'The Time and What Must Be Done' 2013 Lecture Series, Part 10
BY THE HONORABLE MINISTER LOUIS FARRAKHAN | LAST UPDATED: MAR 19, 2013 - 11:59:18 AM
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[Editor’s note: The following article contains a distillation of the hour-long message delivered by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan as Part 10 of his 52-week Lecture Series “The Time and What Must Be Done.” This message originally aired on Saturday, March 16, 2013. Click here to order this message in its entirety on MP3, DVD and CD.
In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.
Greetings to you. I am Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, The Eternal Leader of The Nation of Islam, and that Great Preacher of Freedom, Justice and Equality to the Black people of America, the Western Hemisphere, and The Aboriginal People of the Earth.
The Great Preacher, Elijah Muhammad, has given us this subject: “The Time and What Must Be Done”—and this subject will be with us until Allah says “stop.”
‘The Uphill Road’ a Messenger of God must travel to deliver ‘salvation’ and ‘warning’
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It is written in the Holy Qur’an, in the 5th Chapter, the 67th verse: “O Messenger, deliver that which has been revealed to thee from thy lord. And if thou do it not, thou hast not delivered his message. And Allah will protect thee from men. Surely Allah guides not the disbelieving people.” To “deliver” a message like the one that we are delivering demands The Protection of God for The Messenger and The Message.
For 44 long years, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad preached this Message of “Salvation” and “Warning.” No matter what consequences he faced, no matter what threats came against his life, no matter who opposed what he said, he kept, before the world, The Message that Master Fard Muhammad, The Great Mahdi, gave him to give to us, to America, and the world.
In the Holy Qur’an, Surah (Chapter) 20 titled Ta Ha, verses 25-36, Moses is praying to God for a “helper”; and he is asking God to “expand for him his breast” and “loosen the knot from his tongue” that the people may understand his word. “And give me an aider, or a helper, from my family…” Well, the scripture teaches in Holy Qur’an, Surah 7 Al-A’raf (“The Elevated Places”), verse 142 that God gave Moses “30 nights,” and “strengthened him with 10 more.” And at that 40th night, he told Aaron, his helper: “…Take my place among my people, and act well and follow not the way of the mischief-makers.”
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, for 40 years in the absence of his Teacher, was faithful to that Message. And in “the last 10 nights” of “the 40”: He made me his “National Representative.”
I did not know that he was preparing me to “sit in his seat” after his Departure, that I might continue his Work.
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When I used to come and sit at the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s table, he would mention a song; that, “I saw a man walking up a mountain 40 miles high, carrying a heavy load. And he said, ‘Lord, when will my help come?’”—and I wondered why he would say that occasionally, and look me in my face. And then he said: “When that man reached the top of the mountain, he said, ‘Hosanna! Hosanna! My help is come’…”
Well, the highest mountain range in the world is “Mount Everest,” which is a little over six miles high; so there is no mountain “40 miles high.” But The Qur’an says in Surah 90 Al-Balad (“The City”), verses 12-16: “And what will make thee comprehend what the uphill road is? (It is) to free a slave, or to feed in a day of hunger an orphan nearly related, or the poor man lying in the dust.”
Elijah Muhammad had that “mountain,” that “uphill road” to climb for 40 long years; going to prison… Not because he was a “wicked” man, but because America did not want him preaching The Word that he was given while America was prosecuting a war with Japan. And after 40 yearsof suffering, 40 years of rejection, 40 years of being misunderstood, and mislabeled by The Wicked as a “hate teacher”; as “a man that Black people,” and White people as well, “should not listen to”—at that “40th year” he Departed from us.
But, he had already said to me: “Brother, you may sit as ‘The Father over The House’ in my absence,” and he would send people to me from time to time, telling me, “Remember, brother, Aaron had a hard job when Moses left…” And so when he left, I did start having a “hard time”—and it continues to this very moment. But as my Spiritual Father, Elijah Muhammad, was faithful in delivering that Message without fear of The Enemy’s evil plans against him, I, too, am delivering that Message.
I am sorry that it’s preaching “the doom of a world” and “the salvation of a people.” Nevertheless, it is what must be taught in order that you know and understand “The Time and What Must Be Done”! Again, if I don’t do this job of speaking truth to power, even if it costs me my life, orimprisonment, or being rejected and despised, and cast aside, nevertheless, I must do what I am commanded: “O Messenger! Deliver the message that has been revealed to thee from thy lord. And if thou do it not, thou hast not delivered His message, and Allah will protect thee from men.” So far, The Protection of Almighty God Allah was with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, who told me,“Brother, there’ll be Two of Us backing you up: Allah and myself.”
So regardless to how “hard” The Truth may be, it is not my intentions to hurt your feelings, or to preach “gloom” to you that would become “frightened”—unless it frightens you into making The Change that will cause you not to continue to suffer the loss that you are now suffering, which is going to increase.
The Duty of ‘The Watchman over The House of Israel’
I would like for you to study what is written in the Book of Ezekiel, Chapter 3, verses 16-19. As God is talking to the “Son of Man,” He says to him: “Son of Man, I have made you a watchman unto the House of Israel. Therefore, hear the word at My mouth, and give them warning from Me. When I say unto the wicked thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked of his wicked way to save his life, the same wicked man will die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet, if you warn the wicked and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul.”
I have “heard The Word” from His Mouth, and I am giving Warning to you! I am trying my best to save your life because The Terrible God that was to come is present, and the things that He’s prophesied, and given Jesus The Warning to give to you of “The Signs of The End”: God is making fulfillment of His Promise!
So by my warning you, even at the cost of my life: If you don’t do it—if you don’t change, if you don’t get away from your wicked way, God says you will “die in your iniquity.” But if I warn you, and you still persist in wickedness, your blood is not on my hand.
And to all of you “spiritual teachers,” you “religious scientists”: Stop preaching “gospel” that does not include “The Judgment of the world” which we are now facing! What kind of “spiritual leaders” are we if we won’t warn the people?
If you are not going to prepare your people to escape The Judgment, then the scriptures teach us,“Woe to the shepherd who’s feeding himself, and not the flock”: Don’t you think that the people want to know what is going on around them? Don’t you think they want to lift their head up from the “slop trough,” and understand what God is doing to America and the world? Why is the economy failing? Why are the people confused? Why is the government unable to solve its economic dilemma? Why are “the clouds of war” forming? Why are there wars, and rumors of wars? Why is there drought in 29 states? Why is pestilence coming? Why are earthquakes on the horizon? Don’tyou want to know?
Well, “Son of Man,” God said, “I’m setting you as a watchman over Israel…”: My Father, Elijah Muhammad, was a “watchman” over this condition, this world, this people, this Time! And he has prepared me the same: To be a “watchman” over you!
‘God’s Promise’ to The Kingdom’s Rightful Heirs renders powerless ‘Satan’s Pledge’
My dear and beloved brothers and sisters, in Part 9 of this Lecture Series on “The Time and What Must Be Done,” I mentioned exegeses given by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad on fourParables of Jesus that are, literally, about “The Black Man and Woman of America and the Western Hemisphere” (“The Lost Sheep,” “The Prodigal Son,” “The Stone that The Builders Rejected” and “The Wicked Husbandmen”).
If you remember in the parable of “The Wicked Husbandmen” found in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 21, and the Book of Luke, Chapter 20, it is talking about a “vineyard.” After the owner of the vineyard let it out in the hands of some wicked husbandmen, he would send people into the vineyard to check on the fruit of that vineyard. And if you recall, the definition of a“husband/husbandman” is a master of a house; or, a tiller and a cultivator of the soil.
Well, when God puts a “ruler” over the vineyard—or, in clearer terms, when He made the Caucasian people a “ruler/vicegerent” over the peoples and societies of the Earth, and their institutions: God sent prophets into the world. And The Mission of those prophets was to see“What was the fruit of your work in His Vineyard”: Did you cultivate the people?
Did you bring them into their humanity, and expose to them their latent (“hidden,” “dormant,” “unexpressed”) Divinity?
Or, did you kill the prophets? Imprison them? Beat them? Lie on them? And destroy the righteousness of their work?
So the scripture teaches us that when the heir to the vineyard—the owner’s son—was sent into the vineyard, The Wicked Husbandmen seized him and killed him. After this happened, then Jesus, talking to the Jewish people of that time, asked the question, “What will the owner of that vineyard do when he comes?” which is the same as saying: “What will God do when He makes His Appearance in the world?” After they gave their answer, Jesus said to them: “Have not you read in the scriptures, that the stone that the builders rejected has become the headstone of the corner…”; and I want you to focus on these words that follow, which tells us what God’s Promise is to The Heirs of His Kingdom. Jesus said:
“Therefore I say unto you that The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever will fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.”
Well, here we are—“The Prophets” have come, and some you beat, some you killed, some you cast into prison.
Did you know that we, the Black people of America in particular, and those in the Western Hemisphere—who are the victims of the worst slavery in the annals of history, who were brought into the Western Hemisphere in this crime against humanity called “The International and Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade”: We are The Heirs of that Promise! We were seized! We were beaten! We were imprisoned! And, we were put to death “mentally,” and also put to death physically!
So when Jesus of 2,000 years ago made this Parable, and asked, “What will the owner of the vineyard do on his coming?”—he’s literally saying to the people to whom he was speaking: What will God do when He comes into the world after your 6,000 years of mis-rule is up? And they gave “the right answer”:
“He will miserably destroy those wicked men. And he will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen which will render him the fruits in their seasons.”
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You have done a pitiful job in cultivating The Human Being. Every prophet that came was teaching people into a spiritual civilization; and every prophet that came: Satan destroyed his work. The “Pledge,” or “Aim” of Satan can be found in the Holy Qur’an, Surah 7 Al-A’raf (“The Elevated Places”), verses 11-18, where Satan and Allah (God) are having a conversation. Satan is asking God for a “respite” (a short delay permitted before an unpleasant obligation is met or a punishment is carried out): “Respite me till the day when they are raised”; and God said to Satan, “Surely you are of the respited ones.”
Satan’s Pledge to God is this: “Because you have judged me to be erring, and caused me to remain disappointed, I’m going to lie in wait for them; right in your Straight Path. I’m going to come to them from before them, from behind them, from their left side and from their right side. I am going to make all of them deviate. And You won’t find most of them thankful…”—and Satan made good on his “pledge”! And then Allah (God) said, “Whosoever follows you, I will certainly fill hell with you all.”
So to my dear Christian and Muslim Family: Have we deviated? Dear Children of Israel: Have we deviated? Dear Family of Abraham: Have we deviated? Are we showing that we are “grateful to God” for the prophets that He gave, one after another, to this world? No, you are not “grateful”… You have taken this people, The Black People of America and the Western Hemisphere, and stripped us of our connection to Africa, to our own religion and God, and to our own culture and name.
You have had sway over the Earth and its people. You have had power to set up your institutions ofgovernance, your institutions of religion, your institutions of jurisprudence, your institutions ofeducation and your institutions of economics. This is your world! In the Bible, the Book of Danieland the Book of Revelation, the scriptures mention a “4th Beast,” which is “more terrible than any other”—this is referring to America! And another Beast is described as having “the ribs of a man in his mouth”… Well, we are that people that you have “torn to pieces”; and because we are “The Heirs” of that Promise: As you have destroyed us, The God Who is Present is now destroying you. Today, The God of Our Salvation has appeared, and there is no “power” that you have that can stop Him from Redeeming The Black Man and Woman of America and the Western Hemisphere, and fulfilling His Promise to us.
And what is that “Promise”? Again, it is The Promise that was given to Moses, that God was going to take “The Children of Israel” and separate them from Pharaoh and the Egyptian people of that time; also, God was going to send them into a land; and that He would give them a land “flowing with milk and honey.” That same Promise is extended to The Black Man and Woman of America: He Promises us land.
In the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 28, verse 16, God says: “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation…”—the Black Man and Woman of America and the Western Hemisphere are rejected in all societies; but that “rejected stone” would become “The Head Stone of The Corner.” And in the Book of Romans, Chapter 9, verse 33 God says, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense…” Well, you have “stumbled” on us, and now you are “breaking into pieces.”
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The interesting part about the prophecy found in both the Bible and the Holy Qur’an, “I am going to take the kingdom from you, and give it to another,” is that “The Power of God” is being expressed, in that God says 1) “He takes the kingdom from whom He pleases” and 2) “He gives it to whom He pleases.”
When God says He will take the kingdom from you, and He will give it to “a nation that will bring forth the fruits thereof…”—what “nation” is that? This nation is talked about in the 2nd Surah of theHoly Qur’an when Abraham and Ishmael had laid the foundation of The Spiritual House that is “The Spiritual Center” for all Muslims, The Holy Ka’abah at Mecca. When Abraham and his son Ishmael finished that building, they prayed: “O Allah! Accept this from us. And make us Muslims, and raise from our offspring a nation in submission to Thee. And raise from among them a messenger, and teach him and purify him, that through him he might purify this people.”
So, here we are: Do we need purification? Yes we do! And the scripture teaches in the Book of Malachi, Chapter 3, verses 1-3 that when that Son of Righteousness comes, he would be like “fullers soap,” like a “refiner’s fire,” and he would be “the purifier of his people.” And all those who submit to do The Will of God: Their conduct, their language, their life will be “purified.”
The scriptures are clear: A nation is going to be given “The Kingdom,” and that “nation” is a nation carved out by God for Himself of The Black Man and Woman of America.
God has asked you: “Let them go,” because God has something for them to do for His Glory. If youlet them go, The Calamities that you are suffering will decrease. But if, as you are doing now, you plan to fight against God, and plan to deceive the Black man and woman that they may go down into hell with you, then God will still separate them because He has The Power to do so—and you will go to hell by yourself.
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The Signs of distress, confusion plaguing men and nations
Jesus told us of a lot of “signs” that would be spoken, and that would be fulfilled; and these signs would tell us “The Time.” Let us study what is written in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 24, verse 34: “Verily, I say unto you: This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.”
Question: How many generations have passed since Jesus preached those words? It has been2,000 years, so how many “generations” have come and gone since those words were uttered?
Surely this prophecy could not have been talking about “the time of Jesus The Prophet,” that “this generation shall not pass till all these things are fulfilled.” Well, when you check what a “generation” is, according to the dictionary it is a span of “30 years”; and if we calculate how many times “30” goes into “2,000” the answer is “66.666” times. Does that number “ring a bell”? It isThe Number of The Beast—and The Hour of His Destruction has come.
So I can say in The Name of “The Great Mahdi,” Master Fard Muhammad, and in The Name of HisChrist, “The Great Messiah,” the Honorable Elijah Muhammad: This generation shall not pass until every word that Jesus of 2,000 years ago spoke, and every word that Elijah Muhammad has spoken to us, shall be fulfilled.
My dear brothers and sisters, since we are on the subjects of “The Time and What Must Be Done” and “The Judgment,” we can study what some of the signs are by reading two monumental books by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad that you must have in your library: Message To The Blackman in America and The Fall of America. Please go to store.finalcall.com and order them.
The Fall of America is the best book that you could have in your library. White and Black andBrown, Asian: All of this affects us all. Every one of you “scholars” should get this book. All of you who preach The Gospel, whether you are an imam, whether you are a rabbi, whether you are a “leader” of religious groups: Get this book, and study it, because the Honorable Elijah Muhammad gives you the clearest exegesis of the scriptures that foretell “The Fall of America” and “The Destruction of this Present World.”
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In the Book of Luke, Chapter 21, verses 25-26 teach: “There shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars; and upon the earth, distress of nations with perplexity. The sea and waves roaring, and men’s hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the Earth for The Powers of Heaven shall be shaken.” In Message To The Blackman in America on page 292, in the Chapter titled “The Judgment,” the Honorable Elijah Muhammad says that “the sun,” “the moon” and “the stars” are really causing great consternation (feelings of anxiety or dismay, terror or fright, typically at something unexpected) on the Earth.
From published reports we can hear of great “sun storms” (i.e. “solar flares”), where The Sun is belching out fire from 10,000-30,000 miles from its surface, burning the Earth and interfering with your communications. And yes, the sea and the waves are “roaring,” for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is talking about “the seas” and what is happening; and the effect that The Moon is having on the waters. It will get worse. And when the scripture mentions “men’s hearts failing them for fear”: What is the “No. 1 killer” of people in America? I have read that it is “heart failure.” What are you “afraid” of, America? Look up above your head: Look at the storms! Look at the tornadoes! Look at the hurricanes! Look at the water! Look at the fire! Look at the wind! Look at freezing cold! God is after us. Men’s hearts are failing them with fear for what they see coming upon the Earth.
And if you’ll read, or look at the news, “Are the nations in distress?” My God! There are 17 nations in Europe that are now taking austerity measures to address their debt crisis—they are “in distress” because their economies are collapsing! I even read in a news article that France’s Labor Minister, Michel Sapin, was telling the French people that the country is, quote, “totally bankrupt.” And there are scholars of economics in America that are warning that America is nearly “completely bankrupt,” because when the “Gross Domestic Product” (GDP) is under the “debt ceiling,” here you have over $16 trillion in debt that is swamping, drowning the GDP. Those are not “good” signs! Those are the signs of distress and affliction.
The nations of the Earth are in distress—with perplexity, which means “confusion.” Are the heads of our government confused? You mean you can’t sit down in a room and agree on “a way forward” to solve the problems of the American people? Yes… The confusion that you wanted to produce, and have produced, among us: Now God is taking it off of us, and putting it on you.These are the signs of the end.
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Study The Fall of America, Chapter 35, “America Surrounded with The Judgment of Allah” (page 154) and Chapter 36, “Four Great Judgments of America” (page 157).
In Chapter 35, he writes: “The four great judgments that Almighty [God] Allah) is bringing upon America are rain, hail, snow and earthquakes. We see them now covering all sides of America, as the Holy Qur’an prophesies, ‘curtailing her on all her sides’. And these judgments would push the people into the center of the country, and there they would realize that it is Allah (God) Who is bringing them and their country to a naught.”
What do you mean “pushing the people into the center of the country”? He told me to tell you, and he wrote it himself, that the coastlines—all of them—will be destroyed. And some of your own scientists are talking about “global warming” and the “melting of the glaciers”: This is not an “accident”!
You want to say that it’s what “we are doing to the environment, etc.,” and we have some responsibility, however The God of Heaven is doing this! And as these glaciers melt, the waters of The Pacific and The Atlantic Oceans are going to rise! And as they rise, they will overspread, and destroy your borders in the East with The Atlantic Coast; in the West with The Pacific Coast, and inThe South with The Gulf Coast. It’s happening now. But it will get worse as you continue your rebellion against God, and His Call that you must do in order to escape “loss.”
And in Chapter 36, he writes: “To be plagued with too much rain will destroy property and lives. It swells the rivers and creeks. Too much rain floods cities and towns. … Rain makes the atmosphere too heavy with moisture causing sickness. Wind with rain can bring destruction to towns and cities, bringing various germs, causing sickness to the people. It produces unclean water by the swelling of streams and destroying reservoirs of pure drinking water used for the health of the people. Rain is a destructive army within itself. Hail stones are also a property and life destroyer.”
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The Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote these words 40 years ago. And it is even greater today—showing you that a Man of God and His Word is never “outdated,” it is always “on time,” for inChapter 35 he writes: “These are not the days of Noah, Lot and Abraham, nor are these the days of Moses. These are new times. The enemy does not get away in punishing the righteous just because he hates them. Allah, the God of Righteousness, is with us and He just Laughs at those who try to fight against Him. He has destroyed whole nations with less than the power of rain, hail, snow and earthquakes. The Holy Qur’an has the record of people even being destroyed bygnats…”
That’s how disrespectful Allah is of The Wicked: He will take something as small as a “gnat” and multiply it into the millions, and drive you to destruction! He does not have to “go to work,” as in get a “block of iron” or “a mountain,” and throw it on them! He just causes that which is with you to turn against you!
“The forces of nature,” he continues, “are great weapons as we see them in play upon America. Storms after storms of snow and ice are rolling in from the North and are pushing great drifts that are just covering up everything.” Well, the Holy Qur’an says that Allah (God) destroyed people with just cold wind. He froze them… No wonder in the 2nd Chapter of the Book of Psalms God says that He will “sit in the heavens, and laugh at those” who are trying to fight against Him.
And I, too, laugh: Do you think that you can “get away” with fighting Allah (God)?
What will be your course of action?
Well, after hearing these things, the question I have to ask: “What are you going to do, America?”
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is asking that you:
“Separate The Black Man and Woman,” because God wants to make a great nation out of us; and
“Give us a good sendoff.”
Black Man and Woman: What should you do? Get busy! Let’s unite! Let us stop this wanton killing of each other!
The learned of our people; the professional people: Why don’t you look at The Program of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and unite with that Program to put the hands of our people to work, and the feet of our people moving in a free direction?! You have the knowledge—but you’re using it in the storehouse of the wisdom of your former slave masters and their children. Black man and woman of intelligence: Let’s unite and do something for self!
But if you continue to rebel, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad warns of a heavy chastisement that you will be under, that will last one whole year. It’s written in the Bible, in the Book of Revelation, Chapter 9, verses 1-6 that in that year “you will seek death”—and you will not find it, for “death will flee from you.” It’s on the way… So come on! “Buckle on your boots and shoes” and let’s go to work and do something for ourselves!
