CHICAGO—Forty years after a sacred and transformative encounter that has directed the work and mission of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, believers, scholars, and historians gathered on Sept. 17 to honor Minister Farrakhan’s 1985 More-Than-A-Vision Experience aboard The Wheel (The Mother Plane).
This experience exposed a coordinated war against Black America, with particular emphasis on our Black youth. And wars against Muslim nations waged through foreign conflict abroad and warfare at home that is still unfolding today.
The 40th anniversary commemoration, broadcast globally, featured a live message from Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad, National Assistant to Minister Farrakhan, who spoke from Tepoztlán.
Mexico—the very city where Minister Farrakhan experienced his profound 1985 More-Than-A-Vision-Experience aboard The Wheel, where he received instructions and revelation from his teacher, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
Student Min. Ishmael’s presence in Tepoztlán, Mexico, added a powerful layer of spiritual and historical resonance to the 40-year anniversary event and panel presentation. Other presenters—Student Min. Abdul Arif Muhammad, a member of the N.O.I. Shura Executive Counsel and General Counsel for the N.O.I.;
Student Minister Dr. Wesley Muhammad, a member of the N.O.I. Shura Executive Counsel, author and researcher and member of the N.O.I. Research Group; Student Min. Ilia Rashad Muhammad, a member of the N.O.I. Research Group, author, and Student Min. Demetric Muhammad, a member of the N.O.I. Research Group and author—addressed the live audience from Mosque Maryam in Chicago.
“The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s experience 40 years ago was more than a vision-like experience. He was transported from this place to that Wheel above our heads that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us about in great detail—that His teacher, Master Fard Muhammad, had pointed out to Him, a dreadful-looking plane in the sky,” said Student Minister Ishmael in his introduction.
According to the Teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, The Wheel, also referred to as the Mother Plane, is a half-mile-by-half-mile circular plane constructed by scientists and engineers under the direction of Allah (God) in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, The Great Mahdi.
This airborne city is equipped with 1,500 smaller planes, or “baby wheels/baby planes” capable of engaging in aerial maneuvers and delivering divine judgment. It is a literal craft built to fulfill prophecy and protect the righteous.
In the 1972 series The Theology of Time, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad declared, “You will see this (Great Mother) Plane one day because this [Great Mother] Plane has a civilization on it.”
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad also elaborated in His seminal work, “The Fall of America,” in the chapter titled, “The Mother Plane,” that, “In the 1930s, Canadian newspapers reported that they saw the wheel (The Mother Plane).
It came down out of the sky. They admitted that it looked like a great city, and that something came down from it; it appeared to be a tube, but this tube-like thing went back up again.”
Minister Farrakhan, in a 2013 lecture (Part 51 of “The Time and What Must be Done”), called The Wheel: That Great Mother Plane, Allah God’s Calling Card “a masterpiece of mechanics and engineering,” and “the greatest military weapon ever developed in the annals of the history of Allah (God) and man in this universe.”
The evening served not only as a remembrance but as a bold reaffirmation that the Minister’s Divine Warning was not a symbolic episode—it was a literal unveiling of a U.S. plot to wage war on both Black America and Muslim nations abroad.
“This was not a dream,” said Minister Farrakhan in a 1989 press conference, excerpts of which opened the September 17 commemoration. “It was a reality.”
That reality, according to presenters at the 40th anniversary event, has now become undeniable. Additionally, the Minister’s experience also serves as confirmation that the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad is, in fact, alive and in power on The Wheel.
Student Min. Arif told the audience that he had watched and studied Minister Farrakhan’s 1989 press conference called “The Announcement” numerous times over the years, and he was also present in Washington, D.C., when it was delivered. “It is something that should be watched over and over and over again,” he explained.
“The Minister had just finished Saviours’ Day in 1989 in Washington, D.C. under the title ‘Stop the Killing’ and the next day had this press conference at the J.W. Marriot. And to sit and watch it in person and to see it again and it brought back so many thoughts.
And the key thing, ‘Tell them you got it from me, Elijah Muhammad on The Wheel,’” Student Min. Arif said, quoting what Minister Farrakhan was instructed by his teacher.
“Some of us know the history; we’ve heard it. When the Nation of Islam fell, what the enemy attacked us on was our faith in that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was not the Messenger, that He was not alive.
And so, when the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan stood back up, the first thing he said at Saviours’ Day 1981 is that He (the Honorable Elijah Muhammad) was alive and that He was in power at that time, 1981. He challenged those to exhume the body and to do a test to determine that that was not the body,” Student Min. Arif shared.
“So, four years later, this experience happens. So, we need to understand why it was so critical for the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad to confirm to His servant (Minister Farrakhan) and to us that He was alive on The Wheel in power,” he added.
Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad addresses 40th anniversary commemoration from Tepoztlán, Mexico where the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan experienced his 1985 More-Than-A-Vision-Experience. Photos: Haroon Rajaee
From Libya to Los Angeles: The dual nature of the plot
According to Minister Farrakhan, he was informed by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad on The Wheel that President Ronald Reagan had met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to plan a war—which ultimately was not only against Muammar Gadhafi and the Libyan nation, but against Black leadership and youth in America.
The 1980s Iran-Contra scandal, time has revealed, was not merely about funding Nicaraguan rebels. It was a smokescreen for a broader agenda: to flood Black communities with crack cocaine, destabilize political movements, and carry out military-style policing in urban neighborhoods.
“The so-called war on drugs was really a war on us,” said Student Minister Dr. Wesley Muhammad. “The Reagan administration used covert means—including narcotics trafficking, psychological operations, and militarized policing—to destroy Black people from within.”
Student Min. Dr. Wesley further explained that the U.S. government viewed Minister Farrakhan as a threat equal to that of foreign adversaries. “They had what they called the ‘Farrakhan problem,’” he said. “He (Minister Farrakhan) was interrupting their agenda.”
War presidents and the global assault on Islam
From President Ronald Reagan through President Donald Trump, each U.S. president waged war or supported aggression against Muslim nations and leaders. Under Reagan, the United States bombed Libya in 1986, targeting Muammar Gadhafi and killing his daughter.
However, Muammar Gadhafi survived because of the warning he received from Minister Farrakhan. President Reagan also backed Iraq during its war with Iran and financed covert operations in Muslim regions. President George H.W. Bush launched the Gulf War in 1991, attacking Iraq and devastating the infrastructure of the Muslim nation.
Additionally, Bill Clinton maintained sanctions on Iraq, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands, and in 1998, bombed Sudan, destroying a pharmaceutical plant falsely claimed to be linked to chemical weapons.
George W. Bush invaded Afghanistan and Iraq following the Sept. 11 attacks, launching the longest war in U.S. history and destabilizing the region.
Barack Obama expanded drone warfare across several Muslim countries, including Yemen and Pakistan, and participated in the 2011 NATO bombing campaign that led to Col. Gadhafi’s death and Libya’s descent into chaos, which is still being felt today in the North African country.
President Donald Trump further escalated drone strikes, ordered the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, and implemented a travel ban targeting several Muslim-majority nations.
All of these presidential plots are proof that what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad revealed to Minister Farrakhan on The Wheel was and is prophetic.
From COINTELPRO to the ‘War on Drugs’: How presidents targeted Black youth with words and policies
Minister Farrakhan also revealed that the war America was planning was against Black people.
Alongside these military campaigns abroad, domestic policies systematically criminalized Black youth, reflecting a deeper agenda to prevent the rise of a new generation of Black leadership. In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan declared drugs “public enemy number one.”
His administration popularized damaging narratives such as “welfare queens” and “crack babies,” portraying Black mothers as irresponsible and their children as future criminals. These stereotypes justified militarized policing and led to the infamous 100-to-1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine.
In 1989, President George H.W. Bush delivered a nationally televised speech in which he held up a bag of crack cocaine, allegedly purchased across the street from the White House. The performative display reinforced the false idea that young Black men were predatory criminals and prompted a surge of federal funds for law enforcement targeting Black communities.
President Bill Clinton signed the 1994 Crime Bill, which expanded policing, built more prisons and imposed harsher sentences. Though framed in race-neutral language, the policies disproportionately impacted Black neighborhoods and fueled the rise of mass incarceration.
In 1996, during her husband’s reelection campaign, First Lady Hillary Clinton described some youth as “super-predators” with “no conscience, no empathy.” Her comments further dehumanized Black youth and were used to justify a wave of juvenile incarceration.
Donald Trump, then a real estate developer, took out full-page newspaper ads in 1989 calling for the death penalty for the Central Park Five—five Black and Latino teenagers later exonerated.
Decades later, as president, Mr. Trump described Black neighborhoods as “war zones,” reinforcing narratives that portrayed Black youth as inherently dangerous and irredeemable.
From Presidents Reagan to Trump, each presidents actions bore witness to the truth of the revelation given to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan from the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad on The Wheel when the Minister stated, “the president has met with his Joint Chiefs of Staff to plan a war.”
Congressional hearings bore witness to Divine Revelation
Student Min. Demetric Muhammad emphasized the prophetic accuracy of Minister Farrakhan’s experience. “The Wheel experience gave Minister Farrakhan knowledge that no intelligence agency could offer,” he said. “He was ahead of every newspaper headline, every so-called whistleblower, every congressional hearing.”
What was once mocked as science fiction is now a matter of national security. The Pentagon now admits to the existence of what they call a “mothership” (The Mother Wheel) and has declassified thousands of pages referencing what they call unidentified aerial phenomena or unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs).
Congressional hearings held on September 9, 2025, included testimony describing a craft nearly identical to the one Minister Farrakhan described in 1985.
“As it relates to these wheels—what they now call UFOs or UAPs, unidentified anomalous phenomena—what comes to mind is a quote from the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan in Part 51 of ‘The Time and What Must Be Done,’” said Student Min. Ilia Rashad.
“He said, ‘Everything about it says that God is present now in the world.’ That statement answers not only the questions surrounding [so-called] UFOs, but also the truth about God as taught in all major world religions.
Every major faith tradition speaks of God returning, operating both in human form and through flying vessels accompanied by angels—often described as flying in the sky.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan brought this truth to the modern world, and it’s now a matter of both historical and government record. The reality of Minister Farrakhan’s experience, and the reality of The Wheel, proves there is a power greater than the oppressive military forces of the Western world.”
Even more specifically, Student Minister Ishmael emphasized that the presence of The Wheel proves a Divine Force is watching over Black people and all oppressed communities.
“The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us of a dreadful plane in the sky,” said Student Min. Ishmael. “Minister Farrakhan was taken aboard that Wheel and given a divine assignment. And what he was shown—the plots, the plans, the military strategy against us—has all come to pass.”
A warning ignored, a prophecy fulfilled
At the 1989 press conference about his 1985 experience, Minister Farrakhan warned President George H.W. Bush to leave the Nation of Islam alone or face divine consequences.
He revealed the plans of the president stating, “I am here to announce today that President Bush has met with his Joint Chiefs of Staff, under the direction of General Colin Powell, to plan a war against the Black people of America.
The Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan, with particular emphasis on our Black youth, under the guise of a war against drug sellers, drug users, gangs and violence-all under the heading of extremely urgent national security.”
“It is not wise for you to plan against Allah’s (God’s) servants,” Minister Farrakhan declared then. “For by so doing, you are actually planning against yourselves.”
Now, four decades later, with Pentagon admissions, intelligence leaks, and growing congressional scrutiny, Minister Farrakhan’s message is a prophecy fulfilled.
More than a vision: A charge for the present
The anniversary program, which included archival footage with panel discussions, also served as a call to action. “This is not about looking back,” said Student Minister Daniel Muhammad, who served as moderator “This is about recognizing the unfolding of divine prophecy and choosing to stand on the side of righteousness.”
Audience members, many of them students and young activists, expressed awe at the consistency and clarity of the Nation of Islam’s warning over the decades.
Student Minister Ishmael reminded the audience of the divine promise tied to The Wheel. “Minister Farrakhan was told, ‘You have one more thing to do,’ before he would be granted a face-to-face with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad,” he said. “We are living in the time of that fulfillment. We must not sleep.”
As America faces mounting internal crises and continued global conflict, the words and divine guidance delivered from The Wheel in 1985 carry renewed urgency.
“If you come against me,” Minister Farrakhan warned, “I am backed by the Power of Allah (God), His Christ, and the Power of that Wheel.”
To view this special presentation in its entirety, visit media.noi.org.