[Editor’s Note: The following text is excerpted from a message delivered July 13, 1997, by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan at Mosque Maryam, in Chicago, Ill. To order this message in its entirety visit store.finalcall.com.]

In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.

First, I am eternally grateful to Allah (God) for your presence this afternoon, for all of the many distinguished brothers and sisters, spiritual teachers, Imams, Muslims, Christians and Hebrews.

I’m honored by the presence of the family of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and by the presence of each one who took time to come out today to hear what we have to say.

I’m stunned by the words of our beloved sheik, and I can only say that all of us who come to this life are gifted by our creator with gifts and talents and skills. Our duty is to use our gifts and talents for the glory of Allah, our God.

Some of us use our talents for vain purposes, and for those vain purposes God will still make us successful, but in our vanities we truly die. But those who use their gifts and skills and talents for the glory of the eternal Creator, these are they for whom death cannot come.

Allah (God) says in the Holy Qur’an, Muhammad is but a Messenger. Indeed, Messengers have passed away before him. If Muhammad dies or is killed, would you turn back on your heels?

So here the Prophet of Allah passes from this earth and many did not wish to believe that he had passed and Umar was ready to kill anyone who said that the Prophet had passed.

But Abu Bakr went to the Mosque and quoted those words that I just quoted from the Qur’an. The words of the Qur’an calmed Umar and calmed the followers.

No human being, no community that serves Allah (God) is happy when the one who taught them of God, gave them the example of the life that Allah (God) would have us to live, when that person leaves there is tremendous sadness.

We never wanted to see Muhammad leave, but Allah (God) says Muhammad is but a messenger and we are not to worship human beings no matter if they carry the sacred word of Allah, and live in front of us as a perfect example, they are not worthy to be worshipped.

Only Allah (God), the Supreme, the Eternal, The One, the Mighty, the Wise; but then Allah (God) says, “Think not of those who are slain or who die in the way of Allah (God) as dead. They are alive but you perceive not.”

So the Prophet has passed but he’s not dead. Abraham has passed but he’s not dead. Death only comes to those who live vain lives and set up with Allah (God) partners, death comes to them; but those who pass from this earth in the way of Allah (God) are not dead and we should not speak of them as though they are dead.

How do you know that Muhammad is alive? Because a billion and a half people everyday are coming to say prayer. How do we know that Jesus is not dead; that Moses is not dead; that Abraham is not dead?

The Prophets are not dead because they left this life in the way of God, and if the way of God lives they who serve him and walk in his way live also.

Now, I wanted to say to the sheik and those who speak such great words of Brother Farrakhan, you know they gave me a lot of titles this past weekend and at my table the other night, I said, “You cannot give me a title. Allah (God) is He who assigns to all of us who we are.”

So you can’t make me. Only Allah (God) can make me. I said “Now, you may call me sheik. You may call me imam and all these great names, fine, but the best title is Muslim.” A man may be a sheik and not a good Muslim.

A man may be an imam and not be a good Muslim.  A man may be a king, a ruler, a potentate and not be a good person, but a Muslim, is one who has surrendered his will completely to do the will of God, and that is the greatest title and that is the one that God has given to every human being.

I appreciate the kind words and they really are wonderful, but, you know, I’m striving. I just want to be a good Muslim, and if I strive to be a good Muslim, then all the other titles are fine. And what is a good Muslim?

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said, “You are not a Muslim; you are not a believer until you love for your brother, what you love for yourself.” If envy and jealousy and greed and lust and these things have contaminated the heart.

Then we have to strive to clean up so we can be good Muslims, good righteous people. Well, there are Christians in the audience. There are Hebrews in the audience. They may feel offended if you say I want to be a good Muslim, that all human beings are made Muslim.

Well, now, let’s look at that. Christian is a name.  Jew is a name.  They have good meaning all right enough, but they are names given after a revealed word came down. 

In fact, in the Bible, it says, the followers of Jesus didn’t become known as Christians until at Antioch, where the enemies of Jesus began to call them Christians and the name stuck because they believed that Jesus was in fact, the Christ.

The name Jew came after the revelation of the Torah. So if the name Jew came after the revelation of the Torah and the name Christian came after the revelation of the Gospel, yet both Jesus and Moses claim Abraham as the father. What was Abraham?

Allah (God) says in the Qur’an that Abraham was not a Jew nor was he a Christian.  Now, don’t get angry, please. Don’t get angry. This is a classroom. Look, Allah (God) says in the Qur’an, “O people of the book,” that’s those who call themselves Jews and Christians, you are the people of the book and the book here is the Bible. 

“O people of the book, why do you dispute about Abraham when the Torah and the Gospel were not revealed until after him”? Do you not understand? Behold you are they who disputed about that knowledge.

Why then do you dispute about that which you have no knowledge and Allah (God) knows while you know not. Abraham was not a Jew, nor a Christian but he was an upright man, a Muslim, and he was not one of the polytheists.” Now, let’s look at that.

Wait a minute. We didn’t have Muslims on the earth until Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) came and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) brought Islam, and so Islam is the youngest of the three religions. Wrong. If Abraham is the father and he was not a Christian, he was not a Jew, what is a Muslim?

If he was an upright man and a Muslim, what is a Muslim? A Muslim is one who declares that he or she will bow down and submit their will entirely to do the will of God, the Creator.

Now, I said, all of us have that name, didn’t I.  Allah (God) says in the Qur’an that He created the human being in the nature of Islam. He created us to surrender totally and completely to God, and Allah (God) says, all submit except a rebellious devil.

Now, when we start rebelling against obedience to God, we become a devil. I’m going to say that again. There are a whole lot of devils everywhere, in the mosque, in the synagogue, in the church, in government, in school—a whole lot of devils.

It’s not what you claim, it’s what you do. I’ll say that again. It’s not what you claim you are, it’s what you do. Now look, I can say I believe in Jesus and I do. I can say I believe in Moses; I believe in Abraham; I believe in Muhammad (PBUH).

I do. That’s fine. You get credit for belief, but Islam is not belief. Islam is carrying into practice what you believe and if you do not practice your belief, you are not what you say you are.

Now, how many practicing followers of Jesus are there? How many practicing followers of Moses are there and how many practicing followers of Prophet Muhammad are there, peace be upon him? Well, I practice. I say my five daily prayers. That’s good. That’s a start but that’s not it. I fast during the month of Ramadan.

That’s good. I pay zakat. Oh, that’s wonderful. You haven’t reached it yet though. You’re on the road. No. We are not practicing until we surrender completely to carry out the will of God. Well, what is His will? His will is not just prayer. His will is not just fasting. Those are disciplines that get you ready to do His will.

Now, if you go to the mosque and stay in there all day praying, that’s not being a good Muslim. You can stay in church all day long praying. Prayer answers things. If you don’t get up and start doing something about your prayers, you won’t get any answers to your prayers.

So the call to Muslims, Christians and Jews is that we don’t talk about the Torah, talk about the Gospel, talk about the Qur’an; that’s easy to do. But what Allah (God) demands of us today is that we observe the Torah, observe the Gospel and observe the Qur’an, and to observe it means to follow Jesus, follow Moses and to follow Muhammad (PBUH). 

And if we don’t follow him and them—by follow I mean carry into practice exactly what they did when they lived among us—if we’re not doing that, we are not followers of the Prophet (PBUH).

We know his name, his book, but if we are not carrying into practice the will of God, then we are hypocrites in our profession of faith. Now, if what I’m saying stings a little bit, I don’t want you to be upset, because the intention is not to hurt, but to help us to see that we all must make a commitment to know the will of God, and then to do His will. 

And if all of us in this room just started doing what we know of the will of God and then increasing our knowledge of His will everyday, because the more you know, the more you’re responsible.

And those of us who are in leadership over God’s people are the most responsible to be examples for Him Whom we are telling the people about; and, most importantly, the sheiks, the imams, the pastors, most of them and the rabbis, are the ones who are misleading the people of God.

As I said last Sunday, the condition of the three communities: the Christians, the Muslims and the Jews, bear witness against our scholarship and our leadership, something has happened. We need to know what happened.

Have you noticed that when the prophets of God are among the people, their community is one? The moment the prophet leaves, the community becomes fragmented, divided. When Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was here, there was no Sunni, Shiite, Sufi, Hanbali, Hanafi, all these different schools of thought and sects.

It was only one. What is the Prophet (PBUH)? I am a Muslim. That’s what the Prophet (PBUH) was. What was Abraham? He was a Muslim. What are you? See, we say I’m Baptist. Well, what was Jesus? Was he Baptist? Come on. Was he a Methodist? Was he Episcopalian? Was he a member of the Church of God in Christ?

Tell me, what was Jesus? Then whatever Jesus was, you should be if you follow him. Prophet Muhammad would be displeased to see the division in his house. Jesus would be totally upset to see the division in his house, and the prophets that came to the children of Israel would all be totally upset to see the division in the house.

How did these divisions come? What precipitated these divisions that within the House of Islam we are fighting each other? Within the House of Christianity, we are fighting each other. Within the House of Judaism, we are fighting each other. Yet, we claim one father, Abraham.

Now, the father is all right. Ishmael and Isaac had different upbringing, different circumstances, I should say. A similar upbringing but different circumstances but they didn’t fight each other so God’s covenant was with both Isaac and Ishmael.

But now the people who say they are Muslims say well, we are from Ishmael. The people that are Jews, they say they’re from Isaac. So what difference does it make? If you’re from Ishmael or Isaac, if you are not like Abraham, you are not of Ishmael or Isaac. Let’s talk about it.

So Jews and Muslims are killing each other and hate each other and Christians and Muslims and Jews hate each other, have slaughtered each other and yet claim one father and one God.

Something is wrong, isn’t it? Allah (God) says in the Qur’an, listen to these words, “And they did not become divided until after revelation came to them splitting up their religion into sects and parties, each one rejoicing in their part”—not the whole, but their part.

We are wrong to make distinctions among God’s servants. Even though Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is the seal of the prophets, we are not to say that Muhammad is better than Jesus or better than Moses.

His revelation was higher, but to lift one up to put some others down is not what Allah wants because all those prophets represent one God and one community and one basic principle—set up no partner with Allah (God) and bow down and obey God’s will.