Early “Islam” in the U.S. were to true Islam as Mormonism and Scientology were to Christianity
Many years ago, I was watching a documentary about boxing legend Muhammad Ali with my family, which included clips of Ali repeating the teachings of his Muslim organisation, called the Nation of Islam (NOI). My family and I wondered if this was a form of ‘ajaran sesat’, i.e. deviated teachings of Islam. After the movie, we still held the same impression of the NOI as previously mentioned.
Some nights ago, I watched the 1992 biographical film Malcolm X with my wife. It’s known that Malcolm X was also part of the same organisation, the NOI, and became a mentor to Ali until Malcolm’s departure from the organisation to form his own. Immediately after the film, we still held the same impression of the NOI as before. So, I did some reading.
Prior to the movie, my wife had already done some basic research out of interest. She found out that when Malcolm X first visited Mecca for Hajj after his separation from the NOI, he was initially refused entry into the Holy City. One reason was that he did not know how to pray in Arabic. He eventually found his way in through someone he knew.
We assumed, correctly to an extent, that the NOI learned Islam not from dakwa/dawah by Arabs, but probably learned it remotely from books instead. So, it wasn’t a surprise that they used terms foreign to Islam, like ‘Temple’ instead of ‘Mosque’ or ‘Masjid’, and ‘Minister’ instead of ‘Imam’.
Though we did notice the odd terminology used in their banner — “There is no God but Allah; Muhammad is his Apostle” — we assumed that this was another case of using American and Christianity-influenced language, as they lacked the complete teachings of Islam, but were still considered Muslims.
However, we found it odd that, in the movie, not only did the preaching by Malcolm X and others seem never to mention the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), nor the Prophet himself, but instead always repeated the teachings of ‘The Honourable’ Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the NOI at the time. Every mention of Elijah Muhammad was always preceded by the title ‘The Honourable’, as if Elijah Muhammad were their substitute prophet, replacing Prophet Muhammad himself.
In one instance in the movie, Malcolm X referred to Elijah Muhammad as “divine”, which I gave the benefit of the doubt as being merely a figure of speech or metaphorical — perhaps rooted in Black American vernacular. Then, there was a scene in the movie in which Elijah Muhammad said that he built this nation under the divine guidance of ‘Allah’, that ‘Allah’ brought him back from the dead to lead his people, and that after him, there would be no more — and he repeated ‘no more’ for emphasis, and spoke of planting his seed in fertile soil as a fulfilment of prophecy.
After some basic research on the real-world NOI, it turns out that, not only were we right that there was no direct transmission of Islamic teachings to those who gave rise to early Islam in the U.S., but their theology was completely un-Islamic.
Firstly, their theology taught that there has been a succession of mortal gods, each of whom was a Black man named “Allah”, where the first “Allah” created the earliest humans, who were dark-skinned, Arabic-speaking, and called the Tribe of Shabazz, and who possessed inner divinity, from whom all people of colour descended. So, you can see that the ‘Allah’ they worship is not the same Allah as in Islam.
Then, a Black ‘scientist’ created the white race. They lacked inner divinity, were intrinsically violent, and later overthrew the Tribe of Shabazz and achieved global dominance. Upon reading this in Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica, it now made sense why the character in the movie, Baines, said to Malcolm X, “God is Black” as he was preaching to him this version of ‘Islam’ while in prison, which we had initially ignored. Apparently, in prison, Baines also mentioned the Tribe of Shabazz, which we had assumed was some real-world historical fact we were unfamiliar with.
Above all else, the Qur’an wasn’t recited to them in their Temples. Based on theology alone, the ‘Islam’ they practised clearly isn’t actual Islam. The followers, who didn’t know any better, were conned into believing that what they were practising was Islam, and that they were Muslims. For ease of reading, I’ll refer to them as ‘Mooslems’ instead of Muslims, and to their version of Islam as ‘Izlam’.
We also noticed that there was no point in the movie where the shahada was recited in Arabic during conversions to Izlam, which is consistent with the real-life Malcolm X’s inability to pray in Arabic when he first went on Hajj. Even if they did recite the shahada in English, the ‘Allah’—arguably—and especially the ‘Muhammad’ are not the same as those in actual Islam. One could argue that the ‘Allah’ they worship is the same, except that they believe Allah manifests Himself in people, but it’s well documented that their prophet is Elijah Muhammad. Denzel Washington did, however, recite al-Fatihah as Malcolm X after prayers, following the completion of his pilgrimage but while still in Mecca.
Secondly, Elijah Muhammad wasn’t the founder of the NOI, but rather a successor to the founder. The founder was a man named Wallace Fard Muhammad, whose origins and ethnicity were a mystery. Judging by his photos, he was definitely not black, but although fair-skinned, probably not white either. According to Wikipedia, he was variously identified as white, black, Spanish, Arab, and, on one occasion, Jewish, and was described by a journalist as a “racial and ethnic chameleon”.
Apparently, he moved to Los Angeles under the name Wallie Dodd Ford and had been arrested and convicted of crimes on multiple occasions. The NOI, however, contested the claim that Wallie Dodd Ford was Wallace Fard Muhammad. When Elijah Muhammad succeeded Fard, he declared Fard to be the latest “Allah”.
Upon re-watching the prison scene in the movie, everything started to make sense. I recalled Baines saying, “The Merciful ‘Allah’ has sent us a messenger: a black man named Elijah Muhammad.” So not only was their “Allah” an imposter, but the “apostle” they called Muhammad wasn’t the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), but rather Elijah Muhammad.
So apparently, when Wallace Fard Muhammad founded NOI in 1930, Detroit, he drew an earlier Black American Mooslem cult called Moorish Science Temple of America (MSTA), for inspiration. For context, Malcolm X joined the NOI in 1952. He left the NOI in 1964, founded his own Mooslem organisation, and performed the Hajj in the same year. He was assassinated in 1965. MSTA was founded in 1925 by someone who himself Noble Drew Ali. He claimed that during his travels in the Middle East, a high priest of mystical Egyptian cult approached him and recognised him as the latest reincarnation in a line of prophets including Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, and Muhammad. The priest gave him the so-called “lost sections” section of the Qur’an, for where Drew returned to the States he called it the “Holy Koran” as his organisation’s sacred text, which obviously drew little resemblance to its namesake and was based on his limited knowledge of Islam. Noble Drew Ali is relevant to this because Wallace Fard Muhammad claimed to be a reincarnate of Drew, hence the reincarnate of prophets.
So apparently, when Wallace Fard Muhammad founded the NOI in 1930 in Detroit, he drew inspiration from an earlier Black American Mooslem cult called the Moorish Science Temple of America (MSTA).
For context, Malcolm X joined the NOI in 1952. He left the NOI in 1964, founded his own Mooslem organisation, and performed the Hajj that same year. He was assassinated in 1965.
The MSTA was founded in 1925 by a man who called himself Noble Drew Ali. He claimed that during his travels in the Middle East, a mystical Egyptian high priest of approached him and recognised him as the latest reincarnation in a line of prophets, including Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, and Muhammad. The priest gave him the so-called “lost sections” of the Qur’an, which Drew brought back to the States and called the “Holy Koran”, adopting it as his organisation’s sacred text, which obviously bore little resemblance to its namesake and was based on his limited knowledge of Islam.
Noble Drew Ali is relevant here because Wallace Fard Muhammad claimed to be a reincarnation of Drew, and thus, of the prophets.
The NOI did not have a specific holy text of their own but is said to draw inspiration not only from Islam but also Christianity, with their own interpretation of the Bible and Qur’an. This is also consistent with the movie, where some characters quoted the Bible for wisdom, as if it were a bigger part of Izlam than the Qur’an or Hadith, which they never quoted. However, like Islam, they teach that Izlam is about submission, practising five prayers daily, prostrating on their knees towards Mecca, as well as rejecting the consumption of pork, alcohol and drugs, and of adultery and fornication.
Notice the parallels between Mormonism and the MSTA, and between the NOI and Scientology? The Book of Mormon is supposed to be another testament of Jesus Christ, while MSTA’s “Holy Koran” consists of lost pages of the Qur’an. Scientology has an entire lore of aliens and scientists in its theology. Apart from Yakub the scientist, the NOI believes that Fard Muhammad will soon return aboard a spaceship, the “Mother Plane” or “Mother Ship”, to wipe out the white race and establish a utopia. Scientology is known to recruit world-renowned celebrities; similarly, the NOI recruited the world’s most famous black superstar, Muhammad Ali.
In 1932, there was a murder case involving a member of the Temple stabbing a victim whom he later claimed was a human sacrifice to his gods. To add to that, when Fard first founded his organisation, it was originally called the “Allah Temple of Islam”. Fard denied any teachings of human sacrifice; the organisation was dissolved and reconstituted as the Nation of Islam. Included in the movie were rumours of Elijah Muhammad conducting extramarital affairs with young NOI secretaries, resulting in multiple pregnancies, which are violations of NOI teachings themselves. My wife had already made me aware of this prior to watching the movie, where we saw a clip of an interview with the real Malcolm X, who stated that Elijah Muhammad himself confirmed it to him, citing it as one of the reasons for leaving the NOI. These practices are typical of cults worldwide.
An interesting fact is that these cults were not the first emergence of Islam in the U.S., but were the first to build a large presence. Islam was first introduced to the U.S. by enslaved African Muslims in the 19th century, but lost traction. The next re-emergence was in the 20th century in the form of Aḥmadiyyah, which, although unlike its U.S. predecessors and having practices virtually like Islam, is also a misguided form of Islam founded in Punjab, India, whose founder claims some sort of divinity. This probably lost traction as well, as the rise of Izlam or Islam in the U.S. started with MSTA, followed by NOI.
Is there a redemption story in these?
For one, after Malcolm X’s return from Mecca, his perspective on Islam and approach towards Black nationalism changed as he witnessed people of all colours united as one, where he too united with people whose complexion would be considered white in America. He didn’t have the chance to teach nor fully realise his new Islamic understanding of what he then referred to as ‘orthodox’ Islam, as he was assassinated just the year after. In his letter to his wife after the pilgrimage, while still in Mecca, he states that he was forced to rearrange much of his thought patterns and to toss aside some of his previous conclusions.
Although boxing legend Muhammad Ali remained with the NOI, he eventually converted to actual Islam in the form of Sunni. This was because the whole NOI converted to Sunni Islam. Upon Elijah Muhammad’s death, he was succeeded by his son, Wallace D. Muhammad, now known as Warith Deen Mohammed. Warith grew closer and eventually fully aligned the NOI with Sunni Islam, rejected their early theology, dropped Black nationalism from its policy, lifted the ban on white people joining, and renamed the organisation several times, finally settling on the American Society of Muslims.
In fact, it was Warith who recommended Malcolm X to undertake the Hajj. Warith even expressed scepticism towards his father’s ‘unorthodox approach’ to Islam to Malcolm while still under Malcolm’s mentorship. Warith was also the one who told Malcolm of his father’s extramarital affairs and the pregnancies, which led Malcolm to investigate for himself.
There were rejections of abandoning Elijah’s teachings by some high-ranking members of this conversion, where three members separated and independently created their own organisations preserving the original teachings of Elijah Muhammad, all except for the name ‘Nation of Islam’.
I find this to be an unprecedented event. You never hear of a cult or a deviation from a religion’s teachings reverting back to the original doctrine. Perhaps because the original teachings of early U.S. Islam were not orthodox. Perhaps it is because they never had a local presence of orthodox Islam in the first place to deviate from, so the innocent members always considered themselves incomplete regarding their paths of Islam rather than deviated, and they always accepted that they had to refer to the original source as their path to completion.
Or perhaps it was simply luck that the NOI happened to have an honest man like Warith Muhammad succeed as leader.
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation_of_Islamhttps://www.britannica.com/topic/Nation-of-Islam
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah_Muhammad
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Fard_Muhammad
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Wallace-D-Fard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_Drew_Ali
https://web.archive.org/web/20100511070326/https://chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-aging-of-the-moors/Content?oid=999633
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warith_Deen_Mohammed
https://www.pbs.org/thisfarbyfaith/people/warith_deen_mohammed.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_James_J._Smith
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