Check out this discussion with Boonaa Mohammed and Sh. Abdullah Hakim Quick on the truth behind the Ancient Egyptian Civilization and the early contributions of African people to one of the most revered human empires.
Black Muslim History – Egyptian Civilization
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AI: Transcript ©
Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah salam aleikum, wa rahmatullah wa barakatu. Welcome to this very special program, I'm honored to have all of you watching live on Facebook. And for those of you who are watching at home on YouTube afterwards, welcome. This is a very special program, we're going to be honoring this tradition of Black History Month that we know about in North America, Black History Month is something that celebrates the achievements of black and African people in North America, particularly in the month of February. And what we're going to be doing this month is putting a little bit of a twist on it, and exploring the contributions, the
histories and the civilizations of black Muslims throughout history, and who better to discuss history, then, world renowned doctor and historian, Sheikh Abdullah Hakim quick was with me here.
So part of this discussion is going to be looking at different aspects of black and African history, throughout time, and throughout Islamic history. So we're going to be opening up with a civilization that many people are familiar with, that has such major esteem, I believe in world history, which is the Egyptian civilization. And Egypt is one of those places that I believe has a lot of interesting connotation to it. Because when, you know, ancient archaeologists and people have discovered, you know, that that space when they when when archaeologists first came into Egypt, they would see the faces of the Sphinx and the drawings of different people within the pyramids and, you know, come to
the conclusion, naturally, these were black and African people. Whereas sometimes still in history, we find that people say, No, these were actually Europeans, or these were Arabs, as we know, today in Egypt. But I think that actual civilization has a lot of history that we can learn about. So I want to open up and talk about ancient Egypt, because I know it's a place that many of us are curious about, and we want to know, what's the relation between Islamic history in ancient Egypt? So can we talk a little bit about ancient Egypt and, and the world that Islam has combined within it? Yes. smilla Rahim, this topic is a very important one for me, because
growing up in America as an African American, I began to question my roots from an early age. And we're mainly taught by the media. So television, the movies are giving certain images. And one of the most important stories in the movies is ancient Egypt. And so we saw the pharaoh as Charlton Heston and
Elizabeth Taylor as the Cleopatra, you know, these are these are Europeans, right? And great civilization, but another great achievement for Europe.
I didn't want to accept this, because, you know, when you look at the map, you know, Egypt is part of Africa. It's not really Greece. So what's really going on?
I said, Okay, let me take it a step further. I, you know, began to study African history in America, in the English language. I accepted Islam, and I traveled to Arabia, I learned Arabic language. And then I continued traveling. So I traveled around the African continent. I had the opportunity to go up the Nile that South, and then to go down into the pyramids. So not only the Great Pyramid of Giza, but to go deep south to Aswan to Abu Simbel, to go down into the pyramids, to see the hieroglyph, who actually went into the pier. Yeah, I actually went down to the bottom of the pyramids. And then, while I was doing this, I was gaining a masters and a PhD in African history. So
I'm learning the tools of the trade, right? And I found some shocking information, really, it's completely opposite from what we were taught. What I found is that the ancient civilization in Egypt was an African civilization, right. And this was strange, because many historians said that Africa has done nothing for the onward flow of civilization. So you would think that civilization goes from north south, that it was the Greeks and the Romans who civilize Africa, or the Persians who came in and the African people who were uncivilized. They came along as slaves. When you actually go there, and look on the ground, go into the languages go into the real hardcore evidence, you find the
opposite. What we find that it's shocking is that the ancient Egyptians really came from the south, because the Nile River flows from South north. When you look at the map, you will think it's north south, logically, logically, but the mountains are in Ethiopia, and Kenya, and those areas Uganda, so it flows from the mountain south to the north, similarly was the civilization. When the historians honestly went into this ancient civilization. They found that people were actually
cultivating the Nile you got this massive river flowing down, and it's carrying with it
fertile soil is silt. And so it carries it along this river. And so all along is fertile land. So the ancient civilization follows the river all the way to the Delta, which would be, you know, in the north. And so it's from way back in 17,000 BC, that we have to unlock our minds now. 17,000 bc Think about this, that from way back, the Nile river is flowing, people are involved in cultivation and agriculture. And historians now recognize the fact that it's somewhere around 10,000 bc that they actually became organized. Check enter Dr. Jacques from Senegal. He wrote a history it was actually put in the UNESCO history of Africa, which is a major historical work. And, you know, this
work uncovered the fact that somewhere around 10,000 BC, you have organized civilization, white, how can you assume that the Egyptian calendar is dated back from 4000? Around 4245 BC, they had a functioning calendar. Okay. The hieroglyphics come into place, this is the early writing around 3100 BC.
Okay, now, how can you do that you don't just do that, from the sky, you have to develop in order to you know, have a calendar and whatnot. So they dated back to around 10,000
BC, and then
the people are now settling in the Nile. And so it's somewhere around 3200 BC, that the great Pharaoh or the leader namit. He unites the southern part with the northern part. And so most history books say, Egypt starts here 3200 BC, this is the unification. But the problem is, it's just after the unification
around 2600 BC, remember, you go bc it gets smaller and smaller, going to an ad, right. So when you're around 2650 BC, they have built a great
pyramid. This is called the Step Pyramid of Joseph. And this is this is a massive structure, which is built at that time. And I got the chance to go to this pyramid and you go down in the pyramid and you see that they actually had decimal points, they had zero, they had all of the elements of modern math. And so this is the function structure, which is built in this this time period, which is called the Old Kingdom, and it's still standing. It's still standing. Now, if we in Canada or in the United States, we have a building. That's 100 years old. It's considered a national treasure. Oh, yeah. You can do construction there you can. That's right. So so this is 2650 BC, add on, you know,
our present, you know, date, you talk in some way around 5000 years, and the structure is still there.
hieroglyphics is coming in.
Philosophy, science, and people recognize it was these early people from the south. And they even date back, you know, in the early times, that there was in 3500. Before the unification there's a place called ta SETI. And this is what is now called Nubia. It's Southern Egypt is northern Sudan, in this region. So tau ceti, had 12 kings. This is recognized by all universities, there was 12 kings, and they were the ones that actually set the pace for the unification. So now at that point in time, when you go back, and you look at the pictures that they drew of themselves, you look at the at the at the sculptures, check, enter job he studied, actually the mummies in terms of the
melanin, the bone structures, it is clear they were black African people. There's no doubt about it from the early times. Because really, now remember, we're dealing with 3000 bC 3200 BC, the Greeks organize their civilization somewhere around the eighth century BC. Right, so that's the seven hundreds. So you're talking about 2500 years later, is when the Greeks begin.
So look at the distortion in history. And very interestingly, in the United States, they inaugurated Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States, unfortunately, yes. However, look at this. Now let's compare it now that this is a great honor for America 45, but mannitol, who was a great Egyptian priest and historian, he counted the kings and he counted about five
161 kings in ancient Egypt 30 dynasties, these people ruled over 5000 years. So now when we look at human history now, we can't just talk about the last 300 years. Right? We have to let's go back and look at all of our history, you know, together. And you'll see that the first part of organized human history, black people, African people, were actually at the pinnacle of civilization. Not only is modern math coming into place, not only is the philosophy, but also even cosmedix. Even How do you Bury Your Dead? How do you organize your family, how you organize society, these things are coming back. I mean, at this point in time, when Egypt, you know, had unified the rest of the world
were either villages, or at the best city states, you have what is called city states, in Iraq and in other parts of the world. But this is a unification of a major country. So this is the first major political entity, you could say in the world. Now when we hear this term Pharaoh, typically speaking in many Muslim spheres, we think of federalism during the time of Mussolini, so that that's wrong, but Pharaoh is the title. That's right, Pharaoh is not the name of a particular person, right? you expand on this, what exactly does Pharaoh mean? And how do we put that into context with history? Right? Again, mandato, listed about 561 kings. Now these kings, the title is Pharaoh affair
honed in Arabic, and that is similar to Emperor
or Caesar, like the Romans had Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar. So each of the pharaohs had a name. And they were there in dynasties. They were in royal families. And this stretched, you know, for over 5000 years. So there were many Pharaohs, so there's many Pharaohs. So you know, when we're talking about Moses, you have to recognize that he enters Egypt, somewhere around 1525, somewhere around there, BC, BC. So this is now remember the early Egyptians, you're talking about, you know, they unify the country 3200. So they were very strong Empire long before. So this whole concept of the Israelites building the pyramids, is completely false. It was the pyramids were well in place
long before Musab or Moses peace be upon him came in with the children of Israel, and they were enslaved by the Egyptians. So what's important for
Muslims, you know, and reasonable people to look at. When we look at history, the concept of a pharaoh is a concept of a king. They were good kings, they were evil kings, they were those who believed in one God, there were those who believed in themselves. They were those who believed in many gods, when you it's it's a rich history. It's a deep history, which for the most part, has been covered up in our eyes. And so you see Charlton Heston as, you know, European men, Elizabeth Taylor as the Cleopatra. This came much later when the when the Romans and Greeks conquered northern Egypt when they conquered Egypt. But this is like, you know, almost 3000 years later, after everything is
in place. So what is important that I found is that the whole concept that black people, African people did nothing for the onward flow of civilization. This is a concept, you know, to confuse people and to develop in African people and inferiority complex. And it also develops in European people, a lighter skinned people, a superiority complex, that knowledge always comes from north and it goes south, that the African people are need to be civilized and need to be organized. The reality on the ground is something very much different. Well, I mean, if you look at the history, you'll see that these civilizations flourished at a time when perhaps places in Europe and other
where otherwise were cavemen were living in in, you know, in their own filth places in Europe and these areas. So talk a little bit more about Egypt. I mean, I'm interested to find out how do we infuse this understanding of tawheed and Islam? I know you want to come to this point as well, right? Islamic history and in these regions, was it ever the case where these Pharaohs people who perhaps worship Allah or was it always that they believed in Sun gods and these things of what we find Well, we have to recognize that you know, the Quran talks about in the chapter of the bee, you know, that Verily, woollacott boss, nafi, Cooley, omoton, Rasulullah and Abdullah which study but
don't quote, that Verily, We said to every nation, a messenger to worship one God and stay away from false deities, so we believe the prophets came to China, India, Europe, Africa, the Americas. So now you're looking at 5000 years of civilization. Right? You look at a long time even before the Prophet
Muhammad peace be upon him, who we see as the seal of the prophets, not the only prophet of monotheism. So we see an ancient Egypt, also monotheism. So we need to do an objective study to really understand how this intersects with the ancient culture. It's around 1525 bc now you have Ramsey's, or his son,
this is the Pharaoh of Moses. This is the one that had a god complex that wanted his face all over Egypt. And that became a tyrant, you know, the perfect tyrant. Okay. But before his time, amazing achievements, I was shocked. I was literally shocked to find the achievements, especially in what they call the Old Kingdom in the pyramid time.
Because I remember when the Olympics were held in Athens some years ago, yeah. And, you know, they have the opening ceremony, the Greeks marched out, and they said, We the Greeks, we, you know, we began geometry and math and science, you know, philosophy, everything began with the Greeks. Okay, but the ancient Greeks were not racist. The ancient Greeks and the Romans recognize that they got their civilization from the Egyptians, and later the Phoenicians and the Egyptians were dark skinned people with wooly hair. That's how they described them. Okay. Explain that description. Again, what exactly is a dark skinned people with curly wooly, here, that's how they describe them. And they
literally worship some of them. Because think about this, now, the Greeks coming out of what they call the Dark Ages. And finally, you know, into, they organize their Olympics, this is around the seven hundreds BC.
And now a great civilization is there. There is the Great Pyramid of Giza. And they come in contact, you know, with people who have amazing understanding of mathematics, physics and science. And the the Egyptians share their knowledge with them, the Greek studied under them, and were able to make their own achievements. But the reality is, it was 1000s of years before them, that everything was in place. Somebody would say, Well, how can you say something like this? Let's look at the Great Pyramid in Giza,
the Great Pyramid of Giza, which is built for hoopoe, and this is you know, this pyramid is coming somewhere around 2500 BC. And this is built for hoopoe and this pyramid, you can consider it to be the greatest building ever made by human beings. This is a bold statement. Why would I say something like this, because around 2500 BC, there was no structure, anything like that in the world, people were living in villages, and the city states began with some palaces and whatever this building has got 2,300,000 blocks of granite, these blocks of granite up between 2.5 to 70 tons. They were cut out in a place called s one, which is in the south. Remember, the South is high, and the North. And
they were they were cut out next one. That's where the granite is. And they and they were taken in boats. And they were put into place. And there's no summit. If we want to build a building with little bricks, we put cement and we have to play we have to make it even they built it with no summit, perfect cuts. Okay. And this whole concept of people, you know, carrying slaves carrying the blocks on their head, that's not possible but impossible. How can you carry 70 tons on your head?
It's science, you talking about physics. their level of science is unbelievable. I mean, to the extent that we still don't really know how they did it today, they don't know how they did it. The Japanese even came in with their equipment in the 60s. And they tried to cut out the blocks and use a technology but the sand came in it destroyed all their equipment. They don't know how the ancient Egyptians did this. Look at this building.
In the one structure, there is enough for 30 empire state buildings that's in New York. Right the Empire State Building was a great structure. There is enough granite to build all of the churches and cathedrals in England from the time of Christ until now, in one building,
the corners of the pyramid are perfect right angles. So there goes your geometry and all your math right, this is 2500 BC, long before the Greeks the corners are perfect. right angles. If you take the perimeter of the pyramid, and then you divided into the the height of the pyramid twice, you have what is called this universal equation called pie and the pie equation this is a universal equation. You
used by mathematicians and engineers. So the ancient Egyptians knew about pie, they had all the angles, they had everything in place. This is an amazing structure, you know, that they actually put there. And so this flies in the face of the racist concepts that Africa has done nothing for the onward flow of civilization, because at that time, the ancient Egyptians were basically the people from the south. And then there were there were the people in the north as well. It's the Ethiopian people, some call the ANU people, the nubians, who, who initiated the society, and then they dealt with the people in the Delta. Right. And so they united themselves, and they formed this
civilization. There are no people who have come in from Persia, or Babylonia. At that time, the Greeks and the Romans, there was no Romans, the Greeks hadn't even formed their city states, people in France and in Scandinavia, in England, they were living in caves.
So this is the ancient world. And this completely flies in the face of racism. So in order for us to,
you know, take this in, we have to realize there's a great deception and black people today, African people still have this ability within them. When you look at, for instance, the basketball, I like basketball, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Kyrie Irving comes down, he throws a pass, right, and it's forming this arc, and LeBron James comes in the air, grabs it, and puts it in, you have to have this understanding of geometry.
You literally are dealing with angles and arcs, and then his body reaches up, he grabs it with one hand slam dunks, you understand and then takes his stand. This is amazing. This is a mathematician, that's a scientist. And not only is it a theoretical scientists, it's a practical science. So that ability still lies within us. And that is the reason why
African people did so much even in the United States. And in the Caribbean, the cotton gin in the south, you know, so many structures, you know, the in NASA and Cape Canaveral, they were they were black women, even involved, you know, in high mathematics, see a document or I think a film that's about to come out about right, you know, which was basically you know, speaking about this Hidden Figures, which is an amazing movie showing even the black women, how they involve one young woman had an amazing mind and math, this is not a freak of nature. This this is part of, you know, civilization and history. And and that's the reason why we're saying, especially in Black History
Month, from an Islamic perspective, when we look at Islam, we're not talking about a religion or way of life that began with Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. We're talking about monotheism, from the time of Adam, peace be upon the first man. We're talking about monotheism, and you know, positive relationship with civilization and with the universe. This is what we're talking about, about Islam. And so the ancient Egyptians had Islam you can even go back to the Old Kingdom. And there was one Sage called patata
putao. In the Old Kingdom, he wrote about the belief in one God.
He has some amazing writings, which is clear that he's talking about one God. You also look just before the time of Moses or musala, a solemn there was a pharaoh called Akhenaten's. His wife was called Nefertiti. She's famous you see the head of Nefertiti, she she was the one who first developed feminine hygiene products and cosmetics. That's where it began, right? All that makeup and everything is Nefertiti is ancient Egypt. And so I cannot and
you know, he worshipped the power, really, behind the sun. Some people try to say it was the sun worship, but when you look at the Psalms of Akhenaten's, you will see some amazing things. You can see that who he's talking about the eternal God, and he's talking about the Creator of the heavens and the earth. And so this belief in one God, this is an interesting concept, because Musa alayhis salam, he grew up in Egypt, and he had an Egyptian education. So he must have come in contact with these teachings as well. So he was being prepped, molded, maybe molded in a sense, you know, to take on this monotheism, and it is when he flees from Egypt, and then goes to the mountaintop and then
receives revelation. Now it comes into light, you know, it's manifesting. That's interesting, because I think for many of us, the concept of tawheed in and of itself, right looks a particular way for us to heat is you know,
Five times a day saw fasting during the month of Ramadan and and the concepts in this video which metalloid Selim came with, right. But when you examine ancient history and you look at civilizations which, you know, we believe, perhaps had attentive to heat to them, I mean, they're shitty, I didn't look like ours, right? It's funny, I mentioned that because my background is from auto ml, I'm one on one in an auto ml culture. There was a religion, before Islam before Christianity called Walker fatter and fatter. Literally, when you translate it, it's like, it means to worship one, right? Or the concept behind it is to worship. They worship Walker, who, to them is like a black God who looks
like them and who, you know, they think during times of harvest and stuff like that. So now obviously, it's it's an expired faith, when you look at it in comparison to what we have, it's something that you wouldn't examine. But the essence of it is, is it looks like it's founded within tawheed. Right, you can see that the concept of one God is stressed that there's one god worthy of worship one god worthy of thanking and sacrificing for that. So I mean, obviously, even me examine the history of other civilizations through our own lens as Muslims, it might look a bit skewed, and we think, oh, they were fire worshippers, or whatever. But perhaps they were practicing faith, which
was, indeed to heat and it was a lost battle at that time. Well, this is interesting, because I, you know, I had the same passion to sort of find this tawheed and culture, and I visited 62 countries. And when I traveled to the countries, I would go to the museums, the archives, and I would speak with the scholars. In ancient China, I visited China, and they said in Mandarin Chinese, they have a concept called Shang tea, which is the great cosmic spirit you will find in ancient societies all over the world, ancient India, they say the Vedas, the early Sanskrit writings were actually talking about one God.
In Africa, where I lived for 10 years, especially in southern Africa. It was amazing because you know, similarly to what you find in otomo culture, in every African culture, there's there's a word for the great cosmic spirit is a special word. And I found in the south, for instance, amongst the Zulu people in Delhi, amongst the SU two, Rama zedi. Amongst the closer people are Kamata. So you find this concept of one God, you know, in the Congo region, in West Africa, amongst the yoruba people, amongst the Ashanti people. So you'll find this concept of one God and it's amazing the Yoruba descriptions, this is the area of one god of God being the all wise Allah Hakeem. Right in
you know, that.
It could be
that the descriptions and names and descriptions of Allah subhanaw taala, this is this is the knowledge we believe that the ancient nubians are the unknown people who are coming from that area of Sudan, Ethiopia, maybe some of your grandparents, you know, actually, you know, and we're talking about way back now 3500 bC tomasetti.
So, it is our belief that, like all people in ancient times, they had the belief in one God, there were some who worship idols, there are some who worships the sun, some who worship themselves, but that concept, that unity concept existed from the beginning of time, and it's so beautiful to see it I found amongst the native people in the Americas. That toe heel was very powerful amongst the MC mech people in Newfoundland. And when jack Katia first came into Canada, Canadian region, and he found the MC Mac, their concept is called Miss scam. And the the elders of the MC Mac people who live in Newfoundland area, as the eastern side of Canada.
Their concept of God is very similar to the Egyptian to the Islamic concept. And the way they describe God is like the 99 Names of Allah subhanaw taala. It's amazing. The Cherokee Nation had a definite belief in the one God, and they used to turn and face east and make their prayers. They had a different belief in one God, Dr. Robert crane, you know, who was a part Cherokee, he did a lot of interesting writings. So you find this concept of the Great Spirit. throughout the Americas, the ancient Mexicans had a person, a description of him as almost like a prophet. They even described this person. I was even in Scotland at one point in Glasgow doing a program with a Scottish Muslim.
And they were talking about before the time of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, that there was a man who came into the northern region of the British Isles and Scotland and he was talking about one god
So we believe that that even came into Europe, that they had the belief in one God as well. So this is a universal concept. And when we look at the universal concept, we have to go back to Africa. Because the Egyptians, people on the Nile, they were the first organized society. And you can go back in ancient times, and you can look, the level of the Egyptians, black African people, was astounding. So when we say in America, that we want to make America great, we need African people need to say we need to make Africa great again, you know, we need to make, you know, African people Great Again, not in a negative way, but in a way where they will again, take that lead, you know, in
developing civilization, and, and making astounding achievements. It's not enough for us now, to be throwing a football or to be slam dunking, we have to take that knowledge, and put it into practice to let the children know that that mind that you have, don't throw it away with drugs, don't throw it away with fornication and adultery and crime, but use that mind in a positive way, like the ancient Egyptians and Ethiopians did, and make the achievements that African peoples have done from the beginning of time. And I think that's really an amazing jumping off point. Because I think part of the reasoning behind this discussion is to also inspire people and to have, you know, young black
Muslim children. And otherwise, I mean, just acknowledge that they do come from something greater. I think part of the confusion, identity crisis a lot of young black people have living in this day and age is, we feel like we are nothing. I remember growing up and the only time Black or African people ever spoken about was in the context of slavery. And you think that that's where your civilization has begun. That's your history is that but to acknowledge that no, you are a part of something greater you are and have been, you know, involved in one of the greatest civilizations of society is an empowering notion. And I think you infusing that with Islam is something that only is going to
heighten that sense of, you know, responsibility that we can do something greater. So back to Egypt. What else did you find? I mean, obviously, your study, there has been so extensive, any other things that you found fascinating in relation to especially Islamic history? Well, again, what I've found is that the mind of the Egyptians, of those living on the Nile Valley,
it continued on because when the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him,
came as the as the last prophet. This stage had been set in the Mediterranean basin, there was a struggle for monotheism and dating going back to 3000 to 325. Ad. We're going up now to AD Constantine called the Council of Nicea right 325 ad. And he organized Christianity in the belief in the Trinity.
But one of the great bishops was named areas, and he was a Libyan Bishop who was teaching in Alexandria in Egypt. And he refused to accept this, he believed in one God, he believed that Jesus was a prophet. He did not accept Trinity or multiplicity of God, or the divinity of Christ, and he was executed. And his followers, you know, were executed as well, hundreds and 1000s of them. But it is these people who scattered in the area of Syria, Palestine, Egypt, North Africa. These people were the ones who when the final message came, they were overjoyed, because they were standing for the belief in one God, you even find Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him ran into a monk, but held on
when he was on the on the road, that the monk was there, trying to see if there's anybody who has this belief in one God, is there a final messenger coming? Where did the monk get his understanding from this was being carried on this monotheism was being carried on in the Mediterranean basin. And really, the last prophet is coming up. And so when the Romans, you know, attacked the Muslims, and the Muslims defeated them, the first place they looked at, after Syria and Palestine, was Egypt, because the Nile Valley has always been and will always be one of the centers of world civilization. And so when the famous Sahabi jaleel amabilis went alone, when they entered into Egypt, it was the
arion people.
believers in one God amongst the Egyptians, the Coptic people, who, according to all historians, assisted the Muslims against the Romans. So it was a local, it was a rebellion.
against the Roman rule, and the Muslims took over the land and continued across North Africa. But Egypt became a center of Islamic learning, and continued on as one of the great centers of learning the Egyptian mind. That same mind building pyramids of philosophy, it entered into Arabic language entered into Islamic Studies. And so you see some of the great scholars of Islam, Imam Shafi himself, one of the great scholars of Islam, Mama suti, and so many scholars, they're developing their work in Cairo, and then along the Nile region, Alexandria, and then going across North Africa, you know, so many of the scholars developed in, you know, in that region. And so, it's an extension.
It's an extension of an ancient civilization. And it's important for us to understand that, again, human beings all connected together, but there are certain high points, and it, you know, we're all extensions of each other. And if we can connect the ancient times, to our present world, will have a totally different concept. When we look at Africa itself, when we look at African people, we will not look at savage people uncivilized, an educated, terrible in math, but we will look at people who in ancient times, were the rulers of much of the world, who set the pace for the modern civilizations that we are living in, and who had the belief in one God, and the belief in many
different gods within this society, it's a whole part of the world
that we need to understand. One of the shocking things that dishonest European historians and writers did is that in order to cover up the ancient Egyptians, they first tried to say that the Egyptians who built the pyramids were light skinned people. Now, when you look at the dynasties, you'll see the Old Kingdom,
this is 3000 BC, then you see the middle pink kingdom, this is coming in around 2000. Well, then you see the new kingdom, which is coming, you know, right before ad, right. And that is when the Romans came in, and when the Greeks came in, and so when the Romans came in, you'll find that they, they, they they imitated the Egyptians. And so Cleopatra was a title, there was a number of Cleopatra. And they were actually people of European descent. So the word European people who were sitting in the thrones, like the pharaohs, and much of the artifacts and mummies that you get in the museum's are from the new kingdom. It's not from the Old Kingdom. So it's the new kingdom. So people get
confused. And they say, well, these are Egyptian things. Yes, but these are, after 3000 years had gone by of their major pyramid building 5000 years of their civilization, then these people come in right at the end, right. And so that was the first lie that they are indo European people. The second lie, which is even greater than that, is that they said, We cannot attribute this civilization to black African people. So we will say it was aliens. Blue down on Earth, there are aliens, built the pyramids, right, and then flew back at space. And so now you have children watching Stargate, and other programs thinking, no, this pyramid couldn't be black people? How can
they build something like that? That's what they have. Right? It's an alien who came down, subjugated the people built a pyramid and then flew back out in space that makes more sense than black, if that makes more sense. But the hard core evidence, and that's where we are young people need to study history, don't get caught up with the story of the aliens, or the state of the story of the of the mutant creatures, right? No, let us get caught up with the history of our peoples history of humanity, the great achievements made in Africa. And that is the reason why cottagey Woodson had been the people develop Black History Month. And that was, you know, to highlight these
achievements. And this is not to say, the achievements did not happen in China, in India, in Europe and the Americas. No, but let's take a hidden part of history. Let's uncover a legacy. And let's give it to the world. And that is where you don't as a Muslim, as a person of African descent, you know, I celebrate this time, it expands my mind and I believe we will expand the mind of all children, not just black black children, you will help white children to appreciate African Americans, African Caribbean, people from the African continent, they will appreciate that. And when they see LeBron James doing that slam dunk. they'll realize he's a scientist.
And he may even be related, you know, to the ancient Egyptians, you know who built those pyramids. Yeah.
I think, you know, it's really interesting, you mentioned that because I mean, obviously, in history and the way we've been taught, there is an immense amount of respect for European thought and history and, you know, philosophy and art and culture and everything that's come out of Europe for the past, you know, 500,000 years, that's what we've been taught, at least in school is is the pinnacle of success, you know, to be like ancient Europe, or Europeans, or to emulate the work of Shakespeare or other artists or other philosophers or the thought. So it's important, I guess, to acknowledge that, that, you know, greatness doesn't just lie in Europe, it does live other places in
the world, like in Africa, like in Asia, like in, you know, even Latin America and these places. Last thing I want to ask you about, and I think this is an interesting point of discussion, especially in this context, because the history of Egypt particular, we will look at it, we do acknowledge that, yes, black people in civilization, you know, did emerge from that region. But now, if you look at Egypt today, and you look at Northern Africa, it is, you know, their, quote, unquote, Arabs. So how did that shift occur? How did it become African dark skinned people to a lighter Arab speaking Arabic speaking people today? It was there a time in history when that particular change
occurred? Well, you see that in the new kingdom, and you're talking about a few 100 years BC, and then a D, you start to see Iraqi Babylonians coming in the Hicks also coming in, this is a time of excellent Ibrahim Abraham alayhis salam. And so you talk around,
you know, 1600 bc or so
when Abraham was coming in 1640, okay, so hexose, these are Iraqis coming in, because obviously, the Nile Valley is one of the great civilizations. So it's an area of conquest. And then later the Assyrians come in, then later the, the Greeks come in, they Alexander comes in, he conquers the area now called Alexandria, then the Romans come in, and they conquer the area. And so when Muslims came, there were many immigrants who came in from the Arabian Peninsula as well, which is primarily a desert, and they want to benefit from the Nile Valley as well. So they immigrated into the area. And you know, that the language then spread into the into the area. But the reality is, is that Egypt
has always been, you know, a part of Africa. And up until today, it's amazing, because when check, enter job, and the scientists looked at blood types of Egyptians, they found it's basically type B blood, which is African blood system. It's not type A or anything like that, the other types, so it's still African blood that the Egyptians have. And especially if you go to the southern Egypt as one, that region, you'll see the Sudanese type of people. So you know, being so the Egyptians themselves are still in Africa. But because they were conquered by Iraqis, Babylonians, Assyrians, Romans, Greeks, Turks, Arabs, it's a mixture, you find in Cairo itself, but it is still the Nile
Valley, the river is flowing from deep in Africa, down into Egypt, it still is still the same, but because of the international trade routes, and the routes of conquest, it has become a melting pot, as well, but still, it is Africa, and it needs to be considered as part of the African continent, if we separate Africa from Arabia, and I don't really do that. But if we do separate, it's clearly part of the African continent. And Arabic, we recognize is really a language amongst Arabic speaking people, there are light skin, there are dark skin, there are all types.
And so if you look at it from that point of view, it's still another expression of the ancient Egyptian Nubian culture.
Well, I think there's definitely a lot to digest and I hope everyone out there has really benefited and enjoyed the session inshallah Stay tuned for the next installment of this particular series airing next week inshallah the exact same time and thank you all for watching so I can look ahead and Shaykh Abdullah for giving us your time and knowledge and hopefully we'll see you again next time particle of Santa Monica Monica de la he Obamacare two