Are 120 Lessons Still Relevant?

   

   Within recent years and with the present day political climate I've been seeing more and more people who consider(ed) themselves Five Percenters publicly denouncing the value and our custom of learning, reciting and teaching 120 lessons. It begs the question, “Is 120 still relevant?”

   Those of you who've been checking out my videos, articles, books, music, radio shows, youth advocacy and community outreach over the years know that the value of 120 is something I've consistently shared throughout these mediums. There are two reasons I've consistently done this: 1.) To show those of us who have 120, or who are learning 120, practical ways to apply it to life and 2.) To encourage those who don't have 120 to consider its practical value. Over twenty years ago when I began studying the lessons through my Educator/Enlightener Raheem, I invested a considerable amount of time striving to show and prove them. I was a sophomore in college and I damn near lived in the library; I studied there for hours and was employed there for work study. As I evolved I also began to seek out people to debate, like a swordsman striving to test the sharpness of his blade and technique of his teachings. Through these philosophical battles and intellectual jousting matches I eventually realized that I was really trying to show and prove this to myself. Internally I really wasn’t sure how full proof these lessons were and I needed to test them.

   When I hear someone who consider(ed) themselves Five Percenters minimize, diminish or disassociate themselves from the lessons I always wonder what they no longer identify with, specifically. Is it the meaning of civilization and/or the duty of a civilized person? What is a real devil? Not believing in the teachings of the 10%? Giving all they have and doing all within their power? If given the opportunity, I think it would be a very insightful discussion to go through each degree with a person like this to see what they actually disagree with and their reasoning behind that disagreement. What I think would be revealed in most cases is this person wasn’t studious and never really researched these lessons and/or the principles and values they did learn in these lessons they simply aren’t committed to. In my journey in this nation I have yet to meet someone who shared a legitimate reason why they personally don’t deal with the lessons. What I have met are people who are often uncomfortable with the peer group pressure that comes along with being expected to know, recite and understand these lessons. Some don’t like being questioned or being expected to respond to people. Although they may not feel this way about their school teachers or employers, they do feel this way about their peers; oftentimes because they think they’re better than them. Whatever their reasoning is, they often strive to find this comfortable niche where they get the acknowledgement, respect and benefits of Five Percenter status without being questioned and held accountable to the group [collective] of Five Percenters. Sometimes instead of moving on to use what they’ve learned from us to be a cyclops in the land of blind, they’ll hang around to be a pop shot critic. Everything someone does they’ll have something negative to say about it and when a Five Percenter responds by questioning them they’ll simply say, “I’m not a Five Percenter.” So now you have a person who can use your system to check/neutralize you but you're unable to hold them to the same standard. I elaborate on games like this, and the way we need to respond to them, in my book GAMES.  

NYC Map with Landmarks

    

   120 lessons are like 120 landmarks on a map of human geography. Some of these landmarks represent actual people, places, things and events. Some of these landmarks are also symbols of people, places, things or events. Whether these landmarks are actual or symbolic, our exposure to them plays a critical role in how we begin to see, define and navigate this map of human geography. The first lesson or landmark we learn is who the original man [and woman] is. Because I know and have studied this extensively, my view of the world, and how I attend it, is very different than someone who does not know this. If we were both looking at a city landscape, this is one landmark of importance to me that is either unseen or not of equal importance to someone else. This would be no different than a person driving by a gated enclosure they rarely noticed until someone proudly brought it to their attention that several of their family members are buried there going back six generations. What one person drives past, another person makes it a point to stop and visit. Neither is right or wrong, I am simply pointing out how we navigate life and that our GPS [Global Positioning Device] is determined by what’s in our head. So when someone who had or has lessons no longer uses them on this map of human geography, we must ask ourselves what device are they using to globally position themselves? I’ve heard some Five Percenters say Supreme Mathematics. Well mathematics don’t tell us anything about ethics, morality or people, places, things and events. Supreme Mathematics tell us who God is yet there is no mention of the Devil. Without the lessons they also don’t know about specific people, places, things and events that expound upon the power dynamics between God and the Devil. For a person to minimize, diminish or disassociate themselves from that information is dangerous, especially in today’s political climate. This doesn’t mean that a person like this can’t show you anything or take you anywhere. I am questioning the starting location their GPS is now set at. If they no longer claim to be a Five Percenter, then what’s their location now? If it’s a just “God”, what kind of God? If it’s a Muslim-God, Goddess, Spiritual Being or etc, what kind? If it is unclear…, then it may not be in your best interest to travel with them because none of you have any idea what the destination is. Yes, just because someone has 120 or because a pilot has flying experience it doesn’t mean they won’t crash the plane. Yet at least you know what this pilot’s credentials are on paper, you have some sense of expectancy of their flight experience and there’s pressure on them in regards to reaching their said destination because they’re a part of company [collective]. Who would you rather take a chance traveling with, them or someone who says they aren’t a pilot anymore, they don’t deal with the flight instructions they learned and they’re not with a company? 
  

   There are times I get frustrated with the state of our nation. Particularly the lack of studiousness, youth advocacy and community outreach I see in different areas. Sometimes it’s the "Conscious Catfishing"; people using social media to make fake persona's as builders when they’re virtually unknown and/or inactive in their own neighborhoods and cities. Just because I don’t dwell on it, comment on it or post about it on social media it doesn’t mean that I don’t see it. My answer to this stagecraft has been what you consistently see me showing and proving in real life.    

Peace,
Saladin