NATION OF ISLAM

NATION OF ISLAM . The first several decades of the twentieth century marked a continuing challenge for African Americans. Attempting to carve out a viable socioeconomic, political, and cultural space was difficult in light of disenfranchisement, mob violence, and the scarcity of good jobs. Hearing rumors of increased opportunities, many African Americans participated in the "Great Migration" that marked the movement of African Americans into northern and southern cities in search of better life options. However, in places like Chicago and Detroit, African Americans quickly came to realize that racial discrimination could not be escaped through migration.

Master Fard and the Beginning of a Movement

W. D. Fard (Master Fard Muhammad; 1891?–1934?) appeared in Detroit in 1930, selling scarves and other goods, and engaging eager listeners in conversations that involved a history lesson concerning their true status as Asiatics, originally from Mecca. His teachings perplexed and intrigued listeners and, while his theories seemed fantastic, his audience grew as blacks in Detroit gained from his teachings a new sense of self-worth and a way to critique oppression encountered during the course of daily existence.

To secure the greatness blacks were meant to exhibit, it was necessary to reject the teachings, or "tricknology," of whites, and embrace Islam—the black community's true religion. Black Americans were lost within the wilderness of the United States, but Master Fard had been sent to restore them to their former glory through his teachings and written materials—the Supreme Lessons—a blending of basic educational skills and metaphysics.

This, of course, was not the first time an articulation of Islamic teachings was expressed within the context of African American communities. Scholars have recently recognized an early Muslim presence in North America that might represent roughly 10 percent of the African population in North America during slavery. Diary accounts, autobiographies, and Works Progress Administration (WPA) documents all attest to such Islamic practices as prayer while facing east, dietary restrictions, and Islamic names given to children in early African American communities. This early Islamic presence serves as a cultural memory upon which more recent practices developed. For example, the Moorish Science Temple, developed roughly a decade before the Nation of Islam, espoused doctrines that combined Islamic teachings with other theological orientations. Members of the Moorish Science Temple believe Noble Drew Ali (1886–1929), the organization's founder, is reincarnated in subsequent leaders. Some suggest that Master Fard was Noble Drew Ali reincarnated, an argument rejected by the Nation of Islam. Master Fard maintained a degree of mystery by suggesting that he was from the East, sent on a special mission, with more information to be revealed in time.

Some estimates suggest that Master Fard's temple grew to roughly eight thousand members, one of the most important being Elijah Muhammad (born Elijah Poole; 1897–1975). As part of the Great Migration, Poole came to Detroit from the South. But with a limited education, Poole found it difficult to secure employment that met the needs of his growing family. This economic situation, combined with his unfulfilled interest in church ministry, left him frustrated but open to the inspiring teachings of Master Fard. Upon first hearing Master Fard, there was a quick connection between the two that culminated in Poole's name change to Elijah Muhammad and his being called to minister in Fard's movement. With the mysterious disappearance of Master Fard in 1934, a power struggle emerged, centered on Elijah Muhammad. Forced to leave Detroit for a period, he traveled to cities such as Chicago, presenting the teachings of Master Fard.

Elijah Muhammad's Teachings

The conversion of new members did not involve an emotional response as happened in so many black churches. It entailed an intellectual and psychologically deliberate acceptance of the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. The completion of this transformation, this acceptance of the black person's true nature and destiny, was presented by the convert in a letter to Elijah Muhammad's headquarters in Chicago. In this letter, the person seeking membership indicated participation in several meetings and a firm belief in the doctrines. The letter included a request for full participation in the life of the Nation and asked the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to provide the writer with the person's original name. Until a new name was given, members made use of X, which represented the unknown. The old name represented the white race and the damaging effects of slavery (and a slave mentality) on the identity of black Americans. The X involved a rejection of the former self and the embrace of a new identity associated with a new relationship with Allah and his messenger, Elijah Muhammad.

Self-sufficiency was one of the Nation of Islam's mantras, and it was expressed practically through the organization's various business ventures, which included restaurants, bakeries, and a farm. This attention to economic self-determination as a step toward complete knowledge of self is in keeping with the organization's push for separation from whites through the development of an independent black nation comprised of several states with rich farming land. In order to finance this new nation, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad called for the U. S. government to provide enough funds to sustain the black nation for twenty to twenty-five years. From the Nation's perspective this was neither a loan nor a handout. It was overdue wages for centuries of uncompensated slave labor. According to the Nation of Islam, it was a small price to pay when one considered the institutions and accumulated wealth that resulted from centuries of chattel slavery.

In lectures Elijah Muhammad proclaimed that Fard was God (Allah) incarnate and that he, Elijah Muhammad, was the messenger of God commissioned to teach black Americans about their true nature as the original people of the earth, godlike and destined to rule the universe. The most troubling dimension of this teaching was the reference to white people as devils who were made by a wise, yet mad, scientist named Mr. Yakub as a predestined part of the 25,000-year cycle of history in which we currently live. This actual and historical devil race, the story goes, will rule blacks for a set number of years. Such a period of domination and destruction, the Nation taught, serves as a pedagogical tool by which blacks, who strayed from their original religion of Islam, are corrected and prepared for their future glory. The Nation of Islam would ultimately soften the more harsh dimensions of its theology, arguing that the devil doctrine entailed a metaphorical attack on white supremacy and discrimination as opposed to an attack on white Americans. While remaining controversial, this rethinking of the Nation of Islam's more charged view is most notable as of the 1990s.

The Nation of Islam's task entailed enlightenment, the presentation of the true nature of blacks and whites, and the tools necessary for blacks to transform themselves. Once blacks in America—the Lost/Found Nation—gained knowledge of self and accepted the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad as the "Spiritual Head of the Muslims in the West," judgment would occur through which whites would be punished and the earth purged by fire, and blacks would then regain control over the universe. The faithful of God (i.e., the Nation's members) would construct a new civilization guided by principles of truth, freedom, justice, and equality.

Nation of Islam doctrine fluctuates between the complete destruction of whites and a measure of hope for the redemption of whites. The Nation's concern with issues of justice begs the question concerning an inherent contradiction: Should a community be punished for fulfilling its destiny, even when this involves the oppression of other groups? Is it proper, as a matter of justice, to condemn a community for its actions when it has no choice but to behave in a certain way because it has no free will?

Inconsistencies in the Nation's theology and rhetoric did not prevent growth and the alteration of the organizational framework to accommodate new members of various economic classes. For example, each local temple contained a minister who spread the Honorable Elijah Muhammad's teachings. To facilitate increased work and opportunities, the local minister was assisted by the captains of the Fruit of Islam (the collective of men who handed down discipline and provided security) and the Muslim Girl's Training and General Civilization Class, and so on. In addition, Elijah Muhammad expanded his network of ministers to maximize national exposure made available through television, including documentaries such as The Hate That Hate Produced (broadcast in 1959), and also the Nation's radio broadcasts and newspaper.

Aggressively seeking out members of the black community and the prison system, a process called "fishing," provided the Nation with its greatest source of growth and visibility. Through personal contact with black prisoners, the Nation gained one of its best-known leaders—Malcolm X (1925–1965)—whose charisma and media appeal benefited the Nation of Islam as both its national and international profile increased in importance and prominence within popular imagination. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad's personal moral failures, combined with the Nation of Islam's lack of participation in the civil rights movement, resulted in Malcolm's break with the Nation and his conversion to Sunnī Islam in 1964. Malcolm X embraced racial equality as a basic element of Islam in light of his encounter with Muslims from various ethnic and racial groups during his pilgrimage to Mecca. This perspective would result in new strategies for the obtainment of social justice as a dimension of human rights discourse. He established the Organization of Afro-American Unity and Muslim Mosque Incorporated shortly before his death in 1965.

The Nation of Islam Transformed

After the Honorable Elijah Muhammad's death in 1975, his son, Wallace Deen Muhammad (Imam Warith Deen Muhammad, b. 1933), was named head of the Nation of Islam. Attempting to bring the Nation into line with the larger, worldwide Islamic community, he rethought the aesthetics of the temples. He removed the Christian church trappings, such as pews (or chairs), and he replaced framed sayings by Elijah Muhammad with more Islamic ornamentation. Of more significance, the organization's practices were altered radically through a quick effort to enforce the five pillars of Islamic faith, the practices and attitudes embraced by all orthodox Muslims. In keeping with this shift, the presentation of Master Fard as Allah and Elijah Muhammad as the final Messenger was removed because of conflict with the orthodox understanding of Allah and the role of the prophet Muḥammad as the final prophet. In place of his more exalted role, Elijah Muhammad was presented as someone who, although misguided at points, sought to help black Americans achieve better life options. As a symbol of theological and aesthetic change, the name of the organization was changed to the World Community of Islam in the West, and changed again in 1982 to the American Muslim Mission. Imam Warith Deen Muhammad ultimately established a council of religious leaders, known as imams, to assist with religious and organizational questions, and members were told to consider themselves as simply members of the world community of Islam.

The Nation of Islam had been prone to schism. Notable among these various organizations is the Five Percent Nation (also known as the Nation of Gods and Earths), founded by Clarence 13X (1928–1969) in 1964 among young New Yorkers and based on a radical interpretation of the Nation's theology that presented blacks as gods with special knowledge based upon divine wisdom, often revealed through mathematics. However, the most visible and perhaps important of these splinter groups developed in 1978, when Minister Louis Farrakhan (b. 1933) formed a new organization named the Nation of Islam. Farrakhan affirmed the doctrines presented by Elijah Muhammad, including the teaching that Fard was Allah, and that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was the messiah, with one significant addition. Farrakhan argued, based on a vision, that he himself was the prophet carrying on the work until the return of the messiah and judgment.

With time, the theology of the Nation of Islam under Minister Farrakhan would again change to include the institution of fasting during the month of Ramaḍān, as opposed to the more limited restriction instituted by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Furthermore, members of the Nation are currently encouraged to play a role in politics. Farrakhan modeled this through his participation in the Reverend Jesse Jackson's first run for the U.S. presidency in 1988, as well as his encouragement of Nation of Islam members to run for political office. This is clearly a break with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad's rejections of political involvement in a society that is marked for destruction.

While relations with the Jewish community remain tense at best, Farrakhan has worked to improve connections to the larger Islamic world. For example, his participation in the ḥājj (the pilgrimage to Mecca made by all financial and able-bodied Muslims) in 1985, as well as the availability of membership in the Nation without regard to race and ethnicity, speak to important shifts that make possible a repositioning of the Nation of Islam within the religious and political landscape of the United States and the world. However, this repositioning is not without significant tensions, as expressed, for example, through the Nation of Islam's sympathetic relationship with Libya's Muammar Qadhafi and the Libyan leader's efforts to provide the Nation with financial assistance.

Periods of tension and questionable allegiances have been mixed with more productive moments. Minister Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, for instance, have sought to maintain a high level of viability through efforts such as the Million Man March in 1995. This was a gathering in Washington, D.C., of black men from various religious, social, and economic backgrounds. The purpose behind the gathering was repentance for misdeeds that have damaged the unity and vitality of black America, and a commitment to restoring themselves to their proper role as black men within the black community. While this event was successful, with participation estimated by some to have reached well over one million, the Nation of Islam has not been able to sustain positive attention. To some extent it remains a marginal religious tradition with a membership that is difficult to state with accuracy. Membership estimates typically range between thirty thousand and seventy thousand. By contrast, there are roughly four million African American Sunnī Muslims in the United States.

See Also

Elijah Muhammad; Islam, article on Islam in the Americas; Malcolm X.

Bibliography

Ansari, Zafar Ishaq. "Aspects of Black Muslim Theology." Studia Islamica 53 (1981): 137–176. Ansari provides a brief discussion of major theological themes within the teachings of the Nation of Islam, based on a concern with understanding its development within the context of the larger Islamic community.

Austin, Allan D. African Muslims in Antebellum America: Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles. New York, 1997. Austin presents the early Islamic presence in North America through biographical portraits of African Muslims enslaved between 1730 and 1860.

Clegg, Claude Andrew. An Original Man: The Life and Times of Elijah Muhammad. Boston, 1996. This book provides an analysis of the Nation of Islam's development through a biographical discussion of Elijah Muhammad, highlighting the manner in which Nation of Islam doctrine grew out of his personal convictions and struggles.

Essien-Udom, E. U. Black Nationalism: A Search for an Identity in America. Chicago, 1962. This is one of the early studies of the Nation of Islam. It provides analysis of nationalism within black communities through attention to the Nation of Islam's method of conversion, doctrine, and social location.

Gardell, Mattias. In the Name of Elijah Muhammad: Louis Farra-khan and the Nation of Islam. Durham, N.C., 1996. Using social history as a framework, this text explores the Nation of Islam. It moves from Elijah Muhammad through the alterations to the Nation's doctrine and platform initiated by Louis Farrakhan.

Gomez, Michael A. "Muslims in Early America." Journal of Southern History 60, no. 4 (1994): 670–710. This article is a history of Muslim practices in the United States, beginning with the presence of African Muslims early in the slave trade. The author discusses this history within the larger context of African American religious and cultural life.

Lee, Martha F. The Nation of Islam: An American Millenarian Movement. Lewiston, Maine, 1988; reprint, Syracuse, N.Y., 1996. This book explores the Nation of Islam's development in light of its rhetoric regarding the eventual destruction of whites and the coming greatness of blacks.

Lincoln, C. Eric. Black Muslims in America. 3d ed. Grand Rapids, Mich., 1994. Using a sociological lens, Lincoln provides the first detailed treatment of the Nation of Islam from its initial presence through the beginning of Farrakhan's leadership.

Mamiya, Lawrence H. "From Black Muslim to Bilalian: The Evolution of a Movement." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 4 (1982): 138–152. Mamiya outlines and discusses shifts in African American Islamic identity from the Nation of Islam to the presence of African American Sunnī Muslims seeking connection to Muslims across the globe.

McCloud, Aminah Beverly. African American Islam. New York, 1995. This book is a survey of various African American Islamic communities. It also addresses such key issues as the role of women within the Islamic community.

Nuruddin, Yusuf. "The Five Percenters: A Teenage Nation of Gods and Earths." In Muslim Communities in North America, edited by Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and Jane Idleman Smith, pp. 109–132. Albany, N.Y., 1994. This article provides a concise history of the Five Percent Nation, highlighting its connections to and impact on popular culture.

Pinn, Anthony B. "The Great Mahdi Has Come!" In Varieties of African American Religious Experience, pp. 104–153. Minneapolis, 1998. Pinn provides a theological history of the Nation of Islam, giving primary attention to its development in light of its depiction of and response to moral evil.

Tate, Sonsyrea. Little X: Growing Up in the Nation of Islam. San Francisco, 1997. Tate's book is a personal reflection on the Nation of Islam's doctrinal shifts as Warith Deen Muhammad took over. Using the story of her family, Tate explores the impact of the Nation's changing teachings.

Turner, Richard Brent. Islam in the African American Experience. Bloomington, Ind., 1997. Turner provides a history of the Islamic presence in North America, beginning with West Africa and moving through the Nation of Islam and African American involvement in Sunnī Islam.

White, Vibert L., Jr. Inside the Nation of Islam: A Historical and Personal Testimony by a Black Muslim. Gainesville, Fla., 2001. White uses his personal history with the Nation of Islam as a means of critique, pointing out the Nation's flaws and inconsistencies.

Wormer, Richard. American Islam: Growing Up Muslim in America. New York, 1994. Wormer discusses Islam from the perspective of young Muslims and the challenges they face growing up in the United States.

Anthony B. Pinn (2005)