As weather disasters continue impacting different areas of the U.S. and abroad, the importance of individuals, families and communities being prepared becomes increasingly important.
The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, warned of and taught on the four great judgments that would plague America: rain, hail, snow and earthquakes.
Each of these judgments has stuck the U.S. in 2025, as well as additional weather calamities like floods, intense heat, tornadoes, wildfires, and ice.
The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad also taught on the importance of disaster preparedness and to prepare for local, regional and national crises by storing non-perishable foodstuffs, water, emergency items, medicine, and other survival goods that help lessen the impact of calamities when they occur.
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, led a Nation of Islam delegation to Cuba in 2006 to study the island’s methods for disaster preparedness.
“Those who are scripturally prepared know that it is prophesied that we would be living at a time of wars and rumors of wars, pestilence, famine and earthquakes in diverse places.
We are witnessing terrifying disasters afflicting the people of the world and these disasters are now afflicting the United States of America,” Minister Farrakhan stated in a news conference in Havana.
“Believing that these prophesies will be fulfilled, we felt that it is our duty to learn as much as we can, so that we can return to the United States and prepare documents on disaster preparedness, and in conjunction with local, state and federal government, do all we can to prepare the American people, and our people in particular, for coming disasters,” he continued.
Members of the Nation of Islam are working to prepare their communities with valuable information to help save their lives when disasters strike.
Sister Alva Muhammad, a volunteer disaster preparedness instructor based in Chicago, told The Final Call that disasters, both large and small, can strike at any time and that it is important for families to develop at least a basic plan to mitigate the impact of individual disasters, ranging from house or apartment fires, to the destructiveness of violent storms and weather, to the chaos inflicted by social unrest and civil disorder.
“The things that used to seem unlikely are now happening all over and being prepared, having the supplies that you need and the skills that you need to stay safe and to survive can only help,” Sis. Alva Muhammad explained. “Having supplies in your home is never a harmful thing.
Having (training) in CPR, basic trauma, survival skills … all it can do is help,” she said. “The totality of our Teachings is geared to help us make it, to go through those things America has to go through in order for us to make it to the Hereafter,” she said.
In the Nation of Islam “hereafter” refers to life on Earth following the changing of worlds and the end of the era of wicked rule.
“That’s why it’s (preparation) more important now than ever before because everything right now is happening before our eyes,” Sis. Alva Muhammad said.
Brother Rudolph Muhammad is a member of Mosque No. 1 in Detroit and is an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) with over 30 years of experience. A transplant from New York City, he also shared that he was among the early first responders who arrived at the World Trade Center complex after airplanes struck the twin towers on 9/11.
“The best way for a family to prepare for any disaster is to have a working knowledge of the disasters that they are most vulnerable to in their geographic area,” Bro. Rudolph Muhammad explained. “Let’s say you live in Louisiana, so you know you’re prone to flooding.
If you’re on the West Coast, the bulk of your preparedness would be geared to wildfires and earthquakes. That’s how you should look at it, figure out whatever you’re vulnerable to or the most vulnerable to based on the locale’s history and prepare for it,” he explained.
“Then there’s the go-bag. I can’t overemphasize the necessity and importance of what we call the go-bag,” Bro. Rudolph Muhammad added.
According to FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency), every household should create and maintain a basic disaster/emergency supply kit or go-bag as a minimum. “After an emergency, you may need to survive on your own for several days,” FEMA’s website advises.
“Being prepared means having your own food, water and other supplies to last for several days. A disaster supplies kit is a collection of basic items your household may need in the event of an emergency.”
A list of suggested items for disaster mitigation may be found at FEMA.gov and those items can be kept in backpacks in a family’s home or automobile.
The Final Call also published a special Disaster Preparedness edition about weather-related disasters and how to prepare yourself and your family in case of emergencies, available as a free digital download. (See page 37 for more information)
Brother Dr. Ridgely Mu’min Muhammad, manager of Muhammad Farms in Georgia, told The Final Call that an important component to disaster preparation is also found in acquiring staple goods for long-term storage and emergency use.
He said that for decades, the Teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad have been a consistent reminder for the time America has now entered.
“We know something’s getting ready to happen, so it’s best to get prepared for it because you may have to stay in your homes,” Bro. Dr. Ridgely Muhammad said.
“You may not be able to get to the store, and when you get to the store, everything could be gone. You know the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan warned us at Saviours’ Day 2020 about the unraveling of a great nation,” he said.
“Before we had integration, Black people knew that they had to take care of themselves, but now people don’t even cook and they’ve been completely dependent on a system that has now shown that it’s fragile and hostile,” he added.
Current events are a clue that Black people must begin to look out for themselves, Bro. Dr. Ridgely Muhammad said. “We’d better find a way to make our community safer, stronger and cohesive so we can depend on one another,” he noted.
Nation of Islam Student Southwest Regional Minister Dr. Abdul Haleem Muhammad agreed now more than ever that it is time to “do for self” or suffer the consequences, as taught by the Most Honorable Eljah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.
He has a Ph.D. in urban planning and environmental policy and told The Final Call that after the effects of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Harvey, severe flooding, a sudden and unexpected deep freeze in 2021 that shut down the entire state of Texas,
And the COVID-19 pandemic that effected the entire planet, it is vital that individuals, families and community leaders narrow the gap between the theory and practice of disaster preparation.
“Doing for self is not just about creating a business or a job,” Student Min. Dr. Abdul Haleem Muhammad said. “Doing for self is all encompassing, it’s a concept that includes preparation for the fall of America and the close out of this world, the old world that’s going out, for the new world that’s coming in.”
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote on pages 256-257 of “The Fall of America” that the scriptures of both Christians and Muslims should serve as a warning to take heed of the time and what must be done.
“I say to you leaders, remember the above said of this writing that ‘The Worst is Yet to Come!’ As the Bible Teaches us that ‘a time would come that had never come before,’
And that those who understood—‘their hearts would be failing them with fear, and their eyes would go away in their holes’ for looking at the things that they saw coming on their people—the trouble! The destruction! And the plagues!”
In the same chapter, The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote about the changing of worlds under the Judgment of Allah (God). “Now the same trouble and destruction that you read of as happening in other countries and to other nations—these same troubles and destruction, with their evil and gruesome sound, are knocking on the door of America.”