Trials are made for purification

By the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan | Last updated: Dec 8, 2009 - 8:48:21 AM

[Editor’s note: The following text is excerpted from a speech delivered by Minister Farrakhan at Mosque No. 12 on Oct. 20, 2002 in Philadelphia, Pa.]

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

We are in a very, very serious hour. The sun is setting on this world, and as we approach the darkness of the hour, we have to be much more prayerful and much more mindful of what we think, what we say, and what we do. This is the greatest nation in the history of the present world, and our presence in this nation was fulfillment of Divine Prophecy. As it is written in the scriptures of the Bible, "I did not try you with silver and gold. But I tried you in the furnace of affliction." We have been thoroughly tried in the 450 years of our sojourn in America and in all of our trials, in all of our pain, in all of our setbacks as a people, we have never turned on Allah (God). Even though some of us have wondered why are we suffering as we are suffering, what is it Allah (God), what have we done?

There is a scripture in the Book of John where there was a man born blind and Jesus and His disciples saw the man that was born blind and the disciples asked him, "Who did sin that this man is born blind? Did his mother sin? Did his father sin?" And Jesus said, "Neither his mother nor his father. But he is born blind that the works of God might be made manifest in him."

Who did sin that we, as Black people, are in the condition that we are in—having eyes but not being able to see; having ears but having not really heard the word of God that would change the reality of our lives; having tongues but not being able to speak? Who did sin that the oppression on us has been harder than on any people in the annals of history?

There is something about the way Allah (God) handles what He loves. The scripture says that those whom the Lord loveth He chastens much. What is it that Allah (God) wanted from us that He would put us in the hands of somebody that hated us as the racist, White supremacists of this nation have hated and still hate us? How, God, could you tell me that you love me and then allow my fathers to be brought out of Africa and come into something like this? Allah (God) would say, "Yes, I know it was rough on you, son; it was rough on you, daughter. But I created the human being to struggle and to face difficulties. It is only when you struggle, it is only when you face the difficulties of your life that it brings out of you what I, the Creator, put in you. I never meant for you to have an easy time, because you can’t come into Me or come unto Me except you come through trial and tribulation. You can’t come into Me to be one with Me, and I with you, except that you be a purified thing. And the means of purification is not easy.

The Bible talks about gold and silver and their process of purification. When you are a purifying agent, you have to put that which is being purified into the fire and you’ve got to hold it there. You can’t hold it too long and you can’t hold it too short. You’ve got to watch it just right. When the dross is burnt off and it’s white hot but not burnt out totally, then you can fashion it and shape it into what you want it to be. Allah (God) wants to fashion a people to rule forever. This is what Jesus was talking about when he said if you follow him you will have eternal life. It does not mean that any human being will live forever. But, he will put you in a position where you and your people and your nation and your world will never die. We have been living in a world seeing nations rise and fall, seeing empires come up and go down. But, when Allah (God) makes a people after His own likeness, you will be like the sun: You will have permanence and you will be a light for the nations of the earth.

The Qur’an says that the Ka’bah (in Mecca) is a sign. The black stone there is a sign. And just as the Ka’bah had to be rebuilt—it’s an ancient, ancient house, the oldest house of worship known—so are you, the oldest people on this planet, like a house broken down that has to be rebuilt. You are a house full of idols, from which you must be purified. Taking stones and idols out of the Ka’bah is not more important than taking us away from polytheistic beliefs. Taking idols out of the holy house in Mecca is not more important than cleansing the human being from setting up rivals or partners with Allah (God) that are His own creation. It is only when we, as a people, are purified of all those things that are less than Allah (God) that we bow down and give worship so that we are washed and cleansed. The Bible teaches that you can’t put new wine in an old wineskin, lest the wine skin break and the new wine spill. That means we, as human beings, have to be renewed, purified, before that new wisdom can come in. And if that new wisdom is from Allah (God) Himself, and we take it in, then He will be in us and we will be the Glory of Allah (God).

We are not that right now. We are caricatures of what Allah (God) intended when He created the human being. We have not seen what the human being is capable of accomplishing, if we were cleansed of polytheism; if we were cleansed of the worship of things, rather than the pure worship of the one God. That is why we have been in this period of great suffering.

Sisters, you have been in a period of great suffering. You are to us like Hagar was to Abraham– You are running in the wilderness, looking for help because your man is not a help for you. That’s a negative condition. But, when we go to Mecca, we know Sarah was Abraham’s wife and we honor and respect Sarah, but we don’t follow the path of Sarah. When we go to Mecca and run between those hills, we are following the path of Hagar. Why Hagar?

Every woman wants a man that will be as Allah (God) intended a man to be. And what did Allah (God) intend a man to be in relationship to the woman? He said in the Qur’an that men are the maintainers of the woman. That’s a big job. That does not mean just giving her food, clothing or shelter. It means maintaining her in all aspects of her being, from the crown of her head to the soles of her feet. You can’t maintain a woman with physical strength. You can maintain a woman with spiritual strength and with wisdom. She is not created by Allah (God) to follow you with just physical strength. She can be attracted to you that way, but she will never stay with you. She will always be looking somewhere else because her mind is not being fed as it would be by a man who is a man of God. She is created from Allah (God), and the only man that she can be loyal to, and faithful to, and honorable with is a man who is truly a man of Allah (God).

Allah (God) created the human being to struggle. And most of us don’t like struggle. We like ease. But the Holy Qur’an says, after difficulty comes ease or with difficulty comes ease. You’re not going to get ease without difficulty. When the difficulties come in your life, know that ease is coming. You can’t run from the difficulty with a bottle in your hand, or with a reefer in your hand, or with the pipe in your hand, or with a woman by the hand thinking that this is going to console you and comfort you in your hour of difficulty. That’s running; that’s trying to escape. When you’re in difficulty, you must say, "Yes, Allah, I’m going to face it. Whatever it is, I know You are my Patron, you are my Friend, and You will see me through this. But I’ve got to face it. I can’t run from it." When we face the difficulty with the help of Allah (God), we find ourselves overcoming it. And every time you overcome it with the help of Allah (God), you’ve wiped out another idol. You won’t worship this or that idol any more.

But, you know something? The Qur’an says, "I delivered you from every distress and lo you set up other God’s beside Me. Surely man is ungrateful." And do you know that the first line of gratitude to show your love for Allah (God) is to show your gratitude to your mother? Whether you think your mother is all that you wanted her to be or not, you are not your mother’s judge. Allah (God) did not bring you into the world to be a judge of your mother. She may be wrong, but she’s your mother. She may not have been able to give you all the things that you needed or wanted, but she’s your mother. She bore us with fainting and pain and she died in order to give us life because the pain of birth is equal to the pain of death.

If you are not grateful for your mother, then there is nobody that you will ever be grateful to or for, and you certainly will not be pleasing in the eyes of Allah (God). You can’t be grateful to Allah (God) whom you have never seen, and be ungrateful for the blessings that He sends to you through those whom you see every day.

The Final Call