First let me say how happy and honored I am to have this opportunity to speak to you as I have been of out of commission for these last several months. I want to thank those who have prayed for me and prayed that Allah (God) would grant me a speedy recovery. There is a saying in the Bible that the prayers of the righteous availath much; and, I am very happy to tell you that, of course, it was erroneously reported in the press that I was dying of cancer. I want you to know that the cancer that Brother Farrakhan had has been conquered, by the grace of Allah (God). Those of you who know anything about PSA, know that it is a specific antigen that allows you to see whether you have any cancer in your body. The last time I took this test a few months ago my PSA was 0.01. The normal is 4.0. If the norm is 4.0 and I am 0.01, then by the Grace of Allah (God), we have beaten the cancer. However, what I am suffering from, and was suffering from, was the after-effects of an extremely high dose of radiation. This extremely high dose of radiation created, in the rectum, an ulcer. This ulcer led to very serious bleeding and, of course, by the Grace of Allah (God), we caught it in time.

Just a few weeks ago I went to my doctors and they took a picture of that ulcer. Their conservative estimate was that it is 50 percent healed. They call that (healing) a miracle because they never thought that the ulcer would heal, but that I would have to have another operation. I am very happy to announce to you that I believe that within the next few months, Allah willing, that that ulcer will be completely healed and your brother, hopefully, will be back with you, serving you in the way that God desires for me to do.

I will never lie to you about my health or my condition because it is very important that you know the truth; and I can tell you that I am convalescing and getting stronger each and every day. I look forward, in fact I’m like a horse chomping at the bit, because for 44 years I have never been sick and for me to be out of commission, for now nearly seven months, that is, to me, outrageous. But sometimes when you will not rest, God has a way of resting you.

I am so grateful to my laborers and the National Board and how you are carrying the nation to say to the world that the Nation of Islam is not a one-man show. The Nation of Islam is what it is; it will survive individuals and charismatic personalities, because if that is all that it is, then it is vanity. If it is to last beyond me and beyond others, then it must now be shown that there are others in the Nation capable of leadership, capable of taking the mantle and carrying it. Although I’m sixty-six-years-old, I’m certainly not tired and I look forward to being back with you soon. I am sorry that I’m not able to be with you tonight physically, but know that I am with all of you spiritually.

I just wanted to say a few words on this beautiful paper, The Final Call. Congratulations to the membership of the Nation of Islam, the workers, and contributors to the publishing of this newspaper and the readership of The Final Call for these last 20 years of publishing. I am proud and grateful to Allah for all of those who have helped make The Final Call what it is today. I am grateful to Allah for Brother Chuck Green, who introduced me to Sister Stephanie Colbert in Washington, D.C., who typeset and helped to layout the first edition of The Final Call, which was produced out of my cousin Milele’s apartment in Washington, D.C.

I will always remember with fondness and love the hours that we spent to get the first edition of The Final Call printed. Allah blessed me to get a second mortgage on our home at 9415 South Damen that I might buy typesetting equipment so that my daughter Donna, whom I sent to school to learn typesetting, would begin to help in the production of the newspaper. The artwork for the second edition was done in Washington, D.C., but the typesetting was done by my daughter Donna Farrakhan Muhammad in the basement of our home where she worked day and night typesetting the newspaper without pay. She just had the love of Islam and her desire to help her father revive and restore the work of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. I am grateful to my wife Khadijah and to each member of my family for allowing our home to be the birthplace of the second rise of the Nation of Islam and also the birthplace of The Final Call newspaper.

The newspaper was published from our modest basement until 1982 when we were able to purchase The Final Call building and set that building up for the production of a first class newspaper. I am grateful to the editors who brought this paper from zero to where it is today.

A special thanks to brother Godfrey Patterson, brother Askia Muhammad, brother Abdul Allah Muhammad, to our late brother Abdul Wali Muhammad and our current editor brother James Muhammad. I give special thanks to the workers at The Final Call building, who work many hours, day and night, out of their love for Allah, Islam, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and myself to produce this wonderful newspaper. I thank them for the sacrifices that they have made and are still making to make The Final Call an outstanding newspaper. But most of all, I thank the laborers of the Nation of Islam, the F.O.I. and M.G.T. in every city, town and hamlet across the country whose perseverance in bringing this newspaper to our people under all kinds of conditions has made The Final Call the finest and the freest Black publication in the world. And because of the mighty F.O.I. in the sale and distribution of this newspaper, it has allowed us to support independent education at the Muhammad University of Islam and it has also helped to support the Nation’s needs.

So we thank Allah for The Final Call and for all of those who helped to make it successful. However, The Final Call is not yet what we desire it to be. We want it to be the voice of the resurrection of our people, but we also want it to be the voice of resurrection for a lost humanity. I would like to see it published and printed on the African continent and also in different languages—especially Arabic, French and Spanish—so that our brothers and sisters throughout the earth can read the life-giving words of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the many wonderful and wise articles written by our guest columnists.

We desire that our readers read news items that not only reflect the pain and suffering of our people throughout the earth, but we must also read the good news of what we are doing universally to promote the rise of the indigenous and original people of the earth to be who and what Allah (God) intended. The Final Call must be a newspaper that gives good news to the oppressed, poor and downtrodden. This paper must be the voice of the voiceless. Each edition must be a little book of knowledge so that each human being that picks it up may benefit from its universal truth.

This paper must also be a word of correction for the human family that has lost its way. The Final Call must continue to be the powerful voice of rebuke of power and of government that oftentimes has misruled and misgoverned and misled the people. It must help to shape a just foreign policy of the United States government, a government that is at the top of the pyramid of nations. We must help to produce change in these policies which reflect gross ignorance, confusion and even wickedness. We must be the instrument which educates the masses. Eighty-five percent of the masses of the people of earth have been victimized by the 10 percent who keep them in ignorance so that they may continue to live in luxury and continue their unjust way of rule. The corporate giants are buying up every means of communication that they might keep the masses ignorant and going according to their desire. This is why this organ, The Final Call, must remain free and strong.

We must increase our circulation in order to effect change in the masses of the people in America and throughout the world. We have much work to do to make our paper what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad envisioned it to be. So we cannot glory in what was, we must use the past and the present as a stepping stone to take this paper into the future.

I would like to personally thank all of the contributing writers for their wonderful and wise articles that have broadened the scope of this paper. We have always wanted this paper to be a forum for Black and universal thought.

In closing, my congratulations to everyone who is receiving an award that each one of these awardees has earned by their magnificent service to our suffering people. To the Honorable Gus Savage, to the venerable Lu Palmer, Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Maxine Walker, Judge R. Eugene Pincham, Attorney Lewis Meyers, Mother Rosa Parks, Attorney Andre Grant, Attorney Berve Muhammad, Sister Melody Spann-Cooper and Brother Khalil Muhammad, thank you, thank you, thank you for all that you have done. And I am encouraging you to continue the noble work that has made your names great among our people for the work of liberation is never done until all of our people are free. The liberation struggle is not a struggle that we can retire from. It is a struggle that must be continued by each of us until death overtakes us or until Allah (God) says, well done.