The Final Call

The Troubled World: What Should We Be Doing?

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I bear witness that there is no God but The One True God Whose Name is Allah.  He has no partners, no associates.  He is One; He is indivisible.  He is from The Beginning, and He will be with those of The Righteous through the ending of this world, and The World of Infinity that comes in after this world of evil is finished.

I thank Allah for His manifestation in a human being.  Don’t say that Allah cannot manifest Himself in a human being, for the angel Jabril, through whom The Qur’an was revealed to Muhammad, was a human being; but The Prophet never said he was “The Messenger of Jabril,” he said he was “The Messenger of Allah.”

The Guidance of The Qur’an will solve the problems of the world today, and The Sunnah, or “the way of Prophet Muhammad,” peace be upon him, that has been forgotten by those who claim to be his followers.  And because of the rebellion through Satan’s machinations, “Christian living” is no longer a reflection of Christ; “Jewish living” is no longer a reflection of Moses and the Israelite prophets, nor of Abraham, The Father of The Righteous.  The Muslim world is in rebellion against itself because it has deviated from the true path that The Prophet laid down when he said in his Last Sermon, “If you follow this Qur’an, and my Sunnah, you will never go astray.”  The question is “Has our world of Islam gone astray?”  Absolutely!

Do you think Jesus would approve of the behavior of Christian governments and so-called Christians who have violated every law that the Prophet Moses laid down; that Jesus said he didn’t come to “change” the law, but to fulfill what was written in the law!

I am a student of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, who is a student of Master Fard Muhammad, Whom we say to the world is The Great Mahdi (or “Guide”) that the world has been looking for!  And the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is that “promised Messiah” that would be with “Mahdi”—not in The East, but The Light of God is to shine forth from The West back to The East!

And whether you believe it or not, you Black people in America—the despised, the rejected, the unloved, the unwanted, the suffering People of God: You are His Choice.  And that’s what the trouble in the world is all about.

There can be no peace in Gaza; there can be no peace in The Ukraine, or in Korea, or Japan, or China, or Europe, or Central and South America, until The PROBLEM of The Black Man and Woman of America has been solved with Justice!

‘Warning the innocent’:  Who is the target and unknowing conspirators in destroying Black people?

In a video presentation we played at the onset of this address were excerpts of press conferences I have delivered in different parts of the world, and a press conference here at Mosque Maryam, concerning the international crisis between the Israelis and the Palestinians in Gaza and The West Bank.  It was and it is the failure of the United States administration then to be an “honest broker for peace” with her closest ally Israel that has caused the current crisis in Gaza to reemerge today.

I come to you this morning troubled; I have been anguished, and tormented, over the events of the last six weeks or more.  “Troubled,” because I knew it related to something big that is about to happen.  “Troubled,” because I wanted to understand how the events that are shaping up around the world—and the flashpoint in Missouri:  “What is it leading to?”

I want to have a serious discussion with you; and I ask only of you to lend me your ears.  I need your help.  For this message, some of the finest minds in Chicago and other places, male and female, were in the audience; but also in the audience were the most precious group of young people that are the target of a wicked conspiracy that has emanated from the government of America itself.

I warn you that something terrible is about to go down, and Ferguson is a sign:  A microcosm of “the macrocosm.”  The killing of Michael Brown is one in many—some we know about and some we don’t know about; but every city and town where Black people live, Black men are being shot down by police.

Witnessing the events that have transpired and are transpiring, there’s not a lot for me to say to you that I haven’t already said!  It’s just that you have not been listening; you treat me like a “lovely song”…  (Please read the Book of Ezekiel, Chapter 33, verses 30-33).  “The Minister is coming out!  Let’s hear what his song is today,” and after I speak, you applaud and then go back to your crazy way of life.  I watch our moral conduct spiraling down; and I see the fratricidal conflict where Chicago is the epicenter of murder—Black-on-Black murder.  Today, I want to examine not just us on our level, but where all of this is coming from, so that my young brothers and sisters will know that they are the target, and are unknowing conspirators in a plan to destroy Black youth and destroy Black people.

***

I cannot talk about “world situations” and not shine the light on what’s happening to Chicago; Allah wants me to speak to the situation here and in the world with clarity and guidance.   Not that I can stop what He is allowing the wicked rulers of the world to produce, but to warn the innocent of what the wicked rulers and their wickedness is finally bringing about that will impact all of us in the fulfillment of prophecy.

You may say, “Well, how am I a part of such a conspiracy?”  The prophecies of the Bible and Qur’an are real!  And most of you who disrespect the prophets and disrespect scripture is not because by nature you are like that; however, sometimes the way we represent God is so reprehensible that in the eyes of our young people “preachers” look like pimps.

The role of ‘watchmen’, our leaders, teachers and preachers

Leadership is afraid of our young people:  You don’t go out among them, and you don’t know what’s going on in them!  You are only seeing the repercussions of something that didn’t start with them.  Leaders, teachers, preachers:  What is your role?  Are you just to preach and entertain the people with song, music and preaching of “yesterday,” not dealing with what is happening today?

We who are leading the people live better than the people we lead.  That’s not “bad,” but it’s horrible if the sheep is sheared and we are wearing the wool, but are not leading the sheep into green pasture.  That’s a problem.  And it’s not about church on Sunday, Jumu’ah prayer on Friday, Shabbat on Friday night and Sabbath observance on Saturday; it’s about what are you doing after prayer!  This “incestuous relationship” that we have with each other:  We meet in the masjid, we meet in the synagogue, we meet in the church—but the problem is in the streets!

In the Bible, in the 3rd Chapter of the Book of Ezekiel, verses 17-18, it reads: “Son of man, I have made you a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.  When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and you give him not warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man will die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand.”

And as the scripture in Isaiah 62:6 mentions “watchmen on the wall”:  Who is watching what’s happening to our people?  Who is watching the policies of America being enacted by our president, the congress, the National Security Agency (NSA), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.)?  Who is watching?  And if you watch—and you see:  Who is “The Watchman” that will stand on the wall and warn the people of what you see and what is coming?

It’s not enough to take charity; it’s not enough for zakat to fatten a few.  But when God allows some of us in leadership to have an easier life.  “Easier” meaning you don’t have to worry about the bills that “the little man” worries about; you don’t have to worry about the rent, you don’t have to worry about the car note, you don’t have to worry about where the next meal is coming from!  But we are put in that position so on a higher level we could worry and plan for the people that are suffering:  The people that Jesus was concerned with!  The people that Muhammad was concerned with!  The people that Abraham and the prophets, and every great leader, was concerned with!  The people that Martin Luther King was concerned with; the people that Malcolm X was concerned with; the people that Elijah Muhammad was concerned with; the people that The Civil Rights strugglers were concerned with—and they were willing to sacrifice their lives to make a difference.  I’m going to ask something of us today, because The Message of Elijah Muhammad and The Prophets is not for cowards…

So “watchmen”:  If you warn the wicked, and the wicked turns not from their wickedness, nor from their wicked way, they shall die in their iniquity but you have delivered your soul.

‘Enough is Enough’: Linking the struggles of Palestinians in Gaza to Black people in America’s hoods

The anguish that I feel started with Gaza:  Helpless Palestinians against the armed might of Israel with weapons given to them by America.  You tell me about “terror”…  You tell me how helicopter gunships, F-16s, tanks and an arsenal of armaments that are designed on explosion to rip human bodies apart—you tell me who the real “terrorist” is!  I’m not a Jew.  I’m not a Palestinian.  I’m a human being.  But if my heart, as a human, does not ache for the suffering of our people—fellow human beings, fellow sufferers and travelers on the Earth—then I am dead morally and spiritually.

How could the Muslim world remain silent in the face of such slaughter?!  I tried to see, “Who is going to rise up?”  (However, what was revealed is that there are) weak leaders who are now so “in bed with Shaitan” that their sense of moral correctness is gone.  And while the media is reporting that all of a sudden Hamas has broken little three-day/five-day truces with rockets, ask the Israelis to show us the damage that Palestinian rockets have done (other than make people afraid when the sirens go off)—and contrast that to the damage suffered by the Palestinians from Israeli weaponry.  Gaza is a small tract of land, where the people are so close together; yet, Israel says, “I’m going to try to lessen collateral damage.”  And according to one Jewish rabbi, Ya’acov Perin (in his eulogy at the funeral of mass murderer Baruch Goldstein in 1994) said that “One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail.”

Now, well you may ask:  “What does that have to do with Ferguson?”  “What does that have to do with Michael Brown?”  What does that have to do with you young, beautiful, powerful, cultural community rappers, hip hop artists, leaders of street organizations—what does that have to do with you?

Hamas is not giving up.   It has come to the point where they are willing to die rather than continue to live under the oppression that they have lived under since 1948.

You know, human beings can adapt to many terrible situations—we proved that; but even the most adaptable human being, at some point, will say, “Enough is enough.”  In Gaza, Hamas is willing to commit total suicide!  Every child in Gaza that died is a martyr; every male and female that was slaughtered is a martyr.  The Qur’an says in Surah 2 Al-Baqarah (“The Cow”), verse 154: “Think not that those who are slain, or who die in the way of Allah as dead.  No!  They are alive, but you understand not.”  How are the dead in Gaza “alive”?  Because when the breath left their bodies—I’m coming to you, Ferguson…

When the breath left their bodies, their death, and the pain of it, went into the hearts of those who remain to continue The Struggle.

‘The Law of Retaliation’: Slaughtering in the name of revenge is not justified

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that America and England put their little brother “Israel” into Palestine, with the help of the United Nations.  And from 1948 to this minute they have not had any peace.

Nearly 30 years ago (1984), I tried to help Reverend Jesse Jackson in his courageous bid to become the nominee of the Democratic Party for the presidency of the United States.  Reverend Jackson was a balanced man:  He didn’t favor Israel over the Palestinians, nor did he favor the Palestinians over the Israelis—but he saw what he saw.  And because Jewish people feared that he would tip the balance between Blacks and their favoring Israel, or point us in the direction that favored the Palestinians:  While we were saying, “Run Jesse, Run!” they were writing in their newspapers, “Ruin Jesse, Ruin!”

I came to his defense.  I was not trying to get in any problem with the Jewish people, but when I spoke up, they started calling me the “New Black Hitler.”  Hitler!  Now, I am a student of a great warrior—and I did not “lay down,” I did not “sit down”!  I fought back; not with hate, but with words of truth!  And when they couldn’t shut me down, they brought their scholars to debate with me on national television, and not one of them ever prevailed!  Then they decided, “No more television for Farrakhan.”  But I told them, “Television didn’t make me.”   What television makes, television can destroy!  What media makes, media can destroy!  I am made by God—and nobody can destroy what God has made!

I said then:  “That nation called ‘Israel’ never has had any peace in 40 years, and she will never have any peace, because there can never be any peace structured on injustice, thievery, lying and deceit using The Name of God to shield your dirty religion under His Holy and Righteous name.”  [Ref. “The Historic 1984 National Press Club Message” (July 30, 1984); also, “The U.S. Government’s Wicked Foreign Policy” (June 24, 1984)]  Now what did I mean by that?  Some Christians practice a “dirty religion,” not that Jesus is unclean; not that the scripture is unclean, but the practice of slavery, colonization, the brutal slaughter of the Indigenous of the world in the name of Jesus?  That’s “dirty religion.”  And now that it has been 66 years since Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land, and 20 years since I made that statement:  Does she have any peace?  None.

But worse than that:  What Israel has done, America has said “It’s terrible…  But you Palestinians shouldn’t send rockets.  I mean, don’t the Israelis have a right to protect themselves?”  Of course they do.  But slaughter in the name of revenge is not “just” retaliation.

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The Holy Qur’an says in Surah 2 Al-Baqarah (“The Cow”), verses 178-179, “There is life in retaliation for you”:  “O you who believe, retaliation is prescribed for you in the matter of the slain: the free for the free, and the slave for the slave: and the female for the female. But if remission is made to one by his (aggrieved) brother, prosecution (for blood-wit) should be according to usage, and payment to him in a good manner. This is an alleviation from your Lord and a mercy. Whoever exceeds the limit after this, will have a painful chastisement. And there is life for you in retaliation, O men of understanding, that you may guard yourselves.”  Notice that Allah (God) says retaliation should not “exceed the limit” (“a life for a life, a slave for a slave, a woman for a woman”); and if it’s accidental, then blood-wit (“money”) could be paid; that is better for you.  But Israel has exceeded the limits.

The following are statistics on the number of Palestinians slaughtered in Gaza from rockets flown by Israel.  While Israel has only counted a few casualties (three civilians), the month-long slaughter a) has now killed 1,939 Palestinians (73 percent of them civilians), which includes 449 children, 243 women, and 87 elderly; b) almost 10,000 have been wounded; among them are at least 3,004 children, 1,907 women, and 359 elderly; c) As many as 3,000 Palestinian homes have been destroyed or damaged, and over 485,000 people (almost one-third of the Gaza population of 1,700,000) have been displaced. There is no electricity, no running water, and the law of warfare has been violated.  These are war criminals.

Study this scripture from the Book of Luke, Chapter 21, verses 20-21:   “And when you shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.”  Israel has blockaded Palestine for the last seven years, which has devastated its economy, left most people unable to leave, restricted people from essential services such as health care and education, and cut the Palestinians off from each other!  More than 40 percent of people in Gaza, nearly 50 percent of youth, are now unemployed; and 80 percent of the people receive international aid.  [Note:  The U.S. gives Israel $8.5 million in military aid each day, while it gives the Palestinians $0 in military aid.]  That’s a heck of a condition for a people to live under.

According to news reports, the Palestinians have decided that Israel must lift the blockade.  Israel says, “Well, we’ll lift a few things—but the blockade is going to remain.”  The Palestinians will not be allowed to have arms in a hostile environment where they can’t protect themselves.

Is that sounding a little familiar?  It’s coming home...

Suffering conditions, injustice, brings about ‘a response’

The sacrifice of life is necessary in the struggle for freedom and justice.  We are the supreme (“higher”) life in this universe: male/female, the human being.  Every other creature has been made subservient to us.  Don’t you think that chicken wants to live? (Smile)  Before you kill it, you’ve got to catch it!   The lamb that you eat; the beef steak you like, and the cow that it comes from, or the steer that it comes from:  Don’t you think they want to live too?  But God gives us the right to take that life to sustain “the higher life.”  However, God does not like us to kill His creatures without respect for Him:  Since you didn’t create it, but you’re allowed to kill it, The Qur’an says don’t eat that which is slaughtered not in The Name of The God Who created it.  So that’s what makes eating proper; when you eat that which He provides, but you slaughter in a way that is merciful to the life that you’re going to eat from.  Well, what about your life?  And my life?  All human life should be sacrificed, if necessary, for a higher principle.  And the highest, most noble principles are: 1.) Truth, 2.) Freedom, 3.) Justice and 4.) Equality.

Ferguson is “a microcosm of the macrocosm.”  Can you imagine that Ferguson, being 67 percent Black:  Out of six city councilmen, five are White; and out of 53 policemen, three are Black?  Now, something is wrong with that picture!  And I have to ask myself, “What happened to the voting rights bill; what happened with ‘one man, one vote’”—that with 67 percent of Black people you have to live under a White mayor?  With 67 percent of Black people, you can’t make the laws that govern that town?  Now if that is the condition, let me set the stage for Michael Brown.

I don’t know about the store that the media is reporting he strong-armed somebody, and took some cigars, but I know this:  When you live in the hood, you don’t control any economics.  So you have Arab store owners that don’t give a damn about you, and have no respect for you, and you have Koreans, Chinese, and Indian store owners, and other people all in our community taking the money out, but not giving a damn thing to this community!  I imagine that Blacks under those conditions suffer every day, but not one time did they break a window.

There’s been over, I believe, 300 arrests of Black people in that city, and just fewer than 40 Whites have been arrested.  Do you see “the picture”?  But that town is a microcosm of what’s going on all over the country:  Black men are being shot down, but the courts don’t give us justice.  The coroners are the brothers of the killers, so you don’t know what happened to Michael Brown.  (As of the date of this message, they don’t know how many times he was shot yet—but they know that somehow some cigars went missing, as though White people don’t steal from convenience stores.)  The shooting of this young man has triggered, now, a response that has been building.

So when I spoke with some of the attorneys and the father of Michael Brown, I told them, “Don’t let what some of our people did in anger cause you to focus on that and not the real issue.”  I said, “All of you that have children, all you mothers; all you fathers:  When you do something that your child doesn’t like, they don’t sit peacefully by, they’ll show you an ugly face; they’ll go and slam a door and they’ll even raise their voice at you, because they feel you did them some injustice.”  “Injustice” brings about a response.  Whether justified, or not, that’s to be determined, but the need for justice is in the eye of those who feel deprived of it.