The Final Call

Guidance For Our President And Our Nation

By the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan | Last updated: Jan 20, 2015 - 10:42:56 AM

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[Editor’s note:  The following article contains a distillation of the first part of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s Holy Day of Atonement keynote address he delivered at Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina on October 14, 2012 titled “Guidance for Our President and Our Nation.”  This edited portion of the message serves as Part 40 of his 52-week Lecture Series on “The Time and What Must Be Done,” which aired on October 12, 2013.  Order this message it in its entirety on MP3, DVD/CD or call 1.866.602.1230, ext. 200.]

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE BENEFICENT, THE MERCIFUL.

We give Him praise and thanks for His Mercy, His Goodness to the members of the Human Family.  Whenever any member of this family strays from His Straight Path, and earns His displeasure, before He punishes He always raises from among the people a prophet or a messenger of God to whom He gives what is called “Divine Revelation” by means of a scripture.  This scripture is used by His prophet or messenger to guide those who will back to His Straight Path, once again earning His Divine Favor.  We thank Allah for Moses and the Israelite prophets that gave us what is called “The Old Testament.”  We thank Allah for Jesus and the apostles that gave to us the Injil and “The New Testament.”  And we thank Allah for Prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullah through whom Allah gave to the world its final revelation that leads us up to and through The Judgment of this present world.

I am a student of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and I could never thank Allah enough for His Merciful Intervention in our affairs in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, the long-sought-after Mahdi of the Muslims, and Messiah of the Christians.  We thank Him for His Coming.  And we thank Him for raising up among us One to lead, teach and guide us:  One to guide America; One to warn America and the world—The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.  In Their Names I greet all of you, my dear and wonderful brothers and sisters, with the greeting words of peace; we say it in the Arabic language: As-Salaam Alaikum (Peace Be Unto You).

Radical thoughts, solutions, and sacrifice, to save a dying nation

“The Right vs. The Left”:  Ever since President Barack Obama was elected, the “Republican right,” with Rush Limbaugh, Andrew Breitbart, Fox News, members of the Senate and the Congress, and many in state legislatures have been devoted to the idea of getting this man out of the White House and nullifying any policy or position that he might come up with that might bring success to his presidency, and that might possibly give him a second term.  It started like an “undercurrent,” but now it is so overtly hateful and racist in nature, that it is polarizing America on the basis of race. …

The racist view doesn’t care what Obama says or does for the benefit of America; it will always be played down.  But on the other side (the Democratic side), the vast majority of the electorate—the poor, the underserved, the underclass:  There is nothing that we see, even if there is a second term, that will radically alter the condition of the masses of Blacks and the masses of the poor.  During the 2012 election, all of the focus was mainly on “The Middle Class,” from both sides…

What happened to the poor of this nation?  Who will speak for the poor?  Don’t the poor deserve to be recognized and represented, and thought about?

The scripture teaches that “the poor heard the message of Jesus gladly” (Mark 12:37)—and is that the reason why the scribes, the Pharisees and some of the Jews of that day hated him?  Could it be that when you speak for the poor, the rich feel “left out”; the rich feel that you’re troubling with that from which they get their riches?  The rich people get their riches from sucking the life blood of the poor!  So in elections, it really doesn’t matter who wins, because the problem that that person, and those around that person, have to solve are so great, that if radical thought is not put before the electorate, this nation will fail.  America is at a point where radical solutions must be applied!

And a “key word’ that has been missing from the standard bearers of both parties, Republican and Democrat, is a word called “sacrifice.”

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What is the meaning of “sacrifice”?  Sacrifice means “the surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim.”  If the problems in America are to be solved, sacrifices are going to have to be made all the way from the rich, down to the poorest of the poor!

The question is:  What is America willing to sacrifice?  Not “who” is America willing to sacrifice—we already know that the poor are already sacrificed!  But, what is America willing to sacrifice?  What is government willing to sacrifice to bring about fiscal responsibility that this generation would begin to solve the problem so that the future of America might be safeguarded?  In terms of “sacrifice”:  What must government, corporate America, labor unions, bankers and the American people do to address the enormous debt that has now enslaved the American people, and will continue to enslave future generations if this debt is not brought under control?

What are you, Black America, willing to sacrifice?  We have to make some sacrifices, too.  Now, Black people might say, “I already don’t have nothin’!”  Wrong!  So wrong …   According to economists, they said that last year, $1.1 trillion came through the hands of Black America—but what did we spend our money on?  Where did our money go?  How foolishly did we use our resources?  So yes, if we are going to come out of “poverty and want,” we have to “join the party” and make a sacrifice.

Will the impatience of Americans and the unforeseen challenges of the future cause there to have to be a “new government” rising out of the ashes of this one?  For this nation is now being sent to the depths of hell by the inordinate greed and lust for power, and the wealth and the resources of the peoples of the world in the hands of a few to the detriment of the many.

‘This is Our Land’:  Our God-given right and authority to offer guidance to Our President and Nation

For those of you who say:  “Who do you think you are, Farrakhan, to offer guidance to America?  To the world?  To the president?  By what ‘right,’ by what ‘authority’ do you attempt such?”  I want to make this very clear:  This Is Our Country!

Notice the possessive pronoun, “our”; I repeat:  This is our country!

In fact, because of the contributions that Black people have made to America, we have more right to say so about the future of this country since it is we who built America!  Even though we were slaves at that time, what we have given to America in terms of wealth and service gives us the right to offer guidance to our nation!  And even though we’ve given to America a trusted relationship—that no matter how ill-treated we have been up to this moment:  We have never been an “enemy” to this country.  Never!  Black people are not involved in “terrorist activity” to our former slave masters and their children; Black people are not “plotting evil” against this nation!  Even though our thoughts may be different from others, it is yet not from the position of an “enemy,” but it is rather from the position of a true friend.  We claim the unfettered right to give guidance.  We claim The Authority of God to give guidance.  We have no other country to go to!  We live here!  We’ve suffered here!  We’ve died here and on every foreign battlefield to preserve America for you, and not necessarily for ourselves!

But now, Black people are maturing!  We are rising up by God’s Permission from the shackles of slavery to offer guidance to the only country we have known, from the best of motivations!  Allah God has Visited America to raise us up, not to be your “worst enemy,” but in spite of how badly we have been treated in the time of your greatest trouble, in the time of your greatest suffering, in the time of your greatest dilemma, we are here to offer you Divine Solutions to your plethora of problems!  You sing it in your song:  “This land is your land.  This land is my land …”  Well, I want to say it again:  This land may be “your land,” but this land is definitely our land—and we have every right to guide this president, and anybody else who wants to lead America!  We deserve the right to vote!  We deserve to fight against any abridgment of that right by any scheme or machination of our former slave masters and their children!  We deserve the right to elect people of our race to help lead!  We deserve that our elected officials should be respected, and not plotted against by a racist system that wants to keep America “White”!

But look, America:  You are dying in your “Whiteness.”  So if you want to stay “White,” it’s okay; but you’ll just “die White,” because The Future of America is that we are here now!  America is not a place of “just White people”; the whole Human Family lives within the borders of America!

So if America really cannot open the heart and the mind, and get a “new attitude” to receive what God has sent into these shores, then you will die.  But you won’t take us down with you.  You will die alone.  Did you not read in the scriptures that God would choose “the despised” and “the rejected” to be His people, and He would be their God?  (1 Corinthians 1:28)  Did you not read that the stone that the builders rejected would eventually become The Head Stone of The Corner?  (Matthew 21:42)  Did not you read that God would vex you with a foolish people?  (Deuteronomy 32:21)  And, did you not read that He would search the Earth for His “Lost Sheep” that would be found enslaved and robbed, and blind, deaf and dumb (Ezekiel 34:1-16)—yet, He would “raise one” to open the eyes of the blind, make the deaf hear, make the dumb speak, and raise the dead to life?  (Isaiah 29:18-19; Matthew 11:1-5)  And this act of “opening the eyes of the blind,” “making the deaf hear, the dumb speak, raising the dead to life”:  This would prove The Powerful Wisdom and The Guidance of The God Who found us, The God Who now has chosen us to be a guide for you!

You say, “Now wait a minute, Farrakhan … .”  God has never selected His guides from among those whom the society had educated.  God selects His guides from the meanest of the people!  This does imply being “mean-spirited,” but the definition of “meanest,” here, involves “those having little or no money, goods, or other means of support; dependent upon charity or public support; the needy, the indigent, the destitute, the penniless, the poverty-stricken, the meager, the miserable, the unhappy and the pitiable.”  It is among those kinds of people that God has always chosen His messengers and prophets!

Well, God’s Pattern has not changed:  The God that is prophesied to come in the last days, that has found us, has declared that the wisdom of this world is considered to be foolishness in the sight of The Guidance and The Wisdom that He would bring.  And as we watch[ed] the presidential debates—which I’ll get into in a few minutes:  We are witnessing foolishness, absolute foolishness. …  So, The God said He would place that wisdom in the head and in the heart of a man who would say:  “I thank thee, Father in Heaven, for keeping these things from the wise and the prudent man, and revealing them unto babes.”

Well, we are those “babes”!  And I hope that you will pay good attention to what you are about to hear from the head, from the heart, and from the mouth of your former slaves.

See it for yourself:  Historic addresses, media interviews, showing your brother’s consistency in warning and guiding. The Nation of Islam has been in America for [now 83 years], and during that amount of time The Originator of The Nation, Master Fard Muhammad, guided and warned.  For 40 years independent of his Teacher, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad guided and warned.  And when we study the scripture in the Holy Qur’an of Surah 7 Al-A’raf (“The Elevated Places”), verse 142:  Moses was given “30 days,” and then “10 more days” were added!  “And We appointed for Moses thirty nights, and completed them with ten, so the appointed time of his Lord was complete forty nights …” and after 40 nights, Moses said to his brother Aaron, “Take my place among my people, and act well and follow not the way of the mischief-makers.”

After 40 years, Elijah Muhammad made me his khalifah!  To sit in his seat by his and God’s Authority, to continue to teach and guide and warn a nation and a world, and a sleeping people!  All the way back to the beginning of my effort, with the help of many of these beautiful brothers and sisters here, to rebuild The Work of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, we were giving warnings to America that The Problem of “justice for the Black man and woman” is going to loom greater and greater.  But the clearest warnings that were sent down were given to me by God to give to George Herbert Walker Bush, as well as his son, George W. Bush.   I warned them of what God had shown me of what is in their minds!

Now, stop right there:  I know you are wise people, but I don’t think God showed you what was in the mind of President Ronald Reagan—but He showed it to me!  And, I didn’t hold it to myself!  God showed me what was in the mind of George W. Bush; and He showed me what is in the mind of Barack Obama!  You can take it or let it alone, but I’m opening up everybody’s mind today!  Let us discuss some of the things we have been guided to say over the years that have proved true. …

In 1984, when Reverend Jesse Jackson ran to be the nominee for the Democratic Party for the presidency of the United States, he asked me and us, the Nation of Islam, to come by his side, which we did.  At that time, I was then standing up for him against many in the Jewish community who were trying to “sidetrack” and destroy his bid for the presidency of the United States; and, at the height of that, I was invited to the National Press Club, by the president of The Press Club, to speak.  According to a July 2012 article on the National Press Club’s website titled “This Week in Club History: NPC embraces controversy,” pay attention to how they described it:  “July 30, 1984 - Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, accompanied by bodyguards, addresses a sold-out, boisterous Club luncheon, maintaining his racist and anti-Semitic views. Club president John Fogarty says, ‘I am proud to be president of an organization whose members and officers have the courage not to turn away from controversy.’  Several years later, Farrakhan is banned from the Club for five years, when his bodyguards frisk reporters entering the room where he is to hold a news conference.”

At that time, they wanted to “weigh” Farrakhan—because this is the first time that a Black man in modern history has stood up to an attack by members of the Jewish community, and fought back!  And the more I fought, the more you (Black people in America) rose!  See, brothers and sisters:  A “punktified” leader cannot raise up a scared-to-death people!  I am born from a fearless leader, Elijah Muhammad!  No Black man—none—has ever said what Elijah said, and did among us what Elijah did, and never backed down!  How could I say I am from that man, and then not represent the fearless, courageous man and leader that he is?

Go to The Final Call site (http://goo.gl/rwxpYB) “The Historic National Press Club Message” I delivered on July 30, 1984.  Study what we pointed out in that speech at The Press Club in 1984—a time before many of you were born, or were conscious—so that you will know that your brother has been consistent all the way through!  I have never backed down, by The Grace of God!

I pointed out then, before the world press, that the people that we have elected to public office are no longer our “representatives,” but they are representatives of a corporatocracy (a term used to suggest that an economic and political system is controlled by corporations or corporate interests), the oligarchy (a small group of people who together govern a nation or control an organization, often for their own purposes); the rich and the powerful!  And because they can be bought by the lobbyists that are exercising sway in Washington, D.C., they are gradually eroding democracy for the American people.  I said this in 1984, at the height of their calling me an “anti-Semite.”  I have never been an “anti-Semite”!  I just am against lying, deceiving, robbing and raping the American people and the people of the world!

Brothers and sisters, there are financiers, like oil tycoons the Koch brothers, and casino owner Sheldon Adelson, who have invested tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to buy elections, and buy the person that gets elected!  In 2010, The Supreme Court, in a landmark case, sanctioned the emergence of Super PACs by which corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money to buy elections.  It is just unthinkable that a man would have to raise $1 billion to buy an American election!  It is not substance, it’s not intellect; it’s not the ability to really solve the problems of America.  The presidential election is about “who has the slickest media campaign,” because right now you are the “dumbed-down” American people—The Wicked manipulate your ignorance!  And so a man like Farrakhan, and my Teacher, Elijah Muhammad, is hated.  What have we done?

I soon will be 80 years old:  I never have been arrested—not for chewing gum or spitting on the sidewalk!  The “best” they have on Farrakhan is “a heavy ankle and a speeding ticket” (smile).  Well, what have I done that you hate me so?  I rape nobody.  I rob nobody.  I don’t have sex with little boys.…  I don’t smoke reefer; I don’t smoke crack!  I don’t drink liquor!  I don’t eat hog!  What have I done, that you hate me so?  See, it’s because you can’t bend me, and you can’t buy me.  And you can’t make me into “your nigga.”

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In January 2007, I was blessed by God to survive a 14-hour operation where the cancer that I had, and the radiation that they gave me, was designed to kill me; so they took out half of my insides …  Yes, a complete “pelvic exoneration.”  But because we were preparing to hold Saviours’ Day in Detroit, Michigan in February of that year, just before I went “under the knife.” I sent for brother Steve Harvey, who flew in; and when he looked at me on a gurney, with tears in his eyes he said, “Farrakhan.”  I said, “Look brother.  I need you to just tell the people to come to Detroit for Saviours’ Day.”  He said, “What?”  Now, I’m about to go under the knife—people thought I was not going to make it; and, I’m telling him, “Tell the people that I’ll be there!”  I said to the doctor who was operating on me, “Can you get me ready for Saviours’ Day?” and he said:  “Look Farrakhan, don’t ‘sweat us.’  We’re just trying to get through this operation … .”  Well, the operation ended, I think on the night of the January 4, 2007; and by February 26th I was in Detroit speaking for two hours to those who came—very much alive!  The point is this:  When Allah (God) has something for you to do, “death” has to go on back and wait until God gets ready to call me in!  And He is not ready yet.

And so, in a March 7, 2007 interview on CNN with host Don Lemon conducted at The National House in Chicago, Illinois, they asked me:  “What do you think about this young man Barack Obama?” who was running then for the office.  I said, “He’s a young man with fresh ideas that could be good for the country”; and then I said:  “But I am under no illusion that he’s going to be able to accomplish what he has in his heart to do.”

And after Barack Obama was elected, I gave a lecture on November 9, 2008 at our headquarters (Mosque Maryam) in Chicago, Illinois, titled “America’s New Beginning: President-Elect Barack Obama,” wherein I warned America that Mr. Obama reminded me of the “she-camel” mentioned in the story of the history of The People of Prophet Salih and The People of Prophet Hud (in Arabia).  In the Holy Qur’an, Surah 7, verses 65 and 73 reads: “And to ‘Ad (We sent) their brother Hud. He said: O my people, serve Allah, you have no god other than Him. Will you not then guard against evil? … And to Thamud (We sent) their brother Salih.  He said: O my people, serve Allah, you have no god other than Him. Clear proof has indeed come to you from your Lord. This is Allah’s she-camel—a sign for you—so leave her alone to pasture in Allah’s earth, and do her no harm, lest painful chastisement overtake you.”

Camels are unique creatures!  They can get you across the desert without taking a drink.  There are lashes on their eyes, and these eyelashes of the camel that come out and turn up allows the camel to go through the dust storms that are in the desert, to get their rider from “Point A” to “Point B.”  This “she-camel”:  In 2008 I said to the American electorate that Barack Obama reminds me of that camel; that God told the wicked in that day, “Do not harm (or hamstring) this camel”; and I said to the American electorate, “Leave Obama alone; because if you leave him alone, and help him, he can get you across the desert.”

But The Wicked, in the time of the people Prophet Salih and in the time of Prophet Hud, hamstrung the she-camel.

‘The hamstrung she-camel’: How America’s first Black president has been prevented from accomplishing true change

Let us examine what America did to Obama:  According to the Washington Post site “The Fact Checker: The Truth Behind The Rhetoric by Glenn Kessler,” an article published September 25, 2012 titled “When did McConnell say he wanted to make Obama a ‘one-term president’?” includes remarks made by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in an interview that appeared in the National Journal on October 23, 2010—nearly two years after Obama was elected president.  Senator McConnell said, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

What kind of “self-interest” is this:  If the majority of the American people voted for this man, and the Electoral College agreed with the popular vote, then why would you want to go against the popular vote, against the Electoral College, and against a man who is trying to fight for the good of not “some,” but of the whole?  Why would you say you want him to fail?  And if he fails, what is the result for you?

What is it that has blinded you, Republicans?  It is race—and your hatred of a Black man rising, after you thought you had destroyed us totally!  Now, we are rising!  And no power in the heavens above or in the earth beneath can stop The Rise of The Black Man and Woman of America, The Caribbean, Central and South America, Africa and The Isles of The Pacific!  We are on the rise—and there is no turning back!  We are rising; and your hatred of the good that we could do for the country:  It is blinding you; so you purposely hamstrung that man!  And your aim was not only that President Barack Obama would be unsuccessful, but, if he had any success, you would do all in your power to limit its effect.

Now pay close attention to this:  New York Times writer Robert Draper, in his book titled “Inside the U.S. House of Representatives: Do Not Ask What Good We Do,” states that on the night of Obama’s inauguration, the Republicans met and plotted ways to win back political power.  I want you to pay attention to this, because all that I am saying to you is fact!  They met to “put the brakes” on Obama’s legislative platform!  In the Huffington Post article published April 25, 2012 titled “Robert Draper Book: GOP’s Anti-Obama Campaign Started Night Of Inauguration,” it reviewed Draper’s book and included excerpts.  The article states that the meeting lasted for 4 hours; and about 15 ruffians (the Masons and Shriners who read this, they know what I’m talking about!)—I mean, 15 members of the House of Representatives met.  Three of them—(isn’t that number “3” interesting?), Eric Cantor from Virginia, Paul Ryan from Wisconsin and Newt Gingrich:  They agreed to go after Timothy Geithner, and to show united and unyielding opposition to the president’s economic policies.  Their job, according to the excerpts from Draper’s book, was to “jab Obama relentlessly in 2011” so that they would “win the White House and the Senate in 2012.”  The article states:  “‘You will remember this day,’ Draper reports Newt Gingrich as saying on the way out [of the meeting].  ‘You’ll remember this as the day the seeds of 2012 were sown.’”

“You’ll remember this day…”—because their intention was to destroy his presidency.  Well, I do want you, Mr. Gingrich, Mr. Ryan and Mr. Cantor, and the other ruffians that were with you:  I want you to remember that day!  Because on that day you sowed the seeds of the destruction of the United States of America!  Take it or let it alone!