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'By the time'

By Jabril Muhammad | Last updated: Jan 9, 2014 - 12:40:20 PM

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In the Holy Qur’an, in the 103rd chapter, called “Al-Asr,” meaning “The Time,” it reads: “In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. Consider the time, for by the time surely man is in loss, except those who believe and do good, and enjoin one another to Truth, and enjoin one another to patience.”

Time dictates agenda. When you know the time, you know what must be done. What must be done is the agenda. It is predicated upon a good understanding of the time. If you don’t know the time, or do not believe in the understanding given of the time, then you will not adopt the right agenda. And if you do not adopt the right agenda, then surely man is in loss.

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The main problems in the world that the western world has rooted itself in are racism, sexism, materialism and a kind of poisonous nationalism. If the sun is setting, it is setting on racism, on sexism, on this sick materialism without any spiritual or moral development.
We have been having conferences, after conferences, after conferences, but these conferences have not produced an agenda that has lessened the suffering of our people. Why? It is because we have failed to understand the time and the requirements of the time; or we know the time, we understand the time, but are too cowardly to move according to the requirements of the time. “Man is in loss, except those who believe and do good.” We all want to do good, but good is not good for the sake of good; good is good when it is appropriate, proper, in accord with time and the requirements of time and brings about a good result.

The word “Asr” represents time, but a particular time. Asr is the afternoon prayer of the Muslims. It comes between the time of the zenith of the sun and the setting of the sun. “By the time, surely man is in loss.” We are now in the setting sun of western civilization. The sun is going down, and darkness is coming upon us. If we are not prepared to move through the setting of one world’s reality and the dawn of a new world’s reality, we will lose by going down with that which is going down, and refusing to go up with that which time has said has come.

The main problems in the world that the western world has rooted itself in are racism, sexism, materialism and a kind of poisonous nationalism. If the sun is setting, it is setting on racism, on sexism, on this sick materialism without any spiritual or moral development. It is setting on nationalism that only makes us concerned with our own nation, but not concerned with the family of nations.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said to us that this world was given 6,000 years to rule; its time is up. Caucasian rule is being challenged today by the rise of our Brown brothers in Japan. They have challenged the West successfully and they are number one in mathematics, number one in science, number one in economics. The Koreans are on the rise, the Chinese are on the rise, and the sons and daughters of Africa are beginning to move now.

What are you challenging? What are you moving towards? We are moving against White world supremacy; we are moving against Black inferiority, to assert ourselves as the dawn of a new day comes. The new day is dawning on us, therefore, we have to have a new activity, a new agenda that fits us out for the 21st century, which will see imperialism on its way out, colonialism and all of its forms being destroyed and racism being obliterated, wiped out totally. But, in order to come alive to the dictates of the time, we have to know who we are and where we fit in the scheme of things. Time dictates agenda.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that we, the Black people of America, are written of in the scriptures of the Bible from one cover to another; that we were prophesied to go into bondage to a strange people and nation for 400 years. Once those 400 years are up, God says He would come and introduce something different. A new relationship would have to be made, for the slave would no longer be a slave. The slave would have to think and act and take responsibility of free people. And that is the problem—that we say we are free, but we do not think and act like a free people.

I want to read something to you from a column by a writer that appeared in The Chicago Tribune newspaper in 1988. It reads: “Two decades ago, a presidential commission, unceremoniously dubbed Lyndon B. Johnson’s Riot Commission, warned that America was moving towards two separate societies, one Black and one White.”

Do you remember the Kerner Commission? “Today the question remains,” the writer continues, and asks, “Has anything really changed?” The answer is no, according to the writer, not nearly enough. “A few months ago, a new panel made up of some of the original commission members renewed the Kerner Commission warnings and added that America is torn apart by quiet riots, such as unemployment, poverty, crime, housing, school segregation. The 1988 panel reported that the only major change is that now we are not moving towards two separate societies, but there has now become two separate societies, one Black and Hispanic, and the other White.”

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According to demographers, if the plummeting birth rate of White people in America continues, in a few years it will reach zero population growth, which means that for every birth there is a death. As for Black, Latino and Native Americans, if their present birth rate continues, by the year 2080, the demographers say, Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans will conceivably be 50 percent or more of the U.S. population. Simultaneously, America is losing control of her borders, resulting in a flood of illegal aliens pouring into the United States.

With our increased birth rate, the Black man and woman can actually breed ourselves into power. If you add to this the intensity of the immigration flow of dark people into the United States, and then realize that any degree of unity between Black, Latino and Native American people will thrust us into power in this country, in less than a century, we could control Congress—both houses.

But if you were a racist sitting in the corner of the basement of the White House, in what is called a “situation room,” dealing with a potential situation, if you were of the mentality of the growing conservative anti-Black, anti-poor, anti-Latino and Native American mood in this country, what directives would you give to those who think as you think? And what steps would you take to insure that this country does not fall into the hands of the children of slaves, Native Americans and Mexicans?

Certainly, there could not be public debate on what steps to take. Therefore, America could not make public policy. But I firmly believe that the National Security Council of the United States and the president, as well as former presidents, have had this question under serious consideration and have quietly formulated a policy to deal with this problem. The time says the Black man and dark people all over the world are on the rise. The time says that White world supremacy is on the way out. So time has dictated their agenda. Time must now dictate our agenda.

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If you read these words carefully from the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and use a dictionary how do you see it now?

These words came from Volume 26 Number 32 of The Final Call newspaper.

The photo that you see with this article I took it, that involves his speaking to the world.

More next issue, Allah willing.