VOICES HOPE THAT ALL BLACK AMERICANS WILL ULTIMATELY JOIN ISLAM RANKS

Muhammad Speaks Newspaper
P.O Box 44261
Detroit, MI 48244
Phone: 313-371-7033
E-mail: webmaster@muhammadspeaks.com

Reprinted from the May 24, 1968 edition of Muhammad Speaks Newspaper

BY ABDUL BASIT NAEEM

For nearly four decades the Honorable Elijah Muhammad has been preaching
and teaching his people, i.e; American so-called “Negroes,” to BE
THEMSELVES.

FOR NEARLY FOUR decades he has been telling them, emphatically but with
every sincerity at his command, that it’s time for all black Americans to
wake up — to snap out of their deep slumber (state of mental death”)
–and to rejoice at the “New Day” (of their future glory and greatness)
that is dawning.

For nearly four decades the venerable Messenger has been trying to
impress upon the oppressed and down-trodden of this land that they are
not to blame for their past or present misfortune because it was indeed
brought upon them through trickery and sustained terror on the part of a
“wicked. . .race of devils.

For nearly four decades he has been urging them, in the manner of a
concerned and loving father, “big brother” and guardian all rolled into
one, to give up the white man’s “God” (because he wasn’t A”God” at all),
Bible (because it wasn’t holy) and religion, Christianity (because it was
alien-conceived and hence virtually completely incompatible with the
black man’s inherent righteousness) as well as the white man’s names and
culture.

Simltaneously he has been beseeching them to “quit fooling yourselves” in
believing that the road to freedom, justice and equality lay in “civil
rights demonstrations and marches” and in begging the former
slavemasters’ children and grandchildren for a few crumbs off their table.

FOR NEARLY FOUR decades the “Little Lamb without spots or blemishes” has
been striving to persuade all who would listen that the “final” solution
to the U.S. Black man’s problem depends not on integrating with his
enemies or on voting for one white political office-seeker or another but
on accepting his own God (ALLAH) and submitting to His will and returning
to his own ancient, ancestral faith (ISLAM).

He has been trying to convince them that if they do as directed, Allah
would set them up in heaven (on earth) at once. Again he has been
endeavoring to counsel all who would lend an ear that every Black man,
woman and child in North America should not hesitate but hasten instead
to rally around the Muslims’ banner, explaining that the Crescent-bearing
flag alone guaranteed their exit and safe conduct from the white world’s
“hell hovels” and entry into the “Promised Land”.

For four decades the Honorable Elijah Muhammad has been further pleading
with his good people to give up the “way of those who have erred from the
path of righteousness and gone astray,” to give up smoking, drinking,
consuming forbidden foods, indulging in drugs, gambling and other vices.

Likewise, for nearly four devades he has been trying to advise “my Black
brothers” never to beat their wives and womenfolk or curse and abuse
their own offspring and to learn to love, protect and take care of them
instead.

Divinely appointed and charged with such duties as referred to above, the
Messenger has also had to warn his people that those who failed to heed
his pleas and do his bidding, they would surely be chastised by Allah and
deined sight of the Hereafter. At the same time, the Muslim leader has
been doing his best to show, via numerous concrete examples, that through
faith, unity and hard work (SELF- HELP) the U.S. Black man can and will
eventually overcome every obstacle, no matter how insurmountable it might
initially appear. In all this time, not once has The Messenger (Honorable
Elijah Muhammad) been seriously challenged by anyone or proven wrong on
any score or point.

TRUE, A FEW individuals did at one time or another attempt to oppose him
and even tried to inflict bodily harm upon him. However, they were men
who were motivated by mere malice or petty jealousy and envy and they
were unable to silence him or arrest his progress. The fate of such foes
and of a handful of former followers turned hypocrites is all too well
known to warrant repetition here. The “saddest” aspect of the Honorable
Elijah Muhammad’s otherwise perfectly marvelous and highly noteworthy
career, under the circumstances, I think, is the fact that to date only a
portion of the Black American populace has recongized in the Messenger
its true and natural leader. After all, a few thousand, followers are by
no means “enough” when you realize that there are some twenty-five
million “Asiatics” in the wilderness of North America who need to benefit
from the Muslim leader’s unique and extraordinary “Message” and superb
wisdom.

Could it be that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is a bit “ahead of his own
time? ” Many admirers and well-wishers of the Messenger surmise that such
is the case. Be that as it may, I refuse to believe that most Black
Americans aren’t capable of “recognizing a good thing when they see one”
and that they would not even now-however belatedly – rise to the occasion
and RUSH to cast their lot with the proud yet humble, people of Allah and
Muhammad-the mighty “Nation of Islam” of tomorrow.

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