Although I have a fondness for NOI and the Righteous Teachers' perspective, I needed to be

introduced to our Original Family. I viewed a video via YouTube featuring Brother Zaid Shakir
whom I appreciate everday because I have been struggling with acquiring any authentic
individuals whom would share their Islam faith with me.
He spoke to the audience in Arabic and although he specified that it was a greeting, I have
been utilizing the words he spoke as a chant to greet the Universe with those words.

Brother Shakira was opening for Keynote Speaker, Zakiyyah Muhammad, whose lecture topic
at Zaytuna College was Muslim African Americans and Islamic Studies. What she suggested
really encouraged me to learn more about our history. Not the Invasion of Egypt. Not the slave
trade for labor in the United States of America. She advised the audience to learn about what
we were busying ourselves doing within our own Empires and Dynasties amongst Kings and
Queens in Africa.

I have a summarized version of what that may be, but I feel such a sense of pride knowing that
I come from Original Knowledge Builders; Educators, Architects, Judges, Ceramicists, Graffiti
Artists, Priestesses, Laborers, Farmers, Blacksmiths, Askaris, Engineers, Voyagers,
Businessmen and so much more.

I also recognized my vicarious error… the Brother Malcolm X extracted and taught the wisdom
from the Bible, so not only did I gather the "revelation" of Jesus' identity being that of a Black
Man from Africa, I realized the trouble with having had been raised a sweet, kind, loving, moral,
ethical, caring, friendly female with the words of that doctrine in tow and being raised in the
Inner City for that matter.

I had been raised to believe everything I was told by Elders and not to question the Bible
stories' origin and authenticity of certain events that supposedly took place, which would be
difficult to scientifically prove to be a fact. I remain sober, but needed to clean myself up and
gravitate towards the proper food for thought. I love Islam. I would love to learn and maintain for
a lifetime, the Arabic language and the Quran.

Attending Zaytuna College would enable the opportunity to be aligned with a source equivalent
to the standards of a healthy Islamic community, as well as the faculty and serene premises.