In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.

In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful. The One God to Whom all praise is due, The Lord of The Worlds. The Finder and the Life-Giver to us, the sleeping mentally dead nation in the wilderness of North America. We thank Allah for His coming in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad to Whom praise is due forever. And we could never thank Him enough for raising up in our midst the divine leader, teacher and guide, His messenger to us, The Messiah, The Exalted Christ, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

I greet all of you, my dear brothers and sisters, with the greeting words of peace: As-Salaam Alaikum.

We thank Allah for each and every one of you who are present here this afternoon. While I was out of the country last week, this thought came to me concerning today’s lecture. Those of us who are here, by the help of Allah, may, after the end of this lecture, consider yourselves fortunate.

Accept the nature in which Allah created you (a righteous Muslim)

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that all of us, by nature, are Muslim. No matter what you call yourselves, God has declared you to be the righteous. We respect the names that you call yourselves, but The Best Knower has declared that you all are Muslims.

Now, before you reject that beautiful title, or name, let us understand what The Best Knower has said about that name. It is an Arabic word; therefore, we are not Arabic speaking people, so we are not expected to understand it readily. But the word “Muslim” means “one who submits his will or her will entirely to do the will of God.”

This is not a faith that you accept, it is really the nature in which God has created you that our 400 years of servitude under White people has taken us away from. So, we are not asking Black people to be “converted” to Islam, we are only asking you to accept what is yours and be yourself.

What is yourself? A righteous Muslim. Those two words seem to be a double positive. If you are a Muslim in submission to the will of God, you are already righteous. So why did the Honorable Elijah Muhammad have to say that we are righteous Muslims? 

[In English Lesson No. C1, the question is asked,] “Are there any Muslims other than righteous?” [to which the answer is given]: “I beg your pardon. I have never heard of one.”

Well, you know that if we are by nature Muslims, we are by circumstance other than our own selves. We are not righteous in our thinking, we are not righteous in our actions, even though we are righteous by nature.

But Master Fard Muhammad said, “I beg your pardon. I have never heard of one.” Somebody has begged our pardon. Even though we are born of the righteous, and are by nature righteous, we are, by circumstance, wicked; And if God does not pardon us, or have mercy upon us, then we would be destroyed along with our wicked oppressor. But God has pardoned our iniquities.

So, when you come to the Teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, it doesn’t matter what you did yesterday, your sin is forgiven.  A merciful God has intervened on our behalf and forgives whatever we have done of evil under the influence of our oppressor.

The Oath (Prayer) that we, as righteous Muslims, are required to make bond

The subject matter that I was given deals with a part of a prayer that each Muslim recites, at least each follower of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad recites, and this becomes an oath that we take.   As members of the F.O.I. and members of the M.G.T. Class, we take this as an oath, but it is a part of our prayer, and it is recited like this:

“My prayer, my sacrifice, my life and my death are all for Allah, The Lord of The Worlds.” That is a powerful expression, “My prayer, my sacrifice, my life and my death are all for Allah, The Lord of The Worlds.” Then we say: “No associate has He, and this am I commanded and I am of those who submit.”

When a person makes that kind of oath, there is a lot required of that person.

Let’s pay attention to the words again: “My prayer, my sacrifice, my life and my death are all for Allah, The Lord of The Worlds.” Now, to our visiting brothers and sisters, you may call God by a different name.

Some say “God,” some say “Jehovah,” some say “Shiloh,” some say, “God Almighty,” some say “Christ,” but whatever name you call Him by, all of the best names belong to Him.

But when you add all of those names together, we say the proper name of God is “Allah,” which means The One True God, The Originator of the heavens and the earth and all things in existence; The Creator. “My prayer, my sacrifice, my life and my death is all for Allah.”

Now tell me: What is an oath? If we are taking this as an oath, what is an “oath”? According to the dictionary, an “oath” is “a solemn appeal to God to witness one’s determination to speak the truth”; “a statement or a promise strengthened by such an appeal.”

When you go to court, you have to swear to tell the truth. When you take an oath of initiation into any organization or group that gives oaths, that should be a solemn appeal to witness our own determination that what we are saying, it is the truth, and we’ll do everything within our power to live up to the oath that we are taking.

“My prayer, my sacrifice, my life and my death is all for Allah, The Lord of The Worlds.” I can’t take an oath for my brother. I can’t take an oath for my mother. I can’t take an oath for my friend. An oath is something that each individual must make for his- or herself. “A solemn appeal to God to witness our determination to speak the truth.”

Allah knows whether we are liars or whether we are truthful. All of us have made pledges and broken most of them. Some of us have taken oaths and broken those. Some of us have taken vows to God and broken those. So if we break an oath or a vow, or a pledge to God, then nobody else has a chance.

But we as Muslims are taught in our Lessons: “Have not you learned that your word shall be Bond regardless of whom or what?” And our answer is: “Yes. My word is Bond and Bond is life, and I will give my life before my word shall fail.”

God, and His integrity, is wrapped up in His word! When God says a thing, you can bank on it! You can believe in it, you can trust in it, you can stand upon it, because God does not lie! Whatever God says, He already has the power to do it. And when He says it, it’s already a thing accomplished; all we have to do is be there if we are in the time of its fulfillment.

But consider this: Since we use the possessive pronoun in front of “prayer,” “sacrifice,” “life” and “death,” why should we use the possessive pronoun “my”? What do you really possess?

Think about it. What you are, or we are, you (we) had nothing to do with it. You don’t own the flesh that has made up your body. You don’t own the bones nor the blood. Do you? It’s not yours. The scriptures of the Bible teach, “It is a sure thing, you bring nothing into the world, therefore you can take nothing out.”

So, what did you own coming in here? Nothing! Nothing. The flesh that is on our bodies, it must return where? To the earth. The bone returns to the earth. The air that we breathe returns to the atmosphere. Come on! So what do you own? Nothing!

But yet, God gives us the privilege to say, “My prayer, my sacrifice, my life and my death.” Since we don’t own anything then my life is not really mine. Death is ordained. I didn’t bring myself into the world, nor can I take anything out. Then why should the term “my” be used?

In law they say, “possession is nine-tenths of the law,” meaning that the fact that someone possesses something carries a weight of 90 percent; that they are the legal owner of it. Possession doesn’t necessarily mean that it belongs to you, but it means that you have control over it.

Here, now, this is your life, this is your body: How much control do you exercise over what God has given you? When we first come into the world, our parents exercise control over this [our body]. They have a right to exercise control over it.

But the duty of the parent and the duty of the teacher is to steward that life in such a way that at a certain point that child will be mature enough to gain control over themselves.

So, this [body] that God has given you, He has given you a responsibility to control it; to become the manager of your flesh, the manager of your mind, the manager of your will, the manager of your talents, the manager of your gifts and the manager of your destiny.

Each of us, whether we believe it or not, has a great measure of control over our prayer, our sacrifice, our life, and we have a measure of control even of our death. We actually can determine not necessarily the time, unless you are suicidal. You actually can determine the spirit of your death; the way you expire. You can actually determine it.

I don’t mean whether you will die by gunshot or die by hanging; no, no, I don’t mean that. But I mean you can determine the state that you will be in at death. Mm! That’s powerful, to have that kind of control that you can determine the state that you will be in when death comes.

‘My Prayer’: The reaffirmation of our desires

“My prayer, my sacrifice, my life and my death is all for Allah, The Lord of The Worlds.” Now let’s deal with this word “prayer.” Many of us don’t think we “pray,” but there’s not a day that goes by that you don’t say a prayer—you don’t even recognize that it is a prayer!

According to a dictionary, they say that “prayer” is “a devout petition to and a spiritual communion with God or an object of worship.” Stop right there. It could be a connection to God, but it could be a connection to anything that you worship as a partner or associate with God. Also, “prayer” is “an entreaty, a supplication, thanksgiving, adoration, or even confession.”

Now look, I want you to bear with me … And I pray that Allah will bless every word that I speak in His Name, that it may mean something to you and me, and that we will be edified by what we hear and go away better than when we came in.

The Qur’an teaches us that Allah created us “complete, yet incomplete.” Anytime you are “incomplete,” you are imperfect. God created us in need, so anytime you are created in need, then there must be a supplier of what you need.

When a baby cries because it needs changing, or it’s hungry, the baby doesn’t know how to say, “O Allah!” But when the baby cries, that is its sincere supplication to somebody that can satisfy their need.

They didn’t put their hands up in a certain way, fold them in a certain way, go through certain rak’as, or positions of prayer. Their position is laying on their back, crying to the top of their voice. That is a prayer!

And when you hear the baby cry, then out of compassion that God has put in you, you answer that baby. If it’s a change of a diaper, if it is food, if it is something that is irritating the child, you try to remove it to give comfort to that child.

The child may not know how to say, “Thanks ma,” but it shows you, in its development, a “coo,” and it learns to smile, and to say to you in its way, “Thank you.”

Gratitude is absolutely a requirement of  God, that when you are given something you have to say, “Thank You.” When you receive something that you could not give yourself, God requires of you and me to be grateful.

Each of us receives something every day that we could not give ourselves, “but little it is,” The Qur’an says, “that we give thanks. Surely man is ungrateful.”

Since we are created in need, then every day we are asking somebody for something. We are human beings that are creatures of desire. Don’t you want something? Everybody in here wants something, don’t you? You do, don’t you? Sure, you do! I do.

Then if you want something, then you have to find the supplier of what you want. If you wake up this morning and you want some drugs, and you don’t have none in your possession, what do you gotta do? I’m putting it on, you know, in simple terms, brother. You’ve gotta go look for the supplier. Is that right?

Now the supplier may have what you want, and you have what he wants. He wants from you some money, and then he wants to make you addicted so that every day you’ll look for him. He doesn’t have to come looking for you, you will find him wherever he is when you need a fix. Then he becomes your supplier of your need.

Prayer is the reaffirmation of desire. We hang on to what we want in life by reaffirming or reidentifying our desire until we reach our goal. But if impatience comes and we don’t reach the goal as quickly as we desire, and we become irritated, which may threaten to cause us to turn away from our goal.

Then who do you go to, to reaffirm your desire so that you can endure the struggle to reach your goal? You go to The God, Who is The Author of desire. And when you go to Him, He gives you strength to endure another day as you move towards your goal.

‘My Prayer’: The way we express gratitude to The Supplier of our needs

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad gave us a prayer to say, and he said we should say it seven times a day. And at the end of that prayer, it reads: “O Allah! Suffice Thou me with what is lawful. Keep me away from what is prohibited. And with Thy grace, make me free from want of what is beside Thee.”

The beauty of that prayer is that a Muslim does not want to be dependent on any supplier that is another creature. The Muslim wants to depend on The Creator. The Muslim will thank God for one of the creatures through whom his wants or needs are supplied,

But he is never blinded by the intermediary; he always is grateful to The Source. A Muslim doesn’t want anything outside of what pleases God. That’s what makes a Muslim so special.

What do you want? If what you want is in the purview of what God’s will is, then you are on a right course. But when you desire things outside of God’s will, then you cannot expect His help in getting your desire.

Every day we seek something that we need. Some of us need a job. When you need a job, what do you do? You get up, you go downtown, or you go somewhere, you knock on a door, you fill out an application and you hope that that person will give you a job. You went to the middleman. You didn’t reach The Source.

Look. Brother, have you watched children when they want something? They [say,] “Gimme!” When you go downtown and you see a beggar, or a blind person with a cup, they’re shaking the cup, but it’s like in this (hands cupped) position.

Every time you ask, that’s a prayer. Who are you praying to? Do you follow what I’m saying? If you ask Brother Farrakhan for something, and I am able to give it to you, you should say, “thank you.” But Who should you thank first and foremost? Allah (God)! In fact, before you even come to Brother Farrakhan, or anybody, you should go first to God. I’ll tell you why in a minute.

Every time we look to somebody to help us meet our needs or our wants, that person is being placed by us in a position of power over granting what we desire. We are constantly seeking someone to aid us in the various relationships, a husband to a wife and a wife to a husband.

A parent to a child, a child to a parent, a teacher to a student, a student to a teacher, an employer to an employee, and vice versa. We find ourselves always looking to someone to help us.

But we must be careful when we look to somebody to help us, because then when they give us help we are now putting them in a position of power over us by supplying our need. Are they worthy of that?! …

When we give the power of our being over to those who facilitate our desire, not recognizing that they are not The Source of this, then we have a tendency to set up other gods beside Allah.

And this is hateful in the sight of Allah, that we would take someone of the creatures that supplies our need and then give the power of our being over to somebody who is, in another sense, as much in need as we are!

When you and I give the power of our being over to somebody else because they gave us something that we needed, we have set up another god beside God. Then in this, we have become polytheists—and God is ever against polytheism.

And so many of us who declare The One God are polytheistic. So many who declare Jesus are polytheistic. You talk Jesus, but you bow down to white folks! You talk God, but as soon as you have a need and somebody supplies that need, you start falling down, worshiping.

We worship our preachers. We worship our teachers. We worship our leaders. Wrong! Every teacher, every preacher, every leader, every messenger, every prophet of God is nothing more than a servant of God!

Why worship the servant when you can worship The God Who gave you the servant?! This is why we are always disappointed when our leaders die and leave us in the lurch. “O leader! Where are you?” “Well, I didn’t tell you to worship me from the beginning.”

If he’s any kind of leader, he will not allow you to worship him. If he’s any kind of teacher, he will move you beyond himself! If he is a prophet of God, he is not there to represent himself, he is there to represent The God.

Then look at the mistakes that the worshipers have made. The Jews sometimes talk more of Moses than of Jehovah. The Christians talk more of Jesus than they do of The Father. And Muslims, I must say, you talk more of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, than you do of Allah.

And when the prophet’s name is mentioned, there is a clamor in the mosque. When Allah’s name is mentioned, quiet. When Jesus’ name is mentioned there is a clamor in the church! When The Father’s name is mentioned, it’s quiet. You worship what God has given but not The God Who is The Giver of the gift!

Allah says He is The Granter of Security. He said He is The Life-Giver. He is The Beneficent. He is The Merciful. He is The Forgiving. He is The Lord of Grace. He is The Controller and Manager of All Affairs. He is The Author of All in Existence.

And He is The Nurturer of All Things, making them attain stage after stage until they reach perfection. God uses His creation to satisfy our wants and needs, but we should never give the honor to the creature before we give it to The Creator.

To be continued.

The post My Prayer, My Sacrifice, My Life and My Death are All for Allah, The Lord of The Worlds appeared first on Final Call News.

At about $750 billion (now $4.3 trillion) in spending, America spends more on health care than any other country. However, very little of this money is spent on preventive care. If America seriously hopes to end its crisis in health care, it must redirect its attention to preventive care.

While I support a reasonable universal health care coverage plan, making America healthy must become the personal responsibility of each citizen, and not the responsibility of government, except in those cases where preventive care is not adequate. 

This approach would require that each individual becomes more knowledgeable, and that leadership in the food industry, medical community and government become more responsible in providing and teaching the people the truth about caring for the human body.

The greatest gift that we have been given is the gift of life. The essence of our very being is housed within this magnificent creation of flesh and blood known as our bodies.

Unfortunately, we live in a society that misdirects us and misinforms us in such a way that we place our own bodies at risk. We take care of our clothes, our pets and our material possessions better than we take care of our own bodies.

Knowledge is the principle resource that can help us take better care of our bodies and our health. God, the Creator and Sustainer of all life, has given us direction for taking care of our health. However, we live in a society that is in opposition to the directions from the Giver of life, and as a result we suffer.

It is sad that buying material possessions is valued more than getting a simple yearly checkup by a competent doctor. It is sad that watching television several hours a day takes precedence over scheduling a few minutes of exercise that would help keep our bodies and our minds fit. 

It is sad that we put more emphasis on going to movies and listening to music feeding our minds through the reading of proper books and literature.

And it’s a tragedy that we overeat, eat the wrong foods, smoke, take drugs, drink alcohol, and take an excessive amount of pills to cope with life’s stresses instead of developing the core values and self­-control to protect ourselves from these addictions.

Here again, the airwaves can be used to promote a healthy lifestyle among the people.

The post Knowledge and valuing our bodies properly  appeared first on Final Call News.

In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.

The Time of the Manifestation of Defects

Surah 29 of the Holy Qur’an is entitled, “The Spider.” The Spider is an interesting creature. It spins a web and lightweight creatures get caught in its web. After a fly or another insect gets caught in the web, the spider travels very quickly in that web, to its meal. It injects venom into the internal organs of the fly and breaks it down into a liquid. Then, the spider sucks the inside of the fly, leaving only the form, but it is no longer what it was.

If the fly does not get out of the trap within three seconds, it becomes the spider’s meal. The number “3” is important. How many days did Jesus descend into hell? But on the third day, he arose. Jesus told Peter, “Before the cock crows once, you will deny me thrice.” But he also told him not to worry because, after the third denial, he would stand up and return to his faith.

The spider spins its web from itself. Many say, “It’s not the man, it’s the plan. It’s not the White man, it’s the system.” But the system came from a man. So, don’t ever say it’s not the man, it’s the plan. The plan came out of a man. We used to sing a song in church, “The devil is mad and I’m so glad, ’cause he missed the soul that he thought he had.” The enemy of God is always working to trap us. Once he gets you in the web of his machination, scheme or plan, he moves quickly to inject you with a word that has a function–like a spider’s enzyme–that breaks down your spiritual form.

Many of you are really good people, despite how ugly or bad you may act, you are really good at the core. But you get trapped. What traps you? What tricks you? What grabs you, that allows Satan to get a hold on you? He comes after you in your own desires. “I’m a beautiful, young woman,” she says, “but I don’t have a man. So, I’m looking, hard.”

Satan always appears in the form of what you desire–and so does God. In the Holy Qur’an, Allah (God) said to Mary, “And you shall conceive and it will be a man child and he will be a prophet.” She said, “But how can I, when a man has not yet touched me?” And Allah (God) said, “That is easy for me. All I have to say is ‘Be!’ and it is.” In another part of the Holy Qur’an, it says, “And we sent her Our spirit and it appeared unto her in the form of a well-made man.” If God can send His spirit to fulfill the desire of a righteous woman, then the enemy can send his spirit in the form of a man to fulfill negative purposes for your life.

This is why the Bible says that you have to become wise to be able to discern the spirit, because the outward look is not important. It is the spirit that you must discern, because Satan, the Bible says, is able to transform himself into an angel of light. If Satan can do that, then Satan can appear to you in whatever form will please you.

You are looking for somebody to help you fulfill your desire: “I am a singer of songs, a writer of music, but I need a publisher. I need an agent. I need a manager.” “I’m a beautiful young lady. I have a nice form, I’m tall and thin and I would like to be a model.” “I’m a mathematician. I’m an engineer. I just graduated from Morehouse and I’m ready for a job.” “I saw a commercial for a beautiful Mitsubishi, BMW, Mercedes or Cadillac.”

You want something, but how do you get what you want and at what price? When Satan is after you, you have to give up something. For example, a nice young woman, a virgin, meets a nice young man on campus. She is attracted to him and he is attracted to her. He tells her, “So many girls are attracted to me, Sister. Are you going to give up your virginity, because I don’t have any time to waste on a girl who won’t give it up?” She thinks that young man is her friend, but he is spinning a web.

On the other hand, sometimes a young man may want a woman, but he says he is a Muslim trying to be right. She tells him, “But Brother, bring that Final Call newspaper over here ’cause, honey, I’m calling.” But if he responds, it might be his final call. Or, you may have just graduated from college and you go back to see your friends. They’re happy to see you. You’re clean now and you want to celebrate. Your buddy who grew up with you, but did not go to college, has some drugs in his pocket and wants you to go get high with him. Here comes Satan in the form of your friend, spinning a web. You may have three minutes to say, “No thank you, Brother, I’ll see you at another time.”

You cannot want to be righteous and hang out with people who do not want what is right. If you want to be right, you should hang out with people who want right and you will stay right. If you hang out with the wicked, it won’t be long before the spider has spun its web and then, with a few words, they break you down. Your resistance is gone. But it starts from within.

If Jesus was so beloved of God, but he had to be tried, then how can we escape being tried? Satan walked up to Jesus and told him, “Come up on this mountain with me. Take a walk with me.” This shows us that we have to walk with our trials. Satan told Jesus, “Look at all of those cities. I’m master over those cities. If you bow down to me, I’ll give you all of that.” But Jesus, in his mind, said, “I am destined to rule over the cities. I would rather wait on my Father to give the power to rule to me.” Then he said, “Get thee behind me, Satan.”

Some of us want things so bad that we compromise things of value to get something that you think is very valuable, but in actuality, is less valuable than what you gave up. A fair exchange is when you give up something to get something equal to what you gave up. But when you give up principle and lose your soul in the process, then whatever you get in that transaction does not benefit you. It could be a beautiful home, but you will not have any peace in it. It could be a nice car. It could be the man that you thought was the man of your dreams or the woman that you thought was the one you were looking for all your life.

If you have to compromise your principles and give up virtue to hold on to nothing, then you do not rejoice in the bargain that you made, that day. But Allah (God) says in the Holy Qur’an, “Rejoice in the bargain that you have made this day, for I have given you the Garden in exchange for your lives.” Then, Allah (God) tells us to rejoice in that bargain because, although your life was worthless, He asked you to give Him your worthless life so that He could give you the Paradise. When you make that bargain, that bargain gives you joy.

***

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad told me one day that the FBI was looking for him. Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor and the FBI wanted to arrest him. They could not afford to have him on the street preaching to Black people while America was trying to prosecute a war, because they have always wanted to use Black people–in wartime, at election time and any other time. So, they had come for him, but he walked down the stairs, right passed them; and they saw him and didn’t see him. When God wants to hide you, He can hide you in the open. He boarded a train to Philadelphia. He said that, while the sound of the tracks was coming up in his ears, he heard the voice of Master Fard Muhammad saying to him, “Do men think that they will be left alone on saying, ‘We believe’ and will not be tried? And indeed, we tried those before them. So, Allah will certainly know those who are true and He will know the liars.”

That’s all that he heard, but it was enough. When he reached Philadelphia, he made up his mind. He knew he was being tried, so he was going to go back and face his trial. So, now they have a picture of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, in handcuffs, walking between two FBI agents, as they took him to prison by an executive order of President Roosevelt. We may face an order like that today, because the war that America is now waging in the Middle East is going to get deeper and wider, and they will try to silence my voice and the voices of others. I am not afraid. If the president signs an executive order stating, “Farrakhan has to be arrested,” we will just see how that plays out–but no one who believes in God can escape being tried.

Trials are like tests. How well did you study? Some of us do not study, but still pass tests because we paid attention in class. Tests show us weakness. In order for Allah (God) to perfect His creation, He must manifest its weakness. So, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad calls this period “the Time of the Manifestation of Defects.” How do you know if what you created works until you test it? When you test it and see its weaknesses, you then say, “I have to fix that.” So it is with God. He wants to perfect us, so that He can use us for the redemption of our people and all of humanity. So, we have to be tried and our defects manifested in order for us to be perfected.

When you come into a place like the mosque, it can be very difficult. Imagine that you are sitting next to someone and you see boils pop out all over them. You may look horrified at them because you have not looked into a mirror to see boils are popping out all over you, too. Sometimes, the mosque can be an unbearable place, because the activity of the mosque and the workings of God bring out of us characteristics that we did not know were inside of us. The work of Jesus was casting out demons. Behind those smiles and greetings of “As-Salaam Alaikum,” there are a lot of demons. As we interact with the word, each other, the program, laborers and officials, demonic characteristics begin to come up and out of us.

You may doubt and say, “Well, maybe, I don’t belong here.” So, you run away but, when you look in the mirror, you no longer see your boils, because now you are not in an environment that is able to bring out what is inside of you. Instead, you melt to the poisoned environment of the world and become like what you have melted into. So, the web was spun, because you could not take the process of cleaning up. You can be a funky person on the outside of the mosque, but once you come inside the mosque, you cannot stay funky, because there is something in the mosque to clean and wash funk away. When you smell the funk of your Brother, you should check under your own arm. Allah (God) is working on us, but if you do not stay in the process, you will not see the result of yourself being made into Him.

“Do men think that they will be left alone on saying, ‘We believe’ and will not be tried, while others were tried before you?” So, expect a trial. Look for a trial. Allah (God) says in the Qur’an that He will try the Believers at least once a year, severely. How will He try us? Sometimes, if you know what’s on the test in advance–someone gave you the test in advance, and you wrote the answers on your hand–then you passed the test. Not with God. He tries us in a way that we least expect, but you cannot be tried except by what you love and desire.

In the Holy Qur’an, Allah (God) says to Prophet Muhammad, “Surely, I am going to try you with something of fear, hunger, loss of property, loss of life and diminution of fruit. But give good news to those who are patient and steadfast under trial.” But the good news only comes after you have been tested. The Holy Qur’an also says that “after difficulty, comes ease” and, in another place, it says, “with difficulty, comes ease.”

***

When you become afraid, it can cause you to compromise yourself. Challenge your fear to hold onto your principle and Allah (God) will strengthen you and reward you with victory. Do not allow yourself to be made afraid by an enemy who is always trying to offer you an advantage for betraying your beliefs. Do you want the advantages of the enemy more than you want the strength of your own soul? Do you want to be like the fly that looks like a fly on the outside, but all that made it a fly is gone from the inside? Muslims, Christians, Nationalists, Revolutionaries, all of us will be tried. The enemy wants to know if you are really sincere in what it is that you profess. He will keep sifting you until he finds your weakness and that is the door through which he comes to take your soul.

***

Jesus was a man that they were after before he was born. While his mother carried him in the womb, Herod sent out a decree to kill all boy babies from two years old and under. So, she had to flee and hide, but at a certain point Jesus had to return to Palestine to speak and prophesy to the Children of Israel. When he goes back, they hate him and his world, without a cause. He knew what it was like to be scorned, rebuked, hated, lied on and conspired against. None of that caused his character to waiver. Good news was for the one who was patient and steadfast under trial.

You say you love Jesus, but you do not want to follow him. It is not about singing songs or talking about how great Jesus is. The heavens and the earth testify to his greatness. He did not ask us to worship him; he asked us to follow him. He said, “If any man would be my disciple, he must first deny himself, pick up his cross.” You cannot carry Jesus’ cross. You have a cross, but you do not want to pick it up. You are people that want to get to heaven, but do not want to pay the price. You are a people that want your enemy out of the way, but you are not willing to sacrifice to make yourself into the man and woman who would make your enemy flee. You do not want to be rebuked and scorned by your people. You do not want to be lied on.

But if you do not want the cross, then you will never wear the crown. You can run and hide, but God is calling you. “Do men think that they will be left alone on saying ‘We believe’ and will not be tried?” The Masons say, “I’ve been tried, seldom denied, willing to be tried again.”

The post The Spider: No one who believes in God will escape being tried appeared first on Final Call News.

In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.

Brothers and Sisters, when Elijah Muhammad came among us, he taught what you could call a “Black Theology.” A lot of people were offended by that; turned off by that. In the Muslim world, they were angry. They said, “Islam does not teach color. What’s wrong with you people?” But they don’t know what happened to the Black people of America.

While standing before the Virginia House of Delegates on January 20, 1832, Mr. Henry Berry, Esq., made it clear what was needed to produce and maintain the condition of slavery.

He said: “Pass as severe laws as you will to keep these unfortunate creatures in ignorance, it is in vain, unless you can extinguish that spark of intellect which God has given them. Sir, we have, as far as possible, closed every avenue by which light might enter their minds.

We have only to go one step further—to extinguish the capacity to see the light—and our work will be completed. They would then be reduced to the level of the beasts of the field, and we should be safe… .”

And he said, “If they continue along that line,” Black people would be in a condition that we could never come out of.

Black people want to do something for self, but there’s something missing. If something is missing, then my question to you is: “Don’t we [Black people] need somebody to address us and our concerns? To raise us, reform us, transform us and make us again what God created us to be?

The Man that came to us from Mecca, we call Him Master Fard Muhammad. He had a Black father and a White mother.

That Man came to us first because our condition was worse. He was so skillful. He developed a Methodology, along with an Ideology that would start a Process of Transformation in our lives. There never was a people before the Black man and woman of America that are considered in scriptural terms as “mentally dead.”

The Arabs were ignorant, but they weren’t dead. They were in their own land, speaking their own language. All the people that had a prophet, they were in their land. God raised a messenger from among them that spoke their language, and dealt with their problems.

The messenger doesn’t have to be universal if he is called to deal with a specific sickness in a specific people. Black people are sick unto death, and we need somebody!

Master Fard Muhammad, with a White mother and a Black father, was able to come in and out of America for 20 years before He even made Himself known to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

He was among White people. He was in the colleges. He was here, and He was there. He was studying—studying your minds! The mind of the Black slave and the mind of the White slave master, because He had to deal with both minds! Both cultures!

Now this may shock some of you, but He wanted to help, eventually, both people.

The message that you call “Black Supremacy” fed a broken heart, a broken mind and a broken spirit. As a Caucasian person, sometimes you look at us, and you may not understand what we’ve been through that puts us in the condition that we are in, so you don’t know how to deal with us.

God said He would choose a foolish people to be His people. He would choose the things that are not, to bring to naught the things which are. And God said, “Thou shalt no more be the tail, thou shalt be the head.” Then the scripture teaches, “This is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our sight.”

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said that he heard the footsteps of Bilal (an Ethiopian Black man) going into paradise ahead of his own. How could a follower of a great one precede him into paradise? It doesn’t mean that Bilal is going to enter heaven before the Prophet.

I believe it means this: That whenever you say you are chosen, please don’t use such language unless you’re going to do what you’re chosen to do. Whenever God raises a people from ignominy to greatness, it is because He wants to use that people for a broader, bigger purpose.

To my Jewish and Christian family: There is a parable in the Bible that talks about your neglect of these pitiful people that were brought to America to be made slaves. It is the parable of The Good Samaritan.

A man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and on the way he fell among thieves who robbed him of his raiment, hit him in the head and left him wounded in the road. A priest walked by on the other side, and when he saw the man wounded, he didn’t help him. Along came a Levite who came to where he was, looked at him, but did not help him out of that condition.

Then, along came The Good Samaritan, who saw the man wounded, poured oil in his wound, bound up his wound, took him to an inn keeper, gave the inn keeper some money and said, “If it is more than what I’ve given you, on my return I’ll pay you.” In this parable, Jesus was saying “Love your neighbor.”

The church walked by on the other side. You all really know how to help us, and I’m not talking about money. I’m talking about the transfer of knowledge.

The Levites: You saw him; you looked at him. The Levitical priesthood could help raise Black people up from that condition because you were once in it yourself.

Some of our Arab brothers own stores, and they are forbidden to eat the swine, but they will feed it to us. Some of our brothers are forbidden to take alcohol, but they have liquor in their store and they feed it to us.

Some of our brothers know that Allah (God) taught the Prophet to teach us the respect and protection of our women, but some see the terrible condition of our women and take advantage of them.

This is not good. If we are left in that condition to be exploited, then The Wrath of God will come down on the church, on the synagogue and the mosque.

We need to talk like this to one another—not with hatred; not with vitriol—but just to show you, “Look: You didn’t fail us. You failed God.” When God gives you wisdom and power, He gives you an assignment that goes along with that. If you walk by the man that needs your help, and you know how to help and you won’t give it to that man, then how will God feel about you?

This meeting today in Mosque Maryam is to celebrate The Oneness of God and The Oneness of Humanity; The Oneness of The Prophetic Community and The Oneness of Religion.

There is an African traditional proverb that says one going to take a pointed stick to pinch a baby bird should first try it on himself to see how it hurts. If you took that and did that to yourself, would you do it to the bird?

In the Baha’i faith, the kernel of the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh is: “Blessed is he who preferreth his brother before himself.” In Buddhism, the kernel of Buddha’s teachings is: “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.”

In Confucianism, it is the word shu, which means reciprocity: “Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.” In Hinduism: “Do not to others which if done to thee would cause thee pain. This is the sum (or the total) of duty.”

In Jainism: “In happiness and suffering; in joy and grief, we should regard all creatures as we regard our own self.” In Shintoism: “Be charitable to all beings for Love is the representative of God.”

In Sikhism, the kernel of the teachings is: “Don’t create enmity with anyone as God is within everyone.” In Taoism: “Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your loss.” In Zoroastrianism: “Whatever you do not approve for yourself, do not approve for anyone else. When you have acted in this manner, you are righteous.”

I saved the Three Abrahamic Traditions for last. In Judaism, it says: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow man.” In Christianity: “Do unto others as you would have them so do unto you.” And in Islam: “No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.”

The New Beginning of The Nation of Islam is that we evolve beyond just the service to our people.

I was with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad one day and he said to me: “Brother, they call me a Black Nationalist.” He said “Black is not national. Black is universal.” All the time that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was among us, he was feeding us, teaching us and guiding us.

There were Whites that came to his table. There were Asians that came to his table. There were great imams and scholars that came to his table. He never mistreated anyone. He gave them respect.

During his last sermon to us at Saviour’s Day in 1974, he had two White Muslims on the rostrum with him. One of them was Ali Baghdadi, and the other one was a Muslim from Turkey. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, “These men are not here to see if you are clothed in a long white dress or a long black dress.

They are here to see if you are clothed in the principles of your religion.” He also said that “Allah did not raise us (the Black man and woman in this hemisphere) to be mockers of anyone.”

Allah (God) is raising us, the Black Man and Woman in America, to be servants of the Human Family after the dross has been taken from us. Our Job and Our Mission is to help bring in a Government of Peace wherein we all can live together in peace.

But before we can accomplish that Mission, we have to grow out of the mind of Black Inferiority; and Whites have to grow out of the mind of White Superiority, for Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said, “There’s no superiority of the White over the Black, or the Black over the White. The one that is best among you is he or she who is most careful of his or her duty to Allah.”

Muhammad and Jesus are the two greatest of those who proselytize the Teachings. Jesus and his disciples have spread Christianity all over the world. Muhammad and his disciples have done the same.

Are Muhammad and Jesus enemies? No. Why, then, are we?

Is Muhammad and Jesus an enemy of Moses and the Israelite Prophets? No. Then why are we?

I think we all need to rise from this House, and all houses like it, to teach a Message that will inspire, motivate and stimulate human beings to act in the manner that God be reflected in us.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, “The best religion, Brother, is ‘Do unto others as you would have others do unto you, and love for your brother what you love for yourself.’” All the rest of the Teaching is based upon that principle.

When you go forth out of this House today, let us go forth determined to be better tomorrow than we are today. What will it take from us to be kind? What will it rob us of to be a better human being? If we start where we are, spread it from where we are, then perhaps in our lifetime we will begin, as we are beginning, to see change.

We see change going on in America. We see change going on in the heart of young Caucasians, and they are now instructing their parents. So older people who have the old way, be careful, because Moses had some old folks that didn’t want to change and God had given them a land wherein were some giants.

And God instructed Moses and Aaron, “Go ahead and take them into the land,” but the people said, “Not us. We’re not going up in there. You and your God, go get those giants out of that land and then we’ll go in!” And guess what God said? “Fine. I will let you wander in the wilderness until you die out, and I will take your children and they will inhabit The Promised Land.”

It is the young people today that every branch of faith should be going after because The Promise of God is not necessarily in the elders. The Promise of God will be found in the young.

Thank you, and may Allah (God) bless you. As-Salaam Alaikum (Peace Be Unto You).

The post A New Beginning -Part II appeared first on Final Call News.

Do you like Pop Tarts? Do you like Frosted Flakes? A chemist who works for Kellogg came in the barber shop one day, and said: “Don’t eat sugared cereals, because in the sugar is the poison that sterilizes and brings cancer.” “Sugar” is a drug that makes you want it again, and again, and again. It’s a habit-forming chemical.

[Note: “Sugar” is the generalized name for a class of chemically related sweet-flavored substances, most of which are used as food. They are carbohydrates, composed of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O).]

Well, what are “staple foods,” because these poisonous chemicals are not just in the water, now; they’re in the staple foods. A “staple food” is a food that can be stored for use throughout the year, or produced fresh any time of the year; and forms the basis of a traditional diet; it is a food that is eaten routinely, and in such quantities that it constitutes a dominant portion of a standard diet in a given population.

Typical examples of staples include tuber (or “root crops”), such as: Beets, Carrots, Parsnips, Potatoes, Turnips, Radishes, Sweet Potatoes. Other “staples” are Grains, Legumes and other seeds; maize (or Corn); Wheat, Rice, Cassava, Soy Beans, Sorghum, Yams and Plantain.

These are the staple foods of various cultures! From the Asian people, it’s “rice”; to the people of Central and South America, it’s corn (or maize), and some of the legumes, or beans. 

So when you get bread that is supposed to contain “wheat”—but, if you didn’t grow that wheat, where did you get the seeds from that wheat? Where is the corn coming from? These are the things that are being used to “cull” populations all over the planet Earth!

Wheat, now, is genetically engineered! Corn is genetically engineered! Many vegetables are genetically modified—and the food industry is fighting to keep from advertising what it really is! 

According to the American Society for Nutrition, in its Journal of Nutrition (April 2006, Volume 136, Number 4, pages 1064-1067), published an Abstract entitled “Biofortification of Staple Food Crops.” Well, according to this Abstract, “biofortification” is: “The development of micronutrient-dense staple crops using the best traditional breeding practices and modern biotechnology.” It goes on to state: 

“Deficiencies of vitamin A, iron, and zinc affect over one-half of the world’s population. Progress has been made to control micronutrient deficiencies through supplementation and food fortification, but new approaches are needed, especially to reach the rural poor.

Biofortification (enriching the nutrition contribution of staple crops through plant breeding) is one option… The challenge is to get producers and consumers to accept biofortified crops and increase their intake of the target nutrients.

“With the advent of good seed systems, the development of markets and products, and demand creation, this can be achieved.” Are they really “enhancing” the food with nutrients, or are they making sure that those who eat it become victims of the policy to cull the people of the Third World?

According to an October 2007 article by Lloyd Grove titled “The World According to Lynn Forester de Rothschild,” originally published on “Portfolio.com” (now renamed the Upstart Business Journal):

The Rothschilds made a major investment in the India produce market, and became the “No. 1 producer of fruits in the world and No. 2 vegetable growers.”

The Rothschilds’ upstart company Field Fresh has now taken over the food production of fruits and vegetables in India; so this says to us that they are going to push out “the small farmer,” and crush him—and they will be the mass producer, sending food from India all over the world.

When we juxtaposed the “decrease in farming,” with this “Memorandum 200” by Kissinger and “the culling of the population of the planet” with a policy of “population control”—or depopulation in the United States—then we can see now how food is used as a “weapon” in that process!

And then, the control of the “means of production of food” and the “methodology in producing the food”: All of this is a part of the policy, now, of the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”), and the CIA! They are all linked together. The Chemistry of Death: Poisonous water supplies, and ‘the pawns’ of a chemical-filled makeup industry. 

Also in this book Ecoscience, Chapter 10 titled “Direct Assaults on Well-Being,” it talks about “depopulation” by putting certain chemicals in the water: “Water pollutants take many forms. One useful classification follows: Disease-causing organisms—specifically parasites, bacteria, and viruses.

Which often enter water with human sewage; Synthetic organic compounds in the form of industrial, household, and agricultural chemicals, as well as water-treatment chemicals added deliberately and the products formed by the reaction of these with other contaminants… Water pollutants also can be classified by their effects:

“Direct impact on health in the form of bacterial or viral disease; production of cancer, genetic defects, and birth defects; other varieties of acute and chronic toxicity to people; and effects on ecosystems, through which an impact on human beings may subsequently be felt… 

“Pesticides, radioactivity, fluorides, and heavy metals (which occur in air and soil as well as in water) are treated in more detail later in this chapter. These and other water pollutants receive further attention in the discussions of carcinogens and mutagens… .”

Fluoride is a poison! Sodium Fluoride is a poison that is used in the production of sarin gas! Sodium Fluoride is an inorganic chemical compound (formula “NaF”); a colorless solid. Toothpaste contains sodium fluoride, with a claim to “reduce cavities.”

So every time you drink from the tap, fluorinated water, you’re drinking some of the poison that they say will keep you from having cavities. But your children, by the age of 6 and 7 and 8, have cavities! When I grew up, I never knew what a “cavity” was; there was no “fluoridation of water” at that time!

Let’s look at some of the “Facts About Fluoride” that appear in an article by Paul Joseph Watson and Matt Ryan titled “Poison Tap Water” InfoWars.com: Fluoride is a waste by-product of the fertilizer and aluminum industry, and it’s also a “Part II Poison” under the UK Poisons Act 1972; Fluoride is one of the basic ingredients in both Prozac (FLUoxetene Hydrochloride) and Sarin nerve gas (Isopropyl-Methyl-Phosphoryl FLUoride).

In an article by Maria Hoven titled “Foods Containing Fluoride,” posted on the website Livestrong.com dated July 25, 2013, she identifies foods containing this poison fluoride: “Fluoride toxicity can have adverse effects on your kidneys and it can also cause skeletal fluorosis in adults.

“Children who consume high amounts of fluoride can suffer from dental fluorosis, which develops when you consume too much fluoride from birth to age 8 when your teeth are forming … .” And she states some of the following foods that contain sodium fluoride, for example, instant formula—that you give your babies; juices and tea, soda, cereals; wine and beer.

Another toxic chemical additive in foods is the diet sweetener Aspartame, which is the sweetener used in all “diet” drinks. It is considered a “carcinogenic,” meaning it can, will, and is, producing cancers.

The American people really need to see what the government is doing, and how terrible the government is to allow something like this as “policy” not only in Third World countries, but its policy right here in America!

The post The chemistry of death: Staple foods used by various cultures are targets of wicked scientists  appeared first on Final Call News.

In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.

As-Salaam Alaikum.

I thank Allah so much for that sound that we heard from the Shofar, the Ram’s Horn, that announces Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Shabbat (the Sabbath), calling the people of Israel to purification and preparation for atonement, for sin and wrongdoing, that we may keep Allah’s (God’s) favor to us.

We thank those who come by the sound of the bell to Christian worship, and we thank a Black man from Ethiopia named Bilal, who created from the Spirit of God that which is called the Adhan, or the “call to prayer” in Islam.

These three branches of pure monotheistic belief—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—spring from a father, Ibrahim, or Abraham, who was a man that fought against polytheism. In the Holy Qur’an, there is a story about the idol worshippers of his day and there were three of them.

One of them was larger than the others, and it is written that in the night, Abraham knocked down one of the idols, and the next morning the people asked, “Who did this?” Abraham said, “Ask the big one, he should be able to tell you.”

And, of course, they were upset with Abraham and they boiled him in oil. So we have to be careful how you take down the idols that people worship, but it is misplaced worship that has the human family at odds with each other.

While Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was among us, there was unity among the Jews. When Moses was among the people he was sent to, there was unity. But when Prophet Muhammad was gone, division came.

The Holy Qur’an says they did not become divided until after knowledge came to them splitting up their religion into sects and parties vying with one another due to envy.

This happened during the time of Jesus; it happened again during the time of Muhammad, peace be upon them, and it happens every time there is a charismatic person who guides people sometimes to a new truth.

But when that person dies, then that terrible human condition arises when people seek power and are greedy for power. And out of envy they war with one another over who will sit where and who will go there, and then the people of God become divided.

Allah (God) says in the Holy Qur’an that He sent messengers and prophets to every nation. He didn’t send messengers to every nation to preach a different religion. Otherwise, we could charge Him with being the author of confusion. While the scripture teaches that “God is not the God of confusion, but the God of peace,” then how did we become so confused?

When a messenger or prophet of God came in different parts of the world, they always brought a truth that was to correct the problems of that particular time. But those contemporary truths were founded on immutable principles that never change.

The prophets all over the earth taught the same basic truth. But when the prophet died, people began to name the message after the prophet, so now we have Confucianism, Taoism, Shintoism, Zoroastrianism.

Some would call Islam “Muhammadanism.” Then we have Christianity and Judaism, but what is the real message or religion of Him Who created the heavens and the earth and gave every creature the True Religion?

And what is the True Religion? When you see the creatures, each creature follows a path that is indicative of the nature of that creature. God gives to each of His creatures a way.

What is the way that God gave to the human being? Did He change? Did He wait until 2,000 years ago to give man the way? Did God wait until 1,400 years ago to give man the way? No. From the time God created man, He gave him the right way. Allah (God) says in the Qur’an, “Set your face for religion being upright, the nature made by Allah in which He has created man.”

Look at our planet. Look at how we have become so divided, so hateful, yet claiming the same Creator. Do you think that Almighty God is happy with Christians, and Muslims and Jews claiming Abraham, the upright one, yet destroying each other everyday because we think we have the right way? Is that really the right way?

Allah (God) created Adam. All of the scriptures of the Torah, Injil (Gospel) and Qur’an talk about Adam. Did God give him the way? We call it “religion,” but that is man’s invention. We ask each other “What is your religion?

What is your religion? What is your religion?” No! We should be asking “What is the nature in which God created you?” That is the way. The real religion of God is this: “Obey My commands.” That is the right way, but most men know not.

Out of His love and respect for the human being, God says from the Bible, “I created man after My likeness and in My image.” That’s big—very, very, big. If God created you and I after His likeness, then it is no wonder when the Disciples asked Jesus, “Master, when were you hungry and I fed you not?

When were you naked and I clothed you not? When were you out of doors and I gave you not shelter? When were you sick and imprisoned and I ministered not unto you?” the response Jesus gave was this: “In as much as you have not done these things to the least of these my brethren, you have not done it also unto me.”

We love to give importance to big shots: “I met so-and-so; I saw so-and-so.” But when you walk down the street and you saw a homeless person on the corner asking for some help, you may not have known it—and he doesn’t know it—but he’s a “big shot,” too.

When you walk by the prostitute who doesn’t really know who she is; how valuable she is, you walk by a “big shot” that is in need of service. But we have been trained to look out for those that don’t really need us and to walk by the people most in need.

One day, a blind man was tapping his way up to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) when he was engrossed in a conversation with a well-placed man. The Prophet looked on the blind man because he disturbed the conversation, and the Prophet frowned, but the Qur’an says, Allah frowned.

Allah (God) said to the Prophet, “You are talking to a man who really in words is wasting your time and the man that is most in need of your service from him you turn away.”

May I humbly say religion, as it is being preached and practiced, is a failure. Not some religions—all of them. Don’t be displeased with me. We must judge the failure and success of religion by how effective we are in transforming human life.

Not judging religion by how happy the people are over our preaching, or the song that we sung or the prayer we said—and then the people go back out in that world to be the same as they were before they came to that house of worship.

When Jesus came on the scene, there were many preaching the law, but Jesus said, “Oh, ye hypocrites.” That’s a tough word. Who wants to be called such an ugly name? But Jesus said, “You have whited sepulchers, and in them are the bones of dead men.” 

The churches and the mosques and the synagogues—they’re white, meaning they’re white on the outside, but the people on the inside are like the bones of dead men and dead women. What does that mean?

Every religion has what is called rituals. Every religion has a way of devotion that may be peculiar to that faith tradition. In the prayer that Abraham and Ishmael made when they reconstructed or laid the foundation of Al-Ka’bah (the Holy House of Mecca), they asked Allah (God),

“Show us our way of devotion.” So there was a way of devotion peculiar to them. In every part of the world, the way of devotion that God gave those people is sometimes concretized in ritual.

The ritual itself is not the truth; the ritual is the embodiment of the truth. What will happen when we don’t need rituals anymore? When the truth of a ritual is made known, the ritual loses significance. We, as Muslims, must once in our lifetime make a pilgrimage to the Holy City of Mecca.

Some of us have been very blessed to make that journey, but when we make that journey, we all should know that everything that we do is a sign of something bigger. When we walk around Al-Ka’bah seven times; when we kiss the Black Stone; when we run between the hills, these ritualistic acts are signs of something bigger.

What is this new beginning for the Nation of Islam? I know you are concerned, and that you are curious.

In the Qur’an it says, “I created you from a tiny life germ, and then you became a clot, and then you became an embryo, and then you became a fetus, and then I brought you forth from your mother’s womb, complete yet incomplete.”

All along that journey, we as human beings are evolving, going to stage after stage on our journey to become complete human beings. When you mature to be a grown-up man or woman, are you yet complete, or do you yet have a distance to go to complete your real journey, which is the journey of life itself?

What is that journey? The Qur’an keeps telling us about those who deny the meeting with God. Our journey is from a tiny life germ to become one with our Creator. This is why the man Jesus in the Bible is so great a human because in his journey, though he lived a short time, he accomplished something that some of us can live 100 years and never accomplish.

He accomplished Oneness with God. So when the disciples and he were together, they said “When will we see the Father?” And he said, “Have I been among you all this long and you have not seen Him?” He said, “When you see me you see the Father, for I am in the Father and the Father is in me.

Me and my Father are one.” It is the same with Prophet Muhammad. He was, according to the history, the most obedient to the Will of God. That’s how you attain Oneness with God. God cannot give you the Secret of Nature unless you please Him to that degree that He can open up the Secret of Nature for us.

There are many preachers, teachers, sheikhs, mullahs, scholars. We read our Bible, we read our Qur’an, and we call ourselves “interpreters.” But no one can interpret the Word of God properly if our hearts are not in tune with Him and His Will.

Something has happened in America. We have churches, we have mosques, we have synagogues, but the streets are filled with crime, violence and the abuse of women and children—right outside the church; right outside the mosque. If our religion is only for the walls, and the people within them, then we have failed.

I say this because we have spent money to make a beautiful building, but that is not what God is interested in. If we don’t make beautiful people to come in and out of that building doing the Will and the Work of God, then all of this means nothing.

To those who are here from different religions and different races: Black people are in a very, very bad condition. I don’t care how many cars we drive or homes we have or money we have, the condition of Black people is really an indictment against the religious leadership because, if we really are in tune with the prophets and their writings, the religion should never lose its power to transform.

In the Book of Isaiah, the scripture teaches, “There will be a new heaven and a new earth, and the former things will pass away.” In the Book of Revelations, a man is talking—a man! He says, “Behold, I make all things new.” 

Now, that’s a heck of a statement: “Behold, I”—a personal pronoun—“make”—not some things—“all things new.” Then He says there will be a new heaven and a new earth and the former things will pass away. Well, we’re lined up then to see big change. Big, big, big change.

If you notice, change is the theme in race for the presidency. Change. And that theme, regardless who says it, is resonating with the people, because deep down in the hearts of the people, they are totally, thoroughly dissatisfied with government and they are seeking real change.

But, the change that will feed our hearts is not necessarily a political change. The change that will feed our souls is that which is on the scene, or coming on the scene today: It is a Universal Change.

Question: Where do we fit? If He is going to make all things new, does that mean Judaism will be made new? Christianity will be made new? Islam will be made new? We will be made new? What does it mean by “all things”? That’s everything! So God is dissatisfied with everything!

Will there be new government? New constitution? Will there be new people in power? Will that be you? Will that be me? Will that be him? Will that be her? We don’t know. But we know this: Change is absolutely necessary.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said the scripture is speaking of both a spiritual and physical change. He said that the change that it is talking about is a change in the spiritual rulership and a change in the political rulership.

Now let me say this for the record: The Founding Fathers of this country wanted separation of church and state, but not disconnect of the church from the state, or the state from the church.

Do you realize that all throughout these books—Bible and Qur’an—God respected kings, but He sent to these kings, prophets. And the prophets always said to the kings: “Thus sayeth the Lord.”

Today, however, the prophets are bought by the kings because they are seeking favor from the kings. You are not seeking the Favor of God. You’re seeking the favor of man, so you lose the Favor of God.

What happens when there is a disconnect between heaven and earth? If the sun does not draw water up from the earth’s surface into the earth’s rotation, which is called gravitation, forming what is called a cloud?

And if the wind does not drive that cloud over an earth that is dead, and rain down on that earth so that the seeds in the earth may swell, germinate and come up that we may eat and feed from the earth?

There is a connection between what is above and what is beneath, but we don’t have that connection anymore. That is why the human being is suffering and is a caricature of what God intended human beings to be.

We are no longer man in the Image of God—we are a caricature of what God intended because we are all filled with rebellion. And whatever Allah (God) said, “Thou shall not do,” government says “It’s okay. It’s all right. Help yourself.” There is great confusion.

To be continued.

The post A New Beginning appeared first on Final Call News.

In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.

Our subject today deals with three words which represent essentials that would allow us to live life successfully, the way God intended for human beings to live: Fear. Faith. Truth. These three words, if understood and acted upon properly, will give us a key to mastering every situation that life could pose. I want each of us to think about something in life that is troublesome to us. I want us to think about something in our own life that we need to overcome. I want us to think about something in our life that we desire, but as yet have not been able to attain it. Mastery of the principles underlying each of these three words will not only give you The Solution to that particular problem that you and I personally may have, but it gives you The Key to any problem you will ever face at any time in your life.

Fear: The Source of our insecurities

Is “fear” natural? If fear is a natural thing, then is it something that we must overcome? And if so, how? According to the dictionary, “fear” is a distressing emotion aroused by impending pain, danger, evil, whether that pain, danger or evil is real, or imagined. If you become afraid even of some imaginary thing that has not yet happened, the distressing emotion will still be present. “Fear” is the feeling, or the condition of being afraid. Fear restricts: Whatever we are afraid of, that which we fear makes us insecure; and whatever makes us afraid and insecure could cause us to bow. When we are afraid, fear causes us not to think properly. Fear causes us not to act properly. Fear makes you so insecure that you have a tendency to acquiesce, to submit, to surrender to the thing that you’re afraid of. And if you acquiesce, submit and surrender to what you are afraid of, then it becomes a god to you beside God! If God made man and woman in His Own Likeness, then can you imagine God being afraid? I mean, just think about God being afraid of a lion, or a bear! How could He be afraid of what He created? So if He is The Creator, and this is the creature, then He has Natural Mastery over it if He does not allow what He created to terrify Him. This is no “Frankenstein,” that the thing which is created can, now, terrify its creator. There is nothing in Creation that can make God afraid! Well, then if God is not afraid of anything that He created, and you and I are in His Image and in His Likeness, will you tell me please how we can justify being afraid of anything in Creation?

***

There is another kind of fear that has reverence to it, and that is the fear of God. Once when I was out in Arizona taking a month to fast and pray and discipline myself for a fight against cancer, I was listening to a tape by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. He was saying that God did not make The Original Man, Black man, to be afraid of anything in His Creation. He only made you, and me, to fear Him. And it is The Fear of God, and God alone, that gives you Mastery over The Creation. But if you don’t know God, and won’t trust God and have faith in God, then things that make you afraid will become your master. God is worthy to be afraid of. You just have to believe and know that a God exists. The Bible teaches in Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” So if the fear of God makes you a beginner, then what is wisdom? “Wisdom” is that which allows you mastery, and you cannot begin to become wise in life if you don’t learn the fear of God. And once you learn the fear of God, then nothing in creation becomes able to terrify you. Then you are in the Beginner’s Class of Mastery.

I want you to internalize this: Anytime we allow anything to make us afraid, and we refuse to challenge our fear of that thing, then we can never be that man, or that woman, that God intended us to be. Fear will not allow you to be yourself!

It is not that you won’t ever be made afraid, because there are some terrifying things in this world. But when you are afraid, that’s the Test of Faith! This is when you have to call on what you’ve got faith in! What am I saying to you? You’re going to be made afraid.

I don’t want you thinking that every time you’re made afraid that you will come out “all right,” because the other part of this is: Being “fearless” is not going to get you victory in every circumstance. This is where faith comes in.

Faith: Making the impossible, possible

“Faith” is confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing. Study the prophets’ life examples: How they challenged Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, and great armies (phalanx)—that’s beautiful, you know, when you read it in the Bible. But when you read it in the Bible, if it doesn’t give you courage in your time period, then reading it yesterday you might think that it can’t happen today! But God is able in every generation; and He will never let you down. He will never let you down if you put your trust in Him!

Now, some of us might have faith in our own strength; you have a lot of “macho” strength: “I go to the gym every day, I work out; I built my muscles, and so, nothing makes me afraid. I’ll rely on my strength.” But there are some things you can’t challenge with your strength. There are some things that only can be challenged with The Strength of God.

I’m saying this to all of us, and I’m sure you know it: The government of the United States cannot be challenged with your strength and mine. It can only be challenged with The Strength of God. There are forces in this world that you cannot challenge with your strength, and that’s why faith is absolutely necessary to overcome fear.

***

Dear beloved followers and believers of God: Without faith, you cannot achieve the impossible. But with faith there is nothing impossible. A lot of things are impossible without Him, but there is nothing impossible with Him! When you don’t have faith, real faith in God, you don’t even attempt things that people say are impossible. But when you have faith in God, you will try the impossible and find that it’s quite possible! So, “faith in God” is a Key to accomplishing anything in life that you desire.

Just as a baby on its mother’s breast for the first time does not know that milk is there, but will keep on pulling until some milk appears, that’s “faith.” Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen.

Look at this Universe, and think of anything you want: Everything that you need to make life beneficial to you is already here! You don’t have to “create” anything. But the question is: How strong is your pull on the mammary gland called “The Universe,” because The Universe is a giant breast! I’m not being vulgar, but that’s exactly what it is! The baby can pull on the breast believing, hoping, something is going to be there, and that hope and that belief is rewarded because milk comes! And it won’t dry up as long as somebody’s pulling … Then we must do the same: You have to learn how to pull on this Universe to get the things out of life that The God Who created this, and you, promised.

What do you want? “Well, I want to pay my bills.” It’s done! But is that all you want? Oh, that’s “punk stuff”—you haven’t even begun to pick up on the heavy stuff if you can’t get by the “little stuff.” And the “little stuff” that is messing your head up is denied to you because you don’t have faith!

In Matthew 17:20, Jesus said if you had faith the grain of a mustard seed, you could say to the mountain: “Be removed,” and it would be so! Have you ever seen how small a “mustard seed” is? It is so tiny! Well, what kind of “mountain” do you have in your life that is troubling you, and you can’t move? “Well, I’ve got a lot of problems …”—Tell me something new! That’s what life is! “Life” is “problems”: If you don’t have a problem, you’re not alive! So where are you? When God brought you here He brought you here to give you a problem! And the solution to your problem is also here! But if you lack faith, you’ll walk around like a dog chasing your tail, you will never quite make it in life because you are a faithless individual!

That’s your problem: You’re afraid, and you don’t have faith, so you have to live by schemes; you always have to try and “trick” somebody! When they’re not looking, you take their wallet; you learn craft in stealing! You learn how to lie to manipulate silly people in order to take from them, while there is a Universe out here ready to give you its treasure. …

Brothers and sisters: Your real power is in trying to be right. Our people will love you if you are right, and are trying to be right! Because no matter how bad you are in your actions, you really are The Righteous. You don’t have to be afraid to be right. You should be terrified of being wrong.

Truth: The Right Foundation that sustains life

I want you to think about “Truth.” Allah says in the Qur’an that He created the heavens and the earth with truth. You are a creation of Truth. If God built all of this and sustains it with Truth, how can you sustain your life living a lie?

Brothers and sisters, when we want to look beautiful, we spend time in the mirror; we make sure our hair looks right, we smell right, we dress right, and then we come out to meet the people. You are so concerned about how you appear, but appearance is not what you are! The real you is on the inside of what you appear to be.

Now, the thing that I see going on, no matter your religion, is that some of us can learn the Wisdom, and we can articulate the Wisdom, but I don’t care how much we know: To sustain the Knowledge that you have requires you to have The Right Foundation. And the Right Foundation for the Sustenance of Life and Knowledge starts with Truth.

All of us lie too much. If I tell you a lie, I’m robbing you of the truth! And if you believe my lie, and act on a lie, then I’m murdering the spirit! So a liar is a thief, and a murderer! And no liar, no thief, no murderer can find a way in The Kingdom of God! It looks like our mouths are bent in a lie. … I have found that we’ve got a lot of people that can speak well, but they don’t have any “character.” So if you’re the type of person that is “knocked out” by good words, you’ll always be knocked out because there’s people that can give you good words all day long! But do they have character? Do they have integrity? A liar can have neither.

***

“Seek ye first The Kingdom of God …” “The Kingdom of God” is built on Truth. But we just lie, and lie and lie, and there’s no reason for it!

Who is anybody that you should lie to them? Who is there to lie to if God, already The All-Seeing, The All-Knowing, knows the truth? So whether you want good character or not, that’s on you! I mean, if there was something that I failed to do, and you asked me, “Did you do it?” I would have to tell you, “No, brother. I’m sorry.” You may be disappointed in me, but it is better that you be disappointed in me, than me be disappointed in myself for lying!

If you lie, it starts eating at The Foundation of Character, because all character is built on truth, honesty and integrity. This is what too few of us have. Every time you lie, it’s like taking a sledgehammer, knocking The Foundation out from under your Good. Every lie breaks you down. Every truth builds you up.

Why do you lie? “Because I’m insecure; I am afraid of consequences, and therefore I lack faith in God.” So you see, all three of those words, fear, faith and truth, are related.

So I’m challenging us today: Stop Telling Lies! Stop Living Lies! When you would tell a lie, just think for a moment, and try forcing yourself to speak the truth. Every time you speak the truth, you get stronger in the truth! But every time you lie, and you know you’re lying, you just weaken yourself, because The Truth supports the Universe! A lie supports nothing.

And don’t exaggerate, because the moment you add to the truth, you take away from the truth, turning it into a lie.

Every time you lie, you undercut your ability to be what only Truth can make you into.

***

I hope and I pray that God will make us fearless. Can God make you fearless? He said, “Those who believe and are the doers of good to others, there is no fear for them nor shall they grieve.” And I heard Elijah Muhammad say, “They could bring 10,000 outside my door. I will not be afraid.” Why won’t you be afraid, Elijah? “Because God is with me, and as long as God is with me, there is no army that can defeat me.”

You have to know that God is with you, and He will prove to you that He is with you! If you are with Him and with Truth, God will take little things, and begin building your confidence in Him. And after awhile, He’ll keep on building your confidence until you just become so trusting in Him, that you don’t think anything or anyone can harm you except it pleases God, because The Arm of The Lord has been revealed to you.

And brothers, sisters, I can tell you: It is a wonderful feeling to be able to know that you can put your trust in God.

The post Fear, Faith and Truth appeared first on Final Call News.

When I spoke to the students at Tuskegee University on March 22, 2013, I said: “You are more than who you think you are. … Because of ‘who’ you are, you are in danger. So tonight, I want to expose the danger, and by God’s Grace, give you the guidance to be exactly what I said you are: ‘The Seminal Fluid’ of The Kingdom of God.”

Tuskegee University has received high amounts of government funding for research and experimentation, the most recent being the HeLa, or “immortal cells” (the oldest, most commonly used human cell line), which are cancer cells used in testing and creating vaccines!

I said at Tuskegee: “Your former slave masters don’t give you money without another purpose beyond what they tell us! …You have to remember history to guide you in the way you think! It’s all right to think that people have ‘changed’—but you cannot go to sleep; you have to watch to see if the change is real.”

For example, in the 1940s the U.S. government experimented by infecting the people of Guatemala with syphilis and gonorrhea and sexually transmitted diseases! The government has now acknowledged this.

On October 1, 2010, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, apologized in a statement with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton regarding this HeLa experimentation.

And, brothers and sisters, this is what I’m afraid of; that with the research that is going on in Tuskegee with the HeLa cells, now The Enemy has created genetic weapons that are designed specifically for certain genetic groups—and they are designing different drugs for that same purpose!

Dr. Jonas Salk used the HeLa cells in producing the polio vaccine; but yet, a contaminant was introduced into the vaccine! Also, it was this HeLa cell that was the carrier of the cancer that was introduced into “SV40” (an abbreviation for “Simian vacuolating virus 40”

Or “Simian virus 40,” a polyomavirus that is found in both monkeys and humans) into the polio vaccine; and that’s why the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, in the ’60s, forbade his followers from taking the polio vaccine.

Now they say that 2,000 pounds of HeLa cells have been produced. … And they’ve gone all over the world! So instead of these immortal cells being used to curb the rise of cancer, the opposite is true: Cancer is proliferating all over the world, especially in Third World countries—and especially among the Black man and woman in America. Is this an “accident”?

Why, in the scheme of things, was the syphilis experiment “so important”? Why is the HeLa experiment and research “so important”? Why, in the scheme of things, was this experiment to start at Tuskegee, in Alabama, where Booker T. Washington established the principles 1.) self-reliance, 2.) self-help, 3.) commerce, 4.) industry; and 5.) agriculture—and where George Washington Carver was?

And they even told George Washington Carver that he should not marry; that he should not have any children, because these oppressors did not want to see another “Carver” in a future generation that their children would have to contend with! My question is: What type of research is this, and how will this research benefit us as a people?

Scientists took these cells without asking for permission, and have made millions of dollars off of these cells. And the woman—the Black woman, Henrietta Lacks, from which this immune cell, this great cell was taken—has not received anything, though the world is benefiting from this HeLa cell.

Why Tuskegee? Well, Tuskegee is like a “manger.” A manger is like a trough; it’s a feeder that is made of carved stone, wood or metal construction, and is used to hold food for animals, as in a “stable.”

Jesus was born in a manger. … It is not an accident that such greatness has come out of that little city! Tuskegee is a “manger,” it’s a place of feeding ground—a “feeding place” for a people that have been made savage; that from such an institute.

Which is now a university, can come that which will civilize not only the Black man and woman of America, but from it, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad saw “a world institution.”

The post Members of the Original Black Nation: Victims of deceptive research experiments appeared first on Final Call News.

In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.

Greetings to you. I am Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, that Great Preacher of Freedom, Justice and Equality to the Aboriginal People of the Earth: The Black People of North America, and the Dark People of the world. He is also a Warner to the government and people of the United States of America, and the nations of the Earth.

Elijah Muhammad: The Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam. I am so thankful to Almighty God Allah for the day that I met the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

A child born with an enduring love for a downtrodden people

As a young man, I always desired to see Black people free. I cried myself to sleep many nights, especially after coming from church and my Sunday school class, where I would ask my Sunday school teacher: “If God gave Moses to The Children of Israel to deliver them from the hard bondage of Pharaoh, and if God always stood on the side of the ‘enslaved’ and the ‘oppressed,’ why hasn’t God sent someone to us?” My pastors and my Sunday school teachers had no answer for me.

I was upset, because I was a Christian and I loved Jesus Christ; but when I was a young man, White Christians were doing horrible things to Black Christians, and no intercession was taken on our behalf. I always felt the pain of those that I would read about in The Crisis Magazine, or, in The Afro-American or The Pittsburgh Courier, when we would read of the “lynchings” and the “burnings” and the “castrations” and the terrible torture of Black people when White people felt that we had done something “improper.” And so my heart ached to see our people free; so, I started to look for somebody who would address the concerns of our people.

When I was 11 years of age, I was sent by my mother to New York to spend part of the summer with my uncle; and my uncle had on his wall a picture of a Black man! In my house, in Boston, we had pictures on our mantelpiece, one of whom was Queen Elizabeth and King George, and the other was a White representation of “Jesus.” But in my uncle’s home, a Black man was on the wall. That was really “strange” to me, because all the homes that I had visited as a young man, all the Black homes had a picture of “Jesus,” a White person.

I remember once a Filipino man came to our door; he was selling Bibles. And as he was opening the Bibles, showing my mother all of these “White” prophets and angels, when he got to “The Last Supper” my mother asked him: “You mean to tell me there’s no Black people at all in this book?”–and she ran him out of the house. So after I had talked to my uncle who told me my dad was a follower of Marcus Garvey, and my mother was on the fringe of The Garvey Movement, that was, for me, a sign that my mother was very “Black conscious.” And, I thank God for that because she instilled in me love for our people.

When I asked my uncle, “Who is that man on the wall?” he said, “He’s a man that came to unite Black people.” That fascinated me! I was a “little shorty” at that time, so I asked my uncle to get a chair so I could stand on that chair and “drink in” the features of this Black man who had come to unite Black people. And as I was looking in his face, studying his features, I asked my uncle, “Where is he, that I might go and be with him?” and my uncle said, “He’s passed away”–and the tears fell from my eyes, because I had come “that close” to what my heart was yearning for, and he was gone.

My search always was for a man that would stand up for us.

The man ‘accepting his own and being himself’ under guidance from a Wise Teacher

When I was 19 years of age, already a musician, an entertainer, and a young boy going to school because I was in college at the time, I had come home for summer vacation; and, one of my friends told me that “God had chosen a messenger for us.” As I walked the street, tears fell from my eyes, and I asked God: “God, why didn’t you choose me? You know I love my people…” And as fast as I made that question to God, the answer came when the brother had told me that “God appeared in 1930”–and I was not even born. So I decided I must go and meet this man, and offer him my life.

My friends had visited the mosque and heard The Teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, but they were not adequate to defend it, because I had questions to ask that they couldn’t answer. So, at 19 years of age, I did not meet Elijah Muhammad.

***

At the age of 20 I married my wife Khadijah, and was in college; and then in 1955, when I was 22 years of age, I was playing as the featured performer in a nightclub in Chicago called The Blue Angel that was on 801 N. Rush Street owned by a great Greek wrestler by the name of Gene Fadouli. One day while my wife and I were in a cab driving down a street, I happened to look and see my old friend that grew up together with me. So we stopped the cab, paid the cab driver, jumped out of the cab and hailed my friend. And naturally, since he’s in Chicago, I’m in Chicago, and I’m the “headliner” at The Blue Angel nightclub, I said to my friend, “Man, why don’t you come on and catch my show?” He wasn’t “moved” a bit. Then he said, “Your uncle is right around the corner…” (This was when the Honorable Elijah Muhammad had a little grocery store on Wentworth in Chicago), and I went around the corner and saw my uncle, and saw some of my friends from Boston who had become Muslims.

So they asked me would I like to come and hear the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and I said, “Of course!” And so, I was staying at The Wilmington Arms located at 49th & Drexel Avenue, and my friends came and picked me up, and brought me to Muhammad’s Temple No. 2 at 5335 S. Greenwood Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. There was a tall, beautiful man opening up for Elijah Muhammad, who had not yet come, and that man was the great Dean of Ministers, Brother Minister Lucius Bey who, this coming May, God Willing, will be 100 years of age. And after a few minutes, I heard somebody from the back of the auditorium say: “Tench-HUT! The Messenger of Allah!”–and I heard fast footsteps coming down the aisle, and almost with a bound, Elijah Muhammad jumped up on the rostrum. He had me sitting where usually “first-timers” don’t sit; first-timers always get the “best seats in the house”: front row, second row, third row. But he had me sitting in the balcony.

Then Elijah Muhammad began to speak … and you know, being a student of English, and always getting pretty good grades in English, as he spoke I noticed that he was splitting some verbs; that “verb and subject agreement” were not there. And in my mind I said to myself: “Mmm! This man can’t speak!” and he looked up at the balcony where I was, and he said: “Brother, I did not have a chance to get that mighty-fine education that you got. When I got to the school door it was closing” ­–he meant that he was a “sharecropper,” and when it was time to pick cotton or do the things that were needed, there was no school for Black people.

Then he said: “Brother, don’t you pay any attention to how I’m sayin’ it–you pay attention to what I’m sayin’, and then you take it and put it in that fine language that you know!”

When he laid eyes on me for the first time, he gave me My Assignment.

The Decision the man had to make: Denying himself to do God’s Work

I was living in New York at the time in 1955, so when I got back to New York, I went to the Temple No. 7 and heard Malcolm X. Well, “that was it”: I had never heard a Black man speak like that! And by this time it was the summer, and since I had not heard back about my Letter I wrote in February in Chicago, I took my form out and wrote my Letter again, and it was accepted around the first week of October of that year.

Being a musician and wanting to go back to Boston and deliver that Message: I never knew that I had the “gift of speech.” However, on a Wednesday evening Brother Malcolm asked for the new converts to come and have a word to say, and when he called “Louis X” up, he said: “I’d like you to speak on what Islam has done for you.” Well, “Islam” had done a lot for me, so I just began to speak about this Great Teaching of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and the Great Word that I heard from Brother Malcolm; and the mosque, or temple, erupted with applause. And the next thing I knew, Brother Malcolm put me in the Ministry Class, and my journey in The Ministry began.

But I was not in the mosque 30 days when a “decree” had come down from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad: I was working in Greenwich Village in New York in a place called The Village Bon, so I wasn’t at the lecture that day; so as soon as I got a break, I came up to the little Muslim restaurant, “The Temple No. 7 Luncheonette,” to have bowl of that wonderful bean soup. And as I was sitting there, indulging in that beautiful bean soup with whole wheat bread, a brother came over to me and said, “Man! You missed it today! Malcolm read a letter from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and in that letter he said all that are in ‘show business,’ all that are in ‘music’: They would have to get out of music, or get out of the temple.”

I don’t remember whether I finished my bowl of soup. I got up and walked out of the restaurant to think … I think I may have walked 30 paces, and I said: “I can live without music, but I cannot live without The Truth.” And Brother Captain Yusef Shah ran up to me, wondering whether I had been “ill-affected” by that command from Elijah Muhammad, and I told him I had made up my mind.

***

“Now, why are you saying this Farrakhan?” Well, I wanted to give you some “background” on “The Time and What Must Be Done.”

You know, in that letter that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote, he gave “30 days to get out of show business.” And on the last day of the 30 days, I had an engagement at the Nevele Country Club in upstate New York; and I said, “Well, I’m going get it all out of my system.” I went up in that country club and I sang ballads, I sang calypsos; I danced, I told jokes; I played jazz violin and I played classical violin. And, I was finished. After I got it all out, I went down in my dressing room, and a man by the name of “Purcell” came in my dressing room, who said: “You are extremely talented. Do you have a manager?” I said, “No sir.” He told me: “I manage Pearl Bailey and Billy Daniels”–two of the greatest performers of their day; and he said: “If you will let me manage your career, I will start you off $500 a week, and you will be playing in all of the supper clubs that take Billy Daniels and Pearl Bailey.”

You say, “Farrakhan, come on, now! I thought you were teaching ‘Islam’?” I am. Here is how: That man offered me more money, three or four times what I was making. At that time, in 1954 and 1955, $150 a week was “big money,” but to offer me $500 playing in supper clubs across the country? That was a great offer! But I didn’t tell him I wasn’t going take it; I just said, “Yes…” And he said, “Well, when you come in the city, if you meet me tomorrow I’ll have our lawyer there, and we’ll sign a contract.”

I smiled and took the address of where we would meet, and I went back to my little apartment in Jamaica, Queens (New York). And that night I laid down in my bed, and Allah (God) gave me a Vision of “Two Doors”: One of doors had a sign over it saying “SUCCESS”–and I could look in that Door, and I saw a mound of diamonds and gold.

And right next to it was another door that had a “Black Veil” coming from the top of the door to the bottom; and over that Door was “ISLAM.”

And I was told to “Choose,” and I chose The Door of “ISLAM” not knowing where that Door would lead me; but if I stayed in show business, I was guaranteed to have a mound of gold and diamonds. I chose “The Unknown”–but what I did know was what I heard from Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X of The Truth was what I was “looking for” all my life! Mr. Purcell never saw me… I chose to “give up the world” to learn a Truth that would free The Minds of Black People.

It is written in the scriptures of the Bible that Jesus said, “If any man would be my disciple, he must first deny himself, pick up his cross, and follow me.” I did the first thing: I denied myself. But I did not know “the cross” that I, as a Muslim, would bear at that time when Elijah Muhammad and The Nation of Islam had not yet come to national and international public attention.

The man recognized as David, anointed by God to be King over the house of Israel

I soon went to Boston and became a captain of the F.O.I., and my minister at that time allowed me to teach when he wasn’t there. And every time I taught, everyone that the Believers brought would accept The Teachings; the little mosque filled so fast till we had to put the F.O.I. on the outside. And when Saviour’s Day came around again, I went to Chicago as a “captain.” The Honorable Elijah Muhammad had his Saviour’s Day at a Baptist Church on Indiana Avenue, and he came out this day that “the captains” were speaking. When I got up to speak, Elijah Muhammad was sitting behind me; and later, they showed me a picture of him sitting behind me with a big smile on his face.

He invited me to come to the house for dinner, and I was excited! His home was at 4847 S. Woodlawn Avenue, and when I got there, his son Emmanuel Muhammad welcomed me and said, “Your ‘minister-captain’ has arrived!” And when I went in and had dinner with this man that was now “the father” of my life, spiritually: I couldn’t take my eyes off of him.

If you think that “love at first sight” is not real, it is, because with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, I met “the man” that my soul had longed for all the days of my life.

At the end of that dinner, he did something I never saw him do again: He got up from his table, and started, at his left, shaking hands with everyone at that table. I was at near the end on his right side, and when he came and shook my hand, he pulled me close to him and whispered in my ear: “You remind me of David.” I didn’t know what he meant, but he knew! He knew that that young man, that musician that gave up all that he had, was going to be “the one” who, when he had left us, would sit in his seat, under his guidance, and continue his work. “David,” as the scripture teaches in the Book of Acts, Chapter 13, verse 22, was a man “after The Heart of God”: He had a heart like unto God’s! He loved the things that God loved! He disliked the things that God disliked! He was courageous! He was a warrior! He was a “ruddy-complexioned” young man…

In the Book of 1 Samuel, Chapter 16, when the Prophet Samuel was told to “Go to the house of Jesse,” the scripture teaches that when Jesse brings one of his sons to Samuel, The Spirit of God will alight on that son–and Samuel will know that that is the one, and will “anoint” him, for he will be a King over Israel. Well, the man had seven sons, and he walked them all in front of the Prophet Samuel, and The Spirit did not descend on the Prophet. So he asked Jesse: “Do you have another son?” and Jesse said, “Oh! Yes, yes, yes! I have a son; he’s out in the field tending the sheep.” Samuel said, “Bring him,” and when David walked in that room, The Spirit of God descended on Samuel, as God says in verse 12,: “…Arise, anoint him: for this is he”–and Samuel knew that this one, David, would be The Anointed One to stand for The Children of Israel.

‘Verb & Subject Agreement’: The Past Mentality conflicting with The Present Need of Action

Why am I saying all of these things to you? I say this to you because “The Time and What Must Be Done” is a powerful message! You can’t deliver this Message, “afraid” of the consequences of such a Message! Elijah Muhammad, my Teacher and my Spiritual Father: He never shrunk from delivering that Message that Master Fard Muhammad gave him, no matter who disagreed with that Message! In the end of his time among us, during The Theology of Time Lecture Series, he said of himself: “I am the ‘Jesus’ of the Bible, and the ‘Muhammad’ of the Holy Qur’an.”

Well, I don’t preach a “dead” Elijah. I preach a living Elijah! I did not know that all the years that I was privileged to be at his table, he was “planting seeds” in my head, in my heart… Even though I didn’t know what those words meant, at the proper time those words would come to fruition. If you want to know how Elijah Muhammad “tried” his student, go get the book Closing The Gap, with Jabril Muhammad questioning Louis Farrakhan! And I only gave the trials that he put me through for “20 years”–not the trials that I have been under since I have been on this post, my father absent from me.

That Message that Elijah Muhammad gave me: For 10 years I was his “National Representative.” Not “spokesman,” but representative, because a “representative” is different from a “spokesman.” A spokesman could speak the word, but not necessarily represent in ways of character, in morals, in courage, in fearlessness the man that he is “the representative of.” He put me on the radio for six years, broadcasting in his name; and he told me: “Brother, God has gone in front of you, and made friends for you all the way around the Earth.” I didn’t know what he meant! But in my trip through The Caribbean last year, everywhere I went I met prime ministers, finance ministers, I met ministers that were over defense, and all of them knew “Farrakhan.” Most of them were educated in America, and they grew up on “Farrakhan representing the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.”

***

Why did I spend such time sharing some of the stories of my life as a young child, growing into a man who accepted The Teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad? It is because I was put in “The Valley of Decision” with that letter that Elijah Muhammad sent to me, and it is in that “Valley of Decision” where we, Black people, are now if we know “The Time” and “What Must Be Done.”

Remember what I said about “verb and subject agreement”? Elijah Muhammad taught me The Best “English Lesson” that I could learn about “verb and subject agreement” when he told me: “Brother, we are in ‘The Present’–our actions must not belong to ‘The Past’. We are free, so we should act like ‘free men.’ Get out of a ‘slave mentality,’ looking for others to do for us what we could unite and do for ourselves.”

Brothers and Sisters, “The Time” is the end of our servitude to White America. Please understand that you are no longer to be their servitude slave! We must come out of their names: “Johnson,” “Jones,” “Smith,” “O’Reilly,” “Culpepper,” “Woodpecker”; “Mr. Green,” “Mr. Black,” “Mr. White,” “Mr. Brown”–these are their names! They are “creatures of” a creature while you are creatures of The Creator; so, you should wear a Name of God Himself for you are a Direct Descendant of God, The Aboriginal People of the Earth! You don’t look like a “free man”… All the great works that you do, you do it in their names; you’ve been baptized in their way of “civilization.” No wonder Master Fard Muhammad said that we were “savages.” A savage is a person that has lost the Knowledge of Self, and is living a beast life.

Brothers and Sisters, when you get to know “The Time” then you must make a Decision: “I want to make a free step!” If you don’t, “Surely,” The Qur’an says, “man is in loss”–by the time! Since the beginning of this lecture series I talked about the “loss” that will be suffered by both “White America” and “Black America.” But I want to specifically talk to Black people about how you are “losing”: You know you are a “loser” because even though you have a “Black president,” you are not “satisfied” because he was not there to fulfill a “Black Agenda” in the first term; and now that he has been re-elected, in a second term. That is not what the “CEO” of a corporate giant, “The United States of America,” has to do! That “CEO” has to work for the stockholders, “citizens”.

The question is: Are you a real “citizen” of America? Or, are we “lawful captives” wearing their names? They made us “citizens” by the 14th Amendment–and took it away in the 13th Amendment! “What do you mean by that, Farrakhan?” In the 14th Amendment we were allowed to be a “citizen,” but it is stated in the 13th Amendment that if the slave returned to any “illegal behavior,” he could lose that status as a “free man” and as a “citizen.” Wow… So look at how many Black people are in prison right now as “felons”!

And even though our Black population is growing, and our Brown brother’s population is growing; and the demographers are saying that by the year 2046, America will be a “Brown Nation”–every man with a “vote”–well, do you think that the racist element in White America wants to see that reality when “every vote will count,” and their population is diminishing while ours is increasing? That means with “one vote” you could be governor, with “one vote” in the hands of Black and Brown, you could be senators! In “one vote” you could be ruling America! Well how does that “sit” with a racist mind? It doesn’t sit well… So “birth control” must be practiced among the Native people, the “Indians”; among the Blacks, among the Mexicans. This “birth control” is a Death Plan for us.

God is contending with America over the   Black man and woman’s complete liberation

“What Must Be Done?” We must separate from our Open Enemy, and begin the thought in our mind that “We are free people! Let’s take a ‘free step,’ and build a Nation of our own.” This is what God Promised! God doesn’t “Promise” The Children of Israel “a land of their own”–and fails to get it for them! He Promises, and He Fulfills His Promise!

Some of us are asking the government of the United States of America for “reparations.” They don’t even want to consider it! Well, America, you will have to consider it, because the scriptures that I quoted to you in Part 4 of this Lecture Series from Book of Isaiah, Chapter 49, verses 24-26: “Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?…”–Absolutely! God is contending with you now for The Complete Liberation of His People!

Now, of course, when Abraham Lincoln was in the “Lincoln-Douglass Debate,” he sent for some “Negroes” who were “educated,” to come to the White House; and they didn’t want to leave “massa,” they wanted to stay in America. And believe me, some of you are like that too! But I will say this: I want to have the chance, unhindered, to teach “The Time and What Must Be Done” to every Black man, woman and child in America. And after we teach that Subject, then we should take a “vote” as to 1) “How many of us want to stay with our Open Enemy?” or, 2) “How many of us want to be separated from them in a land of our own?”

“The Promise of God” is a land flowing with “milk and honey”. Well, “milk” means you have animal husbandry; and “honey” means you have bees that are “pollinating flowers,” you have “vegetation”–you have land that is fertile, land that is productive.

“What Must Be Done”: America, you don’t have anything for us to do. And your plan for us is genocidal. You are hoping for a “Race War,” you are hoping that the guns that you have amassed can be used to slaughter Black people!

Well, let me say in a “heartbeat”: We, in the Nation of Islam, do not carry “weapons,” because we want to show you, and the world, that we are a People of Peace. So as Muslim followers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, you can’t find guns in our homes; we are “civilized people” in that we settle our disagreements with Truth! In fact, we are forbidden even to argue with one another, for The Truth settles all arguments. So “the winner” in our homes when there is a “dispute” is determined by seeking: “Where is The Truth? Where does it lie within the dispute?”–and it takes a rational mind, not people guided by “emotion,” to find The Truth and act on the principles of The Truth!

And since I have been on this Post, by The Grace of God, we have never picked up arms to harm one another, or to harm anyone else. And even though they say, “Farrakhan is an anti-Semite,” yet, you cannot find one Jewish person that anyone who follows me has ever harmed! Nor can you find us in a vengeful spirit against White people. Naturally, we will fight with those who fight with us, but we are commanded never to be “the aggressor.”

“What Must Be Done”: What is essential to Life is that we must be properly educated now. Our colleges and university must educate the Black man and woman for self-independence! We need all branches of Engineering! We need Medicine! We need Law! We need “Science”; we need Biology, we need Chemistry! We need all of The Sciences that will help us to build an independent existence!

Did you know that in Cuba, Comandante Fidél Castro had offered us a thousand scholarships for Black and Brown and poor White to come to Cuba in their medical program; and in six years we would come out “doctors,” ready to pass any exam in America to be qualified to practice medicine? And the only thing he required was that we practice that medicine in the communities out of which we came. That’s a great offer, when you consider that Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois last year had 30,000 applications to the Medical School, but only 3,000 students could be chosen–27,000 students had to go somewhere else. Where did they go? Why is that we don’t have enough “doctors”? Don’t be “afraid” to go to Cuba, by thinking: “Well, they’re Communists!” In upcoming broadcasts I’m going to talk to you about this “blockade on Cuba” and what America must do to win back her favor with the nations of the Earth.”

***

So I want you all to think about “What Must Be Done.”

To Black people: We must pool our resources. On February 24, 2013, at our annual Saviours’ Day Convention, the subject is: “The Economic Blueprint of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to Fight Against Poverty and Want.” You need to know what we must do to prepare a “future” for ourselves! Whether it’s here or elsewhere, we have to “get busy” and get up from a “begging” position! And if you doubt and fear this, thinking, “We can’t leave White America! I mean, that’s not ‘intelligent.’ Where would we go?” Well, we will talk about that in one of our next broadcasts.

To the government and people of the United States of America: If you say “separation is not the answer,” then I say to you: Separation of us from you is The Only Answer. And you will soon come to know it.

The post The Time and What Must Be Done, Part 7 appeared first on Final Call News.

Do you know how White folks got rich? Have you ever been to Macy’s? Gimbles? All of these big department stores, like Sanger-Harris in Atlanta? Did you ever go shopping for jewels at Kay Jewelers? You did? But you don’t even care who owns it, do you?

How did they get it? Brothers and sisters, when the Jews came into America, the more “seasoned” Jews had backpacks, with lots of things in the backpack that the people in the South needed.

So they loaded the Jewish fellow up that had just come over from the old country with a “100-pound backpack.” And if you’re thinking, “Aww man, that’s a lot of weight!”: Well, if you’re in the Army, you have to carry that too, don’t you? Don’t worry about that then; because now you are “carrying something for yourself.”

Now look at this: They came with their backpacks, and they sold pots and pans and things that the people would need. They sold to the slave master and they sold to the slave who was on the plantation!

From those backpacks, they consolidated, and then started setting up stores in Alabama, in Mississippi. And in their stores, they would tell you that you couldn’t come in there; or, “You go round there (to the back).”

See, they set it up for themselves at our expense, and from there they became bigger and bigger, where they controlled huge department stores. Now when you go in the department stores, Jews own most of that; but it started from cotton.

Well, we’re studying you now. Suppose we go back South and buy up the plantations? Some of them may not want to sell, but we may give them “an offer they can’t refuse.” See, if God is with you, He is going to help you! We’re not stealing, we’re buying: “Okay, how much acreage do you have? We’d like to have all of that.” From the farm is where all industry starts!

Consider what you can produce from “one bale of cotton”: 215 jeans, 249 bed sheets, 409 men’s sport shirts, 690 terry bath towels, 765 men’s dress shirts; 1,217 men’s t-shirts; 1,256 pillowcases; 2,104 boxer shorts; 2,419 men’s briefs; 3,085 diapers; 4,321 mid-calf socks; 6,436 women’s knit briefs; 21,960 women’s handkerchiefs; or, 313,600 “$100 bills.”

All that came from one bale of cotton. When the Jews sent the cotton North to their brother who had a mill that turned the cotton into cloth, that brother then sold the cloth to his brother in New York, and they made the jeans, the pillowcases; they made the sanitary napkins; they made the baby diapers—from cotton!

Now, if we could pick it for the White man, and make him rich, what’s wrong with us, now, owning huge tracts of land with cotton growing? “Well, I don’t feel like pickin’ no cotton … .” No, they’ve already made a machine, so you just buy the machine, and you won’t have to mess up your hands again.

But “the machine” doesn’t take everything out of the field! So we could take a young brother and show him how to pick it, and give him a decent wage. Clean the field, and bale the cotton! And then start an industry from cotton that gives your people what? Jobs. Jobs, just from cotton!

We must learn ‘Growing Power’ to become self-sufficient land owners. The Messenger said that “God is curtailing the land on its sides”—and this is written in the Holy Qur’an. If you look at the storms that are raging on the East Coast, the West Coast; the fires, you will see that He is pushing people toward the center of the country!

Now, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said we should start North, and go South, buying land. Well, I like Michigan; at the top of Michigan, called “the thumb”: They are the greatest producers of the navy bean. They (the navy beans produced in the region) had a little disease recently. … And that’s good, because God promised them disease! He didn’t promise that for us.

Do we eat corn? Do we eat rye? Do we eat barley? Do we need wheat? Well, then let’s study what are the wheat-producing states! Now, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin are states that either produce corn and/or soybeans; and Wisconsin also produces dairy products.

And, we have a little farm in Michigan—but, we won’t grow soybeans, because we don’t eat that. (We’ll tell you why at another time.) We grow the navy bean.

Agricultural scientists once came down from the University of Michigan, and they said, “Umm, Farrakhan, navy beans don’t grow in this kind of soil!” I said, “Well, watch and see!” We planted the navy beans; then the people from the University came again, and they couldn’t believe it! The bean was so nice … . Man, you put it in the pot, and it just acts like it wants to get in your stomach!

We met a man named Will Allen: A giant Black man! He taught us how to “sweeten the land” away from the pesticides! So during one fall/winter, we planted winter wheat. Mr. Allen said, “But don’t let it ‘seed’: Cut it down just before it seeds, and turn it under.” (i.e. “cover crops”/“crop rotation”).

We had over 50 acres where we planted winter wheat; and when it got to the point where it was about to “seed,” we cut it down, turned it under; then, we planted sorghum (which produces a sweetener), and that cane grew three, four, five feet tall! But after it grew we cut it down, and turned it under.

We also planted “winter rye”; and it wasn’t a week before the whole field had turned green! So by springtime, we will turn that crop under, and then plant our navy beans. We checked the “ph factor” of the land—because you have a “ph factor”! 

We are from the Earth, and if you don’t know how to care for the Earth, the Earth won’t care for you! And if you love God, and love the Earth, then the Earth will give you all the health and well-being that you need;

But you must know how to care for what God has given us! And since White folks (not “all” White people, but those that were in power): Because you just messed up the Earth, with your greedy self, you’ve got to go!

The post We Are From The Earth appeared first on Final Call News.