have chosen my subject from the 103rd Surah of the Holy Qur�an titled, "Al-Asr" (THE TIME). It reads: "In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. By the time! - Surely man is in loss, Except those who believe and do good, and exhort one another to Truth, and exhort one another to patience."

All over the planet, human beings are in loss because they are not in harmony with the time. It is our work today to lift the standard of Allah (God) and the standard of time so we can judge our actions by the standard of Allah (God) laid down in the revelation through His prophets and laid down by the standard of time. The European calendar that we have functioned under, the Gregorian calendar, has not measured time accurately. As a result of not measuring time accurately, the Western world has lost some of the knowledge of what it should be doing and now it is suffering loss.

The 20th century was a century of war. The worst wars ever fought in the annals of human history were fought in the 20th century. And yet, in the 20th century, humanity has made the greatest progress in the last 6,000 years in the advancement of science, technology, communications, space travel and knowledge of cloning, genetic engineering, producing rain, producing something like a sun, recognizing the splitting of the atom, creating smaller particles called quarks, flight, learning how to put sound in light and light in sound.

Nevertheless, they are saying that the four basic elements, that if they could put them together, they could create life. They could create, even, a universe. But they can�t put it together to make these elements one until man recognizes The One and lines himself up with The One God in complete submission to His will. Until then, the scientists will always produce new inventions that miss the mark. Their mathematics will fail; their physics will fail; their chemistry will fail; their technology will fail. They have reached the height of their knowledge and they can go no further unless they bow down.

Allah (God) says in the Qur�an that, when He gets ready to destroy a people, He gives them a peep into the heavens. So while the world is on the brink of great discovery, the world is on the brink of a pit of fire. "By the time! Surely man is in loss."

This whole century has been one world war after another. But one of my dear friends said, "no, it�s not three wars, it�s one Great War with three parts to it." World War began in 1914 and lasted until 1991. There were three parts to the world war�World War I and World War II; and we have just come through what is called the Cold War. It has been a century of war. Where has religion been? If we are the religious leaders and war, death, destruction and mayhem have been the order of the day, then where has religion been?

In the Bible, in the book of Mark, Jesus gives an interesting parable. Jesus said that a man was going into a far country and he lent his vineyard out to some husbandmen. Periodically, the man sent servants into the vineyard to check on the fruit. Some the husbandmen beat, some they stoned. So he thought that maybe he should send his beloved son into the vineyard also. When the son came, they slew him. So the question was asked "And what will the Lord of this vineyard do when he comes?" And they answered, "He will utterly slay them."

In one of the explanations of this parable, it said that the vineyard is the earth and the earth has been let out into the hand of wicked rulers. And these wicked rulers, spiritual and political, have not brought good fruit out of the vineyard. So Allah (God) has sent his prophets into the world to check on the fruit. And who is the fruit? It is you, it is me, it is us; and the fruit is rotten. The fruit is filled with worms. The fruit is corroded and corrupted.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was born at a time of gross darkness. Now here we are representing the light of religion. There are Muslims here, Christians are here, and maybe some Hebrews or Jews are here and other religious people. But where has religion been? If we are the spiritual guides and representatives of the prophets, the condition of our adherence bears witness against us. I would not like to say I am the leader of a group of sinners in the name of the prophet. I would not like to say I am Imam, Sheik, or Ulama over a community that has deviated from the path of Allah (God). I would like, on the Day of Judgement, for Allah (God) to say to me, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." But the truth is that the religious leaders of the world have become weak, impotent, non-productive of righteous fruit, and the religious leaders of the world are in danger of judgment.

In that same chapter in Mark, where Jesus gave this parable of the wicked husbandmen, a man tried to trap Jesus, saying, "Should we pay tribute to Caesar?" Knowing that this was a very hypocritical fellow, Jesus said, "Bring me a penny." He didn�t say, bring me a dollar or a hundred dollars, just bring me a penny. He said, "Whose face is on the penny?" The man said, "Caesar." Jesus said, "Well, render unto Caesar what is Caesar�s and unto God, what is God�s." He was literally saying to them, Caesar�s leadership wasn�t worth the value of his face on a penny. Render unto Caesar what is Caesar�s but render unto God, what is God�s. This century of war has been Caesar�s century. And the reason that religion has been secondary is because either the religious leaders have stood back waiting for our warriors to complete the century of war, or we have been too weak and impotent to challenge political leaders when they go astray from the path of Allah (God).

This century of war has pitted brother against brother. How can you say that you are the leader of Christians, and World War I has all the Christian nations slaughtering each other and no religious leader was able to stop the killing of one Christian of another? The papacy was weak, the church of England was weak, the religious leaders were weak, and so the political leaders�over greed and the desire to control the wealth of the earth�killed each other over the spoils and the spoils of the earth became the wealth of Africa, the wealth of Asia and the wealth of South America for the Europeans and the western man. But this century of war has pitted Muslim against Muslim and Jew against Muslim and Christian against Jew and Muslim against Christian and Jew. Always Caesar was given priority over God. I want to say to us today, we have to render unto Caesar what is Caesar�s and we have to render unto God, what is God�s.

I was in Boston with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in 1960, and at that time the Muslims were under great persecution from the federal government because of the counter-intelligence program of J. Edgar Hoover that was designed to stop any Black Messiah from rising that could unite the nationalist element and other elements of the Black community. And the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said these words: "The suit I have on, it is yours although you didn�t create the essence. You took a created essence and made a garment. I bought it and your face is on the money. So if you want to take your suit, your car, the money that I have with your face on it, you can do that." He said, "But me, you can not have for I belong to Allah."

Render unto Caesar what is Caesar�s. No political leader deserves the allegiance of what he never created. Since no political leader is my creator, how can I swear my allegiance to the King or to the Emperor or to any temporal leader no matter how beneficent they are. I owe all of my existence to the Eternal Creator, so I can only give my allegiance to the one God. So when my president calls, I don�t jump. I examine his call. If his call is not in accord with Allah�s (God�s) Will, I don�t answer his call. It takes courage to render unto Caesar what is Caesar�s and to render unto Allah (God), what is Allah�s (God�s).

The new century is the century that belongs to Allah (God). And since the new century belongs only to Allah (God), then we who believe in Allah (God)�Christians, Muslims, Jews, all human beings who believe in Allah (God)�must now work to make the new century the Century of Allah (God).

After a century of war, the gladiators still have the taste for blood. They would like nothing better than to have a new conflict emerge to make use of their courage and their skills. Brother Qatari said, the taxpayers of America have poured billions and trillions of dollars into weapons of war. Then START I and START II (Strategic Arms Treaties) were signed and all these nuclear weapons have to be destroyed. So all the taxpayers� dollars have gone down the drain.

We must join together, men and women of Allah (God), to demand that we have a free hand to be given a priority to enter a new battlefield. Not a battlefield with weapons of war, but a battlefield to attend to a crippled and spiritually diseased world. We must demand of the Caesars of this earth that they respectfully stand back. We are to respect those in authority, but if this is the century that belongs to Allah (God), then the spiritual leaders who are sincere and true must rise. And the spiritual leaders of the world must say to the Caesars of the world, we have to heal the world of wounds that politicians have made because we abandoned our responsibility. We must take the time to attend to this sick world.

Peace can come, but it can only come if the spiritual leaders stand up and say to the Caesars of the world: "We must renounce nuclear war; we must renounce chemical war; we must renounce biological war; we must renounce religious war. We must renounce war in all its forms."