National Imam: The Nation of Islam brings renewal of religion

By Jehron Muhammad | Last updated: Feb 27, 2020 - 12:03:24 PM

Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad leads Muslims in congregational prayer assembly at TCF Center during opening of Saviours’ Day 2020.

DETROIT—More than 3,000 Believers crowded into the Grand Ballroom at the TCF Center for the jumu’ah, the traditional Islamic Friday prayer service. The khutba or sermon delivered by the khitab is one of the highlights of the annual Nation of Islam Saviours’ Day convention.

This year the NOI’s national imam and grandson of the Nation of Islam patriarch Elijah Muhammad, Sultan Rahman Muhammad, delivered brief remarks, giving praise and thanks to Master Fard Muhammad, the Great Mahdi and teacher of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, who founded the 90-year-old Nation of Islam. The Nation of Islam is bringing in a new world order, ushered in by its founder, he said.

Born on February 26, 1877 in the holy city of Mecca, Allah in the person of Master Fard Muhammad intervened in our affairs, Imam Muhammad said.

“And it is through him (and) this intervention through our people, that he is intervening in the affairs of all humanity,” the imam argued.

Inherent in this intervention were “hard trials” needed to establish something new, he continued.

Patience and prayer are the foundation of what will “give us the power, through Allah’s will, to survive,” he added.

Muslim women participate in congregational prayer service at TCF Center during Saviours’ Day 2020.

He said to rousing applause, “the Nation is now at 90 years.”

Imam Muhammad shared the words of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), when he said, every 90 years there would be a mujahideen or “one who renews the religion.” Then he asked a question, what other Islamic religious institution in the last 100 years, other than the NOI, “has brought into the world something altogether new for Islam?”

With all the trials and tribulations that the Nation of Islam has endured over its 90 years, an onslaught by its open enemies, which has included the U.S. government, he declared, “We are thankful for Allah, for his mercy, and (for his) intervention that enabled us to survive.”

The Nation’s “endurance” has come through the “edification of the “truth … in a dying world of religion,” and gives special significance to the teachings of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad through his student, Minister Louis Farrakhan, said Imam Muhammad.

Belief alone, the Imam continued, is not enough. “It’s good works that we exhort … as we reflect on 90-years of development of something that is bringing in an entire new world (of Islam),” he said.

Young guests and attendees at congregational prayer service at Saviours’ Day 2020.

“God’s providence is Allah’s will,” he said. “When something new comes, as with the Holy Qur’an verses are abrogated, it is replaced with something that is more relevant or close to the understanding of the time. This will allow us, through what is being made new for us, to understand better the holy book that has been siting before us for more than 1,400 years.”

“Something will be closed out of the old, as it relates to the understanding of this Holy Qur’an of what we have that ties us into the old world of thought and makes way for a new reality,” he explained. “Through clear and truthful exegesis or tassfir that makes the Holy Qur’an new in its power to change our lives.”

The imam completed his Feb. 21 khutba saying the only thing that will remain is the “principles of the faith. Everything else will be replaced.”

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