A message from: Imam Warith Deen Mohammed

By Imam Warith Deen Mohammed | Last updated: Feb 25, 2000 - 9:47:46 PM

[The following transcript is from comments delivered by Imam W. Deen Mohammed
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.]

Praise be to Allah. Praise be to Allah. Praise be to Allah, the Lord, Creator of everything, Who has no partner, and the Ruler of the heavens and the earth. And nothing comes to Him except as a servant. We witness that He is One, that Muhammad, born in the sacred city of Mecca, in the 6th and 7th century, a great model for all human beings of human excellence of the correct worship of God and a model of how human beings should accept their responsibility under God, to their own souls, to their families, to their neighbors and to the whole community of mankind on this earth.

We know that he is the excellent model given to us by almighty God, and we look to his model to correct our behavior and to direct our steps. We thank Allah for him. He lives. He lives. Muhammad, the Messenger of God, He lives. We are his followers; his following is growing everyday, every hour, every minute.

If the world is going in the right direction, Muhammad is its leader. If the world is doing great things, Muhammad is its leader. If the world is helping the hearts and brains of human beings, Muhammad is its leader. If the world is civilizing societies, Muhammad is its leader. If the world is increasing in morality, good morals and ethics, Muhammad is its leader. If the world is making advances toward economic justice, social justice, Muhammed is its leader. If you know Muhammad as I do, you would know that Muhammad is the human leader for all humanity. So we thank Allah for him, and we salute him. It’s a traditional salute: Sallalahu alaihi wa Sallam, wa ala aalihi wa sahbihi, ajma-een ama ba’aad.

Dear Muslim brothers and sisters, it is not difficult for Minister Farrakhan and Wallace D. Mohammed to embrace each other. That’s easy for us. When I first met him in the early ’50s, I liked him on first sight, and I became his friend and his brother. And I have not stopped being his friend and his brother. Maybe he has not understood the way that I have been his friend and his brother at certain times, but I have always been his friend and his brother. For me this is too big a cause for our personal problems and differences. Allah-u Akbar.

We are to support each other in all good things. When the brother Muslim stands upon the Qur’an, the last of the revealed books and the complete book for all times and all societies, and when he stands upon faith in Muhammad as God’s last prophet and Messenger to all the worlds, mercy to all the worlds, we are to support him in that.

As I said, it’s easy for me to embrace Minister Farrakhan. Our families are together. We are really one family. Our friendship has not died, and it will not die. And the little problem, the small problem, that we’ve had along the way, struggling to present ourselves as God willed that we present ourselves, it’s not bigger than the word of God, the Qur’an, and (it’s) not bigger than Muhammad, the model for all human beings, for all people of faith. It’s very small.

So we see, we think, what have we done to bring about this togetherness? What have we done to bring about this closeness that we have this minute? What have we done to free our hearts so we can hug each other and kiss each other, as I did kiss my brother? What have we done to bring that about? Nothing but tried to find the way in the path of Islam, and Allah did the rest. Allah did the rest.

I want to say that Minister Farrakhan is a great leader. I’ve watched him over the years, since the passing away of my father and our fallen leader, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. I’ve watched him and I have done a little mathematics, a little calculation, and I’ve come up with progress for the Nation of Islam under the leadership of Minister Farrakhan. Whatever has troubled us in the past, I think we can bury it now and never look back at that grave. And never look back at that grave.

I was reading the Bible once, and I was reading it really so I could better understand Christian neighbors and respect them, as I should respect them, while trying to invite them to Islam. I wanted to be prepared to speak to my Christian neighbors with understanding of what they believe in. So, I read the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelations, twice. Once I just read it to be reading it; the second time I studied it very carefully. I came across something that came to my mind as I was sitting there thinking over Minister Farrakhan and our new revived friendship and unity. I was thinking of it and I said to myself, "I think I’m going to tell Minister Farrakhan" This is for Minister Farrakhan.

In the Bible, Minister Farrakhan, I read that a holy man had wanted to give sight to a blind man. And this holy man took mud and put (it) on the blind man’s eyes. I was very young at that time, Minister Farrakhan. That was over 25-years ago. I was very young. I said to myself, "Isn’t that a cruel way to help a blind man? He already has enough in his way of sight and then the man put mud in his eyes."

We’ve had a lot mud on our eyes, but the eyes are now washed and cleaned. And the mud didn’t hurt us, it helped us (to) see.

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