[Editor’s note: The following text is taken from a speech by Minister Louis Farrakhan delivered at Hillside Chapel & Truth Center, in Atlanta, Ga., on August 18, 2002. The church is pastored by Rev. Dr. Barbara King. CD/DVD available at https://store.finalcall.com]
We live in a world where there is so much misunderstanding and so much hatred of religions. It bothers me that Christians,Muslims and Jews claim Abraham as a father, but the sons ofAbraham can’t live in peace with each other. Today, in America, some great Christian scholars are saying that Islam is a religion of evil and that the God of Islam is a God of hatred, while the God of Christianity is the God of love. And since September 11 last year, much hatred has grown in the hearts of many Americans for those who say they are Muslim. So this morning it is appropriate at a church service that Muslims and Christians are together; and we didn’t need September 11 to create this kind of dialogue.
While we were in the back room getting ready to come out, [Dr. Barbara King] began to pray, And she started her prayer with these words: “This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” And that’s my subject.
“This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” What about those other days? Who made those days that gave us so much sadness, so much grief, so much mourning that one writer said that sorrow may last for a while but joy cometh in the morning. What morning of what day?
“This is day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” But look at the division. Look at this hatred that permeates the world. How can we rejoice with what we are seeing by so-called people who say they are related to Jesus, related to Muhammad, related to Moses, related to Abraham and related to the One True God? Something is wrong with “this day.” We’d better find the day that the Lord has made and get in it so the tears that we have shed may be wiped away in that great and beautiful day.
Most Christians do not know that Muslims believe in Jesus. In fact, there are between 1.6 and 1.8 billion Muslims and not one who calls himself a Muslim will deny Jesus. Not one! The Qur’an, which is the book of scripture of the Muslims, refers to Jesus as Esau Ibn Maryam al-Massi, meaning, “Jesus, son of Mary, the Messiah.” And since we believe in Jesus, we make a study of him because he was perfect in his carrying out the Will of Allah (God). He was a worthy example not just to be praised, but to be followed. You can’t get into heaven praising him. You produce heaven by following him.
When I began to look at the Genesis in the Bible and the Surah (chapter) Al-Bakara, “The Cow,” in the Qur’an, I saw that Allah (God) had to have given Adam a religion. He didn’t wait until Jesus came in the world to give humanity religion; otherwise, how would all the human beings that have lived be saved? How would they be judged if Allah (God) only waited to give true religion when Jesus came into the world?
The Qur’an calls Adam “Khalifah,” meaning, one who stands in the place of Allah (God). Man and woman in the Bible are called “the Glory of God.” The sun is glorifying Allah (God) as are the moon and the stars, but they are not the glory of Allah (God). The heavens and the earth glorify Allah (God), but man, human being, is the Glory of Allah (God). He (man and woman) is the greatest of Allah’s (God’s) creation. Therefore, the sun, the moon, the stars and everything else serve human beings.
When Allah (God) gave Adam religion, He didn’t give him a religion called Judaism. It wasn’t in existence. He didn’t give him a religion called Christianity. It wasn’t in existence. He didn’t name the religion Islam. That didn’t come until Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was given that name through the Qur’an. What was the religion in the garden? Allah (God) says to Adam, “I’m going to give you power and dominion to rule over the foul of the air, the fish of the sea and every creeping thing that crawls upon the earth.” Man can’t have dominion without power, and you can’t have power without knowledge. So the Qur’an says that when Allah (God) made Adam, He breathed into him of His inspiration and then He taught him the names of the angels. That means He gave Adam knowledge of the forces of nature; otherwise, he couldn’t bring the forces of nature under his control. That is our dominion.
Allah (God) said to Adam: “Multiply!” That’s command one. Second, “Replenish the earth.” Three, “Subdue it.” These are commands. But are you willing to obey when Allah (God) commands, or will you allow your desires to cause you to use your artificial intelligence or your deceptive intelligence to wiggle out of obedience to Allah’s (God’s) commands, which we are very artful at doing when Allah (God) commands us to do something that’s against our own personal desires?
Where did your body come from? From the earth. Then, if the Will of Allah (God) is to be done in earth and you and I submit our will to do Allah’s (God’s) Will, then His Will will be done in earth because this that came from the earth will be put under the control of an obedient mind. Therefore, my hands won’t do the work of a beast, but my hands will do the work of Allah (God). My feet won’t walk in the way of perdition, but my feet will walk in the way of Allah (God).
Moses told the Children of Israel to observe the Sabbath and to keep it holy. The Sabbath represents the seventh day. “Six days shall thou labor,” the Book says, “and the seventh day you shall rest.” Who rests on the Sabbath? Jesus did not rest on the Sabbath, that’s why they accused him of breaking the law. But Jesus said, “Man was not made for the Sabbath, the Sabbath was made for man.”
When I was a little boy, there were no bars open on the Sabbath. There were no baseball, basketball or football games on the Sabbath. There were no stores open on the Sabbath. On the Sabbath, everything got quiet because that’s what Moses told Israel: “Keep that day holy.” Why? Because a day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and Satan is going to rule for 6,000 years. But on the night of the sixth day there will be a bright and a morning star. And in that morning star, heralding the day of Allah’s (God’s) coming, you are going to come up out of Satan’s world, out of your rebellious life into a life of obedience to Allah (God).
And the more you obey Allah (God), it will be like Jesus meeting the woman who was full of devils and Jesus commanded the devils come out of her. As the devils were coming up out of the woman they were angry with Jesus and they began to talk. They said, why are you persecuting me before time? But Jesus knew he was on time; otherwise he couldn’t have called those devils out of the woman. The devils came out of the woman and ran into pigs and the pigs ran off the cliff. What is your point, Farrakhan? The Kingdom of God is within you, but you’ve got a lot of devils sitting up in you. All of us have them, but we need the Jesus of the hour to command the devils to come out of us. It’s time now.
Racism is a devil. When one thinks one is better because one’s skin is a different color, or one has a degree and another doesn’t, or one lives on the hill and the other lives in the valley; when one uses these artificial things to give one a badge of superiority and a badge of inferiority to another, these are devils; and these kinds of devils are plaguing America and plaguing the world. What the world needs is the presence of that one that the Book says is Adam. The first Adam was made from the dust, but the second Adam is made of a quickening spirit. What does that mean?
The second Adam is one who comes at the end of the six-day rule of Satan. When he starts preaching the word of Allah (God) to you, what will come into your ears will be truth and what will be in the truth is divine light. The people who walked in darkness will see a great light. As that light enters the heart; it quickens the spirit and the essence of Allah (God) within the human being. And as Allah’s (God’s) spirit is quickened within you, that light will illuminate your own bad conduct, your own bad ways, and put you in the valley of decision. Now, you have to decide what you are going to leave off and what you are going to hold on to.
The Seventh Day Adventist is called such because the advent of the Christ is the seven thousandth year from Adam, and it ushers in a millennium where Satan’s rule is broken up and his power destroyed. His grip on the human mind is broken and human beings begin to rise from their grave because Allah (God) has been dead in man. The quickening of the spirit will awaken Allah (God) in you. When you say that you’ve become a Christian and join the church, join the mosque, join the synagogue, there’s supposed to be a change in you. And every day that you live, you’re fighting the evil of yourself and the evil that is in the world.
So, brothers and sisters, Christ means one anointed with power to crush the wicked. Paul said that he couldn’t leave until Christ was formed in the people. When Christ and Allah (God) are formed again in us, we have the power to crush anything of ourselves that needs crushing. Therefore, anybody that has a bad habit, don’t despair. If it’s crack, if it’s heroin, if it’s liquor, if it’s women, if it’s men, if it’s homosexuality, whatever the problem is, Allah (God) will give you power to come correct with Him.
This is the day that the Lord has made and I’m rejoicing because I see a wicked world going out and a better one coming in. I see a new day dawning for humanity because the wicked are being exposed–their lies and their deceit. The Bible says, “Though it be done in the dark, God will bring it forth into the light.” And the Holy Qur’an says, “Though it be the weight of an atom hidden in a rock and the rock buried in the earth, yet will Allah bring it forth.” All the secrets are going to be made known, and people will run looking for a rock to hide under. But the rock will cry out, “There is no hiding place here.”
You’re going to arise, people, because Allah’s (God’s) spirit is moving on the waters now. You’re going to arise and demand that your government is something better. You’re going to arise and say to your entertainers, put on some clothes. You are going to say to your rappers, clean it up. “This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
Thank you.
