Yakub (Nation of Islam)

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Nation of Islam
Influencers Satokata Takahashi Noble Drew Ali
Leaders Wallace Fard Muhammad Elijah Muhammad Malcolm X Warith Deen Mohammed Louis Farrakhan Tynnetta Muhammad Ishmael Muhammad Ava Muhammad David Muhammad James 3X Khalid Muhammad
Beliefs and theology Saviours' Day Nation of Islam and antisemitism Tribe of Shabazz Yakub Dianetics
History Million Man March Millions More Movement Justice or Else
Publications A Torchlight for America The Final Call Muhammad Speaks How to Eat to Live Message to the Blackman in America
Subsidiaries Fruit of Islam Muhammad Farms Muhammad University of Islam Muslim Girls Training Star Chamber Academy
Offshoots and sects American Society of Muslims Five-Percent Nation United Nation of Islam Nation of Yahweh Nuwaubian Nation
Related organizations Black Dragon Society Black Mafia New Black Panther Party Peace Movement of Ethiopia El Rukn Church of Scientology Yusuf Bey Your Black Muslim Bakery Black Hebrew Israelites Moorish Science Temple of America
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Yakub (also spelled Yacub or Yaqub) is a figure in the mythology of the Nation of Islam (NOI) and its offshoots. According to the NOI's doctrine, Yakub was a black Meccan scientist who lived 6,600 years ago and created the white race. According to the story, following his discovery of the law of attraction and repulsion, he gathered followers and began the creation of the white race through a form of selective breeding referred to as "grafting" on the island of Patmos; Yakub died at the age of 150, but his followers continued the process after his death. According to the NoI, the white race was created with an evil nature, and were destined to rule over black people for a period of 6,000 years through the practice of "tricknology", which ended in 1914.

The story and idea of Yakub originated in the writings of the NOI's founder Wallace Fard Muhammad. Scholars have variously traced its origins in Fard's thought to the idea of the Yakubites propounded by the Moorish Science Temple, the Battle of Alarcos, or alternatively say it may have been created originally with little basis in any other tradition. Scholars have argued the tale is an example of a black theodicy, with similarities to gnosticism with Yakub as demiurge, as well as the story of Genesis. It has also been interpreted as a reversal of the contemporary racist ideas that asserted the inferiority of black people.

The story has, throughout its history, caused disputes within the NOI. Under its current leader Louis Farrakhan, the NOI continues to assert that the story of Yakub is true, not a metaphor, and has been proven by modern science. Several other splinter groups and other black nationalist religious organizations, including the Nuwaubian Nation, the Five-Percent Nation and the United Nation of Islam, share a belief in Yakub.