a big ship. The storms are striking the country. And as the Qur’an says, “See how We curtail the land on all its sides?” A storm is happening—but we’re asleep! We’re partying. We’re in our man caves. Huh?
We’re getting high! We’re getting tipsy! Oh yeah … Don’t know what the hell is going on with America. And not just America, the whole world is being rocked, and God is striking continents, countries! And it’s going to get worse. And the Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote an article: “The Worst is Yet To Come.”
That’s what makes this Saviours’ Day message so critically important! I haven’t got to that point yet. But when a messenger of God has been among you as long as Farrakhan has been among us—and God tells him, “Be quiet!”…
You and I that know the scriptures, we should know what that means! And if we don’t know, we’re going tell you. Because all of us have known thatFarrakhan is not some ordinary man!
Farrakhan is not your average Black preacher! Farrakhan is not your average spiritual teacher or leader! There is only one Farrakhan! God didn’t make two of them, He made one Farrakhan!
Did you see those fires in California? And the firefighters had a great challenge, because they don’t have power over the winds. Eighty, ninety, one hundred mile-an-hour winds … Look at the loss of property, and some lives!
God’s aim is not to kill. His aim is to save. That’s why this is called “Saviours’ Day.” God comes to rescue the people, save the people from danger. …
The unusual weather. The unusual storms. And Jesus said that there would be what? Pestilence, famines, earthquakes in diverse places.” There was an earthquake in Texas. There was an earthquake in Jersey. Earthquake in this state of Illinois. Earthquake in Carolina.
The earth is moving, because the iniquity of the people on the surface of the earth have become a burden on the planet. Nature, now, is responding. We are experiencing the effect of a cause—and we are the causative agents!
So, when Jonah was finally awakened and went to the upper deck, the first question he was asked was: “Who are you?” “What people do you come from?” “What is your name?” “Who is your God?”
You’ve gotta be awakened. But the first thing is, “Who are you? What’s your identity? What people do you come from? WHO IS YOUR GOD?”
So, the story goes that Jonah: He ended up saying who he was, and he acknowledged that he was running from God. He admitted it. “It’s all my fault” … “And all this trouble is because of me.” And he told them, “I have been running from God.” And he said,
“If you throw me overboard, the storm will cease.” But the captain and the crew didn’t want to do that. But the storm intensified, and it got to that point: “It’s either you, or us. You got to go. You’ve got to go!” … They prayed, and asked God for forgiveness for throwing this man overboard. But they had to get rid of him.
Oh, America, see: God been telling you, “Let My people go.” Oh, but you, you don’t wanna let us go—and you don’t wanna go. See, when we run from God, we run from one trouble into another.
So even after Jonah was thrown overboard, he gets swallowed up by a fish. He went from one circumstance into the other. Sound familiar? You go from one relationship to another; trouble there, trouble over here. Go ahead, relocate, go to a new city, get you a new place. Everything’s good for a minute. But all of a sudden, trouble again.
Could it be that each of us personally, and each of us as a collective, have been running from God to do His will? And until we submit, we will not be freed and delivered from our afflictions and what troubles us.
To be continued
