In a letter published in the New York Times, February 15, 1965, Malcolm X wrote that when he returned from his experience of the Hajj and visiting several African countries he intended to expose Elijah Muhammad as a “religious faker.” He blamed himself for his own “evangelistic zeal.” He stated: “I totally reject Elijah Muhammad’s racist philosophy which he has labeled Islam only to fool and misuse gullible people….”
Though Malcolm says he left the NOI, he took on the name, Malik el-Shabbaz. The name Shabbaz comes from an alleged ancient black tribe, from 60 trillion years ago, as Elijah Muhammad (totally free with numbers) mythologized, when its leader, Shabbaz, moved the tribe to Africa to toughen them up, during which time, and in part, one assumes, of his quest to toughen them up, their hair became tightly curly, not straight as was claimed of all blacks up to that time. Malcolm chose the name Shabbaz to associate, even claim himself part of this royal ancient ancestry.
“[Malcolm] increasingly feels restricted by the narrow, rigid, conservative philosophy and practices of the Nation of Islam that do not allow him to engage and become a leader in the larger civil rights and human rights movement. … [And] he never endorses but rejects King’s absolute commitment to nonviolence and upholds a philosophy of “by any means necessary.” (The Evolution of Malcolm X: His Philosophy in the Struggle Against Racism and Injustice – CounterPunch.org)
Malcolm’s travels and experience in Mecca had, he said and wrote, immersed him in real Islam, but one can only guess where that might have led him had he lived many more years. He returned still with the fire burning to promote change, rapid change. In January of 1965, in an interview he stated that the OAAU (Organization of Afro-American Unity, a non-religious group Malcolm founded in 1964) would “support fully and without compromise any action by any group that is designed to get meaningful immediate (emphasis added) results” (Malcolm X, Two Speeches, 31). Malcolm’s demand for immediate change, revolutionary change, and the forcefulness of his speeches garnered him much attention, praise from supporters and careful monitoring by authorities such as the FBI.
It is true that the Nation of Islam (NOI) contains the word Islam and listening to Malcolm X (MX) and reading about his dozen years as a priest under Elijah Muhammad it is natural to assume that the “Islam” of NOI is just an offshoot of authentic Islam, but NOI and Islam are only superficially similar; their differences are numerous and deep, though the attraction to NOI for many is genuine.
Leo Muhammad, a British member of NOI states that the difference between traditional Sunni or Shia Islam and NOI is we have the new revelation of The Honorable Fard Muhammad. “…[T]hat which the Honorable Elijah Muhammad received from the Master Fard Muhammad is brand new, and the world really does not know the reality of that revelation at this time.” (Leo Muhammad: The difference between The Nation of Islam and other Muslims) Leo stressed that the writings of the Master Fard Muhammad is, for him and other NOI members, scripture. Malcolm appears to have taken Fard’s writings that seriously as well.
Authentic Islam is a monotheistic religion, a religion based on one and only one eternal deity, Allah (SWT), in Arabic, or God, in English. Allah has no wife, no children, no son, no Jesus, as is the case in Christianity. Allah has no physical form and no imagined images of Him are permitted, though Allah is referred to with the male pronoun only for convenience, not because Allah is some huge bearded man in the sky extending a Holy finger to Adam, as Michelangelo painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
People of the Book (Christians and Jews),
don’t be excessive in your religion,
nor speak anything
but the truth about God
The messiah, Jesus, son of Mary,
was but a messenger of God—
His Word, conveyed to Mary,
through His spirit. So believe
in God and His messengers,
and refrain from talk of “trinity”—
restraint will be better for you.
God is the One God, glorified
far above the begetting of any son.
to Him belongs
all that is in the heavens
and all that is on the earth,
and God suffices as Guardian.
(4:171)
In contrast, the NOI posits a succession of messengers of Allah, Elijah Muhammad the most recent in Malcolm’s time. Wallace D. Fard Muhammad, the formulator of NOI, was a man of uncertain race (though listed as white in one arrest record). Fard assembled the founding principles of NOI. Fard appeared in Detroit around 1930 to preach his strange form of Islam exclusively to blacks. He stressed separation of blacks from whites and empowerment as the only viable solution to the race issue. Fard vanished in 1934 and there are many theories regarding his disappearance. (See: The mysterious 1934 disappearance of Nation of Islam founder, Wallace D. Fard). Like Malcolm and Elijah Muhammad, Fard was highly charismatic, quickly building a following in Detroit and Chicago and possibly other cities. His most prominent disciple was Elijah Muhammad, who in 1934 became the leader of NOI after Fard’s disappearance. (Not that Malcolm knew anything of NOI at that time—he would be nine at that time.) “The teachings of Fard and Elijah represent the cornerstone of the NOI system” (“The Nation of Islam” – An Overview – Explore Islam).
Fard revealed to Elijah “…that the United States would be destroyed in 1970. After this apocalypse, the Black Nation—the entire world population of the “brown, yellow, and red races—would emerge as the sole ruler of the world black under Allah’s benign and righteous guidance” (Wallace Fard Muhammad – Wikipedia).
The NOI would be the “…chosen people within the Black Nation, elected by Allah as His special instrument, and confined to followers of Elijah Muhammad” Black Nationalism: A Search for an Identity in America, E.U. Essien-Udom, p.19).
Of significance in contrasting NOI to Islam, Fard placed himself, one might say, as the “Christ” of his system, as its Allah in the flesh. Fard and Elijah Muhammad borrowed and altered both Christian and Islamic elements in NOI.
A unique element, actually a founding principle, in the NOI is its claim of the creation of the races. Fard’s teaching, whether intended literally or not is unclear, states that Blacks were the first humans and are superior to all non-Blacks, that is, to all whites. This is in clear contrast to Islam, which teaches that “[t]he only distinction, which Allah recognizes is the distinction in piety; the only criterion which Allah applies, is the criterion of goodness and spiritual excellence” (Equality in Islam). The Qur’an reads (49:13):
Humankind, We created you
from a male and a female, then
We made you into nations and
Tribes,
that you might know one another,
The most noble of you in God’s sight
is the most mindful of Him—
God is All Knowing, All Aware.
Fard claimed that Blacks were the superior race and mythologized of a bizarre origin of whites. The NOI is clearly a supremely racist organization. In (earlier) parts of The Autobiography of Malcolm X and in many of Malcolm’s recorded speeches he states that all whites are fundamentally evil and soon will be ruled by Blacks. Preaching Elijah’s idea, Malcolm included all non-white people as black. But not to get ahead, here is Fard’s claim of the creation of whites.
Fard wrote that a black Meccan scientist named Yakub lived 6,600 years ago and it is he who, having “discovered” the law of attraction and repulsion, began the creation of the white race on the island of Patmos through a form of selective breeding referred to as “grafting.” Yakub was said to have lived 150 years, and his followers completed the process of creating whites. According to the NOI, “the white race was intentionally created with an evil nature, and somehow were destined to rule over black people for a period of 6,000 years through the practice of tricknology. White rule was to end in 1914” (Yakub (Nation of Islam) – Wikipedia).
Contrary to Islam, Heaven and Hell in NOI theology has both on this earth in human time. Hell is the current state of white domination and heaven is what follows the demise of white dominion.
Point #5 of Fard’s Program states “We believe in the resurrection of the dead—not in physical resurrection but mental resurrection” (Nation of Islam – Apologetics).
Elijah, and through him, Malcolm taught that the souls or spirits are physical entities. He held that Christianity put God outside of Man into nothing (spirit), and “[Spirit] is dependent on air, water and food” (Elijah Muhammad: No Life After Physical Death).
For Islam, spirit is the immaterial life force given by Allah (SWT):
They ask you about the spirit,
Say, “The spirit comes
by command of my Lord”—
only a small portion
of knowledge is granted you.”
[17:85)
The subject of the Soul is complex, but the Soul in Islam is also immaterial and is the self, unique to each person:
God takes the souls of people
At the hour of their death,
And of those asleep who are not
Dead.
He keeps the souls of those
For whom He has decreed death,
And the others He sends back
Until an appointed time—in all this
Are signs for those who think.
(39:42)
Differences between NOI and Islam are many more than those listed. The NOI has not changed much since Malcolm’s time and its 21st c. numbers remain small. A 2007 estimate of membership was 50 thousand, compared to about 1.5 billion Muslims, or just 0.03%.
* * *
Early October of 2017 this writer got an email from a professor at Savannah State University, the predominately black college in Savannah, Georgia. He mentioned that Savannah State was hosting lectures on the history of Islam in Savannah that would be held, all day, October 23rd. He invited me to attend and even speak, if I so chose.
The list of speakers included faculty at Savannah State and also several protestant pastors, white and black, one Catholic priest, and rabbis from the two liberal synagogues in town.
I attended, met a variety of people, even gave a brief presentation, learned much about Islam in Savannah, but what caught my attention was listening to one older black man informally recall his fond memories of his time in the NOI years before becoming a Sunni Muslim. He did not mention many particulars; his focus was on the feeling of unity with their fellow black NOI brothers and sisters. That feeling of unity is likely a major reason that NOI is still around. The higher sense of unity that can follow becoming a traditional Muslim, with its near two billion members of all races and nationalities takes time to comprehend, unless witnessed in a Hajj experience, as Malcolm wrote of his amazement.
*All Qur’an quotes from The Qur’an: A Verse Translation, by M. A. R. Habib & Bruce B. Lawrence (Authors). Liveright Publishing Corp, 2024.
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More from Don Moss: Don Moss’s Breakfast Stories: “White Paper”, POETRY: Don Moss’s “Greenroom” (1998), POETRY: Cards At The Center