other Islamic teachers. They do not want Islam preached to you, but the
reason you are hearing it today is because it is time. This preaching
of Islam to you today cannot be stopped; it is like the rising of the
sun ... right on time.
Here in America there are also three and one-half million indirect
believers in Islam, in the secret order called Shriners, or Higher
Masons. When you take the thirty-third degree in masonry you are no
longer called a Mason; you are then called a Moslem Son, and in that
order (or degree) you are taught the prayers of the Moslems and you
come under the teachings of Islam. In that High Degree you are taught
to turn your face Eastward, toward the Holy City of Mecca in Arabia.
All of this is part of the Moslem religion, Islam.
Today, Islam must be taught to the so-called American Negroes. You must
learn about this religion, because there can be no judgment of the
devil and his wicked world until after you (the lost people of God)
have heard the truth about God and the truth about the devil as I am
teaching you today. It is only after you have heard the teachings of
Islam that you can make a wise choice between God and the devil.
We are not trying to force you to accept Islam, but we are trying to
make you realize that we know what is in store for the world; we know
what tomorrow will bring. Therefore, we are not in fear of losing our
lives, but we will lay down our lives this very minute for the truth.
We are not running from death; we are running only to save lives ...
YOUR LIVES!!!
You must have freedom, justice, and equality. You cannot be free as
long as you are calling yourselves by your slave master’s name; you
cannot be free as long as you do not know who you are; you cannot be
free as long as you do not know your own people; you cannot be free as
long as you don’t know how to even ask for freedom.
Beloved brothers and sisters, God has given me the key that will open
the door of freedom, justice, and equality that has been locked against
you. You must be taught a knowledge of your own God. My mission is to
make you acquainted with Him, to prepare you to meet Him face to face.
God is not a mystery today; He is not something invisible. He is not a
spirit. He is not something other than flesh and blood; He is in the
flesh and in the blood. God is a human being! God would have no joy or
pleasure in humans (us) if He Himself were something other than a human
being. God would have no joy or pleasure in the material universe if He
Himself were other than material.
The devil is also a flesh and blood human being. The devil is not an
invisible spirit. The bible and the Holy Quran both plainly state that
God is going to destroy the devil in a Lake of Fire in “the last days.”
If the devil was an invisible spirit he could not be destroyed. You
can destroy a man but you cannot destroy a spirit. So I repeat to you,
my beloved brothers and sisters, God and the devil both are flesh and
blood human beings.
There is no such thing as seeing God or the devil after you die. There
is no such thing as a heaven up in the sky or a hell down in the
ground. All of that is fantasy, false stories made up by your slave
master to further enslave you. God is a man! The devil is a man! Heaven
and hell are two conditions, and both are experienced in this life
right here on this earth. You have already suffered the worse kind of
hell in the hands of the only real devil!
It is the devil who did not want you to know this truth that God has
missioned me to teach my people. He is afraid that when you learn his
real identity you will then separate yourselves from him and thereby
escape the fiery destruction God has prepared for him. He wants to keep
you from your salvation in the hereafter. He knows that without this
truth that I am teaching you, you could never avoid the fire that God
has ordained for him and enter into the Hereafter. And by HEREAFTER,
we mean the Kingdom of Righteousness that God will establish “here” on
this earth “after” the devil has been destroyed in the Divine Lake of
Fire.
Beloved brothers and sisters, it has been predicted by all the prophets
that God is coming. Well, if God is coming (and He must be coming
because the whole world claims to be “_looking_” for Him), then He
must be something visible. If He is an invisible spirit then the world
wouldn’t be “_looking_” for Him to come. The world couldn’t say, “We
will _see_ Him” ... because we don’t “_look_” for a spirit, we _feel_
for a spirit.
If God is a spirit and He says He made Adam in His own image and
likeness, then I say to you Adam would have been a spirit. But God did
not make a spirit; He made a man like Himself. Man looks like God and
God looks like man because God is a man.
Man acts like God; he acts with power. Man does not just sit down and
wait for the wheat to grow itself, harvest itself, make itself into
flour, bake itself, and then bring itself to him to eat, does he? No!!!
Man plants the wheat, man cultivates it, man threshes it, man grinds it
into flour, man bakes the bread, and then man eats it. If man sits all
day in the house waiting for a spirit to produce that bread he would
starve to death. No spirit in heaven or in hell will bring you bread
... and no spirit in heaven or in hell will bring you freedom, justice,
or equality.
I say to you, my beloved brothers and sisters, your slave master and
his imps (the Negro preachers) have blinded you by such ignorant
teachings and today you are still foolishly sending your praises and
your prayers to an invisible God who is supposed to be somewhere out in
space, and who cannot be found by you until after you die. And, this
same ignorant doctrine has you believing there is an invisible devil
down in the earth somewhere beneath your feet ... while in reality the
devil is right here on top of the earth, walking around on two feet
like you are, and you are looking at him every day.
God is a man, a flesh and blood being, but He is a Divine Being. Why
do we call God a Divine Being? Because He is a being like we are but
His wisdom, power, and other capabilities and attributes are Supreme
... making Him the Highest Power, the Supreme in Power, or Supreme
Power. He is a being like ourselves, but He has the Divine Capacity of
exercising His Power or to project through His Power the powers of the
Universe ... and therefore we call Him the Supreme Being and the God
of the Universe. He has the Divine Power to will whatever He wishes
and to bring it into existence with His Divine Will. But He is not an
invisible spirit somewhere up in the sky. His home is right here on
this earth.
I would defy any spirit outside the spirit that is in a man to do
anything for me or to me. I would defy any devil that is outside of a
man to do anything for me or to me. But I do recognize the devil in
these that can do us harm and have done us harm. No spirit independent
of man can do us harm or good.
Beloved brothers and sisters, let us bring our minds out of the sky;
let us stop being spooky; let us learn to face reality; let us look
around here on this earth as other intelligent and civilized people
are doing. Here in Atlanta is the seat of education for the so-called
Negroes in this country. Yet most Negroes here are still locked into
the most crowded and undesirable areas. Therefore, I would like to
know what are our educated people doing with this education to elevate
the living standards of your own people, and to eliminate the misery
and poverty yet suffered by the so-called Negro masses who do not have
education?
You who are college graduates, and you who are educators and
instructors here in Atlanta, Georgia: I would like for you to tell me
what you are doing with this education you have received from the white
man toward making your own people more independent? What are you doing
for your people with your education? Should not you take that education
to unite your people and bring them up out of the “mud of ignorance,”
and make them an independent people? But with all your education you
yourself are still dependent upon your slave master for a job, and for
your food, clothing and shelter. With your education, you have enough
land and farmers to do something about the condition of the so-called
American Negro.
But you must first agree that the most important ingredient has been
omitted from your education, and that is the knowledge of God, the
devil, of yourself, and of your enemy. Accept Allah and His true
religion (Islam), and come and follow me. I am God’s Messenger to you.
I have the keys to your salvation. Come and follow me and I will show
you how to use your education, your skills and talents, for the good of
your own people and yourself.
In the unity and harmony and Brotherhood created by the religion of
Islam, it is easy for us to pool our knowledge and finance to set up
farms and grow food to feed our people; we can set up factories to
manufacture our own necessities, and other businesses with which we can
establish trade and commerce and become independent as other civilized
people are. Then, in this way you will be using your education to bring
your people out of the slums and the breadlines. They will cease to be
the “last hired and the first fired,” when you use your education to
make jobs for them.
I thank you, my beloved brothers and sisters, for being here this
afternoon, and listening so attentively to this truth. I am God’s last
Messenger to you. You must accept Allah as God. You must know that
Islam is your religion. Come and follow me; let me teach you, and I
will put 20 million so-called American Negroes overnight on the road
to success ... on the road toward complete independence in a home of
your own, where you will never any more have to beg anyone for freedom,
justice, or equality.
Thank you, my beloved brothers and sisters. May Allah forever bless
you, as I leave you with the greetings of the peaceful and the
righteous: As-Salaam-Alaikum ... which means, “Peace be unto you.”
2. MALCOLM X AT HARVARD
_This 1960 speech, delivered by Malcolm X before a jam-packed Harvard
Law School Forum, comes from what I have called the Black Muslims’
“rasping” period. These were their early days on the national scene,
and it would be interesting to find out if Malcolm would make just such
a speech now._
_Malcolm is clearly on the defensive in the first half of his long
talk; he is responding to criticism rather than spreading his own
gospel. It is only after he has answered charges that the Black
Muslims are not orthodox Muslims; only after he has denied that the
Black Muslims teach hate; and after he has put the Negro middle class
in their place for their criticism of him--only after all this does
Malcolm get down to what he really went to Harvard to say._
_In essence it is this: The American Negro must have a separate state.
This is the only way white men can atone for their sins and escape
destruction; this is the only way Negroes can return to their own._
_The Harvard Speech is the best statement--and defense--of the proposed
all-Negro state that the Black Muslims have issued. It shows why I
suggest that the Black Muslims are completely “Americanized” in their
aims and approaches. Indeed, the reader will get a good chuckle when
Malcolm delivers a blistering attack on non-American Moslems, some one
hundred thousand of them he says, who have migrated to this country but
have been unable to gather converts. Then Malcolm reminds them that
Elijah has been able to garner thousands. So then, Malcolm continues,
does this not mean that The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is indeed the
Messenger?_
* * * * *
MR. CHAIRMAN, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:
We thank you for inviting us here to the Harvard Law School Forum this
evening to present our views on this timely topic: THE AMERICAN NEGRO;
PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS. But to understand our views, the views of the
Black Muslims, you must first realize that we are a religious group,
and you must also know something about our religion, the religion of
ISLAM.
The Creator of the Universe, whom many of you call God or Jehovah, is
known to the Muslims by the name ALLAH. Since the Muslims believe there
is but ONE GOD, and that all the prophets came from this ONE GOD, we
believe also that all prophets taught the same religion, and that they
themselves called that religion ISLAM, an Arabic word that means the
complete submission and obedience to the will of ALLAH.
One who practices this Divine Obedience is called a MUSLIM (commonly
known, spelled, and referred to here in the West as Moslem).
There are over 725 million Muslims on this earth, predominantly in
Africa and Asia, the non-white world ... and we here in America who are
under the Divine Leadership of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, are an
integral part of the vast World of Islam that stretches from the China
Seas to the sunny shores of West Africa.
A unique situation faces the 20 million ex-slaves here in America
because of our unique condition, thus our acceptance of Islam, and
into Islam, affects us uniquely ... differently than all other Muslim
“converts” anywhere else on this earth.
Mr. Elijah Muhammad is our Divine Leader and Teacher here in America.
Mr. Muhammad believes in and obeys God 100 per cent, and is teaching
and working among our people to fulfill God’s Divine Purpose today.
I am here at this Harvard Law School Forum this evening to represent
Mr. Elijah Muhammad, the spiritual head of the fastest-growing group of
Black Muslims in the Western Hemisphere.
We who follow Mr. Muhammad know that he has been divinely taught and
sent to us by God Himself. We believe that the miserable plight of
the 20 million black people in America is the fulfillment of divine
prophecy. We believe that the serious race problem that our presence
here poses for America is also the fulfillment of divine prophecy. We
also believe that the presence today in America of The Honorable Elijah
Muhammad, his teachings among the 20 million so-called Negroes, and his
naked warning to America concerning her treatment of these 20 million
ex-slaves is all the fulfillment of divine prophecy.
Therefore, when Mr. Muhammad declares that the only solution to
America’s serious race problem is complete SEPARATION of the two races,
he is fulfilling that which was predicted by all of the biblical
prophets to take place in this day.
But, because Mr. Muhammad takes this uncompromising stand, those of you
who don’t understand biblical prophecy wrongly label him as a racist, a
hate teacher, or of being anti-white, and of teaching black supremacy.
But, this evening, we are all here at the Harvard Law School Forum
together: both races, face to face. During the next few moments we can
question and examine for ourselves the wisdom or the folly of what Mr.
Muhammad is teaching.
Many of you who classify yourselves as “white” express surprise and
shock at this truth that Mr. Muhammad is teaching among your 20 million
ex-slaves here in America, but you should be neither surprised nor
shocked.
As students, scholars, professors and scientists you should be well
aware that we are living in a world and at a time when great changes
are taking place. New ideas are replacing the old ones. Old governments
are collapsing, and new nations are being born. The entire “old system”
which has held the Old World together has lost its effectiveness, and
now that Old World is going out. A new system or New World must replace
the Old World.
Just as the old ideas must be removed to make way for the new, God has
declared to Mr. Muhammad that the evil features of this wicked Old
World must be exposed, faced up to, and removed in order to make way
for the New World that God Himself is getting ready to establish.
The Divine Mission of Mr. Muhammad here in America today is to prepare
us for this New World of Righteousness, by delivering to us a message
that will give us a better understanding of this Old World’s many
defects ... and then we will all agree that God must remove this wicked
Old World.
We see by reports in the daily press that even many of you who are
scholars and scientists think that this message of Islam that is being
taught here in America among your 20 million ex-slaves is “new,” or
that it is something Mr. Muhammad himself has made up.
Mr. Muhammad’s religious message is not “new.” All of the scientists
and prophets of old predicted that a man such as he, with a doctrine
or message such as this that Mr. Muhammad is spreading among your 20
million ex-slaves, would make his appearance among us at a time such as
we are living in today.
It is also written in your own scriptures that this prophetic figure
would not be raised up from the midst of the educated class, but that
God would make His choice of a man from among the lowly, uneducated,
downtrodden and oppressed masses ... among the lowest element of
America’s 20 million ex-slaves.
Just as it was in the days when God raised up Moses from among the
lowly Hebrew slaves, and missioned him to separate his oppressed people
from a slave master named Pharaoh, and Moses found himself opposed by
the scholars and scientists of that day, who are symbolically described
in the bible as “Pharaoh’s Magicians.”...
And just as Jesus, himself a lowly carpenter, was also missioned by
God in that day to find his people (the “lost sheep”) and separate
them from their Gentile enemies, and restore them back among their
own people ... Jesus also found himself opposed by the scholars and
scientists of his day, who are symbolically described in the bible as
“scribes, priests, and pharisees.”
Just as the learned class of those days disagreed and opposed both
Moses and Jesus primarily because of their humble origin and status,
today Mr. Elijah Muhammad is likewise being opposed by the learned,
educated intellectuals from among his own kind primarily because of his
humble origin and status in their eyesight, and efforts are made by
these modern-day “magicians, scribes, and Pharisees” to ridicule Mr.
Muhammad by magnifying the humble origin of his many followers.
Moses was raised up among his enslaved people at a time when God was
planning to remove the power of the slave master and bring about a
great change by placing the slaves in a land of their own where they
could give birth to a “New Civilization,” completely independent
of their former slave master. Pharaoh opposed God’s plan and God’s
servant, so Pharaoh and his people were destroyed.
Jesus was sent among his people again at a time when God was planning
to bring about a great change. The new dispensation preached by Jesus
2,000 years ago ushered in a new type of civilization, the Christian
civilization, better known as the Christian world.
The Holy Prophet Muhammad (may the peace and blessings of ALLAH be upon
him) came 600 years after Jesus with another dispensation that did not
destroy or remove the Christian civilization, but it did put a dent in
it, a wound that has lasted even until today.
Now today, God has sent Mr. Elijah Muhammad among the downtrodden and
oppressed so-called American Negroes to warn us that God is again about
to bring about another great change ... only this time, it will be a
FINAL CHANGE! This is the day and the time for a COMPLETE CHANGE.
Mr. Muhammad is teaching that the religion of Islam is the only
solution to the problems confronting our people here in America, but he
also warns us that it is even more important for us to know the base or
foundation of that which we must build upon tomorrow.
Therefore, the way in which Mr. Muhammad teaches us the religion of
Islam, and the particular kind of Islam he teaches us, may appear to be
different from that which is taught in the Old World of Islam, but the
basic principles and practices are the same.
You must remember: the condition of America’s 20 million ex-slaves is
uniquely pitiful. But, just as the old religious leaders in the days
of Moses and Jesus refused to accept Moses and Jesus as religious
reformers, today many of the religious leaders in the Old Muslim
World may also refute the teachings of Mr. Elijah Muhammad ... not
realizing the unique condition of these 20 million ex-slaves, and by
not understanding that Mr. Elijah Muhammad’s teachings are divinely
prescribed to rectify the miserable condition of our oppressed people
here ... but as God made Pharaoh’s Magicians bow before Moses, and the
Scribes and Pharisees bow before Jesus ... it is God’s plan today to
make all opposition (both at home and abroad) bow before this truth
that is now being taught by The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
We are 4,000 years from the time of that great change which took place
in Moses’ day ... we are 2,000 years from the time of that great change
that took place in Jesus’ day ... and if you will but look around you
on this earth today it will be as clear as the five fingers on your
hand that we are again living at the time of a great change right now.
God has come to close out the entire Old World ... the Old World
in which for the past 6,000 years practically the entire earth has
been deceived, conquered, colonized, ruled, enslaved, oppressed and
exploited by the CAUCASIAN RACE.
When Pharaoh’s civilization had reached its peak, and his time to
rule over the slaves was up, God appeared unto Moses and revealed to
him that He had something different for his people. Likewise, God has
told Mr. Muhammad that He has something different for his People (the
so-called Negroes) here in America today, something that up until now
has never before been revealed ... Mr. Muhammad teaches us that this
Old World has seen nothing yet ... the REAL THING is yet to come.
The Black Muslims who follow Mr. Muhammad are not only making our exit
out of the door of the Old World, but the door to the New World is yet
to be opened ... and what is inside that door is yet to be revealed.
This present teaching of Mr. Muhammad among your 20 million ex-slaves
is only to prepare us to walk out of this wicked Old World in as
intelligent, pleasant, and peaceful a way as is possible.
This present teaching among the so-called American Negroes is designed
only to show proof to us why we should give up this wicked Old House.
The roof is leaking; the walls are collapsing, and we find it is no
longer able to support the tremendous weight caused by our continued
presence in it.
And since the knowledge of the deterioration and eventual collapse of
this Old Building has come to Mr. Muhammad from Almighty God Himself,
whose proper name is ALLAH, the Lord of all the Worlds, the Master of
the Judgment Day ... The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is pointing these
dangerous present conditions and future events out to you who have
enslaved us, as well as to us.
With the proper support and guidance our people can get out of this
sagging Old Building before it collapses.
But this support and guidance that we need actually consists of being
taught: a thorough knowledge of the origin, history and nature of
the Caucasian race, as well as a thorough knowledge of our own black
nation. We must have a knowledge of the true origin and history and
the white man’s Christian religion, as well as an understanding of the
Islamic religion that prevails primarily among our brothers and sisters
in Africa and Asia.
You will probably ask us: Why then, if this Old House is going to
collapse or go up in smoke, are the Black Muslims asking for some
states to be set aside for us right here in this country ... it’s like
asking for a chance to retain rooms in a house that you claim is doomed
for total destruction?
God is giving America every opportunity to repent and atone for the
crime she committed when she enslaved our people, just as God gave
Pharaoh a chance to repent before He finally destroyed him because he
was too proud to free his slaves and give them complete justice.
We are asking you for territory here only because of the great
opposition we receive from this government in our efforts to awaken our
people, unite them, separate them from their oppressors, and return
them to our own land and people.
You should never make the drastic mistake of thinking that Mr. Muhammad
has no place to take his followers in the World of Islam. No sir! He
is not shut out there like many of you wish to believe. All who accept
Islam and follow him have been offered a home in the Muslim World.