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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 09, 2007 - 09:21 am: | 
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Minister Louis Farrakhan
One Nation Under God
By the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan
Updated Mar 8, 2007, 11:24 am
[Editor’s Note: The following article is an excerpt from the keynote speech delivered Feb. 25 by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan to 50,000 people at Ford Field in Detroit, Mich, during the Nation of Islam’s annual Saviours’ Day convention. Cick here to order DVD/CD of this message.]
In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.
My thanks to all of those who prayed and sent cards and flowers and well wishes to grant me a speedy recovery and that God would bring me back from death’s door. I thank you for your many prayers and your faith in Almighty God, because that’s what I believe allows me to stand before you today. There is no way that in my healing, I could ever be unmindful of those who prayed for me, whose prayers allow me to stand before you this day.
Many, many Christians of many different denominations prayed for me. Many Christian pastors put their churches on fasts and prayers for my recovery. There were Hebrew Israelites, throughout America, throughout Africa and in Israel, who prayed for me. There were Rabbis and Jewish people who prayed for me to recover. There were Muslims all over the world who prayed for me. There were Buddhists who chanted in prayer for me. There were those who practiced yoga, in their meditation, they prayed for me. There were Hindus who prayed for me. There were Blacks, Whites, Asians, Hispanics and Native Americans who prayed for me. Tell me then, how could I come through my illness and not thank Almighty God, Allah, for a message that would be universal in its scope and universal in its power to heal the human condition?
I thank all those who participated in the workshops. And I thank my Brother, Imam Siraj Wahaj for the Jumu’ah prayer service. I thank my Muslim family that has come from far and wide to be with their Brother and I thank the president of the Navajo Nation for joining us today and all the special guests, my cousin, Cicely Tyson and Julianne Malveaux; the Mayor’s wife and special envoy. Thank you, Rev. Willie Wilson and your daughter, thank you all. I wish I could say thank you all night, but thanks is just not sufficient. Thank you so very much.
I thank the Council of Laborers for stepping in and accepting the responsibility to guide the Nation of Islam in my absence. What good is a leader if he doesn’t prepare others to stand up when he sits down? I thank you, Council of Laborers. My own beloved community, you started praying for me back in September and you never stopped. I thank you, followers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Thank you so much, so much, so much. And all the workers that worked to bring this beautiful crowd, oh, my goodness.
I thank the Mayor and the city administration of Detroit and all its related entities that not only welcomed us, but made us to feel completely at home. I thank all who have come out over this weekend and especially today, for among us are Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Nationalists and those who have no particular religious persuasion or conviction. I am eternally grateful for your presence and I pray that Allah (God), the Most High, will give me something today that will lift each and every one of you from where you are, to a step closer to where the Almighty Allah (God) will have us to be.
Guidance, good news and warning
My message today will be filled with three aspects of the work of the prophets. Number one, guidance; number two, good news and number three, warning. My love for Black people here and throughout the world is unconditional. No matter how my people present themselves to me or to the world, my love for them has never waned because I believe in the resurrection and the redemption of Black people, and I believe in the resurrection and the redemption of the whole human family, and this is why I have chosen for my subject today, “One Nation Under God.”
What God has laid on my heart for you today is too much for today. It’s going to take me several days, several weeks and a few months to deliver what God has laid on my heart. So today, I’m not going to wear you out, I promise you, I promise you; and I’m not going to wear myself out. But I’m going to give you a synopsis of the message that I believe God has laid on my heart for America, for the President, for Islamists, Christians, Jews, and religious people throughout the world, to my own Black people and to nations.
Today, we have translators who are translating this message from English, into Arabic, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Chinese. So that today from Ford Field, we speak to the world. In the history of Prophet Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him, he wanted to go back to Mecca to make what is now historically called the Farewell Pilgrimage and deliver his farewell message. The history says that he was in tremendous pain due to being poisoned earlier and the affect of it was coming back on him.
So he was weak when he went back to Mecca and he was weak when he delivered his farewell message and within 80 days from the time of his delivery of that message, he expired. Well, I don’t see expiration for me. I see exaltation. Allah (God) removed the Prophet Jesus from among the uncongenial company that surrounded him, cleared him of all the false charges made against him and raised him to himself. I believe, Inshallah, that my time to be with my spiritual father and his sender has come and your time to go through serious trial has come; but the Honorable Elijah Muhammad told me, “Brother, if Master Fard Muhammad can’t save me, that’s a sign that he can’t save you.”
I don’t know why he said that, at least I didn’t know then, but I would later come to learn that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad escaped from a death plot by the Power of Master Fard Muhammad. And I believe that I, too, will get through this; but I also believe that you also will get through what is about to come down on us and come down on the United States of America. It is just that you have to go through a time of tribulation in order to live on to the dawning of a brand new day.
So, as I saw the Honorable Elijah Muhammad suffer as he delivered his final message, I stood at his back watching him strain at Saviours’ Day to deliver his message, his family around him. I came up close and used my body and my hands to strengthen his back as he was delivering his final message in 1974—I dictated this subject four days before I was to have a rendezvous with death. So as those who I dictated the subject to watched me suffer in pain, yet I was suffering in the joy of the spirit of God, knowing that at the end of my suffering would be a great reward; and at the end of yours would be a great reward. But we have something yet to go through.
I am only an example to you that in my absence, as the world around you collapses, and as you see the horrors of the fall of this Great Mystery Babylon—the United States of America—and you see, and witness, and are apart of the persecution that will come to the righteous, that you will endure this suffering; endure this pain, knowing that as Allah (God) saved the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, He saved your Brother Minister. He has not lost His Power to save all of those whom He pleases to save from the Wrath of His Destruction of this present world.
He came to resurrect
We are gathered today at Ford Field in the mighty city of Detroit. They tell me that this field is built on the same spot that used to be called “Black Bottom Detroit,” and you know who lived in “Black Bottom Detroit.” Well, every February 26th, we in the Nation of Islam celebrate the birth of a man who came to us. He said he came from the Holy City of Mecca of Arabia. He was an Arab, but he came to start the Blacks of America in the process that we call restoration, reconciliation, reparation; but the word that both the Bible and Qur’an use is: Resurrection.
When He left us, He said my name is: W. Fard Muhammad. He was born February 26, 1877. Let’s stop for a minute. He was born from a woman. Allah (God) neither begets, nor is begotten. He was born into a world that he did not create. He was a creation of a mighty God—but born, born to deliver the Black man of America from the oppressive hand of our oppressor—born to set up a new world to make us equal to the angels of paradise.
But is it a coincidence that on the same day of His Birth, February 26, 1877, two American presidential candidates, Rutherford B. Hayes, a Republican, and Samuel L. Tilden, a Democrat, would be locked in a dead heat and would meet in a smoky, Washington, D.C. hotel room to settle their differences at the cost of the already suffering and persecuted Black slave just emancipated a little over a decade ago.
So they and their cohorts agreed that Mr. Hayes would be the winner and become the 19th President of the United States of America. However, the former slave would be the loser and the price of his victory was that he would return the former slave back to the plantation through an exploitative system called sharecropping and a new, racially oppressive and repressive treatment known today as the abusive Jim Crow laws. There would be no civil rights for the Black man and woman, just organized terrorist attacks, the formation of the Klu Klux Klan and a promise that the government of the United would turn its head with a blind eye as we went through over a 100 years of lynching.
With due respect for Mr. Ford, who this beautiful arena is named after, in the word “Ford” you have three consonants F, R, D, with the vowel O. But from what they tell me of Arabic, it is a language of consonants. If you see the same consonants, even the change of the vowel, will not alter completely the meaning of the word, so if we change the O to an A, instead of “Ford Field,” it would be “Fard Field.” So today, in Ford Field for this one day, we will rename it in honor of the Man that Came to Detroit, and call it “Fard Field.”
When a man is born of a woman, physically he can’t live but so long. When a man is born of a woman like Methusela—he lived 969 years but he had the taste of death. There is no death for Allah (God). He is The Ever Living. When Master Fard was born, He was taught. He grew in knowledge. We praise Him for His coming, but Who did He praise? He had to have praised The Originator because His body came from The Originator. His brain came from the Originator, His mind came from the Originator, even though He was a Man of Great Power. And that’s why in Point No. 12 of “What the Muslims Believe,” even though we say “Allah came in the Person of Master W. Fard Muhammad,” the Honorable Elijah Muhammad closes Point No. 12 and said, “And lastly, there is no God but Allah and He will set up a government of peace, freedom, justice and equality wherein we all will have peace.”
So who is Fard Muhammad? That Man came right here to Black Bottom Detroit. He used many names, many aliases and one of them, believe it or not, was Mr. Ford, Professor Ford, and he started teaching Black people. The Nation of Islam began July 4, 1930, so this July 4th will represent the 77th year of His work here in America and the world. One of those Black people that He taught, He met in 1931. His name was then Elijah Poole. Now, Elijah was the son of a Baptist minister and the grandson of a Baptist preacher. So he grew up full of the Bible’s teachings and even though he only went to the fourth grade of school, when he learned to read, the most beautiful book for him to read was the Bible and that was the book that he loved.
So when he heard Mr. Ford and he was asked if he would accept the Teachings, he came forward full of his understanding of the Bible and full of his knowledge of One Who was prophesied to come out of the East to the West, written of in the Book of Matthew, 24th chapter, Who is called “The Son of Man.” Not the son of God; The Son of Man.
As we all are sons of men, He was the son of man, meaning that all the longing of man and mankind would give death to a man that would come to bring in a brand new world and civilization. Think. Think.
Mr. Ford, Whom I shall now call Master Fard, said He came to see us who were lost and He called us the Lost Sheep styled in the scriptures. Lost from our native land, lost from our people, but worse—lost from God, our religion, our culture and ourselves. Many signs have been left as to where the lost Brother might be found, but he found us in a death-like state, robbed and spoiled and nearly completely destroyed as a people. From the Bible side, it is said that the Son of Man would come out of the East even unto the West. For there’s where the eagles would be gathered together and that is where the carcass would be. What Master Fard Muhammad found in Black Bottom Detroit was the carcass, the remains of a once great African people that he had come to save, to restore, to repair, to reconcile, to resurrect and to reconnect to our own people and our own natural religion, which He said is Islam.
As we meet today, the world is in a terrible condition and it is getting worse by the minute. The condition of the Muslim world is getting worse by the minute. The violence that is pitting Shia against Sunni and Sunni against Shia and the slaughter that goes on daily among Muslims is so disturbing that if I could speak today for Prophet Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him, I could say to the entire Muslim world, Prophet Muhammad, is grieving because he came to destroy tribalism, the pitting against one tribe against another. He came to destroy the pitting of one ethnic and racial group against another and for 23 years of his precious life, he was blessed by Allah (God) so that when he returned to Mecca all of the tribes were present and coming into unity.
And now that we have returned to Detroit, it looks to me today like all the tribes are present. All of us are present. The earth and its people are present. Those tribes agreed that a nation is bigger than a tribe. We must agree that a nation is bigger than a tribe; and as we have evolved from sperm, to clot, to embryo, to a fetus, from a child to a mature adult, the human being must evolve out of clan, and tribe, and race, and organization and denomination and sectarianism to see the oneness of God and the oneness of humanity, and that is why I have chosen for my subject today: One Nation Under God.
So the Prophet is grieved that Shia would kill Sunni and Sunni would kill Shia, or that Jews would kill Christians and Muslims would kill Jews, and Christians would kill Muslims and Jews and Christians would slaughter each other in the name of God, in the name of Abraham, the father of these three monotheistic expressions. Our hearts poisoned by Satan who has helped to split religion into sects and parts and denominations. Each party, each denomination, rejoicing in its own, but envy, the Qur’an teaches is at the root of the division of people of faith. But the Holy Prophet, even in his final message, was grieving. And he said, “This day have I completed my favor on you and perfected for you your religion and chosen for you Islam as a religion. “As” means like. It doesn’t mean that Islam is a religion. Islam is a world composed of many systems that make up an entire world.
In the farewell message of Jesus Christ, he said the same thing. When he had the last supper, he called his disciples, among them, a betrayer. He broke the bread. He blessed it and gave it to each of them and said, “This is my body.” This body of knowledge he brought was the bread of life for any Christian, for any human being who would eat on his word. And likewise after suffering, he took the cup and said, “Drink this as often as you can in remembrance of me.”
So both Jesus and Muhammad gave their followers directions to keep them on the straight path. The wine represented his blood, his life. He lived his life through the word that he taught. He gave him life for the word that he taught; and if we would live the life that Jesus lived, if we would live the life that Jesus taught, not just praising him, but following him, we would not be in the shape that we’re in today if the Muslims would live the life that Muhammad taught and that Muhammad lived, we would not be in the condition that we’re in today. So we like to praise the Prophet (PBUH) but not follow the Prophet. So we praise Jesus and live a crazy life, a life that Jesus never lived. We praise Muhammad and live a crazy life, a life that Muhammad never lived.
So our lips are full of praise but our hearts are far removed from the prophets that we all claim. That’s why the world is in the shape that it’s in. So Jesus and Muhammad gave the followers directions to keep them on the straight path. The wine represented his blood, his life. He lived his life for the word that he taught and if we would live the life that Jesus taught, live the life that Muhammad taught, we would be in a tremendous condition.
Well, the way you talk about Jesus and Muhammad, Brothers and Sisters, they are Brothers that come from the same Eternal God. How dare we try to split up the prophets and make them enemies of each other to justify our being enemies? If Jesus and Muhammad were on this stage, they would embrace each other with love. If Moses and the Prophets and Abraham, the father would be on this podium with all the Prophets, they would embrace each other. How come we, the people of God, cannot embrace each other in the love of God and the love of the Prophets that we claim? All the prophesies show that we should be looking for the Second Coming of a human being, not a spook, not a spirit, but a human being clothed in the Power of the Eternal God.
When such One appears, what is that One to do? Why would He need the power of the Eternal God? Jesus was Jesus before he became Christ. Christ is not his name. Christ is his title. Jesus, the Christ. Christ means one anointed with power to crush the wicked. One day, when Elijah Muhammad was with Master Fard Muhammad, he asked Him, Who are you? And Master Fard Muhammad answered: I am Mahdi. I came to guide you to the right path that you may be successful.
The Mahdi meaning a guide is one anointed with power, but He’s a human being, Muslims. He’s born of a woman, Muslims, but He’s clothed in the Power of the Eternal God. Why would you say that? He comes to set down every tyrant and to set justice in the earth.
The Mahdi and the Christ are human beings anointed with power that says to the world, God is present in their being. Not that they are to be worshipped, but God is present in their being, and that’s why I chose for my subject, “One Nation Under God.”
To be continued next week, Inshallah.
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