A message from Minister Louis Farrakhan

A message from:
Minister Louis Farrakhan
[The following transcript is from comments delivered by Minister Louis Farrakhan
during Jumu'ah prayer service held Feb. 25, at the McCormick Center
as part of the Nation of Islam's Saviours' Day 2000 celebration in Chicago.]

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. We bear witness that there is no God but Allah. We bear witness that Muhammad is his Messenger:

To my dear brother Imam Warith Deen Mohammed and all of those who have followed him to Prophet Muhammad, I feel very honored, very happy today that after 25-years, you and I can walk together as brothers, for the sake of Allah and for the sake of Islam. I want to say to all that are here, I have always loved my brother. I have loved him from the day that I met him. I love every member of his family, for it was they who laid the foundation upon which everyone of us in the Nation of Islam stand today.

Allah says in the Qur�an that, he dislikes ingratitude. Allah is the best giver of gifts and He says, little it is that men give thanks. If we are thankful over little things, we won�t miss the big things. So everyone in this audience should be thankful to Allah for the family of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the sacrifices they made that we could say "As-Salaam Alaikum" to one another.

Whenever Allah raises a prophet to guide a community and that people go away from that path that the prophet of Allah has guided them to, Allah then raises a disbeliever to be a scourge against the believer. Allah sent Musa, and we have a Jewish community from the Torah. Allah sent Jesus, and we have a Christian community from the Injil. Allah sent Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, with the final revelation to the world to lead us up to the judgment of the world. And out of that revelation came a Muslim community. These three communities who are believers in the Oneness of God and are children of one father, Abraham, yet have strayed from the path.

So Allah raised a scourge that came out of Asia and came against Muslims, Christians and Jews, and attacked our cities of learning and scattered Muslims all over the world. But what was negative became a positive because scholarship from Damascus, scholarship from Baghdad, scholarship from all of those cities that disbelievers had sacked had now spread the word of Allah to the ends of the earth.

But there was a new world to be discovered � and that new world was discovered for the Europeans. And they brought out of Africa our fathers, most of whom were Muslims. And they did not want Islam in America because they had fought the Crusades against Muslims � and therefore they knew that Islam produced in its believers a militant spirit for right and a militant spirit against that which is not right. So they decided that no Muslims should be in America.

It is no accident that we were brought here as slaves. And it is no accident that immigrant Muslims, seeing a better world, a better horizon, focused on America and came to America from every part of the Muslim world. And even though nationalism had broken the spirit of the ummah of Islam, and we elevated our national concerns above what Allah had ordered for us through his Prophet, Muhammad, peace be upon him, out of that division, out of the scourge of disbelievers coming against our ummah and breaking our ummah, many came to North America.

And now we�re here. We came for different reasons. We came in the holds of ships. Some of our brothers came because this was the land of opportunity. But now we recognized that it was Allah, the Most High, who brought us all here for a purpose.

This country is the greatest of all the earth. She is the superpower in a uni-polar world. America sits at the top of the nations and, therefore, she acts as a vicegerent of God; but she is not behaving as a vicegerent of God should behave after He raised her to the point of eminence over all of the nations of the earth. And this is why we�re here. We are here because this is the last frontier. We are here because Islam must be established in America as Islam is established all over the world. And it�s going to take all of us working together to establish Islam in America.

I close with this word. What is the responsibility of Muslims in the establishment of Islam? It is wonderful that we say all of our five daily prayers. And it is wonderful that we remember Allah much in world that is so contrary. And we praise Allah for all of the praying believers. We thank Allah for all of those who fast and all of those who pay zakat (charity) and all of those whose remember Mecca and go at least once in their lifetime to visit the holy house. We thank Allah for every mujaheddeen that struggles, not so much against another individual, but struggles against the weakness of our own selves. That is good, but it is not good enough.

Prayers, fasting, charity, hajj and struggle should lead us to accept the mission of the prophet on our shoulders. If we just go to mosque and pray and do not accept this mission, then we have failed the Prophet, because there is no way that America will ever be what America could become if we walk by the drug addict and leave him in that state. If we walk by the prostitute and leave her in that state; if we walk by the poor and the ignorant and leave them in that state and go on to the mosque and say our prayers, and � give our charity and � recite Qur�an and memorize the Qur�an from one cover to another, but we reject the mission.

The responsibility of everyone of us, since we bear witness that there is no prophet after Prophet Muhammad, and there�s no book after the Qur�an, then I and you are his messengers in America. I and you have to accept the Mission of Allah that He gave to the Prophet on our shoulders. Then America, the last frontier, from Washington, D.C., to Washington state, from Miami, Florida, all the way to Newfoundland, everywhere you look, you will see the sisters in their hijab and you will see the brothers working for the cause. And everywhere you will hear, "Ashhadu an la ilaha illa-llah, Wa Ashhadu anna Muhammadan Rasulu-llah." That is our role; that is our responsibility.

I would ask every Muslim to accept that responsibility to study, but also to spread the message of Islam; to open up your mosques and stop this incestuous relationship that we only open the mosque for one another, but do not open the mosque to invite those who do not know our religion, do not know their God, do not know their Prophet.

I say, Imam, 25 years ago, on this very day, your father, and my father, and our father, departed from among us, February 25, 1975. Twenty five years later, at a jumu�ah prayer service, I know that your father wanted this. I know this from my heart, that Elijah Muhammad wanted this!

In 1957, he wanted to build a mosque with four minarets; not a mosque to preach in, but a mosque to pray in. And in 1969, when he dedicated the mosque in New York, afterwards I called him on the telephone and he said, "One day I�m going to build you a mimbah, and I want it to have three steps." How could he want to build a mimbah unless somebody was going to be a katib to deliver a kutbah? Everything in season, everything in time; and it�s time now.

So, from this day forward, Imam Mohammed and I, no matter what our small problems are, we�ll work them out for the Glory of Allah and for the cause of Islam. But never again will we be a divided community. May Allah bless us. May Allah bless you, Brother Mohammed. May Allah bless the Mohammed family. May Allah bless the ummah in America and all over the world.

As-Salaam Alaikum.