Final Call Newspaper Mischaracterizes "Allah", Founder of the Five Percenters

   In what I consider to be a genuine effort to highlight our community, the Final Call , a Nation of Islam Newspaper, recently published an article entitled 'Five Percenters unveil Allah and Justice Square in Harlem.' Its writer Clarke Immatical did a good job directly quoting some of the attendant speakers and articulating the process Mal’akiy 17 Allah experienced in making this vision a reality, yet the writer mischaracterizes Five Percent Nation founder Allah, and our teachings, on more than one occasion. Anticipating outsiders interpretation of our community and this commemorative street naming I published the article "Setting The Record Strait: Allah & Justice, Five Percenters Square!!" on March 31st, 2019 to clarify common misconceptions that people have. Here are a few of those mischaracterizations in that Final Call article and the appropriate corrections:

"Clarence 13X, founder of the Five Percenters, left the Nation of Islam in 1963 and continued to teach what his teacher the Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught him which is that God is a man."

CORRECTION: Allah was his name, as our Commemorative Street Sign 'Allah & Justice, Five Percenters Square' clearly indicates. Allah's name was not Clarence 13X when he founded the Five Percenters. When he left the Nation of Islam he left the religion, he no longer self identified as a Muslim and he ceased using the name Clarence 13X. As mentioned in my article Setting The Record Strait: Allah & Justice, Five Percenters Square!!, "During one of the Community Board Presentations for the street naming Mal'akiy 17 Allah was asked by a Community Board Member, "Why not name it Clarence 13X Way?" to which he responded, "Clarence 13X was the level of understanding he [Allah, The Father] had when he was in the mosque. As his understanding grew he took on the name Allah. We honor Allah as the man who founded the Five Percenters, not Clarence 13X who was a Muslim at that time." The Five Percent Nation does not teach that God is "A" man. This implies that an individual, such as W.D. Fard, whom Nation of Islam followers believe, is that God. The Five Percent Nation teaches that the Original Asiatic Blackman is "The God" [Allah], not a god. This is one of the reasons some Muslims deliberately refer to Allah as Clarence 13X and not Allah; they do not acknowledge him nor Five Percenters as equal to W.D. Fard.

"Clarence 13X Allah hit the streets of Harlem with The Supreme Wisdom. He delivered this information to the streets when Harlem was experiencing tremendous police brutality and in need of spiritual direction."

CORRECTION: Again, his name was not "Clarence 13X Allah." Allah primarily taught the principles and values expressed in a unique system and indigenous language he developed known as the Supreme Mathematics and the Supreme Alphabet. His Supreme Mathematics and Supreme Alphabet serves as a key to unlock our relationship to the universe and what came to be known as 120 degrees [lessons]; a series of catechisms that were contained within the Supreme Wisdom book. Allah rejected other elements of the Supreme Wisdom book such as the Instructions Given To The Laborers [Muslim Believers] and the Problem Book.

"The street sign is not an ending, but a continuation of work that these poor righteous teachers have, a work that was expressed by The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan himself in a past speech, when he said, “Here is a small percentage of people who know God; and when they know God, they have a duty, and that duty is, to teach what you know to those who do not know."

CORRECTION: The above Minister Louis Farrakhan quote is from a portion of a speech that was sampled as an interlude on Brand Nubian's In God We Trust album that was released in 1992. That speech and the above comment is not in reference to the Five Percent Nation as a cultural community that Allah, Justice and others belonged to and still belong to. That speech and the above comment is a general explanation of one of the degrees which references The Five Percent on this Poor Part of the Planet Earth. The Nation of Islam as led by Minister Farrakhan has no official partnership with the Five Percent Nation community. 

The Five Percent Nation is not inextricably linked to the Muslim religion. In a 1967 interview at the Otisville Reformatory School For Boys Allah shared the following non-Muslim points in regards to religion and the human family,

“… black and white, must unite together...now many of my people are against me, such as the Muslim...they are against me!  This is why I don't believe in religion...because religious peoples do not have no understanding.” 

“Five Percenters, I'm teaching them that they can't go on under religion because religion has never did anything for them.” 

“The people been taking advantage of me ever since I said I was Allah. And I know when I said I was Allah, the Muslim whole world was what? Against me.  I don't care. And now they really against me because I'm not anti-white nor pro-black.  They really against me because everybody is, is against the white. Well let me show you something. Who is man if he ain't man? Tell me!”

Misinformation, left unchecked, sets a trajectory that leads to misconceptions, prejudice, discrimination, loss of property and potentially death. Some of us believe these things to be trivial... This is not. Consider two airplanes leave an airport on a thousand mile journey set on courses that are only 1 degree apart. Seemingly close, these planes are not inexplicably linked and will arrive at two different destinations that are worlds apart. Some may believe that 1 degree is insignificant. It is not. In correctional facilities around the country right now many Five Percenters are denied the right to practice our culture because of a STG [Security Threat Group] label. This permanent landmark, Allah & Justice, Five Percenters Square, was established to honor our cultural heritage, preserve and perpetuate our legacy. It is also a means to help legitimize our identity within these facilities and lift this label. There are also some serious socioeconomic repercussions that can occur when misinformation is distributed, especially when you don't control that narrative. Acres of land have been taken from families, insurance policies denied, contracts not honored, crippling debts levied against people, history rewritten, media content flawed and intellectual property has been stolen all because of inaccurate or incorrect information. Since the global popularization and expansion of Hip Hop, particularly during its Golden Era that was immersed in Five Percenter influences, some non-Five Percenters have tried to claim credit for our contributions and "visually annex" themselves to our community. This has undoubtedly been the intention of some Muslims while constantly refusing to acknowledge the Five Percent Nation as a uniquely distinct non-religious community and our founder, Allah, as the non-Muslim youth advocate and community builder that he was and died as. However, his legacy, our legacy, lives on.

Peace,
Saladin

Misapplying 120 and Five Suspenders...

     

     Some years back I remember building with a brother who was beating himself up about his challenges teaching a woman about our culture. He was a good brother yet he didn't always make the best choices when it came to relationships. In 120 we have this phrase that is derived from our 22nd degree which talks about magnetism; attracting power. In part, that degree says, "one piece had magnetic in it and one piece did not. The piece with the magnetic in it attracted the piece without." I mention this part of the degree because this brother mentioned it, a lot. A whole lot. He spoke about it in the context of him being that piece with the magnetic and the woman who obviously wasn't feeling him being the piece without. According to him, because she was supposedly the piece without magnetic she should have been attracted to him because he was the true and living God. In all of his mathematical ramblings, it did not change the reality of the situation that this woman simply didn't like him. Never did it occur to him that this situation had nothing to do with him being the piece with the magnetic and everything to do with her free will to choose. Striving to force his square peg perspective into a circle hole was his EGO talking and he just couldn't accept the fact that this woman just wasn't interested in him. It would take a while before he actually understood what I tried [yes "tried"] to communicate to him; this not about magnetic. It even took him longer to understand that a woman not being interested in him did not diminish who he was as a true and living God. This kind of perspective is not uncommon to hear from newborns or even those who have been living this culture for years. It is a learning process and sometimes we misapply these principles or values along the way. 

   My first Earth was my Queens' mother. When I introduced her to the 17th letter in the Supreme Alphabet, "Q" for Queen, my emphasis was on Knowledge God [17]. In my mind she needed to be aware of who I was and her identity as the Queen was an afterthought. I was young, insecure, developing my self confidence and striving to gain a solid footing in this culture. So naturally it was all about me. As I matured in this culture I no longer took that approach. My emphasis became a woman learning about her identity and responsibility as a Queen. In the process she obviously learned about me, thus gaining a greater Knowledge [1] of the true and living God [7] and the meaning of civilization.

   You know, one of the reasons I think folks misapply 120 is because their foundation wasn't solid to begin with. When I say a solid foundation I am not just talking about knowledge or what a person knows. I am talking about a sense of surety concerning a person's ethics, integrity and constitution. In other words, how this person is built! I am not a Five Percenter who thinks that I am convincing 85ers and the 10% to come on over to the so-called light side. In my experience, if a person takes on this culture it is because certain principles and values were already present within them. Education comes from the Latin root 'educare' which means to "lead/draw out." I have also learned that there are some people who are uneducable or incorrigible. Why? Because there was not anything there to draw out of them from the beginning. One of the most disappointing experiences I've had was learning that some of these uneducable or incorrigible people claimed to be Five Percenters, and it was always obvious in their misapplication of 120.

   Now, some of you may be asking yourselves, "Why is he only talking about the misapplication of 120 and not Supreme Mathematics and the Supreme Alphabet?" Well, the Supreme Mathematics and the Supreme Alphabet is much more flexible and gives people more wiggle room to potentially razzle and dazzle folks. The Supreme Mathematics and the Supreme Alphabet don't have fixed answers such as 120. This creates an opportunity for math and alphabet to be broadly expounded upon when a person expresses their understanding of them. For example, if I were to ask a Five Percenter about Knowledge, that person could strictly talk about Knowledge as information while someone else talks about it as Consciousness/Awareness. Another person could talk about it as Man being the foundation of the family and someone else could talk about it as knowing the ledge. All of these responses are correct. In regards to 120, if I were to ask a Five Percenter "Who is the Original Man?", there is only one correct answer to this question that a person can then expound upon. If I were ask a Five Percenter "What is the name of the place where the Devil was manufactured?", there is only one correct location that they can then expound upon. These are just a couple of examples throughout 120. 

     If a person does not know 120 then they cannot apply it to their life. It reminds me of a woman I knew that claimed to be a Five Percenter; she had a relationship with a ex-Freemason whom she discovered was living a double life. How ironic. What was even more ironic was the fact that this woman never finished learning 120 and was stuck on the actual degree that teaches us about Freemasonry. It stands to reason that if she were more diligent in her studies and committed to learning our degrees she would have seen this impostor coming from a mile away. She didn't and ended up "losing time searching for that, that does not exist" as explained in another degree she didn't know; "Who is that Mystery God?"  

     If a person does know 120, meaning, they are able to recite these degrees, yet they are not studious, they are still going to probably misapply them. In one of our lessons we learn that "the Earth belongs to the Original Man." As the Earth is the Original Woman's twin, I've met some chauvinistic dudes quote this degree to justify the knuckle-dragging notion that a woman literally belongs to him. It never occurred to them that "belongs to" also means to be "a part of." As in, I am a part of [belong to] a family, we are a part of [belong to] a community and the Earth is "a part of" the Original Man. In these and other instances it was clear to me that some people are out here freestyling, and with the development of the internet, they have the platform to do it. When the above scenarios happens in an actual community or another public space, a Five Percenter would simply add-on to offer perspective and correction. Customarily, the person receiving the perspective and correction would stand there and humbly accept it, even if they didn't like it. If this same scenario happened on social media these same folks can just block and delete you for sharing your perspective and striving to correct them.

     ~Atlantis Build Talk Radio Show~

       Allah & Justice, Five Percenters Square 

   While there has always been misapplications of 120 since the early years of the Five Percent Nation, in some instances social media has been used to amplify those misconceptions. Nowadays there are people online, particularly religious folks, who have been spreading false narratives like Five Percenters are a religion, we are Muslims, Muslim Gods and other untruths. According our founder, Allah, in a 1967 Interview at Otisville Reformatory School For Boys, Muslims from the NOI were against him because of his non-religious stance and advocacy for black and white unity. In that interview Allah also shared that he didn't believe in religion because "religious peoples do not have no understanding” and that he teaches his Five Percenters that "they can't go on under religion because religion has never did anything for them.” 
     This is one of the reasons I have committed myself to being a consistent voice of the Five Percent in the midst of such digital chaos; to help counter these false narratives about my community. This is not to say that I am THE voice or that I personally have all of the answers and every perspective of how 120 should be applied. What it does say is that I have a commitment to my community and the capacity to help push our culture forward. As I mentioned at the onset of this article, this journey is a learning process and sometimes we misapply these principles or values along the way. However, the consistent question that we ask and answer for ourselves, in deed.., is, "What are we doing about it?"

Peace,

Saladin