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FinalCall.com News
World News
Minister Farrakhan helps revive the Muslim World
By Sultan Muhammad
Updated Apr 25, 2006 - 1:02:00 PM
TRIPOLI, Libya (FinalCall.com) - “Why are we here?” asked the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan in his address opening the World Islamic People’s Leadership Conference Extraordinary Session for the celebration of the birth of Prophet Muhammad, which was hosted by Libya and its leader, Colonel Muammar Gadhafi.
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan serves as the Deputy Secretary of the commission, which involves over 50 Muslim countries. “We’re here to celebrate the birth date of Prophet Muhammad, Peace be upon him, whose birth into the world has changed the world forever,” Minister Farrakhan answered. “He was born to show us the value of the womb of a woman, because it is from the womb of women that all of our prophets, mujedids, reformers, sages, wise people, general engineers, doctors, lawyers and teachers have come.”
Before he began this historic address, Minister Farrakhan graciously apologized for not making the earlier session due to a late arrival into the country. Although the second session should have been over, Protocol representatives informed Minister Farrakhan at his hotel that the 300-plus delegates would not end the session because they were waiting to hear from him.
When he arrived, relief was visible in the faces of several delegates from Pakistan gathered in the lobby of the great Conference Center and all of them quickly moved into the conference chamber to grab a seat. Upon his entering the chamber, a clamor arose as throngs of delegates came to life during the introduction of Minister Farrakhan.
“So the Prophet, Peace be upon him,” Minister Farrakhan continued to explain, “by his very birth into the world, teaches us the respect and honor of the female, for it is in her that our species continue.”
Revolutionary leadership on women’s roles
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has been the revolutionary leader in the Muslim world today to reestablish the work of Prophet Muhammad with respect to the lifting of the woman to the divine pedestal Allah (God) intends. As he has followed the guidance of his teacher, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, he became the first leader in 1,400 years to name a mosque in honor of the divine work of a woman, Maryam, the mother of Jesus.
He continued to follow the example of his teacher when he acknowledged the wisdom and divine guidance of Allah (God) in women when he installed Sister Ava Muhammad as the Regional Minister to head the Southern Region of the Nation of Islam. These two acts were direct blows to the sexism that is at the root of the disrespect of mother, a sure sign of the imminent fall of humanity.
Complete silence pervaded the room as imams and religious leaders of the Muslim World attentively listened to the words of Minister Farrakhan as he explained that, “Because the Prophet came and because Allah (God) revealed to him the Holy Qu’ran, eventually the whole of humanity will worship none but Allah and set up no rival or partner with Him.”
Minister Farrakhan offered further reasons for the birth of Prophet Muhammad. “He was born to end all tribalism, all national boundaries and to make one humanity and a great universal Brotherhood,” he added. “He was born to end the conflict between ethnic and racial groups so that all human beings can see that they are Brothers from one Creator. Prophet Muhammad was born to establish an example that will ultimately end racism, sexism and materialism.”
Zakat (charity) was established to end poverty and Prophet Muhammad was able to end poverty in Arabia, he stated, before challenging the Muslim World to take up the mantle and share the wealth of the earth.
“It does not belong to any individual or any corporate entity. The wealth that is under our feet belongs to Allah (God). Therefore, every human being that lives on the earth should share from the wealth that is in the earth, and that will end poverty and want forever,” he insisted.
Minister Farrakhan covered a diverse range of topics, which included Allah (God) establishing Himself as the Best Knower and His desire to make human beings His vicegerents, so human beings must journey along the path of knowledge, which does not have an end and from which the Muslim will never return. He then reminded the conference attendees of one hadith (saying) of the Prophet: “One learned man was harder on Shaitan (Satan) than 1,000 ignorant worshippers.”
“Lastly, why was the Prophet born?” Minister Farrakhan repeated. “He was born to make all human beings free by establishing the truth of Islam. From this principle, every human being will be free, every human being will justify their existence and all human beings will be equal.”
Caricatures in our lives
Stiff silence came over the auditorium when Minister Farrakhan addressed the recent controversy over the caricatures of Prophet Muhammad published by a Danish newspaper and the wicked desecration of the Holy Qu’ran by urinating on it or flushing its pages down toilets at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay detention center.
Nevertheless, he pointed out that Allah (God) revealed the Holy Qu’ran for the benefit of all human beings and that “any man who urinates on the Qu’ran is a man who demonstrates his ignorance of the value of the Word of God.”
He further argued that, “Urinating on the Holy Qu’ran will never diminish the power of that Book to transform human life.”
Nevertheless, he lamented that Muslims rose in defiance against the defamation of the Holy Book, yet did not demonstrate an equal protest against the slaughter of Muslims for their belief in the Holy Book.
“That shows that we are more concerned with symbol than substance,” Minister Farrakhan remarked. “What is a caricature? It is a gross misrepresentation of the characteristics of the person that the artist is making a caricature of,” he continued. “But are we making a gross misrepresentation and a caricature of what Islam is by our deviation from the path of God and the path of the Prophet? Today, we are not the Muslims that we once were that led the world in science, mathematics and all of the disciplines that represent a highly cultivated, civilized society.”
He continued this thought-provoking line of questioning to the now completely silent auditorium. “Where are we, as Muslims, today, and are we a caricature of what a Muslim is? Are we a gross misrepresentation of the Prophet?” he asked.
In his answer to these questions, he evoked an overwhelming clamor of applause, declaring that, “I humbly submit to you, my Brothers and Sisters that, when the ummah is divided as we are today; when Muslims can kill Muslims; when Shia and Sunni can show hatred for one another; when the Holy Prophet knew nothing about Sunni, he knew nothing about Shia, he knew nothing about Hanafi, he knew nothing about Hanbali, he knew nothing about Sufi—all he knew was ‘La ilaha illa-allah, Mohammedan rasul-Allah’ (There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His Messenger).”
Unity to confront coerced silence
“Our nation is the Nation of Islam, not Egypt, not Syria, not Indonesia, not Sudan, not America,” he further admonished. “We are Muslims, one nation. We now are divided and we have become a gross misrepresentation of our Prophet and his way. So we can castigate the Danish for making a mockery, but will we castigate a political leader who puts the Holy Qu’ran behind his back and makes Islam the religion of the masses while the leader has another religion—that which came from men, but not from God?”
He also chastened religious leaders for being satisfied with socializing with the rich and famous while not correcting people in positions of power.
“It is sad to me that President George Bush can divide the Muslim ummah, because he is a powerful human being representing a powerful country,” Minister Farrakhan pointed out, referencing Iran’s quest for nuclear energy to move in the direction of being able to light all the homes in Iran and move from the dependence on oil.
“Should Iran not have what Israel has so much of?” he opined. “Can there be a peace discussion with the Palestinians when the Palestinians have nothing to fight with and Israel has everything?”
Under such an imbalance of power, justice cannot be reached, especially since the West only responds to power, he stressed.
He noted that “Condoleezza Rice, my Sister, is being used right now by Pres. Bush to come into the Muslim World and say to the Saudis, ‘Iran having nuclear energy would destabilize the Middle East and we may have to go it alone and drop a nuclear bomb on Iran. But when we do that, Saudi, you be quiet,” and went on to caution the Emirates and Jordan of the same scenario of being asked to be quiet in case of a nuclear attack on Iran.
Then, in a raised, stern voice, Minister Farrakhan warned: “If the Muslim world does not stand united with Iran, I say to you, Allah will chastise us with the worst chastisement that any people have ever received, because we fear America more than we fear Allah.”
