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What's in a
name? - The Problem
with the "Nation of Islam"
A court ruling overturning a fifteen year
British ban on its leader, Louis Farrakhan, has propelled
the so-called Nation of Islam into the headlines. Michael
Young examines the Islamic credentials of these self-styled "Muslims".
August 1, 2001
"Nation of Islam" members in their
trademark bow ties and suits
The
Fundamentals of Islamic Belief
One could be forgiven for assuming
that any group with the word Islam in its title would be Muslim.
But when it comes to the group calling itself the "Nation of Islam",
one must be very wary indeed. To be Muslim means to hold certain fundamental
theological beliefs. The Muslim
profession of faith is:
"I bear witness that there is
no god but God, and I bear witness that Mohammed is a prophet of God."
To elaborate on these statements,
to be a Muslim means to believe that God is One, unique. He has no
partners, no associates, no Son, nor did He ever become incarnate. As
chapter 112 of the Quran makes clear:
"He is God, the only One,
God the Everlasting.
He did not beget and is not begotten,
And none is His equal."
In Islam
the ascribing of partners to God, referred to as shirk, is the greatest
of all sins. The Quran states explicitly in chapter 4, verse 36:
"Serve Allah, and join not
any partners with Him."
Secondly, Muslims believe Mohammed
 to have been the
"Seal" or last of the prophets. To recognize anyone after
Mohammed claiming to be a
prophet, negates one's Islam. As is stated in the Quran:
"O people! Mohammed has no
sons among ye men, but verily, he is the Messenger of Allah and the last in the
line of Prophets. And Allah is aware of everything." (33:40)
This is reinforced by various
sayings of Prophet Mohammed :
"The tribe of Israel was
guided by prophets. When a prophet passed away, another succeeded him. But no
prophet will come after me; only caliphs will succeed me." (Bukhari)
"In My Ummah, there shall
be born Thirty Grand Liars (Dajjals), each of whom will claim to be a prophet,
But I am the Last Prophet; there is No Prophet after Me." (Abu
Dawood, at-Tirmidhi)
The Errant
Theology of the "Nation of Islam"
The "Nation of
Islam" does not adhere to these core tenets of Islamic theology. They
believe that God appeared on earth in the person of their founder, a "great man from the
East", Master W. Fard Muhammad, a preacher who first came to public
attention in the USA on July 4, 1930 then mysteriously "departed the
scene" on February 26, 1934. As the NOI website unambiguously
declares:
"WE BELIEVE that Allah (God)
appeared in the Person of Master W. Fard Muhammad, July, 1930; the long-awaited
"Messiah" of the Christians and the "Mahdi" of the Muslims."
In 1934 following the unexplained
departure of the "Master", the organization he founded came to be headed by one
Elijah Poole, who became known as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Until
very recently, the "Nation of Islam" accorded the status of prophet to
Elijah Muhammad.
Therefore it is clear that despite
their name and calling themselves Muslims, "Nation of Islam" beliefs about
God and prophethood are glaringly incompatible with Islam.
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 |
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Louis Farrakhan, current
leader of the Nation of Islam, finally allowed to enter the UK
after a court orders the lifting of a 15-year government ban. |
"Honorable" Elijah Muhammad,
the "prophet" of the Nation of Islam. |
"Master" W. Fard Muhammad
in whose person God appeared in early 1930's America, according to Nation
of Islam beliefs. |
Racist ideology
also at odds with universal Islam
A third area of non-compliance
with Islam, and the one which receives by far the greatest attention in the
secular media, is the issue of race. The present "Nation of Islam" leader,
Louis Farrakhan, is on record as having made objectionable anti-Jewish (as distinct from
anti-Zionist) remarks. Among other unfortunate utterances, he is alleged to have referred to Judaism as a
"gutter religion".
Moreover, the NOI is a segregationalist organization
exclusively for black people descended from slaves. Proper Islam is a universal
religion open to people of every race. Muslims are supposed to
differentiate between people on the basis not of ethnic origin but of piety and
upright behavior. As the Quran makes clear:
"And mankind is naught but a
single nation." Holy Quran 2:213
"O Mankind! Most certainly,
it is We (God almighty) who have Created you all from a single (pair) of a male
and a female, And it is We who have made you into nations and tribes, that ye
may recognize each other. Verily, the noblest of you in the sight of Allah
is (he who is) the most righteous of you." Holy Quran 49:13
And in his final sermon, Prophet
Mohammed made clear that
racism has no place in Islam:
"O people! Verily your Lord
is one and your father is one. All of you belong to one ancestry of Adam and
Adam was created out of clay. There is no superiority for an Arab over a
non-Arab and for a non-Arab over an Arab; nor for white over the black nor for
the black over the white except in piety. Verily the noblest among you is he who
is the most pious."
In contrast, the NOI has a
pronounced anti-white bias. They refer to blacks as God's chosen people
and Caucasians as white devils. They call for a separate homeland for
American blacks, for racially segregated education and for a ban on interracial
marriage. To quote again from their website:
We believe we are the people
of God's choice.
WE BELIEVE this is the time
in history for the separation of the so-called Negroes and the so-called
white Americans.
We want our people in
America whose parents or grandparents were descendants from slaves, to be
allowed to establish a separate state or territory of their own--either on
this continent or elsewhere.
We want all black children
educated, taught and trained by their own teachers.
We believe that
intermarriage or race mixing should be prohibited.
Fellow
Muslims with eyes the bluest of blue and skin the
whitest of white...
Former NOI members who recognized anti-white racism as folly and converted to proper Islam include
Malcolm X and the world champion
heavyweight boxer, Muhammad Ali. Both spoke out on the subject:
"[The Hajj pilgrimage to
Mecca] was an exhilarating experience to see people belonging to different colors,
races and nationalities, kings, heads of states and ordinary men from very poor
countries all clad in two simple white sheets praying to God without any sense
of either pride or inferiority. It was a practical manifestation of the concept
of equality in Islam." Muhammed Ali
"During the past eleven days
here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same
glass, and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug) -- while praying to the
same God -- with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair
was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the
words and in the actions and in the deeds of the 'white' Muslims, I felt the
same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan
and Ghana."
"We were truly all the same
-- because their belief in the one God had removed the 'white' from their minds,
the 'white' from their behavior, and the 'white' from their attitude."
"This religion recognizes all
men as brothers. It accepts all human beings as equals before God, and as equal
members in the Human Family of Mankind. I totally reject Elijah Muhammad's
racist philosophy, which he has labeled 'Islam' only to fool and misuse gullible
people as he fooled and misused me. But I blame only myself, and no one else for
the fool that I was, and the harm that my evangelical foolishness on his behalf
has done to others." Malcolm
X
Any areas of
common ground between Islam and the "Nation of Islam"?
Despite the major negatives, there
are some elements of NOI beliefs with which Muslims can more or less agree: For example:
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WE BELIEVE In the One God
whose proper Name is Allah.
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WE BELIEVE in the Holy Qur'an
and in the Scriptures of all the Prophets of God.
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WE BELIEVE in Allah's Prophets
and the Scriptures they brought to the people.
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WE BELIEVE our women should be
respected and protected as the women of other nationalities are respected
and protected.
And there is much on the practical
side of the NOI which we can admire. The NOI prohibits among its members
drinking, smoking and gambling. They are also known for their social work
among the black community and their often successful efforts to raise levels of
self-discipline and self-confidence in a community which has suffered from
historical injustice and its debilitating long-term social and psychological
effects often manifested in nihilistic, violent, drug-ridden American inner city and
housing project ghettos and characterized by family breakdown including a high illegitimate birth rate.
Whither
the "Nation of Islam"?
Laudable as the lifestyle espoused
by the NOI may be, one cannot
escape the fact that despite some of the trappings of Islam, the theology and ideology
they currently espouse are
not only non-Islamic but actually anathema to Islam. There are, however, some signs that things may be changing
for the better.
On the death of Elijah Mohammed in 1976 his son
Wallace
D. Muhammad (now known as Imam Warrithuddin Mohammed) assumed NOI leadership,
renamed the organization the Muslim American Society and steered it toward
Islamic orthodoxy. After three years a disgruntled Louis Farrakhan broke
away and re-founded the NOI in line with the teachings of Elijah Mohammed.
But in February this year, Farrakhan, recovering from a serious battle with
prostate cancer which may have given him cause to reflect, shared a platform
with Wallace and made an important move toward mainstream Islam by declaring:
"Allah sent Mohammed
with the final revelation to the world. ...
There is no prophet after the Prophet Mohammed
,
and no book after the Koran."
Let us hope that similarly orthodox
statements on the nature of God and on race will also soon be forthcoming.
Let us look forward to the day when Louis Farrakhan and his NOI follow the
example of their former colleague, Malcolm X, who eventually found his way from
the so-called "Nation of Islam" to genuine Islam and stated:
"I declare emphatically that
I am no longer in Elijah Muhammad's 'strait jacket', and I don't intend to
replace his with one woven by someone else. I am a Muslim in the most orthodox
sense; my religion is Islam as it is believed in and practiced by the Muslims in
the Holy City of Mecca." Alhamdulillah.
Allahu a`lam. God knows best.
© 2001 IslamForToday.com
Michael Young is Features Editor
of IslamForToday.com www.islamfortoday.com
MichaelYoung101@yahoo.com
Read other articles on Islam by
Michael young here.
Links
The
"Nation of Islam"
The
Muslim American Society
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