Minister Louis Farrakhan

A Conversation with Scholars and Friends

By The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan | Last updated: May 12, 2015 - 8:27:37 AM

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[Editor’s note: The following article contains excerpts of the keynote address delivered by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan on Friday, April 10, 2015 at The Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia. This weighty message is now available in its entirety, and we urge all of our readers to obtain it on Audio/Video Download and DVD/CD. To order, please call 1.866.602.1230, ext. 200 or visit store.finalcall.com.]

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

God says in the scriptures He is not the author of confusion, but of peace.  How did we get so confused?  Satan has entered among the people of God and divided the house of worshipers of The One God, and made some of us enemies of others because we misunderstood the messages of our prophets, wise men and women and sages whom God has always sent among the people.  I thank Allah so much for Moses and the Torah, and the Israelite prophets that gave us what is called “The Old Testament.”  I thank Him for Jesus and “The Gospel,” and the apostles who gave us what is called “The New Testament.”  And I thank him for Prophet Muhammad (the son of Abdullah), through whom the Holy Qur’an was revealed; the spiritual Book that was given to Muhammad not just for Arabs, but for the whole world of humanity.

I am a member of The Black Nation in America—who didn’t come on the Niña, the Pinta, or the Santa Maria.  I wasn’t looking, and my fathers were not looking, for a new land, but those who discovered the new land, with people already here, needed the strong backs of an ancient people to help them build a new world reality; so our fathers were brought.…  Not people that were swinging from trees with bones in their noses, but they brought people who were the architects of the original civilization of human beings!  We are like that great architect Hiram Abiff who was hit in the head, and carried on a westerly course and buried in the north country in a shallow grave, waiting for The Power that could resurrect him for in him was the plan for “the building of the temple” (which means the building of The Kingdom of God).  It just so happens that we are that people.  It just so happens that we have survived that blow to the head that took us from being an ancient Black man to becoming a Negro.  God made man—but our oppressor made a nigga.  So we were cursed; and we wear that sign in our clothes “Made in America”:  Not made by God, but made by the enemy of God into an enemy of ourselves. 

I thank Allah for His intervention in our Affairs in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, The Great Mahdi (or “Guide”) Who came to guide a sheep that had gotten lost, Who came to restore a prodigal son, Who came to unite the dry bones in the valley.  And He raised one up from among us, for as the scriptures in the last book of The Old Testament called “Malachi” (meaning “My Messenger”), reads: “Behold, before that great and dreadful day of The Lord, I will send you ElijahThe prophet before the coming of that great and dreadful day of The Lord! 

“And what will you do, Elijah?”  “I will turn the hearts of the children back to their fathers, and the fathers’ hearts back to the children lest I smite the earth with a curse.”   “Why must Elijah first come?”  Elijah is to restore all things.  “Restore all things” to whom, and for what? 

‘A definitive look’:  Are we followers of God and His Christ or followers of Satan?

We really have to be definitive today as to “who” is with God, “who” is with His Christ, and “who” are the followers of Satan masquerading as Christians or Muslims, or Jews or Agnostics.  Satan has followers!  In the Book of Job, The Children of God went to present themselves before God, and Satan came also with them.  Now, The Children of God were hanging out with Satan—but, they couldn’t recognize him; because Satan is such a master deceiver: he can transform himself into an “angel of light,” and those of us who walk in darkness might think we’re in the presence of God.  So when they showed up, The Lord looked at The Children of God (and He looked in the audience), and said, “Whence cometh thou Satan?”  I’m sure The Children of God were shocked—“You are Satan?”  And Satan didn’t say, “You’ve got me wrong, Lord”; he stood up, in his arrogance, and said: “I come from walking up and down, to and fro in the earth, seeking whom I may devour.” 

Some of us don’t even recognize that we have been eaten!  We claim to be “the body of Christ,” but if you look at our heads, look at the way we think; look at the actions of our hands, look at the words of our mouths—easy to backbite, easy to slander, easy to gossip:  We have been consumed.  Instead of being the body of Christ doing the work of Christ, we have the name of Christ on a body that is doing the work of Satan.  That is why I’m glad to be here at ITC:  Because I am talking to people who love Christ, but maybe need to get closer to him.

You all have watched me work for years, and you’ve never seen me compromise, though I’m hated without a cause.  Some have probably told you, “You shouldn’t have Farrakhan there!  He will dirty your campus with his presence.”  You’re right!  I came with The Cleaning Material; because the scripture that I read teaches “wash and be clean”—and Jesus wanted to clean the garment of those who claim him, that their garments had been sullied by their compromise with the world.  I could talk about “world affairs,” because all the world’s affairs are written in the scriptures; I could talk about leaders, and the corruption that exists—but I’m not going to waste God’s time with that.  I want to talk about Jesus Christ.

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Minister Farrakhan with members of the Interdenominational Theological Center after his message on the morning of April 10. Photo: Erick H. Muhammad

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To those who might think, “But I thought you was a Mohammedan!”:   “Muhammad” is just an Arabic name which means “one worthy of praise,” and “one praised much.”  Jesus is “Muhammad,” and Muhammad is “Jesus,” for Jesus is worthy of praise and praised much, and so is Muhammad.  So I’m in the right place at the right time.  And to those Muslims who would misunderstand, saying:  “Farrakhan, I thought that you were a real Islamic teacher!”  You won’t find one better!  I’m not the regular “imam”—I am a servant of The Lord of The Worlds.  And what I teach has no denomination!  I’m not before you to make you into something that you are not:  “I thought you were going to make us Muslims!”  I can’t make you what you already are.…

What is a “Muslim”?  A “Muslim” is an upright person.  A “Muslim” is one who submits his or her will to do The Will of God.  You are in that natureDo you know how a dog will bark, and a cat will meow?  You’re not excited at that:  “Oh, well, the dog is being itself!  God gives it its sound, and it sounds off.)  You mean to tell me God gave everything He created a nature that defines it?  You mean He created us in His image and after His likeness—and did not give us a nature that defines who we really are?

The ‘seminary cemeteries’ we need to be resurrected from

I ask you:  How old is Christ, and how old is God?  How old is “Christianity”?  And how old is “Islam” as taught by Prophet Muhammad—but, how old is Islam?  God is “The Ancient of Days”:  He does not have a birth record!  Not that He didn’t have a beginning; but, there was nobody there to record it.  He is from Everlasting to Everlasting…  So, I don’t want “Johnny-come-lately” religion; give me that old, “old-time” religion, that was good for Moses, good for Jesus, good for Abraham, good for The Children of Israel, good for those before! 

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Don’t you anthropologists talk to me about “Ham,” telling us “Well, you all was a part of Noah’s family; and, you the Hamitic people, and you’re the people that God cursed, and that’s why your face is black, your lips are thick, your hair is nappy”—so “who is your pappy?” (smile).  They taught us that in seminary school!  And that is why you need to be resurrected from the seminary cemetery:  Because they didn’t put Jesus in you, they buried him!  If they had put Jesus in us, and I’m talking about the real “Jesus” and the real “Christianity,” you wouldn’t be as silly as you are today, as weak and powerless as you are today!  You wouldn’t be a scared-to-death Negro walking among your enemies (who is a midget—unworthy to even sit with the dogs of flock). 

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And why is Jesus so important to you, as a Muslim?  The Qur’an speaks of the “prophetic” Jesus and the “historical” Jesus.  Jesus of 2,000 years ago was the historical Jesus who was a sign of the prophetic Jesus (“The Messiah”).  The Messiah didn’t come 2,000 years ago; The Messiah comes at the end of the world of the wicked.  Pick up your Bible!  Pick up your Qur’an!  The wicked were given time to work on our planet.

The scripture teaches in the Book of Romans, Chapter 5, “As by one man, sin entered into the world, and death came also by sin”; all men have sinned, so death has passed to all men.  But as by one man sin entered into the world, as we read in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 15, so by one man shall all come up from death and be made alive:  The first Adam was from the dust of the earth, but the second Adam was made of a quickening spirit.

What kind of spirit do you have, that it needs to be “quickened” (brought to life)?  You walk like a dead man, begging: “Let’s go ask the White man to give us a job.”  That is the wrong spirit; because if you’re alive, you create what you need!  Have you ever seen a blackbird asking a white bird for a worm?  Have you ever seen turkeys lined up for somebody to feed them in the welfare line?  Look at you:  You call yourself the “people of Jesus Christ”—in a welfare line?  We call ourselves—the people of Jesus Christ—“freaks”?  We call ourselves “the people of Jesus Christ” and there is as much foul behavior going on in the mosque, in the church, in the synagogue? 

The church needs to be revived, and so does the mosque; so does the synagogue.  You don’t represent my Christ!  He didn’t build churches, he built people.  “Where do we find you, Christ?”  We find you out in the highways, and the byways, by the Sea of Galilee; we find you in the towns—but we don’t find you building a building!  The Jews of that day had synagogues, and Jesus said they are like “whited sepulchres”:  “In these sepulchres are the bones of dead men, white on the outside,” (Matthew 23:24-32), meaning you think it’s a “holy” place, but on the inside are the bones of people who have died spiritually! 

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So, to these new young students of religion:  You are the hope of Christianity!  You are the hope of Christ.  The old ones have compromised for favor with the world…  And now, you’re going to have to decide “Who is your master?”—is it the governor?  Is it the mayor?  Is it big money?  Or is it Christ?  Remember, God asked Satan “Whence cometh thou, Satan?” and he answered, “Oh, I’ve been busy:  I’ve been walking up and down, and eating up Your people!”  But God says, “I’m going to make you spit them out, because what you swallowed belonged to Me.  I paid a price for their redemption, and I will redeem My people!  I will take them out of your hands, and I will put in them a new heart, a heart of flesh; and I will remove that heart of stone that makes them hard-hearted, stiff-necked and rebellious people.”  Yeah, we’ve been messed up.… 

I am so honored to be (here) with great pastors that I know and love, men and women who are fighting “the good fight”, and have fought “the good fight.”  But I’m saying to all of you:  “The fight is not won yet.”  You are alive!  You have wisdom—the wisdom of your years, the wisdom of your experience…  And our people are suffering for the lack of knowledge, because they have heard great men and women, and they have rejected The Law of God.  Pastors, you must speak again; you must preach again!  You must never stop until God calls you in!  I’m 82—and I ain’t no ways tired!  So I don’t like to talk to “retired people”; because I haven’t met a lion yet that retired as long as he had teeth and claws.  That lion is busy, and we have to be busy!  And when I said that the older generation had “compromised”:  See, you are Pharaoh’s magicians.  You work a magic spell on God’s people for your enemy.  That is why you are the “big apologists” for them:  When they kill us and shoot us down, you’ll be the first one that the city calls to go out and calm the youth, asking “Can you temp this anger down?” 

God is angry!  God has come to avenge His people!   It’s not in your hands because your hands are too weak to fight the battle!  So the scripture teaches the battle is not yours, “it is The Lord’s”; and, “Vengeance is Mine, sayeth The Lord.”  Well “pastors,” why can’t you preach that kind of gospel?  Why are you going to lie, and tell the people that God loves “everybody”?  The hell he does!  I don’t represent no punk God like that!  Brothers and sisters, I want you to see that the enemy has you so deceived, that you think “hate” is a bad word. 

“I love everybody”—you’re a liar:  You can’t love “everybody,” you can only love those worthy of love!  I love my people, even though they may be sinful; but, they have to earn God’s Grace, so He gives you teachers to bring you back from sin.  But don’t think that Jesus paid the price for your sins that God won’t kill you for your foolishness, because if Jesus paid it all there shouldn’t be any “judgment.”   The Jesus that I know said: “My kingdom is not of this world.”  “What?  What ‘world’ are you talking about Jesus?”  This present world is a world that was given to the wicked for “a season”—and the season of the wicked is over

‘We’re going back to Washington’: The 20th Anniversary of The Million Man March, October 10, 2015

Why is there so much violence and confusion in the world?  You say, “Everywhere I look there’s just violence and violence, and more violence!”  Yeah—you haven’t seen anything yet, for The Book said blood is going to be “up to the horse’s bridle.” 

“Why?  Lord, can’t you stop it?” and The Lord said, “No!  I am The Author of it!”  I want to acquaint you with Jesus:  The Jesus that I know!  Study the Book of Matthew, Chapter 26, verses 51-52:  When they came to arrest Jesus, Peter drew out his little sword and cut off the soldier’s ear—and Jesus had some “patchwork” to do.  Jesus patched up the man’s ear, and he told Peter “those that live by the sword are going to die by the sword.”  Also, study the following scriptures dealing with “past tense” and “future tense”:  “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians, 6:7); and when the Prophet Obadiah said, “For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head” (Obadiah 1:15)

Brothers, sisters, know that the enemy has worked and killed and slaughtered all over the Earth, never thinking that a “Day of Judgment” is going to come!  I want you to think about this, because everywhere you’re looking today, people are beginning to reap what they have sown. 

In my Saviours’ Day 2015 messages, I shared that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad asked me one day: “What is the best religion, minister?”  I thought, “Hmm?  Well, he taught me Islam…,” and he didn’t say it was; he didn’t say it wasn’t.  The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, “The ‘best religion’ is that you do unto others as you would have them do unto yourself”—and right now is that Day that everything you put out is going to come back into your life!  You are not going to escape the wickedness of your tongues, or the wickedness of your actions, because “as thou hast done”:  This is The Day that it’s coming back to everybody!  No one is getting out into the new world except by God’s Grace, His Mercy, and His Forgiveness. 

“Elijah must first come, and restore all things.”  Wow!  Elijah has work to do!  When Master Fard Muhammad walked away from Elijah after He had taught him “three days” (three years and four months); and as the Bible teaches in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 12, verses 38-45, as Jonah was in the belly of the whale “three days and three nights, so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth.”  I mean, these are living scriptures…  And reverend, you have not explained that to the people because you’ve been in the cemetery!  You can talk about Henry David Thoreau; you can talk about the great White thinkers—but you can outthink them all if you go to yourself in your prayer room!  You are The People of God:  He’s feeding you today so you can feed the world!

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I was asked by someone the following question, “How do you counter those who fear Islam, and promote ‘Islamophobia’?”  See, we always fear “the unknown”…  And the way the media is projecting Islam:  Who would want to be around it?  Who would want to be a part of it?  So, in answering that question, if you would allow me the hurt that I feel over the killing of my Christian brothers and sisters in Garissa, in Kenya (ref. “Garissa University College Attack” - April 2, 2015):  The first question that should have been put to me is “What kind of Muslim is that, that would separate Muslims and then kill Christians ‘in the Name of God’?”  Brothers and sisters, what you don’t see, if I may be allowed to point it out, is that in the Holy Qur’an (Surah 2:178), as well as the Bible (Exodus 21:23-25), there is a “law of retaliation”.  

Moses said “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life”—it is that Mosaic Law which is the base of what is the Western system of jurisprudence, that when somebody kills a man unlawfully the government can prosecute that person to the fullest extent of the law, and give them either the penalty of death or life imprisonment.  And that is why we have “government”—but this government does not work for us. 

So on the 20th Anniversary of The Million Man March:  We’re going back to Washington…  On Saturday, October 10, 2015, we want to fulfill the aim of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Because he sure is my brother:  He worked for the poor like Jesus, like every great prophet did.  And to you “pastors”:  Don’t cater to the rich because they can give you a heavy donation!  Go after the poor that Jesus went after, and transform their lives.  This government uses poor people to pay taxes and to fight war, but it does not do anything to end the scourge of poverty—we’re gonna deal with that in Washington.  We are going to deal with the problem of Black people getting “justice” from a government that takes our taxes and gives us nothing in return. 

I want you to get ready!  This is no “Million Man March” (this is the “20th Anniversary” of).  But we are going back to Washington, going back with The Family:  Going back with our Mexican family (that is your own Brown brother), going back with our Native American family!  We want justice from this government—or else!