Malcolm X
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“You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on
this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me
to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to
toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult
for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have been always a man who
tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience
and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which
is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every
form of intelligent search for truth.
“Every free moment I can find, I did a lot of talking to
key people whom I knew around Harlem, and I made a lot of speeches,
saying: “True Islam taught me that it takes all of the religious,
political, economic, psychological, and racial ingredients, or characteristics,
to make the Human Family and the Human Society complete.
“Since I learned the truth in Mecca, my dearest friends have
come to include all kinds—some Christians, Jews, Buddhists,
Hindus, agnostics, and even atheists! I have friends who are called
capitalists, socialists, and communists! Some of my friends are
moderates, conservatives, extremists—some are even Uncle Toms!
My friends today are black, brown, red, yellow, and white!
“I said to Harlem street audiences that only when mankind
would submit to the One God who created all—only then would
mankind even approach the “peace” of which so much talk
could be heard ... but toward which so little action was seen.”
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At birth, the man behind the “X”
was named Malcolm Little, later known as “Detroit Red,”
“Satan,” “Malcolm X,” and “El-Hajj
Malik El-Shabazz.” Like you, me, and millions of our kind,
he is a descendant of Adam placed in this world to recover the purpose
of his life—submission to God alone. Malcolm’s “X”
is really a question for us all. Are you ready and willing to sever
your commitment to your “idols” –be they individuals,
groups, false beliefs, and material objects? How can a person be
a submitter (i.e., Muslim) and worship other than the One God who
created all of us and all things? (22:15) To worship God alone is
to reject falsehood, regardless of who promotes it.
“Every morning when I wake up, now, I regard it as having
another borrowed day. In any city, wherever I go, making speeches,
holding meetings of my organization, or attending to other business,
black men are watching every move I make, awaiting their chance
to kill me. I have said publicly many times that I know that they
have their orders. Anyone who chooses not to believe what I am saying
doesn’t know the Muslims in the Nation of Islam...
“I know, too, that I could die in the hands of white racists.
Or I could die at the hands of some Negro hired by the white man.
Or it could be some brain washed Negro acting on his own idea that
by eliminating me he would be helping out the white man, because
I talk about the white man the way I do.
“Anyway, now, each day I live as if I am already dead, and
I tell you what I would like for you to do. When I am dead—I
say it that way because from the things I know, I do not expect
to live long enough to read this book in its finished form—I
want you just watch and
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see if I am not right in what I say:
that the white man, in his press, is going to identify me with “hate.”
“Yes, I have cherished my “demagogue” role.
I know that societies often have killed the people who helped to
change those societies. And if I can die having brought any light,
having exposed any meaningful truth that will help to destroy the
racist cancer that is malignant in the body of America—then,
all of the credit is due to Allah. Only the mistakes have been mine.”
Malcolm X was born on May 19, 1925. He was 57 days shy of his
40th birthday when he was assassinated on February 21, 1965.
The soul and Him who created it. Then showed it
what is evil and what is good. Successful is one who redeems it.
Failing is one who neglects it. (Quran 91:7-10)
Dr. Douglass Brown
BE CAREFUL
Be careful of your thoughts,
For they become your words.
Be careful of your words,
For they become your actions.
Be careful of your actions,
For they become your habits.
Be careful of your habits, For they become your character.
Be careful of your character, For it becomes your destiny.
Author Unknown
A good man out of the good treasure of his
heart brings forth good things; and the evil man out of evil
treasure brings forth evil things. (Matthew 12:35)
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