Today there are thousands of young black men and women who are members of The Nation of Gods and Earths. There are even thousands more who are not members but whose lives have been affected in some positive way from learning the knowledge of themselves at an early age. Why isnt the man who is responsible for awakening so many black youth known to the masses of our people? Why has this man never been honored? Perhaps its because his full greatness wont be realized until the world beholds the greatness of the masses of black youth whose lives he touched. Lets take the time now to look back at the life of Allah: the man history has yet to remember. Allah was born Clarence Smith on Friday, February 22, 1928 in Danville, Virginia. He was the fifth son of Louis and Mary Smith. His sister Bernice and younger brother Harry A (A Allah) were born after him to complete the family of seven; six boys and one girl. As a baby his mother nicknamed him Put and this is what he was called throughout his early childhood years. Allahs early childhood experience was characterized by the Jim Crow laws of segregation in the south which meant that blacks were separated from whites in housing, schools, theaters, etc.... Allah and his brothers and sisters never minded not being with whitey as they referred to them as. They enjoyed life amongst their own people and never were interested in going where they werent welcomed. The Smith family lived at 834 Valley Street. It was a six block walk into the heart of town where the movie theaters were located at. The blacks had a choice of going to the colored theater or sitting in the balcony of the whites theater. Allah and his siblings carried memories of looking down at whitey from he balcony of the theater and remarking how silly and trivial they were. Summers were spent by the Smith children in St. Petersburg, Florida with relatives. There, they would swim in a river behind a slaughter house where cows were prepared for market. There was a landing in the middle of the river at the base of a train trestle where they would swim to in order to catch candy thrown by whitey from the windows of passing by trains. Allah was a very strong swimmer. His brothers would joke that Johnny Weissmuller (Tarzan) didnt have anything on him. One day they were out swimming. Allah and one of his friends had reached the landing at the trestle when they spotted A Allah going down in the water. Allah dove back into the river, reached his brother quickly and pulled him to safety. He had saved his brothers life. His father, Louis, was a tall man, he wasnt very built, kind of lanky but he was a hell off a man, strong in sense of convictions. An event that must have heavily influenced Allahs attitude towards life in general and whites in particular occurred in at their house in Danville while he was still a young boy. On this occasion, Allah witnessed his father fight a burly white man in front of their house. His father ended up knocking this man over the banister of the house an they had to beat the mans son and daughter who tried to come to their fathers aid. All this had taken place because the white man had cursed in front of Allahs mother! Perhaps more so than anything else, these were the kind of experiences that developed and made Allah, the man. He had instilled in him a down home sense of values, convictions, street wisdom, and awareness. In the 1940s, Allahs mother, Mary moved to New York for employment. She rented an apartment in Harlem. In 1946, Allah came north to join his mother and older brothers. Once in New York, his nickname, Put that his mother had coined for him when he was a boy was mistaken for Puddin and this is what he became known as. Allah performed a number of odd jobs to keep money in his pockets. Among them was a fruit stand that he opened up in a little hole-in- the-wall in Harlem. It was also in Harlem in the 1940s that he developed a love for gambling which remained with him throughout his life. He played a lot of pool in Harlem these days and got a reputation as a pool shark. In 1946 he met Willeen Jowers and grew to love her very much. He wanted to marry her but because she was only seventeen years old at the time and didnt have her mothers permission, she couldnt marry him. Allah Willeen had two sons together. A-Allah and B-Allah, born in 1949 and 1951 respectively. However in order to prove to Willeens mother that he wasnt dependent on her to marry he married another woman whom he loved very much by the name of Dora. He and Dora also had two children, Clarence and Christine. In 1950, Allah joined the Army and went to fight in the Korean War. This experience required a new set of principles of him other than anything he had thus far encountered. In war, he learned not to befriend anyone because of the uncertainty of who was the next to be killed. However even being half a world away and at war didnt deter him from the loves of his life. He would send home money regularly to his families. Money which he had won.... gambling. In Korea, Allah just missed being killed on many occasions. One such incident occurred while he was walking through a field flanked by men in his unit. Gunfire broke out and the men on the sides of him were picked off and killed. It was as though he had a calling that he had to fulfill back in the states. He endured the time in Korea, completed his bid, and returned to the United States with a high and prestigious award for his outstanding service record. While he was away, his wife Dora, had become a Muslim and entered the Nation of Islam under the leadership of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. When he returned he too accepted the teachings of Islam and he joined her at Temple No. 7 under Minister Malcolm X. It was in the Temple that he met Justice, then named Akbar, who would become his closest associate for many years to come. His years at Temple No. 7 began inauspiciously enough, his initial duty was elevator operator for the temple. However, he was to rise through the ranks quickly. Soon he was promoted to the position of lieutenant with the responsibility of training the Fruit of Islam (FOI) in karate which he had learned while he was in Korea. The FOI is the military training of men in the Nation of Islam. He studied his lessons hard and soon became very proficient at them. The lessons developed in him a fiery wisdom. And he had a speaking style that was unique to him, a slow methodical cadence stressing syllables that normally arent. It was hypnotic. He was again promoted, this time to the position of student minister. Elijah Muhammad had received word of this fiery young student minister and traveled to New York to meet him, and bestow him with the name Abdullah. It was at this point that turmoil began to develop with him in the temple. Allah had been a man who always thought for himself, he was no follower. At this point in time, the teachings of the Nation of Islam was that W.D. Fard, the man who came to North America and taught Elijah Muhammad, was the Supreme Being, Allah. At the same time, however, the lessons that the Muslims studied, which were written by Elijah Muhammad and W.D. Fard, clearly stated throughout that the original man is Allah, The Supreme Being, the Blackman. The lessons also state that there is no mystery god and that we should lose no time searching for that which does not exist. One day in 1963, Allah was addressing the student ministers class. He was speaking about one of the lessons which dealt with what makes rain, hail, snow and earthquakes? He was manifesting his self style, literal interpretation that all the above is cause by... man. The head of the FOI, Captain Joseph, walked into the room and heard what Allah was teaching. He stopped the meeting, dismissed the men, and spoke with Allah. He told Allah that he couldnt teach what he was teaching there. It is also at this point where there is disagreement as to exactly what happened. Muslims who were in the temple with Allah say that he had marital problems or that it was his love of gambling that caused his leaving the temple. Those outside the temple point out that this couldnt be the case because these were acts that call for a hearing and at most a suspension for a period of time from the temple, not lifetime expulsion. They assert that it was something much more deeply rooted than either of these reasons. At any rate and for whatever reasons, the differences that had developed between Allah and the Muslims were irreconcilable. It was a time of turmoil in general for the Nation of Islam. Minister Malcolm X himself was given a never ending suspension from the temple. And so Allah left the temple, he took with him Justice and other brothers who understood the reality of his teachings. He brought with him his lessons that had so much to do with him developing into a fiery orator. He left the temple and was back on the streets of Harlem. This time to teach Islam to the masses of black youth who had not been reached by Muslims.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 02:10:13 +0000
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