THE MEANING OF F.O.I.

What is the meaning of F.O.I.? The Fruit of Islam. The name given to the military training of the men who belong to Islam in North America. Military training implies tactics. Military training implies maneuvers. Military training implies going behind the lines in enemy territory. Military training implies establishing a beachhead in enemy territory and then proceeding to take control. Military training implies WAR.

The 47th chapter of the Quran is called, "Muhammad," and that chapter is also called "War" because when the Muhammad of the Holy Quran comes he makes war on the forces of evil that have ruled and dominated the planet earth for the last 6,000 years. The objective of it is to turn the earth back into the hands of its original owners. And that's why you are asked the question, "Who is the Original Man?" And you are asked the question, "Who is the Colored Man?" So you will know who the earth belongs to, and who the false owner is that must be removed. You are also asked the questions, "What is the population of the Original Nation?" and "What is the population of the colored People?", so you may get some idea as to just how much the Original people outnumber the enemy people. But the enemy has been wise enough, though he is smaller in number, to go among the Original people and color them and make them agents of the colored man rather than agents of the Original God.

So now God has come in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, to Whom praise is due forever1 and has established His position behind enemy lines, and He has raised up the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to guide us now in the taking, or retaking of our home.

Now, brothers, you are given military drill, face movements, close order drill. What is this for? I don't want the FOI to get in their minds that this is an army like the armies of the world. It is a superior army, with a superior mission. Though few in number, it makes no difference. It is the power that backs us that makes us powerful. Israel is small but as long as she is backed by America, she becomes mighty. Well, we may be small but as long as we are backed by Allah and the Messenger we are Mighty. So we are called the "Mighty FOI."

We must see what kind of concept we as Fruit of Islam should have in our minds about this army that we have joined. Those who think in terms of any army running with rifle practice, an army that knows their M-16, an army that studies maneuvers in killing and what-not No, I am sorry. This is not that kind of army. I am not saying that we won't have to someday or under some circum stances deal with an enemy and if necessary destroy. But you must look at the first Fruit, the first Fruit whom we now know as the Christ. One of the titles of Christ is "The Saviour." Another title of Christ is "The Redeemer." Another title of Christ is, "Christ, the Lord." Another title of Christ is "Christ, the King." Well, since we are subjects of the King-or as the scripture calls us, the body of the Christ-then the body does not make the decision, Christ makes the decision. He gives the direction. He's the sole boss.

Well, if Christ is "The Saviour," that's the number one title of Christ. When he becomes God, He exercises that power to save people. From what? From their sins, the scripture says. "And He shall save His people from their sins." And the Messenger of Allah said He's not here to save us from our sins, he's here to save us from the sins of white people that we have adopted.

Master Fard Muhammad is known as "The Saviour." But you didn't know Him. I didn't know Him. He saved one man: Elijah Muhammad. And that one man becomes the Saviour of us all under His (Master Fard Muhammad's) power.

The HEM taught us that Master Fard Muhammad studied 42 years to deliver us. Listen to me carefully now. He studied 42 years to deliver us. He was God but He had to study. He was God, He had that potential, but He had to grow into that potential through study. And so the pictures you see Master Fard Muhammad, you see Him reading a book. Because the only way you can save the people is if you know the wisdom that is found, not just in the newspaper or some book that you were trained in college, but you must know the wisdom in the book that is designed for the salvation of the Blackman. Do you understand? Christ, the Saviour.

Well, if the HEM who was among us, laying a foundation for us to work today, has now left our midst but deposited in us his word and the same course of study that Master Fard Muhammad gave him, then why should we study'? It is because you must study to save and deliver the people. On Saviour's Day 1981, I said, and I am quoting now, "It is written in the scriptures, 'I will send Saviours, plural, after them.' " I will send Saviours, plural, after them. Who is the "I?" The "I" who is doing the sending is the one who is the Christ. He says He raises up disciples and He sends them. He is raised, and then He becomes a sender of Saviours. That's heavy, brother. A Saviour. A Saviour. Pick up your dictionary and look up the word Saviour-one who saves. And when you look in the mirror at yourself, look at yourself good, and say to yourself, "I am sent as a Saviour of my black brothers and sisters. I am a Saviour. I am a Deliverer. I am a Redeemer." Think about those words. You and I are acting under the Saving Grace and Power of the Saviour-The Most HEM who is acting under the power of the Lord of the Worlds. So we got power to save. How do you know we got power? Because the word of God coming through me saved you. And the word of God coming through you will save anybody who will listen to you if you will study and qualify yourself for your work as a Saviour of our people.

So the army that is going out there, is not an army of gangsters. They are not going out there with the face of a thug. See, if you come to me with that kind of expression, I'd run and hide, because you don't look like a Saviour. Master Fard Muhammad came looking like a Saviour. He came looking appealing. He came in the clothes and flesh of a devil because we were among devils. We had fallen in love with devils, and wouldn't I listen to anybody black. So His father had to go and get a special kind of woman to make Him to appear a special kind of way so that He could get close enough to us to save that one from among us who would turn around and ultimately save us all. What does that tell you? The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said put on a white shirt, and put on a tie, I don't care if you only have one suit, beloved. Let it be clean! Even if it is a mismatch; let it be clean! Go clean among your people. Because clean is the opposite of dirty. Dressed-up is the opposite of undressed. You are going to a savage people who are undressed and dirty and if you go clean and dressed up you are opposite them and it sets up an immediate attraction; for opposite attracts. All praise is due to Allah.

If you go out among them looking as wild and ugly and crazy-acting as they look, you repel because you look like they look. But if you come with a peaceful expression, if you come with a heart filled with love for your people, who have never been loved by anybody except God and His Apostle, then you come in the Spirit of a Saviour. You come in the spirit of a Redeemer. A Redeemer is one who is willing to pay a price to redeem someone or something that he loves. If we love our people, then we have come forward to pay whatever price is absolutely necessary to redeem all of our people from the grip of Satan. We are Saviours. We are Redeemers. So we say in our prayer, "My prayer, my sacrifice, my life and my death is all for Allah." It is all for Allah. Well what do you mean it is all for Allah? It is all for His Will. What is His Will? His Will is that the dead must be raised to life. But how will the dead be raised? The Truth must be gotten to them. And how will the Truth be gotten to them? The Truth must be put in vessels that will carry it to the lost and found. Knock on their door with a friendly face: a face of a Saviour-alive and alert-knowing that his brother is a savage and is crazy-acting; and the Saviour knew that but He walked among us for three and one-half years: among a savage people. We weren't too filthy for Him to come among us, to knock on our door, to walk in and sell us silks and different things so He could get a chance to teach us of this amazing word that He Himself had brought to save us and redeem us from the clutches of a brutal beast.

You are a Saviour, Blackman. You are not a destroyer, you are a healer. You're not a killer, you're a Saviour. "Wait a minute now I'm getting in shape." Stay in shape, but hide your power. Stay in shape but don't parade power. Parade the fact that you are a Saviour of your people. Don't make your people afraid of you, make them come toward you. Be warm and friendly. You know. Be courteous to your people. Be loving and kind to them. Yes. That is what wins them because for four hundred years they have known nothing but people talking to them hard, talking to them mean.

You know that we are savages. So we got to be patient with our people. But brothers, you got to study. And the more you study the words, the teachings, the very spiritual roots of his Word and the program of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, you grow into the mind of a Saviour. And when people see you coming, they act as though a Saviour has come into their midst.

The old military training of the FOI was wrong in several respects. And that is condemned by God and the Messenger and by myself. The old military training must be thrown out of the window because that was not a training to save our people. You were often being trained in the manner of the army of the devil. And you never did look upon yourself as an army of Saviours. You looked upon yourself as an army of killers. And that's why if you didn't have no devil in front of you to kill, several of you turned on each other, threatening each other, jumping in each other's chest. That's not the way that Allah wanted us to be militarily trained. And don't you know when you are trained to save a people, when you are trained in the way of Allah and you love your Islamic way of life, then you will fight like hell for what you love; I because you know nobody gave us this kind of brotherhood until the HEM came and gave it to us. So we will fight to defend it, fight to protect it.

This doesn't mean we go out and just become an old soft nut. But it does mean that you hide your power. In the book of Habakkuk it says, "He had horns coming out of His hands, but there was the hiding of power." He hid the fact that they could destroy because they had met destroyers all their lives. He showed them the power that He had to save. And then when someone acted in a manner that he knew that they needed chastisement, then he put it on them. And none could chastise like the servants of Allah when our anger is aroused.

But we are not here to show anger to our savage brothers and sisters. We are an army raised by God through the Messenger to save our people. This means that the military training of the men who belong to Islam in North America must be after this wise. FOI training: when you go in close order drill, you are learning to follow simple commands. We are learning the beauty of men working of together, marching together, at the command of one commander. Well, the commander-in-chief of the Nation of Islam is the Most HEM. We have no other commander. We want no other commander. All of us are stand-ins and as long as we recite His commands then we are worthy to stand in for Him. But when we begin to use His name to shield a dirty religion and then begin to impose self made commands in His name, then the FOI must be wise enough to reject such commands, because it didn't come properly.

You are not soldiers to be trained like Hitler's he army and have no intelligence to think. We are to be made thinking men. Just like a he computer will reject something you put in that it is not programmed to receive, if you study the teachings and program of the HEM then you reject everything that is not of Him.

So my dear and beloved brothers of the FOI, our role is a role of Saviours. What tools do you have? Knowledge, wisdom and understanding. The Final Call is just a tool, as are the books of the HEM. But now we must be taught how to use the tools. In the army they teach you how to shoot. In the FOI we must teach every brother how to handle himself as a soldier and how to handle the word of God as an instrument by which the people can be saved.

So, brothers, You can see we've got a lot of training to do. And so we organize, and we go I after our people in a systematic way: block by t block, street by street, house by house. We knock on any door; just like He went, we go. And don't go ugly. Put your best foot forward. And that's why, brothers, when people write about the followers of the Messenger they say they are clean, they are courteous, they are respectful, they are submissive, but underneath all of that they see that this is a dangerous body if ignited in that way. So this is going to be a balanced training.

Well, you say "What about killing the devil?" What about that. "Well, I just had my shotgun and my stuff and I was ready." No, you go break that up. Many of the conflicts that were brought on the Nation, we brought them on ourselves by the ignorant way we handled the wisdom of God. Do you know that? If you respect yourself you'll find yourself being respected even by the devil.

Now, what about killing the devil? Our lessons say, "Why does Muhammad and any Muslim murder the devil?" "Because he is 100% wicked and will not keep and obey the laws of Islam." But did you know that every time you save a Blackman you have in that same act of salvation killed a devil'? You don't have to deal with the negative, deal with the positive and you have taken care of the negative. Every time you save a Blackman you have killed a devil because when truth comes in, falsehood goes out. And the only way the whiteman has been able to rule our people is through the field of falsehood and ignorance. So you replace the field of falsehood and ignorance with truth and knowledge. And there is no devil anymore there, we just killed one.

"Well, I'm talking about the whiteman." I'm talking about the Blackman who thinks like the whiteman. That's your charge because you were a devil before the Messenger met you. And when you came to the Messenger the devil lost one. Like they sing that song in the church, "The devil is mad and I'm so glad, 'cause he missed that soul that he thought he had." Well, he thought he had us, brother, and like a thief in the night Muhammad snatched us. Now you go and snatch the rest of our brothers and sisters. And then when we get all of our people, at least a majority of them, thinking like we think and organize, the devil-the whiteman-becomes no problem at all,

The Messenger, and I quote and leave you, in the "Theology of Time," said, "If you continue to listen to me, I will have you so smart that you will have the devil around your finger like a little string and you won't even know its there except you look at it." So we're going to continue listen to him. That's what we're going to do. We're going to continue to study his words. And it won't take us 42 years because He (Master Fard Muhammad) studied 42 years and the Messenger worked 40, really 44, to give us the short cut. So the Messenger said to us, "We can accomplish the above said with very little study." All right then, army of FOI, go out and look at your and my work. It's up and down 63rd Street. It's up and down 79th Street. It's on the South Side. It's on the West Side. And just take a good look at it and you'll say, "O Lord, I can't do this. I need help." And you know where your help is? It's right out there on 79th Street. There's a dead man there today with a bottle in his hand, with a needle in his arm, waiting for one of the Mighty Saviours to come and get him. And once he's saved, he'll say, "Man, look at what the truth has done for me." Then he'll turn around and study hard and go get the rest of those that are junkies in the junk den.

That's our job, brothers. So let's put up the old weapons of this world and pick up the weapons of the next world-and that is truth. I hope that you understand. I'm not teaching or saying anything that needs interpretation. It's very, very clear. The little weapons that you think you have are just enough to get you killed. Our people only have these little weapons to kill one another. That's a shame. That's the wrong way the army should be trained.

I remember once a minister put a brother out of the Temple. I was riding in the car with this minister and he said to me, "I had to give a brother 90 days." He put the brother out because the brother went to a body shop owned by a Muslim to put up a poster saying that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was coming to New York. The owner of that body shop told him he didn't want that in his business. As a result the brother threatened to kill him because, if he's a follower of the Messenger, why would he reject the Messenger's picture in his establishment? It was bad for business. So what the body shop owner was showing the other brother was hypocrisy, and the brother threatened him, and the minister put him out for 90 days for threatening to kill his Muslim brother. So I said to the minister, "You know, brother, you cannot train the brother to go out and whip lost-founds with pipes and think that it won't come inside the house."

The minister was very angry with me when I said that. But I was telling him that with every blow that a brother struck a lost-found in his head with a pipe, a lead pipe, because he disrespected some brother out there selling the newspaper or something, we should, instead, take the insult and go on. Why? Because we're not murderers of our people, we're Saviours of them. How often did we insult the Messenger? And He took it all because He is not a killer of us, He is a Saviour of us. And so this minister would secretly send out brothers. And there was a pipe squad in the Temple. This is what started the Nation into deterioration because some of the men were secretly being trained to hurt one another.

When a brother had fornicated with a Muslim sister, the law said put him out, but the brothers didn't want to just put him out. They wanted to add some of their own self into the punishment and they met him at the house with lead pipes and beat his head into a pulp because they didn't really respect the mercy in the law of God. They wanted to be a law unto themselves. And before you know it, many brothers became insensitive to one another and then it was easy for a brother to kill another brother.

And if you really want to know the truth, that's why Allah permitted the Nation to be destroyed. Anytime you lose the love of the brotherhood, you will absolutely destroy the house. So we're not set up as judges; we've got a judge.

So, if you have these weapons, I am telling you I don't need them. I've never asked people to come around me with weapons. If my God is not sufficient to protect me as I'm doing His will and not my own, then I'm here to tell you forget about Allah. Throw him out the window. He's worthless. You can't depend on Him. You better depend on your pistol. You better depend on your shotgun. So let me see you making a prostration to your pistol 'cause that's your God. But with me I need no God but Allah. And the Honorable Elijah Muhammad told us not to carry so much as a penknife. And don't tell me that that was for that time but this is a different day. It's the same day with the same problem, with the same black folks, with the same devil, and the same God that got Elijah Muhammad through all of that, will get us through this most difficult time.

So if you think that you can't qualify to be in that kind of an army, then I would hope to receive your letter or resignation from the FOI because you won't be a part of this. We're not having thugs, we're not having gangsters, we're not having little pseudo-cleaned up criminals. We are righteous men, with a righteous purpose, and if we are opposed in carrying out that righteous purpose, we will fight like hell with those who fight with us, in the name of Allah, and we will whip the hell out of any that come against us, short or tall, armed or unarmed. But we got to be right with our God. I hope this is clear now. And when you move out, move out as soldiers, but not as the devil's soldiers. Whose soldiers are we? Muhammad's! Which Muhammad? The Honorable Elijah Muhammad! Well, He is a Saviour of Black people. What about you? Come on, brothers. If we're soldiers for Muhammad, let's get on after his people.

Take this, study it, compare it with all you have studied of the Messenger and you will know that everything that I have said is 100% the truth and you must be trained in that manner or you will not be accepted by Allah and the Messenger as a part of the Fruit of Islam. Thank you.

As-Salaam Alaikum

Your Brother & Servant