Original Man Know Thyself

1 It is knowledge of self that the so-called Negroes lack which keeps them from enjoying freedom, justice and equality. This belongs to them divinely as much as it does to other nations of the earth.

2 It is Allah's (God's) will and purpose that we shall know ourselves. Therefore He came Himself to teach us the knowledge of self. Who is better knowing of who we are than God, Himself? He has declared that we are descendants of the Asian Black Nation and the tribe of Shabazz.

3 You might ask, who is this tribe of Shabazz? Originally, they were the tribe that came with the earth (or this part) 66 trillion years ago when a great explosion on our planet divided it into two parts. One we call earth and the other moon.

4 This was done by one of our scientists, God, who wanted the people to speak one

language, one dialect for all, but was unable to bring this about. He decided to kill us by the destroying our planet, but still He failed. We were lucky to be on this part, earth, which did not lose its water in the mighty blasting away of the part called moon.

5 We, the tribe of Shabazz, says Allah (God), were the first to discover the best part of our planet to live on. The rich Nile Valley of Egypt and the present seat of the Holy City, Mecca, Arabia.

6 The origin of our kinky hair, says Allah, came from one of our dissatisfied scientists, 50,000 years ago, who wanted to make all of us tough and hard in order to endure the life of the jungles of East Asia (Africa) and to overcome the beasts there. But he failed to get the others to agree with him.

7 He took his family and moved into the jungle to prove to us that we could live there and conquer the wild beasts, and we have. So, being the first and the smartest scientist on the deportation of our moon and the one who suffered most of all, Allah (God) has decided to place us on the top with a thorough knowledge of self and his guidance.

8 We are the mighty, the wise, the best, but do not know it. Being without the knowledge, we disgrace ourselves, subjecting ourselves to suffering and shame. We could not get the knowledge of self until the coming of Allah. To know thyself is to know all men, as from us came all and to us all will return.

9 I must keep warning you that you should be give up the white race's names and religion in order to gain success. Their days of success are over. Their rule will last only as long as you remain asleep to the knowledge of self.

10 Awake and know that Allah has revealed the truth. Stop believing in something coming to you after you are physically dead. That is untrue, and no one can show any proof of such belief.

11 Again, know that Jesus was only a prophet and cannot hear you pray any more than Moses or any other dead prophet. Know too, that this white race was created to be the enemy of black mankind for 6,000 years, which makes their number to be six. That is not your number or mine. We do not have a number, because we have no birth record. Do not let anyone fool you. This is the separation.     

First Love Yourself

1 One of the greatest handicaps among the so-called Negroes is that there is no love for self, nor love for his or her own kind. This not having love for self is the root cause of hate (dislike), disunity, disagreement, quarreling, betraying, stool pigeons and fighting and killing one another. How can you be loved, if you have not love for self? And your own nations and dislike being a member of your own, then what nation will trust your love and membership.

2 You say of yourself, "I love everybody. " This cannot be true. Love for self comes first. The Bible, the book that you claim to believe says, "Love the brotherhood" (I Peter 2:17), "Love one another" (John 15:17). Love of self comes first. The one who loves everybody is the one who does not love anyone. This is the false teaching of the Christians for the Christians war against Christians.They have the Bible so twisted by adding in and taking out of the truth that it takes only God or one whom God has given the knowledge of the Book to understand it.

3 The Bible puts more stress upon the "love for the thy neighbor" than the "love for the brother." When asked "Who is my neighbor?" The answer was contrary and incorrect. Jesus' answer was that of two men who were on a journey. They were not from the same place. One was from Jerusalem, the other one was a Samaritan. The Samaritan came to where the man from Jerusalem lay wounded by the robbers who had stripped him of his possessions. The Samaritan showed sympathy for the fellow traveler. (He was not a neighbor in the sense of the word. A neighbor can be an enemy. ) Many enemies live in the same neighborhood of a good neighbor. But, the answer that Jesus gave was a futile one which can could be classified as a parable of the so-called Negroes and their slave-masters.

4 The so-called Negroes fell into the hands of the slave-masters, who have robbed, spoiled, wounded and killed them. The Good Samaritan here would be the Mahdi (Allah) -God in Person, as He is often referred to by the Christians as the "the second coming of Jesus, or the Son of Man to judge man. " This one will befriend the poor (the so-called Negroes) and heal their wounds by pouring into their heads knowledge of self and others and free them of the yoke of slavery and kill the slave- masters, as Jehovah did in the case of Pharaoh and his people to free Israel from bondage and the false religion and gods of Pharaoh.

5 There were many other proofs in the Bible which agree with the above answer.

6 Love yourself and your kind. Let us refrain from doing evil to each other, and let us love each other as brothers, as we are the same flesh and blood. In this way, you and I will not have any trouble in uniting. It is a fool who does not love himself and his people. Your black skin is the best, and never try changing its color. Stay away from intermixing with your slave -master's children. Love yourself and your kind.

Understand Self

Chapter 20 Understand Self

1 There are some efforts to celebrate a so-called "Negro History Week," and some of my people will participate. The planning of that week to teach the slave a knowledge of his past is not complete, sufficient or comprehensive enough to enable my people to learn the true knowledge of themselves. It is important that my people learn the true knowledge of self, as it means their salvation.

2 We are not Negroes, because God, whose proper name is Allah, has taught us who we are. We are not "colored" people because God has taught me who the colored people are. The American Negro is without knowledge of self. You are a so-called Negro because you are "not" a Negro. Allah has given to me our proper names, the people from whom we were taken and brought here to the shores of North America and the history of our forefathers. Allah has taught me and today I do not fear to tell you, that you can discard that name "Negro." We are not "Negroes." We are not colored! Those are some of the main things which we should remember.

3 We must become aware of the knowledge of self and the time in which we are living. You must know these things whether you agree that Elijah Muhammad is on time or out of time. If what I say is out of season, it goes for nothing. If I am on time or in season, then all I say will bear fruit.

4 There is much misunderstanding among us because of our inferior knowledge of self. We have been to the schools where they do not teach us the knowledge of self. We have been to the schools of our slave-master children. We have been to their schools and gone as far as they have allowed us to go. That was not far enough for us to learn a knowledge of self. The lack of knowledge of self is one of our main handicaps. It blocks us throughout the world. If you were the world and you were a part of the world, you would also turn a man down if he did not know who he actually was. If we, the so-called Negroes, do not know our own selves, how can we be accepted by a people who have a knowledge of self ?

5 Are we representing ourselves as Negroes and "colored" people in the ancient history of Black men? Our search of the ancient history of the black man of the earth will prove that not once in time were Negroes or "colored" people living in Asia or Africa. How did we come by those names? The names are from the slave-masters. They have called us by their names and the nicknames used among themselves.

6 It even seems that we like being called by the slave-masters’ name. After nearly a hundred years of freedom, we are still representing ourselves by the names our slave-masters called us! We must learn that the slave-master’s names are not accepted by God or by the righteous people of God.

7 It is time for us to learn who we really are, and it is time for us to understand ourselves. That true knowledge is here for you today whether you accept it or reject it. God has said that we are members of the original people or black nation of the earth. Original means first. Historian J. A. Rogers points out in his book that beyond the cotton fields of the South and long before the white man himself was a part of our planet, we were the original people ruling the earth, and according to the Holy Qur’an, we had governments superior to any we are experiencing today. Trace over the earth. Check back 5,000, 10,000, or 20,000 years ago. Look at history. Who were those people? They were our people. Today, we are confronted with proof of who the original people are and who shall live on this earth and call it their own.

Help Self before Helping Others

1 Many of my people, the so-called Negroes, say we should help the nations of Africa which are awakening. This has been said as if we owned America. We are so foolish! What part of America do you have that you can offer toward helping Africa? Who is independent, the nations of Africa or we?

The best act would be to request the independent governments of Africa and Asia to help us. We are the ones who need help. We have little or nothing to offer as help to others. We should begin to help at home first.

2 We are 20 million strong. Many of the nations today that have their independence, and those who are getting their independence, are much smaller in number than my people in America. We are dependent on the slave-master. We do not have 2 feet of earth for our nation of people. You and I, here in America, are licking the boots of the slave-master, begging him for the right of independent people. Yes, we are licking his boots. "Sir, let me shine your shoes?" You have been doing that for approximately 400 hundred years. Today, if one rises up in your midst and says, "We should not lick the slave-master’s boots, we should lick our own boots," you would say, "He should be killed! He should be killed because he is teaching us to hate." My people, you are in a dangerous position. Get that fear out of you and stand up for your people! Who are you not to die for your people? Who am I not to die for my people! If I am shot down or cut down today, who is little Elijah Muhammad to 20 million of you! If a million of us throw ourselves in the fire for the benefit of the 20 million, the loss would be small compared to the great gain our people will make as a result of that sacrifice. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims gave their lives in Pakistan to get their nation’s independence. They were successful. The black men in Africa are fighting and dying today in unity for their independence.

3 We sit here like pampered babies. We cannot even stand on the floor, not to mention taking a chance of crawling out of the door. We are too careful of shedding blood for ourselves. We are willing to shed all of it for the benefit of others. I am not trying to get you to fight. That is not even necessary; our unity will win the battle! Not one of us will have to raise a sword. Not one gun would we need to fire. The great cannon that will be fired is our unity. Our unity is the best. Why are you afraid to unite? Why are you afraid to accept Allah and Islam?

4 It is only because the slave-master did not teach you of this! We unite to ourselves as a nation of people.

5 Separation of the so-called Negroes from their slave-master’s children is a MUST. It is the only solution to our problem.

6 You must know that this is the time of our separation and the judgement of this world (the Caucasian), which you and I have known. Therefore, Allah has said to me that the time is ripe for you and me to accept our own, the whole planet earth. Are you waiting for the Divine Destruction? Come! Let us reason together. First, in order for us to reason, you must have a through knowledge of self. Who is going to teach you that knowledge of self? Who are you waiting for to teach you the knowledge of self? Surely, not your slave-master, who blinded you to that knowledge of self. The slave-master will not teach you the knowledge of self, as there would not be a master-slave relationship any longer.

What The So-Called Negro must Do For Himself

1 Men everywhere are seeking unity among themselves. Every race of people want unity with their own kind first, except my people, the so-called Negro in America. Our condition and lack of love for ourselves must be attributed to the slave-master. He has been our teacher until the coming of Almighty God, Allah. The slave-master has robbed my people of their God, religion, name, language, and culture.

2 The worst kind of crime has been committed against us, for we were robbed of our desire to even want to think and do for ourselves. We are often pictured by the slave-master as a lazy and trifling people who are without thoughts of advancement. I say, this is a condition which the slave-master very cleverly wanted and created within and among the so-called Negroes.

3 Robert H. Kinzor and Edward Sagarin, in their book, "The Negro in American Business" (page 81), states that the history of America would be different today if the slaves freed from bondage had been given, in addition to the three amendments to the Constitution, the famous "forty acres and a mule."

4 The slaves instead started not only without land and the money to purchase it but with few avenues open to earn and save money. Ownership of producing land is a prime and necessary part of freedom. A people cannot exist freely without land, and the so-called Negro in America is evidence of that fact. The slave-master passed laws limiting the so-called Negro in land ownership or limiting the areas in which such purchases or even rentals could be made. Are you not left restricted to the poorer sections the slave-master is abandoning throughout America?

5 Again, Mr. Kinzor and Mr. Sagarin gave a hint in their book of the great psychological strategy of the slave-master on his slave - that is the original brainwash. On page 84, the authors state that the land sold to ex-slaves was of poor quality and in an inferior location. They state the so-call Negro faced pressure against him becoming a farm owner and pressure from the white community that he remain a tenant. We encountered credit difficulties, hardships of repayment of loans and hardship with white executives from whom the loans must be asked.

6 All of this is part of the clever plan to discourage my people from wanting to own producing land for themselves and to cause a great dislike within them for having anything to do with tilling, cultivating, extracting and producing for themselves as other free and independent people. It is a shame! This shows you and I what white America is to us and just why we have not been able to do anything worthwhile for self. They want us to be helpless so they can mistreat us as always. We must come together and unite. It is time.

7 I think it is a disgrace for us to be satisfied with only a servant’s part. We should and must, as other people, want for ourselves what other civilized nations have! Let us do for ourselves that which we are begging the slave-master to do for us. Do not be fooled by the false promise of civil rights and the softening of their language. It is offered to you now to keep you from becoming free of their evil plans of depriving you of the offer made to us by Allah - if we would submit to Him, He will set us in heaven at once. It is only justice that we be given land and provisions for a start so we may do for ourselves. This what the other new emerging nations are given. We want good productive land, not earth that is scorched but land that will produce crops and hold foundations for structures.

8 Let us make this clear. I am not begging. For, it pleases Allah. He will give us a home, and I am with Him. Today, according to Allah’s Word, we are living in a time of the great separation of the blacks and the whites. The prophesy - 400 years of slavery - as to the time the so-called Negroes would serve white people ended in 1955. The so-called Negroes must return to their own. The separation would be a blessing for both sides. It was the only solution, according to the Bible, for Israel and the Egyptians. It will prove to be the only solution for America and her slaves.

Get Knowledge to Benefit Self

1 I am for the acquiring of knowledge or the accumulating of knowledge - as we now call it; education. First, my people must be taught the knowledge of self. Then and only then will they be able to understand others and that which surrounds them. Anyone who does not have a knowledge of self is considered a victim of either amnesia or unconsciousness and is not very competent. The lack of knowledge of self is a prevailing condition among my people here in America. Gaining the knowledge of self makes us unite into a great unity. Knowledge of self makes you take on the great virtue of learning.

2 Many people have attempted to belittle or degrade my followers by referring to them as unlettered and unschooled. They do this to imply that the believers in Islam are ignorant. If such a claim were so, then all the more credit should be given for our striving for self-elevation with so little. But truth represents itself and stands by itself. No followers, nor any other people are more zealous about the acquiring of knowledge than my followers. Throughout the Holy Qur’an, the duty of a Muslim to acquire knowledge is spelled out.

3 My people should get an education which will benefit their own people and not an education adding to the "storehouse" of their teacher. We need education, but an education which removes us from the shackles of slavery and servitude. Get an education, but not an education which leaves us in an inferior position and without a future. Get an education, but not an education that leaves us looking to the slave-master for a job.

4 Education for my people should be where our children are off to themselves for the first 15 or 16 years in classes separated by sex. Then they could and should seek higher education without the danger of losing respect for self or seeking to lose their identity. No people strive to lose themselves among other people except the so-called American Negroes. This they do because of their lack of knowledge of self.

5 We should acquire an education where our people will become better students than their teachers. Get an education which will make our people produce jobs for self and will make our people willing and able to go and do for self. Is this not the goal and aim of the many foreign students who are studying in this country? Will not their students return to their own nations and give their people the benefit of their learning? Did not Nkrumah return to Ghana to lead his people to independence with the benefit of learning he acquired here in America and elsewhere? Did not Dr. Hastings Banda return to give the benefit of his education to his people who are striving toward freedom and independence in Nyasaland? Did not Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria give the benefit of his education to the upliftment and independence of his people. Does not America offer exchange scholarships to smaller, weaker and dependent foreign governments so their students will acquire knowledge to aid the people of those countries? Then why shouldn’t the goal in education be the same for you and me? Why is scorn and abuse directed toward my followers and myself when we say our people should get an education which will aid, benefit and uplift our people? Any other people would consider it a lasting insult, of the worst type, to ask them to refrain from helping their people to be independent by contributing the benefit of their knowledge.

6 Get an education, but one which will instill the ides and desire to get something of your own, a country of your own and jobs of your own.

7 I recall, in 1922 or 1923, when a debate was taking place in Congress concerning appropriation of funds for Howard University, a school set aside to train my people, in the nation’s capital. A senator said this, and it is in the records to be examined in effect: What would be the need of the government appropriating money to educate Negroes? He said that they would not teach our people the science of modern warfare (defense), birth control or chemistry. He knew these were the things free people must know in order to protect, preserve and advance themselves. We have not been able to protect, preserve and advance ourselves. This shows the slave-master has been very successful in dominating us with an education beneficial to him. There is a saying among us, "Mother may have, father may have, but God blesses the child who has it’s own." It is time we had our own.

8 I want an education for my people that will let them exercise the right of freedom. We are 100 years up from slavery. We are constantly told that we are free. Why can’t we take advantage of that freedom? I want an education for my people that will elevate them. Why should we always be lying at the gate begging for bread, shelter, clothing and jobs if we are free and educated? Do not get an education just to set it up as some useless, symbolic monument to the black man in the Western Hemisphere. We need an education that eliminates division among us. Acquire an education that creates unity and makes us desire to be with our own.

9 The acquiring of knowledge for our children and ourselves must not be limited to the three R’s ‘ - ‘reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic. It should instead include the history of the black nation, the knowledge of civilization of man and the universe and all the sciences. It will make us a greater people of tomorrow.

10 We must instill within our people the desire to learn and then use that learning for self. We must be obsessed with getting the type of education we may use toward the elevation and benefit of our people - when we have such people among us, we must make it possible for them to acquire this wealth which will be beneficial and useful to us.

11 One of the attributes of Allah, The All-Wise God, Who is the Supreme Being, is knowledge. Knowledge is the result of learning and is a force or energy that makes it’s bearer accomplish or overcome obstacles, barriers and resistance. In fact, God means possessor or power and force. The education my people need is that knowledge, the attribute of God, which creates power to accomplish and make progress in the good things or the righteous things. We have tried other means and ways and we have failed. Why not try Islam? It is our only salvation. It is the religion of Allah, His prophets and our forefathers.

Knowledge Of Yourself

1 You are ever making mistakes which will prove fatal to you and others of your own. If you could only recognize the time and knowledge of yourself and kind, the knowledge of the others who are on the same planet rotating around the sun daily, you would know who you are, as well as know your planet and it’s consistency and remember at all times how you were brought here through our parents 400 years ago and how our parents were mercilessly brought here against their will. They did not ask to come but were forced and were used for merchandise to be sold and resold for 300 long years like livestock and wild beasts.

2 You do not have a second thought about this, because you have your own mind, eyes and heart filled with hopes that you may become one of those who did this evil against your parents and be recognized as a great admirer and lover of these same people who now rehearse the same evil with a little addition, the fire hose and the dogs, the burning and the lynching of you and your women. You are not able - at this day and time - 100 years a free slave, to protect yourself and your women from the murderous hands of the children of the murderers of your fathers and mothers 400 years ago.

3 Today, God , in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, is asking you and me to "Accept our own and return to our own kind on some of this earth, that we call our own," and you are rejecting this offer to return to your own unless you can carry the same enemy along who has destroyed your fathers and is now destroying you. They were not bought and sold as you were; they did not come from Africa but from Europe. You are so blinded that you cannot see them and so deaf that you cannot hear the truth of them and desire to be one of them and mix their blood and have them mix into your blood. This is like Sodom and Gomorrah before God.

4 You should remember that you have a great offer made to you in the words, "Accept Your Own." To accept your own means yourself and your kind, your God Who is of you and you are of Him. It was your fathers who created the heavens and the earth, while there was is nothing that the white man has created independently. He did not even create himself. The Black Nation is self-created, while the white race is made by one of the gods and scientists of the Black Nation. Their time on our planet is nothing compared to the time that we have been in the universe on this planet. It is hardly a fraction of a minute if we divide their 6,000 years into our billions and trillions of years. It would run into little no time at all.

5 We are the originals, so Almighty God has revealed. He has asked you who belong to the original people of the earth to accept your place among them, since you have been robbed of knowledge and your place on the planet that you can call your own and your place among your own. You must remember that this is a wonderful offer, and it is a wonderful knowledge to know the truth, and it is even more wonderful to know that the truth is in your favor and the earth as well as the heaven above belong to you. Accept your own, that which you have been dead to the knowledge of, now that God has come in your midst to resurrect you and put you in your place of authority. You are ignorant enough to put yourself in the place of a dog at the feet of the white race, begging them to accept you as their brother, when they could not do this if they tried. They would still be deceiving you, and their efforts would end in the manifest truth that it was only false of them to try to establish brotherhood among you. Their time of ruling the people of the earth is up. Accept your place in the sun as it was originally before the creation of this world.

6 You must remember that slave-names will keep you a slave in the eyes of the civilized world today. You have seen, and recently, that Africa and Asia will not honor you or give you any respect as long as you are called by the white man’s name. The example was evident when I took Muhammad Ali (the World’s Heavyweight Champion) out of the white man’s name (the name itself made him a servant and slave to the white man). All Africa and Asia then acclaimed him as being their champion. This shows you that all of the previous black men of America who were bestowed with the title of the world’s heavyweight champion were only exalting the white man of America, Europe and Australia. Their people said nothing because they were not theirs and were not enhancing their honor among the people of the world. Just a change of name has given Brother Muhammad Ali a name of honor and a name of praise that will live forever (its meaning). His people of the near and far East acclaimed him and laid the red carpet for him to come among them as a prince.

7 I warn you to wake up and accept your own or go to the doom with other than your own.