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
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