DETROIT—Emotions were high at the Huntington Place in Detroit, as Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad, National Assistant to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, mounted the podium to deliver the Nation of Islam’s Saviours’ Day 2026 keynote address, titled, “We Must Make Our Community a Decent and Safe Place to Live,” on Feb. 22.
There was an atmosphere of added excitement and anticipation as many hoped for and anticipated an appearance by Minister Farrakhan, who has not spoken publicly since 2024.
Saviours’ Day commemorates the Birth Anniversary of Master W. Fard Muhammad, Allah (God) in Person and The Great Mahdi, who was born on February 26, 1877. He appeared in Black Bottom, Detroit, on July 4, 1930, and founded the Nation of Islam.
Student Minister Ishmael spoke on the story of Master Fard Muhammad revealing Himself in Detroit, His work and His impact, the relationship between Master Fard Muhammad and the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
How wicked rulers in America attempted to write the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad out of history and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s decision to rebuild the Nation and the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s work.
As he spoke, the audience erupted into a roar as the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, emerged from behind the stage curtains and embraced Student Minister Ishmael and mounted the rostrum alongside his National Assistant.
Minister Ishmael had just begun to recount the Minister’s exemplary history of defending the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad when Minister Farrakhan entered the auditorium.
“He (Min. Ishmael) was saying that the Nation was gone,” Minister Farrakhan said. “Master Fard Muhammad’s name was not spoken anymore. Elijah Muhammad was a thing of the past. And I couldn’t take it. I love that man so much, and I loved his family and his dear wife Mother Clara Muhammad.”
He recalled a moment before Mother Clara Muhammad, wife of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Mother of the Faithful, passed away. She called for him, and he came to her bedside at Mercy Hospital in Chicago. She asked Minister Farrakhan several times if he would help her husband, and he answered several times that yes, he would.
“You are my witnesses that I have,” he said to the listening audience. “I’ve been suffering for over 40 years with these enemies of Islam, me and my wife and the family and the believers.”
A brother in the struggle
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan shared words on the late Reverend Jesse Jackson, who passed away on Feb. 17 at age 84. Minister Farrakhan described Rev. Jackson as a man God sent to help Black people.
“To his dying breath, he worked for us,” Minister Farrakhan said. He recounted a conversation with Judge Greg Mathis, who expressed he was ashamed he did not give any money for Minister Farrakhan’s labor but gave money to Rev. Jackson and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
“I said, ‘Well, you continue to give your money to Reverend Jackson … because he is putting out money to give Black children scholarships in college, and every scholarship that they get that lifts them up, you are helping me in my assignment,’” Minister Farrakhan said.
‘Blessed are the pure in heart’
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan acknowledged Student Minister Ishmael for being by his side for more than 40 years. “He grew up like a son, and I acted by him as a father, and I’m proud.
I’m very proud that a son of Elijah and a son of Tynnetta and her other son that are in this audience are helping me in the cause of their father (the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad). So, son, go on and teach,” he said.
In his keynote address, Student Minister Ishmael commented on the heart, beauty and love of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, expressing how Minister Farrakhan has no equal. He described the Minister as “God’s amazing grace among us” and the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s choice.
“There only has been one National Representative of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. There have been spokesmen, but to be a representative is to re-present the man; re-present the man’s words, re-present the man’s mind, re-present the man’s spirit, re-present the man’s character,”
Student Minister Ishmael said. “And you can’t re-present God except God is all in the man. So, Elijah Muhammad only had one representative yesterday, today and tomorrow.”
“‘I thought we were supposed to be talking about how we’re supposed to make our community a decent and safe place to live.’ We are,” he added. “We can’t make it decent and safe until God is firmly established among us. He (Minister Farrakhan) is the criteria and the standard by which we have to measure our life, our conduct, our behavior.”
God’s grace period
The Saviours’ Day 2026 keynote was the first time the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan shared words in public in nearly two years. His last major message to the public was delivered at the Nation’s Saviours’ Day 2024 convention at the Huntington Place in Detroit, where he delivered the subject, “What Does Allah, The Great Mahdi and The Great Messiah Have To Say About The War In The Middle East?”
Short video clips from that speech were shown prior to the lecture, where Minister Farrakhan broke down verses from the Book of Daniel, 5:25-27: “And this is the writing that was written, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.
This is the interpretation of the thing: Mene; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. Tekel; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.”
In the combined clips from 2024, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan said: “I’m under a threat right now. Not from man; from God. ‘Tell them what I’m telling you.’ And He told me to say this part with strength.
‘Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.’ You’ve been weighed in the balance. Your kingdom is numbered and finished. So, what is happening in Palestine becomes a test for the whole human family. … If you can look at their suffering and it don’t move you, you have lost your humanity.”
Student Minister Ishmael reflected on the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s words and the reason Allah (God) directed His servant to stay silent after the monumental 2024 address.
“You know why we haven’t heard him in the public for nearly two years?” Student Minister Ishmael questioned. “Who can speak for God and The Great Mahdi that the Muslims are looking for, and The Great Messiah, except the one that’s connected to them?
Then what’s the measure? It’s what he speaks, what he reveals, what he said to us that had not become public about that war in the Middle East.”
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has warned the U.S. government that what is happening overseas would be in America. Student Minister Ishmael echoed Minister Farrakhan’s words, mirroring the suffering of Palestinians with the suffering of Black people in America.
“After the Honorable Elijah Muhammad told him what to say, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, a few weeks later, told the Minister, ‘Shh,’” Student Minister Ishmael said, holding a finger to his lips to indicate silence.
“And then pointed, ‘Sit by my right side. Watch the words I gave you to say at Saviours’ Day manifest and unfold.’ Beloved brothers and sisters, this is the man that has been speaking for 48 years (absent his teacher), but he’s an obedient servant. He’s under divine instruction.”
Minister Farrakhan’s silence represents the end of Allah’s (God’s) grace period before His chastisement, Student Minister Ishmael said. “At a certain point, the trumpet that has been blowing, it stops.
And the Honorable Elijah Muhammad told the Minister, ‘Brother, there are two trumpets, and when the first one stops, the second one will begin, the second one is (The Wheel which is) death.’”
He explained that God is about to show the world who Minister Farrakhan is.
“The thing that made Jesus, Jesus, was not his ministry. It was the belief in his ascension. It was being lifted up, escaping a death plot,” he said. “This is my firm, personal belief, that he is going to be with his Father.”
Making our community decent and safe
Student Minister Ishmael concluded the message with a call to action, saying to make our community a decent and safe place to live is an order and directive from God that Black people must do for themselves.
“We have to start in our homes, make our homes a decent place for us to live,” he said, adding that it also starts with greeting one another properly, with “As-Salaam Alaikum” (peace be unto you).
“The home is the fostering ground for good character. … All of us have a role to play in ‘we must make OUR community a decent and safe place to live. When a moral standard is lifted for us and decency starts replacing indecency, that in itself makes our community a safe place to live.”
He urged Black people to pool their resources to own the services in the Black community, criticized the poor education system and lifted the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s words in calling for unity of the whole and sitting down with talented individuals in the community like the Black politicians, pastors, doctors and others.
“How are we going to continue to allow this education that we know does not develop Black boys and girls and instill in them a love for self and others. Whose fault is that? It’s our fault. We have to take control of our own education,” Student Minister Ishmael said.
“Allah says in the Qur’an that He’ll never change the condition of a people until they change their own condition. It’s on us.”
To view the Saviours’ Day 2026 message in its entirety, visit media.noi.org.
