Saviours’ Day is the signature gathering of the Nation of Islam from across the United States and for growing numbers of believers internationally.
The annual convention commemorates the Birth of Master Fard Muhammad, The Great Mahdi of the Muslims and Messiah of the Christians who appeared in America in July 1930.
He was born February 26, 1877, in the Holy City of Mecca, Arabia, and proclaimed that the 400 years of bondage suffered by Black people in America had ended. He comes to bring about a universal government of peace wherein we all can live in peace together.
His Coming and Declaration fulfills many prophetic scriptures, perhaps most notably the promise God made to Abraham in Genesis 15:13-14 that his seed would be afflicted in a strange land.
Among a strange people and that God Himself would judge that nation and deliver them and bring them out with great substance. Along with His coming to seek and save a people, the scriptures also prophesied that He comes to make all things new.
“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: the former shall not be remembered, or come into mind.” (Bible, Is. 65:17) His presence signified the dawning of a new civilization structured on freedom, justice, equality, peace, and righteousness, to replace the current world of evil, discord, hate, and tyranny.
“God has come,” said the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam, in an article titled: “Our Sentence In America Is Up: God Has Come For The Black Man And Woman,” published in Volume 44, No. 19 of The Final Call.
“God has come, and He chose you, because in you is the material that He needs to make a brand new reality,” said Minister Farrakhan. “Who are you? You are the People of God, but you’re in a state of death,” he continued.
“The Son of Man is coming out of The East; the Book of Matthew teaches, ‘As light shined from the East even unto the West, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be, because wheresoever the carcass is, there shall the eagles be gathered together,’”
said Minister Farrakhan. He explained about Master Fard Muhammad’s coming, referencing America’s national symbol, the eagle and the allegorical carcass (a spiritually and mentally dead people).
Although some historians and observers considered Master Fard Muhammad an enigmatic figure, He started in the Detroit, Michigan, enclave called Black Bottom and taught thousands of Black people.
Before beginning His mission, Master Fard Muhammad traveled in and out of America for 20 years. Among the masses who heard him was a Black man born in Georgia during the 19th century—first named Elijah Poole, then Elijah Karriem, and finally Elijah Muhammad.
After they first met on Sept. 22, 1931, Elijah became Master Fard Muhammad’s prized disciple, who He taught night and day for nearly 3 1/2 years.
Equipped with the Supreme Wisdom infused in Him by His teacher, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad devoted 44 years of his life to the resurrection of His people in America. He achieved unprecedented progress in the areas of religion, education, social interaction, economic development, and international affairs.
The scope of His mission was destined to include the restoration of the human family. On occasion, He would be approached by foreign leaders to leave the Black people of America to come and teach their people, which the Honorable Elijah Muhammad declined.
He said at a future time when He lifted His people to a certain level, it would be they, and not He, who would teach abroad. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad remains a vital figure, whose program and position influence the current century, through his National Representative.
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. At one point, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad told Minister Farrakhan that God had made friends for him all over the earth.
“We’ve been taught by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, that Master Fard Muhammad, the Saviour visited every inhabited part of the planet Earth.
And that’s something for us to consider because the Original nation lives in every part of the planet Earth as our Lessons teach us,” said Student Minister Abel Muhammad, representative to the Latin American community for the Nation of Islam.
He said Master Fard Muhammad’s coming to North America by Himself, fulfilling the scriptures on the coming of God under the title Son of Man, is critical because He comes to a people fulfilling what’s written in the scripture of a chosen people of God, who would suffer under a wicked taskmaster and that would call God Himself to look in on their condition.
“You look at the condition of Black people, it’s undeniable that this Scripture is specifically for and about the condition of the Black man and woman in America as a unique people, different from all of the other peoples of the earth,” said Student Min. Abel Muhammad.
But the scriptures also state that He would send “Saviours,” plural, after them. Today, when looking at the scope, reach, influence, and impact of the Teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, as taught by Minister Farrakhan, it is reaching its global aim.
“It starts with one group in America, but because He had been amongst all of the Original people in all of the inhabited parts of the planet Earth, what he taught would be of benefit for all,” added Student Min. Abel Muhammad.
Each year the Honorable Elijah Muhammad convened Saviour’s Day to observe and expound on the divine wisdom given to Him. In the four decades of work, the profundity of His Teachings could be seen in the men and women who were raised to great eminence in America and abroad.
After the 1975 departure of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and substantial changes in the Nation of Islam, in September 1977, Minister Farrakhan embarked on rebuilding the work of his teacher and reestablishing the Nation of Islam in the U.S. and abroad.
Currently, the Nation of Islam has mosques, study groups and members throughout Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, South America and North America, including Canada.
Those oceans away from America, touched by Minister Farrakhan’s reach on behalf of his teacher, bear witness to the universal bounds of what began more than nine decades ago.
“This is God’s man … the quintessence of those who have come before him,” said Brother Abdul Hakeem Muhammad, Nation of Islam Student European Regional Minister based in the United Kingdom.
“I can speak all day and night about how much he has done for me as an individual, and how his word has transformed my life and given my life purpose,” said the London-based student minister in a previous interview.
He first heard the Minister in the United Kingdom via a cassette tape in 1986. “Allah did not permit him to come to the United Kingdom, physically,” said Student Minister Abdul Hakeem Muhammad, speaking about Minister Farrakhan.
Although Minister Farrakhan has been restricted by the British government from entering the U.K. since 1986, his guidance for humanity continues to reach there. Minister Farrakhan’s detractors cannot stop God’s man.
Student Minister Abdul Hakeem Muhammad compared God’s Truth through Minister Farrakhan reaching the U.K. to the rays of the sun causing planets to rotate, irrespective of distance.
“We are the beneficiaries in Europe of the rays that come through the principles of truth and right guidance … from the mouth of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan,” he said, “in fulfillment of what is written in the scriptures that Muhammad is a light-giving sun,” he explained.
Saviours’ Day was hosted internationally in Accra, Ghana, in October 1994, and domestically, the convention has been addressed by world leaders like Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi, Ghana President Jerry John Rawlings, Nigerian President Sani Abacha, Algeria’s Ahmed Ben Bella, and other foreign dignitaries.
“We have, very quickly, in just 94 years, extended what we have been taught from the Saviour so that I know personally this Saviours’ Day 2025 we will have those who have roots in Mexico coming, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Pakistan, from India … (and) other places,” said Student Minister Abel Muhammad.
“All coming to see this, which began 94 years ago in the United States of America but could not be contained to just this nation or this continent or this hemisphere,” he added.
“We’re looking at it now and saying, wait a second, this was not a social movement. This is a Nation initiated by God, and the power of God is what we’re witnessing.”