FIRST
LOVE YOURSELF

by The Honorable Elijah Muhammad

One of the greatest handicaps among the so-called Negroes is that there is no love for self, nor love for his or her own kind. This not having love for self is the root cause of hate (dislike), disunity, disagreement, quarreling, betraying, stool pigeons and fighting and killing one another. How can you be loved, if you have not love for self? And your own nations and dislike being a member of your own, then what nation will trust your love and membership.

You say of yourself, "I love everybody. " This cannot be true. Love for self comes first. The Bible, the book that you claim to believe says, "Love the brotherhood" (I Peter 2:17), "Love one another" (John 15:17). Love of self comes first. The one who loves everybody is the one who does not love anyone. This is the false teaching of the Christians for the Christians war against Christians.They have the Bible so twisted by adding in and taking out of the truth that it takes only God or one whom God has given the knowledge of the Book to understand it.

The Bible puts more stress upon the "love for the thy neighbor" than the "love for the brother." When asked "Who is my neighbor?" The answer was contrary and incorrect. Jesus' answer was that of two men who were on a journey. They were not from the same place. One was from Jerusalem, the other one was a Samaritan. The Samaritan came to where the man from Jerusalem lay wounded by the robbers who had stripped him of his possessions. The Samaritan showed sympathy for the fellow traveler. (He was not a neighbor in the sense of the word. A neighbor can be an enemy. ) Many enemies live in the same neighborhood of a good neighbor. But, the answer that Jesus gave was a futile one which can could be classified as a parable of the so-called Negroes and their slave-masters.

The so-called Negroes fell into the hands of the slave-masters, who have robbed, spoiled, wounded and killed them. The Good Samaritan here would be the Mahdi (Allah) -God in Person, as He is often referred to by the Christians as the "the second coming of Jesus, or the Son of Man to judge man. " This one will befriend the poor (the so-called Negroes) and heal their wounds by pouring into their heads knowledge of self and others and free them of the yoke of slavery and kill the slave- masters, as Jehovah did in the case of Pharaoh and his people to free Israel from bondage and the false religion and gods of Pharaoh.

There were many other proofs in the Bible which agree with the above answer.

Love yourself and your kind. Let us refrain from doing evil to each other, and let us love each other as brothers, as we are the same flesh and blood. In this way, you and I will not have any trouble in uniting. It is a fool who does not love himself and his people. Your black skin is the best, and never try changing its color. Stay away from intermixing with your slave -master's children. Love yourself and your kind.

(Republished from Message to the Blackman, 1965)