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

“Leadership” is undergirded by a Divine Principle. Some of us think that “good looks” make us “good leaders,” and maybe that’s why we’re in the shape that we’re in. “Leadership” is not for the arrogant.

Some think that “great articulation of words” and “beautiful speech” is what makes “good leaders,” and maybe that’s why we’re in the condition that we’re in, because we always choose leaders that can speak well, but don’t do well.

And we always choose leaders sometimes that appeal to our fancy of what “leadership” is without ever considering the Divine Principle that undergirds real, and true, leadership.

Black people today don’t need leaders who “wanna be”: Who are seeking somebody to carry their bags and to help us live better with finer cars and clothes, and homes in good neighborhoods—Black people don’t need that; enough of that! As the Qur’an says, “Away with” that!

But how would we choose? What standard would we use? And this is why the scripture teaches that when God chooses a leader, He does not look without. He looks within.

He chooses someone that maybe the people would never choose, because we are made to look upon the outside of a thing because we’re not wise enough to discern the Inner Principles that people have built their lives on! So I want to talk about the characteristics of leaders. …

Why does God look at the “heart”? The hearts of people are where their innermost motivations are hidden; people that have hidden agendas and mask it with noble words to enhance their “look” among the people. But God looks at the heart.

And the heart of those who will lead today and tomorrow: Let me describe those hearts, because you don’t want to be like what we have experienced.

Study the Book of John, Chapter 10. In Verse 8 Jesus said, “All that ever came before me were thieves and robbers. …”; then in Verse 11 he gives a Principle of Leadership: “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”

Evidently there were a lot of bad shepherds around. … “But he that is an hireling”—who’s in it for the money; who’s in it for the lust of power and influence—“… seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth:

And the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.” (Verse 12) When “the wolf” comes, that kind of “hireling leadership” runs away. But the good shepherd will lay down his life for the sheep.

So to those who want to be leaders, and those who are currently playing the role and not doing so well: The Casting Director has been watching the “tryouts,” and you know how bad it is when you get “cut”?

However, it only takes one person to make The Change, and I hope that you are that one; or, you will be that one, and you will strive to be better than what was before you in order that we can advance our people beyond where they are.

True Leadership is in your worship and honor of God

The greatest characteristic that a leader must have is a four-letter word: Love. Because it’s only love of the people that puts their worth and value above your own! It’s love of the people that will put their lives above your own!

It is love of the people that will make you bear the insults of the people that you come to lead. Because Black people are difficult to lead, and if you don’t have love, they’ll wear you out!

So the question I would ask is, “Why do you want to lead?” Have you checked your heart? Do you love enough to suffer at the hands of your own people to advance us? And I’m not talking about this silly “emotion” that we describe as “love,” I’m talking about that Creative Force out of which The Almighty God Allah created the Universe.

Think about His Love for what He created: He regulated the affair of everything that He created, and He provided sustenance for everything that He created that it might fulfill its purpose.

True Leadership is in God, because only God loves to that degree! And those of You who would want to lead: We have to lead after God. “Well, I don’t believe in God!” Well, that’s okay, brother. But you won’t lead long. “Well wait a minute, man: Are you tellin’ me that I’ve gotta believe in God?” Well, let me ask you this: How did you get here? What Creative Force brought you here?

And Who originated that Force that attracted your mother to your father, and your father to your mother? Who created the sperm? And Who created the egg that brought you here? And if you have any gift at all, did you give it to yourself? Or did God give it to you?

Look at the Principle that Jesus articulated: “Not my will, but Thy Will be done.” So, to “worship God” and to “honor God” is one of the first Principles of Leadership!

According to the Book, he said, “I”—pay attention to his words—“can of myself do nothing; whatsoever the Father bids me to do, that I do.  And whatsoever the Father bids me to say, that I say.” Do you know how powerful that is?

When whatever God commands is what you do, and what you say? Have you noticed how people that are in leadership always use the personal pronoun “I,” and they never get anything done because “I can of myself do nothing”?

Only God has the right to say “I.” But all of us: The principle is “we.” And if as a person striving for leadership you cannot involve others, then you are not a good leader.

The Principle of Leadership is buried in the words that Jesus said, in the Book of Mark, Chapter 12: “… The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.”

“Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength”—that’s heavy! And why wouldn’t we? That means nobody else gets anything; it’s all for God. … Not nine-tenths, not 15 percent; not 99 percent!

All of it! And if you can’t “give it all” to Him Who gave it all for us, then leadership is not for you! That’s not for you because in The World to come that is now present in you, you’ve got to give it all up for Him Who gave you life.

“Well, who is ‘He’?” Well, by whatever name you call Him, you know Who I’m talking about! The Originator of it all.

True Leadership is in the love you have for the people

And the Second Commandment is like unto it: “Love your neighbor,” or your brother, “as yourself.” So without love, you can’t lead: You can’t lead if you don’t love Him Who created you; you can’t lead if you don’t love your brother. And you can’t lead if you don’t love yourself!

And if you’re a self-hating Black man or woman, get out of it, because leadership is not for you! How can you be a self-hating Black man or woman, and stand up in front of Black people, with your “light-skinned/dark-skinned,” “up-on-the-hill/down-in-the-valley,” “I got it, but you’ve got it to get” attitude?

See, when you love, you take a look at the condition of our people to see how terrible our condition is. But if you’re judging us, saying, “See that Nigga? He ain’t nothin’!” well how can you lead him if he or she is “nothing” in your mind?

As a leader, you have to look beyond, as that song in the church says “He looked beyond my faults and He saw my need!” And if you can’t think like that, get out of leadership because your people have faults, and so do we. So if you can’t look beyond the faults of others; if you can’t forgive and be merciful, compassionate, firm and strong in love, you can’t lead.

In the Book of Matthew, Chapter 20, verses 25-28: “… Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them.

But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant …”—Boy! That’s a heavy principle. Can you serve people that you think you’re “better” than?

Then Jesus said, “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister (unto others) …”—that means to “serve” others. So a “leader” has to be The Principal Servant of the people!

Now when “we serve,” on the plate that you’re serving your people must be The Answer—not to their “wants,” but to their needs, because every human need is a human right. So when you look at your people and see their needs, then as a “leader” or “one who aspires to leadership,” then you must examine your heart for “love,” and examine your heart for “service.”

But there is another most important characteristic that the leaders of this world do not have, which Jesus had with his Disciples: Big “ego” problems. The Disciples wanted to have the uppermost seats in the building. … You know how pseudo leaders are?

They come late, but, they want to come first! I mean, “right up front,” you know? And when they pray, they pray these long, heavy prayers; and when they give, they give to be “seen of men.” See, these kinds of “ego needs” start scratching you off for “leadership.”

Humility has to be a characteristic among leaders. We should not think more of ourselves than we should. And you know how we are: We’re so starved for “appreciation” and “ego gratification,” so we use leadership as a way to satisfy “ego needs.”

The Principle of Leadership is not based on “ego gratification.” The Principle of Leadership is based on serving, and seeing that the people whom you’re serving value the service, benefit from the service and grow from the service; in order, then, that they become that to others as you have become that to them.

Intelligence is the mark of a True Leader

Another example of leadership is in the study of “sperm.” When studied under a microscope, the sperm is observed “wiggling” as it’s going toward The Goal. The sperm’s tail is giving it “mobility,” but it is the head that knows exactly what it has to do. So intelligence is in the head of the sperm.

In “Leadership,” every head that leads must have the intelligence to know where you’re going! You can’t lead somebody else and don’t know where you are going! Where’s your destination? What do you want to lead them to? What is The Goal?

Consider the sperm: It presses on toward The Goal in a hostile environment; yet, never complains, “Damn! This is a rough environment! Look at all these other sperm, man, they’re running toward the same Goal! Only one of us is going to make it. … I better swim, man!”

And then they have to swim against gravity. So a lesson in this for leaders is to not complain that your cities are “hard”: “Oh man, Philadelphia’s a hard city!” Yeah, I know it is. … “These are the hardest-headed Negroes I’ve ever seen!”

Well, you’re one of them then! Hell, if it’s “too hard” for you, sit down! But if you’re the right man, you don’t care anything about “how hard” the people are; because if you’re the right one, He made you harder than them!

If their “hardness” is going to melt you down, then, well, you shouldn’t have started! “Oh man, the environment is tough out here, just tough! These some terrible Negroes, you know what I’m saying?” Why are you complaining?

The sperm wasn’t complaining: God tried it with a hostile environment, so don’t think that God is going to make it easy for us just because you want to help. You’ve got to set your mind for Struggle!

Intelligence is the mark of a leader. So in the “acquisition of knowledge,” you have got to know something in order to go someplace and take others with you. Allah (God) introduces Himself in the 2nd Surah of the Qur’an as “Alif Lam Mim,” which the scholars translate to mean:

“I, Allah, Am The Best Knower.” Well, if you’re going to lead people, you have to know more than the people that you’re trying to lead. You can’t arrogate to yourself that you do know, because your works will bear witness of you.

Now watch the makeup of your body: Your head is the leader of your body, right? I hope. … But some people’s bodies lead their head. Well, that’s “bad business,” because the head sees, the head hears, the head thinks, the head visions, the head speaks.

And the body follows. You started, and I started, from one cell; and now there are billions of cells in your one body, led by your head, so the Principle of Leadership is that you have to preserve your body.

If Self-Preservation is the First Law of Nature, then what does it take for you to preserve this gift that God has given you, which is life itself? What does it take? See, you have to know what this body needs. You have to know how to get what it needs. You have to use your hands to fashion the thing that will live after you are gone.

Practicalities of Leadership: Sufficing the Needs of the People

Leadership provides the needs of the people. Where Black people live in cities throughout America, there are food deserts. Once the people learn the value of good food, then as a leader, you want to be able to produce food—“if you’re going to lead, you have to feed.” Jesus fed The Multitude! Well, we might as well start! Feed yourself good health, but my point is: Leadership suffices needs.

How are you going to tell me that in Philadelphia young people are dropping out of school? Have you ever studied why? Do you think they’re stupid? Oh, but some of us that have our degrees may say:

“These stupid young people are quitting school!” Well, let me ask you a question: What had school done for you? I’m not knockin’ you; I’m asking a question, because if your degree has not made you productive, then it hasn’t served you well.

You have to learn what is requisite knowledge, what is proper knowledge. … Knowledge that suffices for The Time and The Circumstance that we have arrived at is The Knowledge that you have to get! And unfortunately, it’s not in the schools. These schools have been created by The Enemy to serve The Enemy!

You can get something out of it, but who wants to go to a restaurant, and in the kitchen it’s dirty; there’s fecal matter from mice and rats, and the service is bad? Well that’s what the schools are! It’s from a dying educational system based on White Supremacy that is finished!

“Well, Minister Farrakhan, what are we going to do?” You create a system of education! You’re not stupid people, you just act that way! But a Leader will arise to say, “Away with this!” and set down a New Educational Paradigm that is fit for The Time in which we live.

“Economic Development”: Do you think because we went out and voted en masse for our brother President Barack Obama, that he is a “magician”? Even Houdini couldn’t get out of the trap that he’s in!

He is part of a system; and he’s trying to save it! Sorry .… He’s late. And guess what? They’re not going to let him (President Obama) save them. Even though they need his kind of heart that he came with, that is gradually leaving him. …

Dear politicians, listen: I’m not against “politics,” but I know that you can’t solve the needs of the people. I know that! And the question is: When are you going to find it out? If you know that what you’re in cannot suffice the people’s needs, then what are you going to do?

Are you going to still stay there, and think about: “Vote for me! Vote for me! I’ll give you jobs!” You’re a damn liar! You can’t create any jobs for these people—not in that system!

Your political savvy is valuable, but we’ve got to find a way to use it in a way that we can create the jobs that we say we need, because America is finished creating jobs for her millions of unemployed—and us, too?

I have to tell you: We cannot sentence another generation of our people to the lie that “this system will work for them” because it’s not working for others! But it can be useful … .

So some practicalities of Leadership are: 1) Food, 2) Clothing, 3) Shelter, 4) Jobs, 5) Banking, 6) Trade and 7) Commerce. We have to be Masters of Industry.

The post Principles and Practices of Leadership to Suffice Our Needs appeared first on Final Call News.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

“Fabric” means “a cloth; the appearance of a pattern produced by the shapes and arrangement of fibers.” It also means, “A structure; a building; an underlying structure; a framework.” So, if you have faith, you have something on which to construct or build your life. It’s the fabric of faith.

Paul says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith is intangible. You can’t see it, but yet it is the substance. “Substance” is “the ultimate reality that underlies all outward manifestations.” The essential nature of something is the substance of it. Substance comes from two Latin roots, “sub stare,” which means “to stand under.” It’s the foundation of your life.

The scripture says, “The just live by faith.” Where do we get it? How do we get it? Do we get it in church? Do we get it in the mosque? Do we find it in the street? Where do you find faith? Faith is a gift from God that He gives to each and every human being. That faith that He gives is like the mustard seed, but it must be fed. Just like everything around us grows, if you feed faith, then it becomes the construct of your life. It stands under the words you speak, the life you live, the things you do, the vision that comes into your brain. The construct of your life is the faith that underpins who and what you are.

***

Faith is the substance of things hoped for. What is hope? “I’m expecting something. I don’t see it yet, but I’m full of expectation.” That’s hope–the evidence of what I hope for is not yet seen. Evidence is that which furnishes proof of the existence of something. Faith is substance hoped for, something you expect, the evidence not quite yet seen.

When you came to this earth, God gave you faith. When you came from your mother’s womb, the doctor may have hit you. Some of you cried without getting hit because you were already struggling to get here, and after you got here, you realized you were in a strange environment. You had come out of a bag of water, in total darkness. Why did you cry? Why would you cry if you didn’t expect somebody to hear your cry and answer your need? That’s faith. You cried, and before you could cry too hard, there was somebody to cut your umbilical cord, wash and swaddle you. Your cry was answered. Your faith was rewarded.

Then, you were hungry and your mother had a breast that needed the milk to come into it. So she put you on her breast and you exhibited faith, because you pulled for substance. You pulled with the hope of what was not yet seen, and kept on pulling until faith was rewarded with the substance of milk. What was the lesson to teach you?

The Bible says, “The birds have nests, the foxes have holes, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” Jesus sent preachers out, but they had such weak faith that they were worried about their coat, their shoes and their food. Jesus had to tell them, if God feeds the lily and it toils not, neither does it spin; He feeds the sparrow, so do you mean to say that He brought you here but would not feed you and you are the Glory of God, the greatest of His creation?

He looks after worms, and you don’t see worms in a food line, do you? You don’t see birds in a bird line, or black birds asking yellow birds, “Do you have any worms for me today?” Every bird can get food for itself. Every fox, every thing that God created, He put substance here for that creature, and every creature knows how to build a house for itself, how to feed itself, and how to take care of its young.

But you, the greatest of God’s creation, are sitting around begging your slave master’s children to give you a job, to educate you, and to free you. Some of you were so hopeless because Senator John Kerry lost the presidential election, saying, “Lord, have mercy. Lord, what is we gonna do?” You’re going to do just what you did the day before and it got you through the day into the next day.

Unfortunately, you don’t have the same degree of faith that you had when you first came from your mother’s womb. You did not grow in faith, you absolutely grew out of faith. You do not have a construction to build a world on, because faith is a construct. It stands up under you, but you are space walkers because you do not have the type of foundation that you need to understand that this universe is created by God to take care of all your needs. But you must know how to draw on the universe like you drew on your mother’s breast and were rewarded with substance.

If you would come back to God and develop again true faith in God, then you would have a construct, you would have a house, you would have a garment, and you would know that there’s nothing that you desire of good that you cannot achieve. This is what Paul and the Apostles were trying to teach the faithless: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Do you really believe that? That’s talk. We sing it, we shout it, but we do not live it, because deep down inside you really do not believe it. We are empty.

The fabric of faith leads the faithful to obedience. That’s how you can tell whether you really have faith. If you have faith, what do you have faith in? “I have faith in my husband,” you say. But who does he have faith in? “I have faith in my wife,” he says. I feel sorry for you if that’s your first base of faith, because neither your husband nor your wife created you. Neither your mother nor your father created you. Your first line of faith must be Him Who originated the heavens and the earth. When you put your complete faith and trust and hope in Him, you will never be disappointed.

***

When you truly believe in God, then you trust Him enough to be obedient to His Word. When you obey God, the rest follows. This is why Jesus said, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and all its righteousness and all things will be added unto you.” But instead, you are running after things first. You are out of order. What’s wrong with the Kingdom and its righteousness? Is that troubling you that much? “I want a fine home. I want a nice car.” That’s good, but that does not come first. The Kingdom and righteousness are first, then the things that would please you will be added unto you.

***

You can never be tested by what you do not love; you are only tested by the thing that you love. When God asks you to give up what you love because He has something better for you, then you start hedging on God: “Well, maybe God didn’t really mean that. Maybe, He… No, no, I’m going to fix it.” So you start fixing His words around in your head so you can disobey them.

After Prophet Abraham wrestled with God’s instructions to sacrifice his son, he took the boy up on the mountain, and as he got ready to plunge the dagger into the boy’s heart, God stayed his hand. Abraham proved that his faith and love for God was stronger than his love for what God had given him in a son.

God tests you by taking things that you love from you. When He does this to you, are you going to fall out of faith? Are you going to think that God has done you wrong? Look at the fabric of Job’s faith in the Bible. God permitted everything to be taken from him. Even Job’s wife told him, “Curse God and die!” But he said, “Woman, you speak as the foolish. I’m going to wait until my change comes.” That’s the fabric of faith upon which you build a life of service dedicated to the worship of God.

If you read all the way through scripture, all the examples of men and women of God had that fabric of faith woven into their spirit of obedience. Saul lost it. He was king of Israel, not the one that God wanted, but he was king. God told him, “Go over here and kill everything. Don’t take any prisoners or booty.” But after God gave him the victory, his soldiers wanted some of the women and gold. When God saw this, He sent Samuel, the prophet. God was saying that Saul failed his test, he didn’t obey. Saul said, “But we made a great sacrifice.” And God said, “Yes, but obedience is better than sacrifice.”

Some of you like to sacrifice your money. You like to buy your way into the Kingdom, but that is not the way. You can give money, God will accept it. But the greatest gift you could give God is not your money, but to sacrifice yourself and your own desires to fulfill the desire of God. That is the fabric of faith.

***

I can testify from a little boy that I loved God, as I am sure most of you do. I was a musician. I was slated for big things, but I heard a call one day and I decided to give up what I was doing to do something that would benefit my people. I sacrificed that life to pick up the Word of God. I never graduated from college. I never went to a theological cemetery–I mean seminary–but you would think that I had a major degree. But Jesus didn’t have letters.

The scripture says, “How come this man having not letters is learned?” You don’t need to go to school; you can’t get the true Word in school. They don’t teach it in Harvard, Yale, nor in any of the theological seminaries. Do you know where the real Word is? It is with God and He reveals it to whom He pleases. That’s why the scripture says, “I thank Thee, Father in Heaven, for keeping these things from the wise and the prudent man and revealing it unto babes.”

Let’s reconstruct a life and spin the fabric of faith. Let this be a community of faith. I’m talking both to the Muslims and the Christians, because I hate the differences, divisions and the stupidity of religious bigotry and hatred when you have people of God. Some of you may not have wanted to hear me this morning, thinking, “He does not believe in Jesus.” But Jesus says, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold.” I’m one of those sheep. If you can listen to me and leave unmoved to make a change in your life, then you can say, “Well truly, he should not have been here.” But no man can sit under my voice and remain the same after I feed them the Word of Almighty God.

I have proved to you that greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. The world has tried to crush me, but the more they jump on me, the stronger I become. I have become an advocate for the weak, defenseless and poor. Why? Why do I risk my life and the life of my family? Because you can sacrifice everything for the love of God when you have faith, not simply a grain of a mustard seed. Jesus put it so beautifully. He said, “If you had faith the grain of a mustard seed, you could say to the mountain, ‘Be removed’ and it would be so. You would say to the sycamore tree, ‘Be uprooted’ and plant it in the depth of the sea and it would be so.”

How dare you think that the mountain of opposition that is in your personal life, that your faith in God and His Christ would not give you power to remove it.

The post The Fabric of Faith appeared first on Final Call News.

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

On this, the seventh anniversary of the Million Man March and the month of the 40th anniversary of the Cuban Missile crisis, we are approaching a tremendous crisis that will be initiated by the present administration.

But it will bring to the world a war that the prophets dreaded, a war that ultimately would end all wars—the war that is called Armageddon. I want to talk to you tonight in a very sober, reasoned way and appeal to your intelligence.

No one in his or her right mind wants to be opposite the President of the United States of America. He’s the most powerful, it appears, human being on our planet and he is the head of the house (country).

The Qur’an and the Bible teach us to respect those in authority over us whether they respect us or not, because the idea of Allah (God) is always to have an ordered society. You cannot have an ordered home, an ordered school, an ordered church or an ordered community if there is no respect for law and respect for authority.

The only time we ought to rebel against authority, even if it is our own mother, is if our mother asks us to associate a partner with Allah (God) and to worship that which is unworthy of worship.

Then we are to disobey mother, but still with respect. If we can disobey our own mother, who brought us into the world, then we can disobey authority when authority asks us to do that which is against the principle of our faith.

The scripture says, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.” If the peacemakers are blessed, then [cursed] are the warmongers for they shall be called what they are, the children of Satan.

The scripture says that the serpent would deceive the whole world. He starts off in the Genesis of the Bible as a serpent and he’s also called a serpent in the Qur’an, but in the Revelation he’s a dragon. He’s grown so huge in power.

Enemy of democracy?

(The late President Richard M.) Nixon once said that the real enemy of democracy is not communism, it is fundamentalist Islam. He said that the Third World War has already begun and we are losing it. What do you mean, Nixon? Nixon was the type of president who saw the Constitution as a stumbling block and he had a secret government that was operating. (President Lyndon B.)

Johnson, his predecessor, knew how to manipulate Congress. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution was passed, but it was based on a lie and Congress signed that resolution and gave the president the power that he was looking for to send 500,000 American soldiers into combat in Vietnam.

What Americans do not know is that the foreign policy of America has always dealt very wickedly when it came to oil. In Iran, Mohammed Mosadeq nationalized the oil industry. The CIA overthrew him and put the Shah of Iran in power, and America used the Shah as their policeman in that area of the world.

At that time Imam Khomeini was in Iraq, then Khomeini went to France, and from France he inspired the revolution. When the Shah was overthrown and Khomeini came home, he had all of that weaponry that America had put there with the Shah and he began to talk as an Islamic zealot that there is no king in Islam. And that’s right; Allah (God) is the King.

Imam Khomeini said he was going to move down that Persian Gulf and if he had moved and taken over the Gulf and Saudi Arabia, Iran would have controlled all the energy power of the Western world. America could not abide that. Nearly 20 years ago (1983), the (Iraq/Iran) war was already on and it was going badly for Iraq. So guess who was sent as special envoy (to Iraq) from President Reagan?

It was Mr. (Donald) Rumsfeld, who is now the Secretary of Defense. What did he go to Baghdad for? Rumsfeld offered Baghdad help in the war. Why? Because America did not want Iran to succeed with the Iranian revolution. How did you aid him, America?

It came out in a magazine that America gave Iraq weapons intelligence and fed Iraq some of the germs that developed into his program because at that time America wanted Iraq to stop Iran so that the Gulf and Saudi would be free to keep giving oil to the West. America made Saddam powerful and strong.

After the war, Iran was weakened and so was Iraq, but Iraq still had more power than any Arab nation and was considered a potential threat to Israel. The cornerstone of America’s foreign policy is Israel. Israel and the United States are locked together.

I don’t have time to go into all the details of that marriage, but suffice it to say that since 9-11, President Bush’s war on terrorism has served the purpose of Israeli Prime Minister (Ariel) Sharon.

Now Sharon can say that the Palestinians—who are suffering tremendous suffering in their own land—are not freedom fighters, they’re now terrorists. Sharon has conveniently used Bush’s war on terror that is legitimate from 9-11 as a cover to destroy the Palestinian leadership and the Palestinian Authority.

Sharon does not want to live side by side in two states with the Palestinians. So, the Bible teaches you that when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, that’s a sign of the end. The end of what? The end of this system of things.

Notice how the country was the day before the attack on America, on Sept. 10. The country was divided. People were claiming that the presidency was stolen.  Many Democrats were upset because Al Gore had won the popular vote. Then September 11th took place. Right after that, the country was united.

In less than a week, they had the picture of 19 Arabs in the paper. I asked the question: How did you know so much the day after but didn’t know anything the day before? Cynthia McKinney raised this question.

They said she was unpatriotic and marshaled their forces against her. But now we learn there were 32 or more intelligence tidbits sent to the intelligence gathering agencies of the government warning of something like this.

Now it was convenient to blame Arabs. It could have been. I really don’t know, but I looked at who the beneficiaries were. And the beneficiaries were what (President Dwight) Eisenhower warned the country against—the military industrial complex. Right after 9-11, there was a rush to give the President the power to make war.

Weapons of mass destruction?

Here’s a man (Saddam Hussein) that they say has weapons of mass destruction and that the U.S. has to go there and disarm him. But America and England have been bombing Iraq for the last 12 years and they say that in 12 years Iraq couldn’t knock down one craft.

If this country is a threat to America and has been bombed for 12 years and has not been able to knock down one American or one British plane, how then are they a threat to their neighbors?

Brothers and sisters, I’m telling you that within the next three months I believe we’ll be at war. I feel sorry for the soldiers, the sailors, the Marines, Black men, Black women, Brown men, Brown women, White men, White women who love this nation and they are made to believe that they are under a threat.

Senator (Robert) Byrd asked the question, how much money is it going to cost? Where is the money coming from? When Gore and Bush were debating during the presidential campaign, they were talking about several trillion or more dollars that was a surplus.

Now all of that is gone. The country is nearly $6 trillion in debt. And I have a document from the Federal Reserve that says no way America can climb out of debt. There is no way, no way, no way!

The country is spiraling downward and the Bush administration is trying to make it appear that everything is all right. They can print money and it costs hardly anything to print. They don’t have enough money in circulation that if we got it all back, America still couldn’t pay her debt. And it’s not backed by anything substantive. So you’re looking at hard times coming real hard times.

Forty years ago, the American generals wanted a war with Cuba so bad they could taste it. And they came up with a plan to shoot down a plane and get a boatload of Cubans and blow it up and blame it on Fidel Castro to anger the American people.

Forty years later, they know that if they had attacked Cuba, that Cuba had nuclear weapons already there facing American cities. If President Kennedy had listened to his generals, many American cities would have been nuked.

Now look at the reverse, 40 years later. The generals are telling the president, don’t do this. And you have people in the Bush administration that never saw war now committing your children to war. I think we have a problem and it is serious.

What is the consequence of this war? I told President Bush in a letter that he was going to run into something that he and his planners had not figured on. I read something in the Qur’an the other day that all planning is Allah’s (God’s).

So they plan and they think it is they who are planning, but it is Allah (God) who is planning it all. The sad thing is that our planners are blinded in the arrogance of their power. When you are arrogant, you don’t see little things. You stumble and fall.

President Bush has a heavy pro-Israeli lobby around him. These people are more loyal to Israel than they are to the United States of America. Iraq cannot threaten America, but Iraq will always be a potential threat for Israel.

Iraq is to the Arab world what Germany is to Europe. What is Germany to Europe? They are the most disciplined; they are the most scientific and technologically prepared of all the Europeans.

So it is with Iraq. Iraq is the most disciplined, scientific and technologically developed country of the Arab world. Look at what they want in their new UN resolution. They want the scientists of Iraq to come out so that they can be questioned.

Lies! They want to take those scientists and use their science and rob the Arab world of any scientists that could develop any weapon to bring detente to that region. Israel already has many weapons of mass destruction and she is not afraid to use them.

No Arab nation can be allowed to have weapons of mass destruction to challenge Israel. That’s the whole idea: Make an example of Saddam. They are going to go into Iraq and look at what they are saying.

Senator Byrd asked, what are you going to do when you get there? There was no answer at that time but now the answer is coming out. They are going to occupy Iraq like they occupied Japan. They are going to control all of the oil that’s coming out of Iraq—112 billion barrels.

The second largest oil reserve in the world will be in America’s hands. And right now they are bargaining with China, with France and with Russia.” You go along with us and when we take the oil, we’ll give you so much,” and you so much. But I warn you China; I warn you in the Name of Allah (God).

I warn you France and Russia, in the Name of Allah (God). The Qur’an says the devil promises only to deceive. When he has it (oil), I guarantee you that he will not give it to you, Russia because he fears you will rise again.

The consequence of war is that all the nations are going to be afraid of the United States of America who is justifying a pre-emptive strike. She’s the aggressor but she’s making herself look like she’s being attacked.

What are the consequences? No nation will feel safe; therefore, as it is written in the Bible, “Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:

“Beat your plowshares (means of cultivation of earth and people) into swords (instruments of war), and your pruning hooks into spears: Let the weak say, I am strong.

“Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.”

The nations now have to seek weapons because they don’t know where America is coming next. It’s Iraq today, Iran tomorrow, Libya the day after. But America really wants a regime change in China; they want one in North Korea; they want one in Russia, if Russia doesn’t go along.

The post The Consequences of War and the Fruit of Peace appeared first on Final Call News.

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

As-Salaam Alaikum!  I am so happy to be here, and to thank Allah for each and every one of you, and for the great senseis who have come in support of our Grandmaster and sensei in this time of our sadness. But joy comes in the morning.

And even though we are a little sad, yet we are so happy to be followers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and believers in his Great Saviour and ours, Master Fard Muhammad.

Mother Khadijah Farrakhan (‘The Wind Beneath My Wings’)

Yes, I brought her with me. I can never come here without Khadijah. So, I’m here now—but I am not without Khadijah. So, you all go and do what you do, and I’m with you if you’re giving a tribute to the woman whom God gave me that is the best gift I could have other than His Presence, and the presence of the truth and the mission that He gave to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

So thank you so much for your tribute to her, because really, that sets the stage so completely perfect for me. Thank you very much. Thank you, sisters.

Forsake vanity, self-conceit in order to become a great student

Wow. With tears in my eyes in remembrance of The Queen of my life, I know she would be overjoyed to have witnessed what I witnessed today, this afternoon. I want to thank all of the senseis.

And I pray that God, Allah, will give you long life, that you may continue to teach young people and old people to take care of their bodies which is the real house of God. Take care of your diet, which demonstrates your love for the house that God wants to live in with you.

God wants to live in us!! You didn’t hear me, so I’ll say it again!Allah (God) wants to live in what He created, but you have to understand Who you are and Who you want to be like and belong to!

I am so overwhelmed looking at my young baby brothers. Now, when an old man sees a baby doing the things that these babies did, I know our Nation is safe. To my right and my left, my son and my son—not my physical son, but a spiritual son.

My physical and spiritual son[s], I thank Allah for the both of you, and for my other son, Grandmaster Abdul Azziz Muhammad. Come over here, sit with daddy. (Smile)

When the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said to me, “Brother, you may sit in my seat as the father of the house in my absence,” just think about that. “You are not the father”: I am not “the” father, but I can sit as the father. What makes me sit as the father? Because I have become his begotten son.

I rejoice in you today. I am inspired by you today. … Because what my grandmaster brother [Oso Tayari Casel] said. Oh man! Where mi brudduh from Jamaica [Captain Robert Hibbert], man? Come, man, come! I love you, man.  All the grandmasters … .  Listen!

Where would we be without these great men and women who taught us, who are teaching us? Oh, my dear brother who gets beat up all the time [Shodan DeMonet Bernstein], Sit right down here, brother! I am honored to have you as my son!

What a young man! And he has been doing this since he was almost a little boy. He has been the one that they beat up every year! But he is a warrior, man! I was so impressed with him one year, I wrote a check to him, to say, “Brother, you are such a wonderful helper to the masters, as you are becoming a master.”

“Why, somebody asked me, was it you, Farrakhan?” She was dying. My son is my witness that I really didn’t know at first what to say to her; because she was disappointed in the choice of me.

In the middle of our talk I was talking to her as a brother who honored her and loved her, and love her still, for the sacrifice that she made in her life to give me a teacher in her husband, the great Yusef Shah.

Malcolm was my teacher, but Yusef Shah was my maker. You can’t be a great minister unless you become a great follower. And if you are not a strong follower of a great teacher, you will never achieve the greatness because your vanity will rob you of the power that you need to equal the masters that teach you.

As I looked at you and I thought of my wife, when I came here today, I told you “I brought Khadijah with me.” You may say, “Man, this is a spooky dude!” Yeah, well you need to get “spooky” like me, because you are not listening to the Farrakhan that you knew. You’re becoming acquainted with The One that I am becoming, and really, have become.

I want you to pay attention! Because vanity, self-conceit, putting your desires over the desire of your teacher, will cripple you and cause you to cripple those under you. You come under a teacher to learn from a teacher, that one day you may take the place of that teacher and learn to be a greater teacher like the master said.

“What master?” I’m talking about Jesus. “What about Muhammad?” That’s Jesus. Jesus and Muhammad is one and the same. You may not understand it yet because you see Muhammad as a Muslim. What do you see Jesus as?

Not one time in the Bible did you ever hear him say, “I am a Christian.” He never said, “I am a Baptist,” though he was baptized. He never said, “I am a Methodist,” though he said, “I Am The Way.” He said, “I Am The Way. I Am The Truth,” “I Am The Life.”

‘I Am The Life’: The Example of a Great Student Fusing with a Great Master

Jesus didn’t say, “I am A Life.” “I Am The Life.” What did he mean? I can tell you. Not because I know of myself, but because I have grown by His Grace into him. How could Jesus say, “When you see me you see the father”?

And he said to his disciples, “Have I been among you this long and you have not seen my Father?” You don’t know who you’ve been looking at! Look again. My Father is now in me, and I Am in Him. Me and My Father have become One.

Wait, now! Wait! “What about ME?” you say. I am a proof of what we all can be if we stop thinking about who we are and think about Who The Creator is. Because He is in us!

To know Jesus is to strive to become one with him. If he found the purpose for life when he could say, “I Am The Way, I Am The Truth, I Am The Life,” what “Life” are you, Jesus? He is The Life that God put in every single one of us! And none of us have reached The Goal. Your life, and its purpose, is to mature in that life to become One with God, your Creator.

See, when I told you I was “coming with my wife,” you didn’t understand what I was saying. “How were you coming with her? She’s dead.” The hell she is! You just don’t understand! Allah says in the Holy Qur’an, “Think not of those who die or are slain in the way of God as dead. They are alive but you perceive not (you understand not).”

What is it about “life” and “death” that we don’t understand? You don’t understand the words that I said when I came. “I came wrapped up in Khadijah.” “Well, how could that be? She is dead.” To you. But she lives with God.

And what this man [Oso Tayari Casel] said, I want you to pay attention to what he said; because he is not just a great sensei, we just have to go deeper into what he says.

“There are stars out there,” and he broke down the chemistry of a star, and the light that they give us. But they die…  “Stars die; you can blow them out,” they are like a candle. “But you can’t destroy the light. The light is traveling through space from stars long dead. But the light that they have, the light that they gave to us is still giving light.”

My teacher once said to me—you notice how I said that? “My teacher.” I have a great teacher. Elijah Muhammad, to me: I couldn’t have a better teacher. You say, “Well God is the greatest Teacher!” Yes, He is. But when a man of God—look at the preposition “of”: When a man of God has given himself to God and is obedient in every way in his life to God, then God takes him into Himself and fuses him.

It’s not “fission.” See, “fission” is just a cracking of an atom. “Fusion” is the marriage of the atom and the molecules into oneness. How could that brother come out here with a sword and have you put the sword to his neck, and put a man there, pushing another man that can push the sword up into his throat, and he push them back?

How could he do that?! … It’s Divine Science. It’s not nigga science! It’s not cracka science! It’s not White folk science! It’s not half-ass man science!

You say, “Damn, Farrakhan! You, you kind of carrying on today!” I have to say it right: Damn right. And I’m not cussing! See, “damn” is a word that is describing “right.” It’s an adjective in this case. “Damn right” is so right that it dams up your foolishness … .

Damned fool. Like a dam holds back the water, “God damn” holds back all this bull…! Foolishness is not wisdom. Foolishness is stopping you from being wise; it is stopping you from growing and becoming complete.

Well, boy! I’m getting fired up in here. But if you didn’t get fired up over what you saw, there’s something wrong with you. If it didn’t move you, you’re clogged up, and you really need something to remove the [cause] of the clog up and unclog your brain of what you call “knowledge.”

Learn the lessons in what is being demonstrated before you

This was a demonstration today, to me, for Mr. Trump, for Mr. Netanyahu. Wait! Wait! I know I wasn’t supposed to “go there,” but write it down! See, every one of these young men and women, you saw what they did not with a weapon.

But with the mastery of their brain, their hands. Taking a weapon … . Boy, don’t nobody come with a weapon with you, brother [Captain Hibbert]. That happens every year and they can’t get a shot off!

“What are you saying under that, Farrakhan?” The man that had the sword, I am sure he had to think, “Should I do this?” But the sensei said, “Come on,” and then he put a man behind that man to make sure that he would push, and keep that man standing still. Do you know what that was? That’s the power of a mind over the molecules and the atoms that appear to be losing; you know, moving about so.

But I knew this as a young Muslim when I was standing post for Elijah Muhammad, and they said somebody was going to take his life. The instruction was, “You all go out and stand post.” I never stood post shaking. Look at my record, brothers.

I was the first to stand up every time I was in the line, and my Teacher was threatened. One time the Supreme Captain said, “Minister, you’re just so small.” I said, “Yes sir.” He said, “You  don’t have no weight; you couldn’t stop a bullet.”

Well, the fat one over there, if he don’t know how to turn that fat into steel, he’s just butter for a bullet. But when that brother steeled himself! Look in his face; he wasn’t smiling, he was making his body firm. He was making his throat harder than the wood that that sword was in.

“You mean you can do that??” Yes, you can! Was it Sampson that whooped all these people with the jawbone of an ass? Poor Goliath. Such a punk! And he got punked! Didn’t it only take one smooth stone out of the brook by a man with the heart to stand up against a bully?

I want to say this with all respect to warriors who trust in their weapons. What these brothers showed us, what these sisters showed us, learn the lesson. The lesson is this: If you are on the outside of this and you said, “Damn! I don’t know.

I don’t wanna mess with them,” well, that’s wise. But not only is it wise, it’s supreme intelligence. Why is that? You see, when you think you’re powerful and you forget God Who is The Real Power, then you don’t have the power to move what He created to make it like what that brother did to hold that sword from piercing his skin.

Now, they say this on television, “When you see masters doing things, now, don’t go out there stupid”; they tell you right away, “No, no, no. Don’t try that.”

Try this: “Let me first make myself into what God can use.” Please listen! God is in everything that He created! And there is no thing out here that was a creation of somebody else but God, The Author of all life, The Author of all creation. Oof! I’m … I’m going to finish; I’m going to wrap it up, now! But be careful, now, [laughs]. I’m a Baptist preacher, you know?

An aggressor is a loser

I’m going to let you go, but you get the tape and study it, because they’re going to be talking about it. “That man ain’t no hater, he is a lover. He is a lover of God”—and he knows the incompleteness of man. See, you think because you’re a man, you’re complete. Wrong!

You think because you’re all grown up that you’re mature. You’re wrong! “Maturity” is not in a B.S. degree, or an M.S. degree, or in a Ph.D. degree. Yes, we got it, but put it on the wall and study it, because you can’t do almost anything with it. You’ve got a doctorate in sociology, and all the sickness in the society and you don’t know how to heal it?

You’re a Doctor of Economics and whatnot, and you don’t know what to do with garbage? We’ve got garbage on a barge going up and down the river because you don’t know what to do with garbage. Isn’t that something? But there’s no garbage in the economy of God’s Knowledge.

You die, and there’s a vulture there. You won’t last long out there; you won’t look the same, but the vulture will eat. And The Messenger told me that the buzzard has so much sense, that they’ll fly around. Are they just flying around? No, they’re looking as they’re flying. They’re listening as they’re flying. They are waiting for that which appears dead to really die.

Well, some of us are like that. You’re a damn fool if you work your life all the way to build wealth and then turn it over to a jackass. And they ask you, “What is your legacy?” and your children are jackasses. We ain’t got no damn “legacy”!

You’ve got bloodsuckers of the poor. You’ve got eaters of the dead. See, when you don’t know how to work for what you get, or are waiting for somebody to die to see what you can get, think about it, those sisters, those brothers, taught us this lesson: An aggressor is a loser.

I am saying this to the president: An aggressor is a loser. Because God is never with those who are aggressors, oppressors, tyrants, bullies, who love to make people afraid. During the demonstrations, there was a brother moving around, but the poor man lost the stick (knocked out of his hands).

Those brothers were mean out there! And if you are an aggressive fool, looking at what you saw, then the lesson is: Don’t be a bully. Find a better way to solve a problem! Yes, you’ve got an armada. Yes, you’ve got ships. Yes, you’ve got armies.

Yes, you’ve got ballistic missiles. Yes …  But you don’t have God. And if you don’t have God, you don’t have the forces of nature! And God is unleashing the forces of nature now! Don’t try Him. Don’t try Him, please. If you want to live, put the gun down, put the bomb down.

You can threaten Iran. Iran has a little something to fight back. But my Teacher told me that this war was going to start with conventional weapons and it will end with nuclear weapons. You heard it first from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

I say this as warning before the war gets hot. Stop, and think. Precious lives are on those ships, but God can maneuver the water in such a way, which you will see, and sink your ship. See, nothing can stand against the force of nature when it is unleashed.

Please  …  I am from God, whether you know it or not! Damn it, if you haven’t seen it yet, you are blind as hell! But I am telling you, I am from God! And what I say, you’re going to meet it again if you think you’re going to destroy people with your bombs, with your weapons! You will be destroyed!

So Khadijah, thank you for letting me say what I didn’t come here to say! But God asked me to say it while I am speaking. Because I told them [motions to Brother Mustapha and Brother Ishmael seated on either side of him], “You can let it go out on TV, I’m not going to say nothing.”

(Smile) I’m sorry. I wasn’t lying, but I didn’t intend to go as far as I did. But God is the Father of my words, and I am a warner to the nations.

I’m telling Saudi Arabia: Don’t let them lure you into the trap, promising you atomic weapons! They will never give them to you as long as Israel is by their side.

You say, “Well, Farrakhan, they’re going to … they’re going to put this in the media tomorrow!” Maybe you should, because there isn’t anyone telling them what they shouldn’t do! So God sent me to warn you all: The playing with God is over; the hypocrisy of saying what you believe and you’re a liar! Don’t play with Allah! Don’t play with God! Don’t play with the life that He gave you!

Live your life. Don’t let praise blind you—you ain’t made to handle it. [We applaud our teachers (“Great, sensei!”)], but the sensei is wise. I applaud you because I am proud of you.

But if you ever get so proud of yourself that you forget Who is The Giver of gifts, Who is The Protector of you in your exhibition and exploitation of your gift, then the gift will wrap you up as a present to Satan. And when you open your gift, Satan, you’ll see a damn fool. Because anybody that follows Satan is a damn fool.

All those who bow down in submission to The Lord of all creation, you have a chance to win!

I guess I have said it all. Khadijah told me: “You should go now and get some rest.” But I had a great time. And to all the senseis that came to help Brother Abdul Azziz, and demonstrate the greatness of your gift.

I pray that Allah (God) will give you long life, and strengthen you in your gift, and give you many students. And tell them, “Don’t be an aggressor,” and you have learned your lesson; “Don’t be arrogant,” and you have learned your lesson.

So, The Messenger tried me, that’s why he could sit me in his seat as the Father! And all of you know I have never tried to be what I am not! I am learning now to accept my own and be myself. You do the same.

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