First and foremost, I would like to give thanks, honor and praise to Allah (God) for blessing me to overcome an illness that brought me to death�s door. I would like to thank my family and my doctors. I would like to thank the many, many people all around the world who have prayed for my recovery. I would like to also thank all of the Pastors, Imams and Rabbis that are standing here with me today.

I have called this press conference today, not necessarily to talk about my health or my near-death experience, but, because the hope of the people of good will and righteousness is that the New Century and Millennium will bring an end to war and bloodshed and establish the reign of peace. However, this hope of ours for peace is tempered by the Prophets� predictions concerning this serious time that is found in the Torah, the Gospel, and the Qur�an.

Jesus prophesied, "And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that ye be not troubled; for these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines, and pestilence, and earthquakes, in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows."

The Qur�an teaches us that, the shock of the hour of God�s Wrath will be so severe that it will turn a baby�s hair gray; and every mother giving suck will forget her suckling; and every pregnant one will lay her burden down.

The Old Testament of the Bible prophesies that we will enter a time of trouble like there never was since there was a time and a nation. It is also written that were it not for Allah�s (God�s) elects sake that (these days of trouble were shortened) no soul would be left alive on the earth.

All of the people of the world can see that the words of the Prophets are true. For, there are many great natural disasters occurring throughout the world�earthquakes, hurricanes, tidal waves, tornadoes, cyclones, floods, sickness, death, famine and pestilence�not to mention what man�s own hands may bring with the expected Y2K computer disaster.

According to the National Defense Council Foundation, in their World Conflict count of 1998, there were raging conflicts in 60 countries; yet, as we are ending this Century and Millennium hoping for peace, the dark clouds of a great war is forming on the horizon. Paul in the scripture says, "Know, also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For many shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power of it." This is an accurate description of the world in which we live, and, unfortunately, this is the backdrop on the stage of world affairs as we hope for peace as we close this Century and Millennium.

The horror of what the prophets predicted is in our door. This is not something that we can say is coming, this is something that we can say has come, for, the horror of Divine Judgment is upon us.

Many prophesies of the Bible and Qur�an, however, are conditional. These prophecies do not necessarily have to be fulfilled if we are wise enough to know how to beat prophecy. However, if we do not do that which will allow us to beat prophecy, and do it in a timely manner, then, unfortunately, we will have to fulfill these horrible prophecies.

Allah�s (God�s) desire is to save the righteous, for, this is why He sends Prophets, Messengers and Warners among us. And this is why He sent the Messiah, Jesus, into the world. Right now, during this very deeply religious season among the Christians, the Jews, and the Muslims, all are celebrating their faith�s tradition.

The Christians are celebrating Christmas, the Birthday of a man born into this world to reconcile fallen humanity to Allah (God), that the fallen human being may make peace with Allah (God) and then be in a position to make peace with their fellow human beings.

The Muslims are celebrating the Holy Month of Ramadan, thanking Allah (God) for the birth of Prophet Muhammad and the revelation of the Qur�an. One of the names of the Holy Qur�an is Al-Shifa (The Healing). This Book, and its Teachings, if carried into practice, can heal the ills of the world. The Gospel and its Teachings, if carried into practice, can heal the ills of the world. The Torah and its Teachings, if carried into practice, can heal the ills of the world, but, the ills of the world cannot be healed on belief alone, and the recitation of scripture alone. There must be action following our belief, for faith without works is dead.

The Jews have celebrated in this month the Festival of Lights or Hanukkah, which represents the retaking of the temple and its purification from its corruption. The purification of the temple and the rededication of it are signs of the purification of the real temple, which is the bodies of human beings and the rededication and the re-consecration of our lives to the true service of the One God and humanity.

Many Black people during this season will be celebrating Kwanzaa, which according to its founders deals with the season of the first fruits and seven beautiful principles of action that will lead to greater unity and productivity among our people.

The cycle of violence and hatred must end. The cycle of violence and hatred has led to tribal and ethnic conflict in Africa; national conflict in Africa; ethnic conflict in Eastern Europe; national hatreds; racial hatreds; religious hatreds; gang violence in America and the senseless killings in the streets of America and the schools of America. This cycle of violence and hatred can only be broken if we intervene in this cycle properly.

The Scripture gives the answer: "If my people, which are called by name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land."

America needs a healing. Africa needs a healing. Europe needs a healing. Asia, Central America, South America, the Islands in the Caribbean, and the Isles of the Pacific need a healing. The whole earth needs a healing.

How do we turn from our wicked ways? It is through the principle of prayer. However, prayer must be accompanied by the humbleness of heart that leads to atonement. Only through our act of atonement can we be forgiven for what we have said or done to injure another human being�a member of another race, a member of another religious group, another nation, or another ethnic group.

We must try to end the cycle of violence and the cycle of hatred. Therefore, I am asking that on December 25th, the day that Christians are celebrating the Birthday of Jesus Christ, that all of humanity, all of the revealed religions of the world, come together on that day, whether it be in your home, your place of worship, the prisons, or wherever you may be, stop, and make a sincere supplication to Almighty God Allah to pray for a change in ourselves so that our prayers and the action of repentance or turning from the way of wickedness that has produced hatred, strife and violence between man and woman and man and man may bring Peace in the New Year and in the New Century.

Why December 25th? It is a day that all Christians observe as a holiday, and, since the Western Powers predominantly rule in the world it is a day that mostly everyone is off from work. A billion and a quarter Christians will be off from their work; a billion and a quarter Muslims are celebrating Ramadan and every religious entity on earth is practicing the principle of prayer. However, we are asking that this Christmas not be observed with drunkenness, frivolity, filth and foolishness mocking the Holy name of Jesus the Christ. We are asking that Santa Claus be put in his proper place. Santa Claus is a falsehood. Jesus Christ is the truth and came into the world to bring truth and falsehood and truth can not coexist together. We are asking that Santa Claus does not take the place of the meaning of the birth, life, ministry, and death of Jesus the Christ. We are asking that the giving of gifts and trinkets to one another not dare be in our minds greater than the gift of Allah (God) of Jesus the Christ and the gift of eternal life and the gift of salvation that He brought. There is no comparison.

On the 25th, instead of making it a holiday we are asking to make it a Holy Day. And, since we, as Muslims, are celebrating Ramadan�fasting and praying during the day�we can not get up from our prayers not recognizing that the Qur�an is a healing. So we must go out from Ramadan into the world to heal the social ills in our country, in our society and in our families. The Jewish people have just come through Hanukkah. And the day after Christmas begins the celebration of Kwanzaa. I am asking and we are asking that on the 25th we devote this day to sincere prayer and to the reunion of our families. Prayer for a change in ourselves. Prayer for a change in the Rulers of the World. Prayer for a change in the World so that prayer and the action of turning away from the wickedness of ourselves may bring peace in the New Year and the New Century.

The alternative to this is horrible, for, it is to fulfill what the Prophets have predicted.

I pray that Allah (God) will bless each and every one of us to end this year, this century, and this millennium of discord and strife and hatred and war in a way that we may go into the New Century and the New Millennium with the renewing of our minds and with a renewed spirit that we might enter the New Century in Peace and as Peacemakers.

The Scriptures read, "Blessed are the Peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God." So, I wish, and we wish, all Christians, not a Merry Christmas, but, a Joyous Holy Day in remembrance of the meaning of the life of Jesus Christ. I wish, and we wish, the Jewish people, not only a Happy Hanukkah, but, the purification of the real temple of the Living God, our own bodies. I wish, and we wish, the Muslims a blessed Ramadan. And to all who observe the seven principles of Kwanzaa, a Happy and productive Kwanzaa.

May this bring us all to a New Beginning in this New Century and this New Millennium.

Thank you for listening.

May I say before we take questions, standing with me are some of the strongest lights in the Christian community of Chicago, the Hebrew Israelite community, the Islamic community. There are Arabs, Asians and Hispanics; we all want to make a better world to pass on to our children.

I would like at this time to entertain a few questions from our members of the press.

Q: Could you please tell us what you will be doing on December 25th, and also reflect a little bit on the past year. What thoughts have been in your mind? What were some of your reflections during your time away?

MLF: On December 25, Allah (God) Willing, I will be observing exactly what I asked others to do lest I be condemned as a hypocrite, saying from my mouth what is not in my heart. I will be spending that day in prayer and with my family because I have realized in this last 10 months of my illness that no man has any value at all if he is in this world without the strength and backing of Allah (God) and the strength and backing of his family. And I stand before you today because Allah (God) helped me. He is first and foremost. But at the time of my near death experience no one was around me but my family. I realize, more now than ever before, that with all of our pursuits in life, with all of the kudos and the praise and honor that we get from whatever we do as our life�s work, nothing in this world is more important than our service to Allah (God) and the unification and the love that can be put in our own families.

My reflections for this past 10 months, to be very frank and honest, prayers came for me from my Christian family. Prayers were sent up for me from my Muslim family, from my Hebrew Israelite family and there were people of good will praying for me who were Black, brown, red, yellow and white. There is no way that I could come out of that experience without making a complete commitment. Not just to my people whom I love and would give my life for but I will spend the rest of my days working to uplift a lost and fallen humanity regardless of their color, their race or their creed.

Q: Min. Farrakhan, I�m Phil Rogers from Channel 5. How is your health? If you can just fill us in on what your doctors are telling you about how you are doing now, your prognosis. And number two, if you could clarify your remarks. You seem to be talking about something of a kind of apocalyptic vision of the new millennium. Do you fear that this is that coming to pass, and you seem to say it is something that we can avoid?

MLF: First, thank you for asking. You can look at me. I must tell the truth. I�m not out of the woods yet. There is no sign of cancer anywhere in my body. I am about 85 percent healed of that ulcer that was in the rectum from the intense radiation. And I believe with the help of Allah (God), my family, my doctors and the prayers of the righteous, sometime in this next year I should be completely whole and completely recovered, by the Grace of Allah (God).

In answer to your second question, every religious or spiritual minded person who reads scripture is frightened at the events that have been foretold and what we see coming on the earth, signs of which are already in the United States of America. There have been more calamities in America in these last few years than at any other time in the history of America. And these calamities are coming with greater and greater rapidity and greater and greater severity.

My dear sir, it is written in the Holy Qur�an that whenever Allah (God) sends a messenger or a warner, He seizes the people with distress and affliction that they might humble themselves. I think and we think, and I know I�m speaking for all of these spiritual minded teachers of scripture, and I think that I can speak for the great scriptural teachers that America is full of, we are all worried about the future of humanity. But we can take positive action. We can�t sit around and wait for the prophecy to fulfill itself because Allah (God) is only bringing it on us a little heavier and a little heavier that perhaps we can humble our hearts, begin to pray and repent and change then He will stop what He is doing. Because with all our science, with all of our technology, we have to admit that the flood in Venezuela is a natural disaster. The earthquakes in Turkey are natural disasters. The hurricanes that have come up in America and the Caribbean are natural disasters. These are not man made so Allah (God) must be trying to tell us something and I think we ought to start listening. Don�t you? I�ll take a few more questions please.

Q: My name is Cheryl Burton and I�m with ABC 7. Min. Farrakhan, you talk about your near death experience, you�re at death�s door. Can you be a little bit more specific about did you think you were actually going to die? And you seem to be coming to us today from a different viewpoint of spirituality. Has this year made you like that? And on the spiritual note, what happens next, health wise and spiritually for you?

MLF: What a wonderful question. My dear sister, first, I was three minutes away from death. I had lost between five and six units of blood hemorrhaging from the rectum. If it were not for my daughter who is a nurse and the wonderful doctors at St. Anthony�s Hospital in Michigan City, Indiana, and the blood that was rushed to me from Ft. Wayne, Indiana, I would not be here today to talk to you at all.

I had a visit with my urologist in Michigan City just last week and his words to me were, "Farrakhan, it�s a miracle that you are just sitting here and it�s a miracle that we are talking about a procedure that (you) may have to undergo that will bring complete and full recovery."

There is no trial that any of us goes through in life that we come out the same. We either come out better or we come out worse. I�ll say this, yes it has produced greater change in me and a purification of my heart without which Allah (God) can�t use you for greater service. I have done the best that I could in the past but when Allah (God) acts to purify your heart then your service after such a trial will be greater than your service before that trial.

So I�m hoping and praying that Allah (God) will allow me time on this earth. Not to just partake of the beauty of the earth and the marvel of His creation but to do something in the remaining years of my life to change the reality of the condition of human suffering among my own people and among the whole human family of our planet.

I can not see a fire taking place in my neighbor�s house and a wind blowing in my direction and not grab a bucket of water and try to help my neighbor put out the fire in his house. I am not doing it from a selfish motivation, but even if you are selfishly motivated, help your neighbor, buddy, you may find you are helping yourself.

Q: Min. Farrakhan, I am Lee Ann Trotter from CLTV News. You talk about impending disaster if we don�t change as a people. Can you be more specific about the disasters that will come about if there is not a change?

MLF: Well, I think I was specific, my sister, in my talk and each of one of you who are members of the press will get a copy of the statement that I made. I couldn�t be more clear than what the prophets themselves have said that is coming. And you and I and we are experiencing torment in our personal lives. There is hardly one of us that drugs have not come into our family, touched our children and our grandchildren. There is hardly one of us that can boast that our women and our girls are safe in a world where women are used and girls are abused and little boys are abused. If we don�t change more of the same will lead to our total destruction. I will close with this, the flood that came in the time of Noah, according to the scriptures of the Bible, teaches that every imagination of the hearts of the people was to do evil. And if that is the way we are, then we cannot hope for some good times in the new century and the new year. Oh, no, brothers and sisters. We can only look forward to that which the prophets predicted. I would hope and pray that Allah (God) would make me and us an agent of change. I can not be an agent of change for others unless that change first takes place in me.

Q: Min. Farrakhan, Martha Irvine from AP. I just wondered if you could talk about whether there have been meetings with members of the Jewish community recently? What prompted those meetings and what became of them?

MLF: In the fall of this year members of the Torah Jewry, the orthodox Jewish community of America, came to Chicago to appeal to the chief of staff and members of my laboring staff to help in the plight of several members of the Jewish family in Iran that were going to be tried for espionage and could possibly be executed. They also said we have watched you, Minister Farrakhan, and we have studied your words and we do not find you to be anti-Semitic. When my health was better they came back and visited with me in our national home. We had a wonderful three-and-one-half-hour meeting that began to open dialogue.

I close by saying that Syria and Israel have been at war with each other for as long as Israel has been a new nation on this earth. And the dialogue has begun between Syria and Israel. The Palestinians and the Israelis have been at war and have shared rivers of blood of each other. And to end the cycle of violence and hatred, Prime Minister Barak and Yassar Arafat of the Palestinian Authority and other Arab leaders are sitting down to find the way to peace.

I�m sure that before dialogue there were preconditions. Now the need for peace is so great that we don�t want preconditions, let�s sit down and talk. I thank members of the Jewish community, those Hasidic Jews, Orthodox Jews, who honored us with their presence. I thank them for coming. We soon will visit them and let the dialogue begin. I am hoping that those members of the Jewish community who have seen me in an ugly light will also sit and dialogue so that relationships between the Nation of Islam and the Jewish community and Blacks and Jews may be made better, Allah (God) Willing.

Q: Raoul Mowatt with the Chicago Tribune, and I guess I have two questions. One is where do you see the Nation of Islam going in the next century, the next millennium? The other question is, despite your experiences there may still be cynics and skeptics out there who doubt your sincerity. What would you say to convince them?

MLF: I will take your second question first. I know that there will always be skeptics, but Jesus said, you can tell a tree by the fruit that it bears and you can tell a man by his works. I will not only be talking, I will be working and I am just asking you to examine my works for they will bear witness of me.

The first part of your question is on the Nation of Islam and its future; the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, our great teacher, called us the Lost and Found members of the Nation of Islam. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) fulfilled a prayer made by Abraham and Ishmael recorded in the Holy Qur�an in these words ... "make us submissive to you and raise from our offspring a nation submissive to you." My Christian family sings the song, "one-day God is going to remove this wicked race and set up a nation that will obey." So, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) didn�t establish Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, and all of the Muslim countries in the world. He established one nation and that nation is the Nation of Islam. My efforts and our efforts will be to unite the lost found members of that great nation of obedience to Allah (God) with the larger Nation of Islam. We will not unite just to say we are united. Our desire is to revive the spirit of Islam exemplified by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in the world and break down barriers that have divided one Muslim against another; and one Christian against another; and one Jew against another; and one Hindu or Buddhist against other religious groups in the world. These barriers must and will be overcome. That is the work that is prophesied of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam in the West and that is the work that we will be doing. I will give you a little hint, Allah (God) willing, October 16 we will celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Million Man March and we will be, Allah (God) Willing, bringing those men back with their wives or their girlfriends and we intend to make a family.

I would love to see the Christian family marching under the cross and the Muslim family marching under the crescent and the Jewish family marching under the Star of David and all the nations bringing their flags, their standards. Our intention is to unite our family and speak to the unity of each family and then bring a message and higher manifestation of the Gospel and the Qur�an that transcends race, color, and ethnicity that will unite the human family. On the 16th of October in the year 2000, Allah (God) willing, we do intend to effect this political season. There will not be business as usual. More on that at a later time.

For first address to our community and the world on February 24-27, I will tell you where we are going and it will give you insight into what changes Allah (God) has made and is making in me. We will be dealing with family. As Mother Reverend Willie Barrow said in a meeting with us yesterday, in conclusion, it is not that we are as divided as we think we are. She said, "God told me that we are just not connected." So, I close reminding us all of the 37th chapter of Ezekiel. The bones were together, they just were not connected. So we intend to connect the toe bone to the foot bone to the ankle bone to the leg bone to the knee bone to the thigh bone to the hip bone to the back bone to the neck bone to the head bone because the people will hear the word of the Lord.

Thank you for listening and may Allah (God) bless you all as I greet you in peace.

My chief of staff just handed me a note that as a Muslim we do not believe that the killing of innocent human beings for political purposes, to serve political ends is justified. There is a wise and a better way to solve problems than killing innocent people. I would hope that if anyone who claims Islam would involve themselves in this kind of behavior that you cease and desist; and if you don�t know how to win the fight, then come see your brother. We will help you. May Allah (God) bless you.