1. religion and spirituality
2. islam

How a White Confidence Man Became God
And Savior to a Black Cult of Racists and Separatists
The Farrakhan Controversy Part VII
By
Sergeant Sam Smith
Elijah Muhammad was born in Sandersville, Georgia, in 1897. He was seventh of thirteen
children. His Christian name was Elija Pool. Georgia at that time, was a racist, violent place and
young Elija grew up with searing experiences of white scorn and brutality.1 Young Elija
witnessed the lynching of a man from his father’s church in 1912. This prompted Elija to flee his
parents’ home a year later.2 He met Clara Belle Evans at a Baptist church meeting and married
her in 1919. Between 1921 and 1939, they had eight children.
Elija and his family migrated north to Detroit from Georgia in 1923. Elija moved north to
escape the racism of the south. He worked in several industrial plants and joined a variety of
African-American organizations including the Black Shriners. Elija later incorporated several
Masonic Lodge beliefs into the doctrines of the Nation of Islam (NOI). Pool became a member
of the Timothy Drew Ali’s Moorish Science Temple of America (MSTA). Ironically, Elija’s first
experience with Islam came at the urging of his father, a Baptist minister, who was already
familiar with Black Islam. He urged him to attend lectures of the Moorish Science Temple
because he respected the Moors’ doctrines of racial solidarity and black economic development.
Elijah attended the meetings at the advice of his father and as a result he left the Baptist church
and became a Black Muslim.3
Elija Pool also joined Marcus Garvey’s “Back to Africa
Movement.” He accepted Garvey’s ideology of black pride, selfhelp, and race separation; all later became major tenants of the NOI.
Marcus Garvey was a Jamaican and a Black Nationalist who
founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).
Garvey was the first black leader in the Western Hemisphere to
proclaim an idea of separatism.4 Once Garvey established his
movement in the Caribbean, he immigrated to the United States and
set up his resistance movement in Harlem. In just ten years
following his emigration to the United States as a laborer in 1917,
Marcus Garvey rose to lead the UNIA, the largest black organization
in history. By August 1920, the UNIA claimed four million
members. On August 1, 1920, the International Convention of the
UNIA was held in New York City. Delegates from all over the
world attended. Over 25,000 people showed up at Madison Square Garden to hear Garvey speak.
The Back to Africa Movement’s intention was for those of African ancestry to return to
Africa to "redeem" it and drive out the European colonial powers. Garvey advanced a PanAfrican philosophy and galvanized a global mass movement focusing on Africa known as
“Garveyism.” In Garvey’s native Jamaica, Garveyism became an element of nationalist
syncretism in the Rastafari movement, which constructed a spiritual system that exalted the thenruler of Ethiopia, Emperor Haile Selassie, an Orthodox Christian.5
Garveyism inspired several black supremacist organizations, including the Nation of
Islam. In fact, the civil rights activist, W.E.B. Du Bois said, “Marcus Garvey is, without doubt,
the most dangerous enemy of the Negro race in America and in the world. He is either a lunatic
or a traitor.”6
In 1922, Garvey went to Atlanta, Georgia for a conference with Ku Klux Klan’s Wizard,
Edward Young Clarke. Many years later, Elijah Muhammad followed Garvey’s example by
establishing contact with two white supremacist groups, the American Nazi Party, and the Ku
Klux Klan. Garvey once said, “I regard the Klan, the Anglo-Saxon clubs and White American
societies, as far as the Negro is concerned, as better friends of the race than all other groups of
hypocritical whites put together. I like honesty and fair play. You may call me a Klansman if you
will, but, potentially, every white man is a Klansman, as far as the Negro in competition with
whites socially, economically and politically is concerned, and there is no use lying.”7
Garvey used money from the UNIA to start a steamship company, the Black Star Line.
Garvey was a controversial figure. He dressed in elaborate costumes and spoke with a fiery
rhetoric. Both black and white politicians considered Garvey to be dangerous character. When
word got out about Garvey's confederation with the Ku Klux Klan, several African American
leaders appealed to U.S. Attorney General Harry M. Daughterty to charge Garvey with a crime
and incarcerate him.8
Garvey was jailed in 1925 after being convicted of mail fraud related to the sale of stock
in the Black Star line. His sentence was reduced and he was deported to Jamaica two years later.
Garvey eventually moved to London, England and lived there until his death in 1940. In 1964,
his body was exhumed and returned to Jamaica.
Elijah Poole rose to the rank of corporal in the Chicago/Detroit division of the UNIA
within two years of joining. Elija desired a fresh start in life and symbolically changed the
spelling of his name to Elijah Poole to symbolize that he was morphing into a new man.9
However, Elijah fell into a deep depression when his mentor Marcus Garvey was accused, tried,
and convicted of mail fraud and deported out of the United States. Elijah’s life continued to
spiral downward when the stock market crashed in 1929 and he lost his job at the Ford
Automobile Company. He found solace in alcohol and became a drunk.
Because of the Great Depression and the poverty and unemployment that plagued the
United States in 1930’s, several black nationalistic organizations began springing up throughout
America’s ghettos to offer solutions to unemployment, racism, and discrimination. Many of
these black organizations were deeply rooted in the concepts of Black Nationalism and antiAmerican ideology.10 Several of these groups such as the UNIA and the Peace Movement of
Ethiopia called for blacks to renounce their U.S. citizenship and move back to Africa. Other
groups demanded for their own separate state within America.∗
Clara Poole meets Master W.D. Fard Muhammad
Clara Poole, Elijah Muhammad’s wife, began attending the Allah Temple of Islam (ATI)∗
meetings in the predominantly black Paradise Valley section of Detroit. It was there that Clara
became enthralled with the dynamic preaching of a white man who taught that blacks were
mutually good and whites were devils. Master Wallace Fard Muhammad juxtaposed Marcus
Garvey’s militant Black Nationalism and combined it with Noble Drew Ali’s Islamic theology.
He wove fantastic Science Fictional tales of a once great nation of black gods he called the
“Asiatic Black Men.” This majestic, sovereign race supremely ruled the earth for 76 trillion
years.
Master Wallace Fard Muhammad-Mystery Man
In reality, Master Fard was actually a depression-era con man named Wallace Dodd Ford,
also known as David Ford. Ford had served time in San Quentin Prison for violating the
California Prohibition law after he was arrested for selling narcotics in a restaurant he owned. He
served a three-year sentence from 1926-1929.
According to law enforcement records, Fard was born on
February 25, 1891, in New Zealand or Portland, Oregon, to
either Hawaiian or British, or Polynesian (Māori) parents.11 One
writer claimed that Fard was born Wali Dodd Fard in New
Zealand in 1893. His grandparents were from East India, the
Islamic area that eventually became Pakistan.12 Some NOI
defectors claimed Fard was Greek.13 He has also been said to be
of "Turko-Persian" descent.14 People that knew Fard described
him as having an “oriental cast of countenance.”15 Master Fard
told his followers that he had a black father and a white, Russian
mother. Nevertheless, due to his mixed parentage and con-man
skills of persuasion he was able to pass himself off to blacks as
a mystic and a prophet from Mecca.
Although his heritage and ethnicity can be debated, his criminal record is well
documented. The FBI has photographs and fingerprints of Wallace Dodd Ford on file.16 Police
sources described him as five-feet six-inches in height and weighing 133 pounds. His eye color
was listed as “maroon,” his hair as black, and his complexion was described as “dark” or
“swarthy.” One entry described Fard as looking like a Mexican. However, when Detroit police
∗
Minister Louis Farrakhan and his Nation of Islam-Final Call demand reparations and a separate state or territory
within the United States for African Americans
∗
In 1934, Fard changed the Allah Temple of Islam’s name to the Nation of Islam in an attempt to fool a judge and
the Detroit Police Department after agreed to shut the ATI down. Fard and other ATI members were arrested after
an ATI member ritualistic murdered a man upon reading Fard’s The Secret Ritual that called for a human sacrifice.
officers picked Master Fard up to be questioned about a book he wrote found at the site of a
human sacrifice involving ATI members, they expected to find a black man. Instead they were
surprised when they found what seemed to be a white man. Even though the fingerprints and
photographs of Master Fard Muhammad matched those that the FBI had on Wallie D. Ford in
California, the NOI still adamantly denies that they belong to the same person. 17 These records
can be examined under the Freedom of Information Act.
The FBI alleged that Ford used 58 aliases during his lifetime.18 He went by several
aliases such as David Ford-el, Wali Farad, Farrad Mohammed, W.D. Fard, and F. Mohammed
Ali. These are only a few of the nom de plumes that he used. However, he is generally known
within the Nation of Islam as Master Fard Muhammad.
In 1929, Wallace Ford moved to Chicago, Illinois after he was released from prison. He
used the alias of David Ford and joined the Moorish Science Temple of America (MSTA), a
vaguely Islam-like religion that had little in common with the
conservative Islam that originated in Arabia during the 7th century.19 A
Black Shriner named Timothy Drew, better known as Noble Drew Ali,
founded the MSTA in 1913. The MSTA, also called Moors, was first to
forge a 20th century link between Islam and African-Americans. The
MSTA was a blend of Black Nationalism, fringe Islam,∗ Freemasonry,
and Gnosticism. The MSTA taught that Christianity was a white religion
and Islam was a black religion. Drew Ali taught that Caucasians were
the embodiment of evil and all blacks and olive skinned people were
“Asiatics” and descendants from the original race of black men called
the Moabites. Noble Drew Ali twisted eastern mysticism into the
MSTA. He taught that Muhammad, Islam’s original prophet, was the
reincarnation of Jesus, and that he was the third reincarnation of Jesus
and Muhammad (pictured to the left is painting of Master W.D. Fard Muhammad that the
Messenger, Elijah Muhammad had hanging in his mansion).
Drew Ali established his headquarters in Chicago and registered his Moorish Science
Temple as Temple no. 9.20 The MSTA introduced African-Americans to many Islamic features
such the crescent and star motif, their Christian birth names to Arabic ones, and the prohibition
of pork. It also foretold of the destruction of all whites and promoted Drew as a prophet.21
The MSTA came crashing down in July of 1929, with the death of its prophet and
founder, Noble Drew Ali. A power struggle broke out and several leading contenders for
leadership were assassinated when they tried to assume control. After Drew Ali’s death, David
Ford (Fard), who had attained a high rank in the MSTA,22 wanted to rule the MSTA. Ford told
his fellow Moors that Noble Drew Ali, had named him as his successor and prophet. Ford further
claimed divine leadership when he declared on July 29, 1929, that he was the actual
reincarnation of Noble Drew Ali. It was too late, and very few Moors bought his story.
∗
Sufism: which is considered heretical by orthodox Moslems
Several other members contesting Ford’s assertion also claimed to be the reincarnation of
Noble Drew Ali. By this time the MSTA movement had fallen into three separate schisms.
Drew’s chauffeur, Sheik John Givens El declared that Drew Ali had become reincarnated into
him and he founded a different MSTA sect called the Reincarnated Temples in Chicago on
August 7, 1929. Givens El, and his successors, two brothers named Richardson Dingle-El and
Timothy Dingle El taught that the prophetic mantle of Noble Drew Ali remained intact and was
passed on to them at the death of each leader that preceded him.
According to MSTA scholar Ravanna Bey, W.D. Fard, known at the time as Abdul
Wali Farrad Muhammad, and two other Moorish Scientists, Mealy El and Charles
Kirkman Bey, contested the authority of Givens El. The latter two went on to establish their own
independent Moorish Science Temples, while Fard converted a Detroit Moorish Science Temple
and renamed it the Temple of the Lost-Found People of Islam.23∗
David Ford Filled the Vacuum of Leadership in the Black Nationalism Movement
The MSTA split into three major factions, all based in Chicago, and Elijah Poole was one
of the many members that became disillusioned and quit. There was a vacuum of leadership in
the America’s Black Nationalism Movement after Garvey was imprisoned and deported in 1922
and Noble Drew Ali died in 1929.
David Ford arrived in Michigan on July 4, 1930, as a silk and raincoat salesman peddling
his goods as well his own brand of religion to poor, ghetto blacks in the Paradise Valley section
in Detroit. He went by several various names and aliases such as W.D. Fard, Wallace D. Fard,
Farrad Mohammad, F. Mohammad Ali, Professor Ford, Wallace Fard Muhammad, and Wali
Farrad. According to the traditions of Nation of Islam, Fard Muhammad used many names to
hide from the government and whites and blacks who sought to assassinate him.
Fard told fanciful stories of a black god-like race that fell from grace due to the deception
and trickery of a created, man-made race of “white devils,” created by a disgruntled “bigheaded” black scientist named Yacub. These imaginative tales gained him many followers
amongst the impoverished, downtrodden, and uneducated in Detroit. He foretold of a dawning of
a new age where the black race would redeem itself and reclaim it glorious ancestry. Fard not
only gleaned new converts but he gained many new followers from the now defunct Marcus
Garvey’s UNIA and the struggling MSTA. Between the summers of 1930 and 1933, Fard
gathered 8,000 followers.
Several years later, Ella X Little, the sister of Malcolm X quit the Nation of Islam over a
dispute of leadership between her and Minister Louis Farrakhan between her and Minister Louis
Farrakhan. Malcolm X had established the Temple no. 11 in Boston and she believed that the
young, inexperienced Louis Farrakhan was ruining it. She wanted Elijah Muhammad to his
promise by appointing her as the first female captain and to reprimand Farrakhan, whom she
believed was incapable of managing the mosque. Elijah directed Malcolm X to mediate the
differences between the two upstarts. Malcolm worked out a compromise. Farrakhan was told to
∗
This is a MSTA tradition that has been hotly contested by NOI leadership
reinstate some of the programs that Ella had created for the women and children and Ella was
ordered to stop trying to undermine Farrakhan by usurping his responsibilities as minister.
Ella X was livid. She told her siblings that Elijah Muhammad had betrayed her and that
he never had any intention of making her or any other woman a minister or captain of the
mosque.24 She told her brother, Malcolm X, that the only reason she had joined the NOI was to
please him, but she never really believed that Elijah Muhammad was a prophet. She remembered
him when he was a scrawny, little teenager in Georgia. Better yet, she had never believed for one
second that Master Wallace D. Fard was Allah. According to her son, Rodnell Collins, The only
reason she did so [joined], was because she felt it was the best program for black people since
the Marcus Garvey movement.”
At first, Clara Poole thought Wallace D. Fard’s looks were deceptive. Fard identified
himself as a black Asian, but he looked more like an East Indian or a Caucasian with a tan. His
hair was jet black and he wore crisp tailor-made suits and dressed like a fashion model. Clara
believed that this light-skinned man could rescue her husband from depression and drunkenness.
The first time Clara introduced Fard to her husband Elijah Poole, Fard said, “I know you think
I’m white, but I’m not. I’m an Asiatic black man. I have come to America to save my long lost
uncle (the African in America).”25
Fard∗ told his Detroit followers that he was born in Mecca (Saudi Arabia) and he was a
descendent of the Arabian Quraysh tribe and he shared a common ancestry with the original
Arab Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam. Fard said he earned an undergraduate degree
from Oxford University. He earned a graduate degree from the University of Southern California
in Los Angeles. He said that after he completed his postgraduate studies in California he returned
to Arabia to tell his wealthy parents that he had a mission to fulfill in the United States. He had
discovered “his uncle who was lost for four hundred years in the wilderness of North
America.”26 Just as Fard referred to white people as “the devil,” he used “uncle” to refer to the
African-American community.
Master Fard told his followers that he was “The Mahdi”
W.D. Fard identified himself as “The Mahdi,” Islam’s predicted Messiah. He told his
followers, “You know me as Master Wallace D. Fard, but in truth I am the Mahdi whom
everyone expected to come two thousand years after Christ, who was crucified at Jerusalem.”27
Master Fard said he assumed the physical features of a white man so as to be able to
mingle easily among Caucasians. By living as a white man, he could stay informed of their secret
plans to exterminate the black race. He was adamant that the white race was “devils,” the sons
and daughters of Beelzebub.
By early 1931, Elijah Poole had become one of Fard’s earliest and most enthusiastic
converts. Elijah moved quickly through the leadership ranking of the ATI. Fard changed his
name to Elijah Karriem and one year later Fard, when Fard was sitting in jail, he rewarded
Elijah’s dedication and faithfulness by appointing him Supreme Master over the ATI and again
changed his name to Elijah Muhammad.
∗
The name “Fard,” is an Arabic-Islamic term that denotes a religious duty.
Master Fard Muhammad’s admitted that he conned Detroit’s black community
According to police transcripts Master Fard Muhammad came clean to police
investigators when he was arrested in 1933. Fard admitted his con game on the black community
in Detroit. He told investigators that the Nation of Islam, its teachings, and Muslim activities in
general were “a racket” from the start. He said that his entire purpose for organizing the black
community in Detroit was to get “all the money that he could.” The police agreed to let him
address his followers one last time before he left Detroit forever.28
Master Fard Muhammad’s Mysterious Disappearance
In mid-1934, Fard left Detroit for Chicago and disappeared without a trace. There is no
record of him further contacting NOI members. According to Elijah Muhammad, Fard was
“ordered out of the country” and caught a flight to Mecca.29 It was also reported that he sailed to
Australia and New Zealand, and that he was last seen “aboard a ship bound for Europe.”30
Another unsubstantiated story said that he was afflicted with an incurable illness, died, and was
buried under another name. “No man knows of his grave to this day.”31
Several of his supporters believed that Fard fell victim to a police conspiracy and they
murdered him. In addition, there were rumors by several NOI dissidents that Fard was the victim
of a "human sacrifice" himself, thereby accounting for both his disappearance and his title of
“Saviour.”32
Much like the MSTA, the NOI began unraveling with the disappearance of their founder.
Several dissenters believed that Elijah Muhammad murdered Fard in a coup d’état to assume
leadership. After all the Messenger Elijah Muhammad was behind the assassination of Malcolm
X and for four decades several former members who left the NOI and dared to criticize it ended
up injured or dead.
There is some evidence that Fard lived at least until the 1960s. His commonlaw wife,
with whom he had a child, stated that he had returned to his native homeland of New Zealand.33
According to documents published through the Freedom of Information Act the FBI maintained
an open file on Master Fard Muhammad up until as late as 1960.
The Messenger’s son, Wallace (Warith Deen) Muhammad,
who took over the NOI in 1975, said in several speeches that he was in
communication with the founder, saying, “Master Fard Muhammad is
not dead, brothers and sisters, he is physically alive and I talk with him
whenever I get ready. I don't talk to him in any spooky way. I go to the
telephone and dial his number.”34
In 1981, a Pakistani scholar Z.I. Alsari researched Fard's life and
claimed that Fard was identical with Muhammad Abdullah, a Pakistani
Ahmadiyya Muslim who had been an advisor of Elijah Muhammad's
since the late 1950s and who was the tutor of his son and eventual
successor Warith Deen Muhammad. After Elijah's death Warith Deen appointed Abdullah imam
of Mosque #77 in Oakland, California. The November 26, 1976 issue of the NOI journal Bilalian
News reported Muhammad Abdullah's first khutbah (sermon) at the mosque and showed a
photo. Abdullah himself denied that he was Fard, saying "It is all right to say I am Fard
Muhammad for Wallace (Warith) D. Muhammad. I taught him some lessons. But I am not the
same person who taught Elijah Muhammad and I am not God.” 35
In 1991, there was a report in an orthodox Muslim newspaper that carried a story that
Fard was alive and living in California and worshipped as an orthodox Muslim.36 In 1993, Imam
Warith Deen Muhammad publicly stated that he knew for a fact that Fard had returned to the
United States under the name Muhammad Abdullah and in 1976, he appointed Muhammad
Abdullah as imam of the Mosque in Oakland. Furthermore, Warith Deen Mohammad did not
reveal that Muhammad Abdullah was actually Fard until after Abdullah's death in 1992.
Kelly Kavanaugh, a journalist with the Metro Times, e-mailed Claude Andrew Clegg III,
the author of An Original Man, a biography about Elijah Muhammad, for his take on the Fard
controversy. Clegg, a history professor at the Indiana University, responded: “The version of the
story that characterizes Fard as being of Pakistani descent and having a criminal background
seems to have some validity, though neither allegation has been conclusively proven. What
seems most remarkable is that Fard seems to have utterly disappeared from the government’s
(especially the FBI’s) radar after leaving Detroit in 1933. There were rumors about his
whereabouts until the 1990s, when some believed he was still alive and living somewhere in
California. Whatever the case, Fard was a master at remaking himself and was apparently a very
charismatic man. Also, in many ways, the Nation of Islam’s depiction of him as God could only
work and be credible to potential members if his origins remained obscure and his disappearance
permanent.”37
Elijah Deified Master W.D. Fard Muhammad, a White Man, as a Black God
It is the NOI’s Messenger, Elijah Muhammad, who is almost single-handedly responsible
for the deification of Fard as “Allah.”38 However, stories vary whether or not Fard actually told
Elijah that he was God. Elijah might have deified him only to justify that he was divinely
appointed as “heir” to Fard’s kingdom; the 8,000 strong Nation of Islam. Elijah told the story
that he once approached Fard and stated, “You are the one we read in the Bible that he would
come in the last day under the name Jesus…You are that one? Fard replied, “Yes, I am the One,
but who knows that but yourself, and be quiet.”39
Elijah later wrote, “I was a student of the Bible. I recognized him to be the person the
Bible predicted would come two thousand years after Jesus’ death. It came to me the first time I
laid eyes on him.”40 Eventually, Elijah came to believe that Fard was more than just the Mahdi,
but he was God-in-the-flesh. Several months after their first meeting, Elijah approached Fard
with his “revelation.” They were alone in the Temple and Elijah directly asked Fard about his
identity. “Are you the God that’s supposed to come and separate the righteous from the wicked
and destroy the wicked?” Fard cautioned Elijah against teaching that he was Allah. He said he
was the Mahdi, not God. Fard smiled and told Elijah, “When I am gone, then you can say
whatever you want about me.”41 Apparently Fard had joked with Elijah Muhammad and told him
that he could teach whatever he wanted when he was gone. Elijah Muhammad accepted this jest
as authority.
Shortly after Master W.D. Fard disappeared, Elijah Muhammad, with the aid of his father
and brothers, published a weekly tabloid titled The Final Call to Islam in August of 1934. This
was Nation of Islam’s first official newspaper.42
Up until this time, Fard was not worshipped nor
recognized as “Allah,” but was only a prophet. However, all of
that changed when Elijah Muhammad openly proclaimed that
Master Fard was God in flesh in a front-page article of the third
issue of The Final Call to Islam, dated August 25, 1934. The
headlines emphatically announced that “There is no God but
Allah and his Prophet (is) Fard Muhammad.”43 (Pictured to the
right is Elijah Muhammad and his son, Wallace, in front of
Master Fard’s portrait.)
Elijah wrote, ‘“Fard’ is a name meaning an independent
One and One Who is not on the same level with the average
Gods (Allah). It is a name independent to itself which actually
means One whom we must obey, or else he destroys us…The
reason we call him the Supreme Being is because He is
Supreme over all beings and is wiser than all. The Holy Qur’an
teaches: He is wiser than them, meaning all the Gods before
and all who are now present.”44
Elijah later claimed that Master Fard Muhammad “could speak 16 languages and write 10
of them. He could recite the histories of the world as far back as 150,000 years and knew the
beginning and end of all things.”45 Years later, on January 5, 1973, a former NOI minister, Imam
Hamaas Abdul Kallis, the leader of the Hanafi Muslim sect, sent a scathing letter to Elijah
Muhammad and copies to the NOI ministers and the mainstream media. Kallis condemned the
NOI and called Master Fard Muhammad a crook and his Messenger, Elijah Muhammad a fraud.
The NOI reacted by murdering seven members of the Kallis family including several children.
Two adults and five children, aging 9 days to 10 years, were murdered. The adults and one child
were shot while the other children were drowned.
Kallis wrote, “Elijah Mukammad∗ used to brag that W.D. Fard could speak 16 languages.
Allah is over all languages. It is a pity that none of you ever took time to learn how to read the
Arabic language of the Holy Qur-an Sharreef. Then you could have easily seen that Elijah
Mukammad was a lying deceiver.”46
By late 1934, a new doctrine was being taught in the Detroit mosque that Elijah
controlled. His followers began declaring, “There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His
∗
Mukammad means “sad, grieved, and blackened; to be laden with sin; sorrow-bound because of evil committed
through ignorance (error)
Prophet.” Elijah claimed that Muhammad, the original Arab prophet of Mecca, who wrote the
Qur’an was not really a prophet, but an “enthusiast.” Elijah proclaimed himself as the “true
prophet.” He declared that he was the Elijah of the Holy Bible’s Book of Malachi and he was the
Seal of the Prophets. By doing this, he combined two central tenets of Christianity and Islam.47
He preached, “I am Elijah of your Bible; I’m the Muhammad of your Holy Qur’an…I am the one
of (sic) whom the Holy Quran is referring.”48 Orthodox Muslims reject Fardian theology and the
very idea that Allah came in the form of man is blasphemy.
What is Fardian Theology?
Elijah’s Fardian theology rejects the Christianity’s, Judaism’s, and even orthodox Islam’s
concept of an infinite, omnipotent, and omniscient God. Elijah believed that there was one God,
but he was finite (human) and black. According to Fardian theology, the first God was a man.
God was the “original black man, who created himself out of total darkness. Thus God was and
will always be a black man. There has been a succession of Gods, who live for approximately
two hundred years and then die. Elijah taught that Master W.D. Fard was the latest in a string of
Gods and therefore he was the Supreme God.49 The black race descended from the original race
of mankind called the Shabazz∗ people, who descended from God himself. Furthermore, since
God is black, blackness is divine, and black people are gods. Elijah taught that the Supreme God
of the mighty nation of black gods commanded the name of Allah.50 This was the title that Elijah
bestowed upon Master Fard Muhammad.
Elijah Muhammad’s Brother Opposed His New Fardian Theology
Elijah Muhammad taught his followers that Fard is the name of the greatest of Gods. Not
everyone in the Nation of Islam (NOI) accepted that Master Fard was God incarnate. There was
a major rift over this new Allah-Fard incarnation dogma. One of Elijah’s biggest opponents came
from his own household. His biological brother, Kallatt (John) Muhammad, rejected this
apostasy and moved out of the house they shared. Kallat harshly fought the Messenger against
the “Fard is Allah” doctrine until the day he died.
The Messenger’s Son and Original NOI Successor Claimed that His Father was
misled by Fard and Ignorant of Islam
Elijah Muhammad bequeathed the NOI to his son Wallace,∗ who assumed leadership of
the Nation upon Elijah's death in 1975. Wallace abandoned most of the NOI’s quirky ideologies
and moved the organization towards mainstream Islam.∗ Wallace even changed his name to
∗
Elijah Muhammad denied Malcolm X an “Arabic-Islamic” name. Thus Malcolm X adopted the last name of
Shabazz after he absconded from the Nation of Islam and became a Sunni Moslem.
∗
∗
Warith Deen (Wallace) Muhammad died on September 9, 2008 in Chicago
Many other notable figures followed, for example former heavyweight champion, Muhammad Ali, and Betty
Shabazz, the widow of Malcolm X
Warith Deen Muhammad∗ (or W.D. Muhammad) and took the Sunni Islamic title of Imam.
Wallace had been deeply influenced by Malcolm X and his studies of orthodox Islam and soon
initiated a complete transformation of the NOI. He renamed the NOI the World Community of
al-Islam in the West. He changed the name again in 1978 to the American Muslim Mission. He
gradually dropped his father’s racial and nationalist teachings and he renounced the doctrine of
Fard as Allah. In 1985, with he resigned as the head of the American Muslim Mission and
dissolved the organization. The majority of its members followed him into the larger, traditional
Muslim community where he established himself as a widely respected leader of AfricanAmerican Sunnis. Today many NOI members loyal to Elijah Muhammad’s teachings have
branded Warith Deen Muhammad as a heretic and hypocrite.
Imam W.D. Muhammad summarized his uncle Kallatt’s and other’s views by stating, “I
am convinced that he himself never told anyone that he was God in the flesh…When he left in
1934 his successor, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad…quickly began to erect Professor Fard
Muhammad as the second coming of Christ. Gradually, he introduced him as Allah, God
manifest.”51 He also concluded that Fard had a questionable past and that he used basic
principles to misdirect his father’s ignorance of Islam. W.D. Muhammad also argued that Fard’s
message appealed to Detroit’s underclass, especially during the Great Depression. Detroit’s
black ghetto residents were disheartened by their economic status and by the escalation of
racism. They felt hopeless and fell victim to Fard’s personal theology.52
Elijah even prayed to Master Fard
In 1956, Elijah Muhammad told The Pittsburgh Courier about a private conversation in
which Master Fard’s revealed his divinity, “I asked him, ‘Who are you, and what is your real
name?’ He said, ‘I am the one that the world has been expecting for the past 2,000 years.’ I said
to him again, ‘What is your name?’ He said, ‘My name is Mahdi; I am
God, I came to guide you into the right path that you may be
successful and see the hereafter.’ He described the destruction of the
world with bombs, poison gas, and finally fire that would consume
and destroy everything of the present world.” 53On many occasions,
Elijah would go to his closet, lay prostrate on the floor and pray to
Fard. He prayed that he would live to see the day when righteous
Muslims would set up the kingdom of God and punish the white man
for his evil against the black people.54
In 1965, Elijah Muhammad published Message to a Black
Man. He wrote, “Allah (God) came to us from the Holy City Mecca,
Arabia, in 1930. He used the name Wallace D. Fard, often signing it
W.D. Fard. In the third year (1933), He signed His name W.F.
Muhammad, which stands for Wallace Fard Muhammad. He came alone. He began teaching us
the knowledge of ourselves, of God and the devil, of the measurement of the earth, of other
planets, and of the civilizations of some of the planets other than earth.”55
∗
Warith is Arabic for “heir”
Elijah Muhammad once preached, “You will have to be punished, divinely beaten and
destroyed until you accept Master Fard Muhammad, to Whom praises are Due (sic) forever, as
your God and Saviour, as I and thousands of my followers are doing.”56 Although Elijah
Muhammad taught Fard was the “saviour” of the black race, he taught that God is a man. He
wrote in Message to the Blackman in America, “God is a man and we just cannot make Him
other than man.”57
Malcolm X claimed that Master Fard Appeared to Him
Malcolm Little, a hustler, thief, burglar, pimp and drug addict became an NOI convert
while serving a prison sentence in the Massachusetts State Prison at Charlestown. Malcolm was
so evil that the other inmates nicknamed him “Satan.”58 By 1948, when Malcolm was
incarcerated, nearly all of his family, the children of a Baptist preacher, had joined the NOI.
They wrote to him and visited him regularly and admonished him to stop referring to himself as
“Satan.” They told him that the white man was the real Satan. 59 They told him that Master W.D.
Fard was God and he came from Mecca to save the black race, the lost tribe of Shabazz. Master
Fard had taught the Black Muslims that Africans at one time bowed and prayed facing East and
worshipped God in their own image before they were stolen away from their Mother continent.
Now they bowed every which way, like someone lost, and worshipped a “blond, blue-eyed, paleskinned devil” who looked just like the slave-master.60
His brother Reginald told Malcolm that everything bad that had ever happened to him
was attributed to a conspiracy by the white devils to destroy the nonwhite races. In fact, the
Messenger, Elijah Muhammad, taught that the white civilization was the Gog and Magog
prophesied as the biblical heathen nations that would unsuccessfully try to destroy the Lord’s
future kingdom.61
Before Thanksgiving Day of 1948, Malcolm mailed a form letter to Elijah Muhammad
requesting membership to the Nation of Islam. The Messenger would not accept the letter unless
the penmanship was legible and it was worded exactly as Elijah Muhammad had ordered. This
letter was not addressed to Elijah Muhammad, but to W.F. Muhammad.
It was only one paragraph long and it read as:
Dear Savior Allah, Our Deliverer:
I have been attending the teachings of Islam by one of your Ministers, two
or three times. I believe in It, and I bear witness that there is no God but Thee, and
that Muhammad is Thy Servant and Apostle. I desire to reclaim my Own. Please
give me my Original name. My slave name is as follows:62
Later Malcolm’s brother, Reginald was suspended from the NOI for committing adultery.
Suspension meant that the member in poor standing had to be shunned. No other NOI member
could contact him or talk to him until he was reinstated. Reginald was disgruntled and started
arguing with Malcolm over Elijah’s teachings. He had changed his mind about Elijah’s claim
that he was Allah’s anointed. He told Malcolm that Elijah Muhammad was no “Messenger of
Allah” and he had evidence that Elijah was a false prophet.63
Reginald’s excommunication from the Black Muslims stressed Malcolm severely.
Reginald’s mental health started to deteriorate and at this same time, Malcolm’s mother, Louise
was institutionalized in a mental hospital. Malcolm had trouble sleeping and lay awake at night
mulling over his family’s problems. Over the next several weeks, he wrote Elijah, almost daily,
asking him to reinstate Reginald.
It was during this period that Malcolm experienced a mystical event.64 One night,
Malcolm was lying on his cot thinking about his brother’s challenge to Elijah’s claim of divinity.
He noticed a man, surrounded by an incandescent light, sitting in a chair in the cell. Malcolm
later wrote, “He wasn’t black, and he wasn’t white. He was light-brown-skinned, an Asiatic cast
of countenance, and he had oily black hair.”65 The mysterious stranger never said a word.
Malcolm merely stared at the apparition and the man stared back. Then the visitation was over.66
Malcolm believed that he was visited by none other than Master Wallace Fard Muhammad.67
Eventually Malcolm X became disillusioned with Elijah Muhammad and Fardian
Theology
Apparently, Malcolm X later rationalized his so-called vision. He had a falling out with
Elijah Muhammad and exposed his infidelities and affairs with his young secretaries to the
world. He later defected from the Nation of Islam to mainstream Sunni Islam and he questioned
the deification of Master Fard Muhammad. He once addressed a group of NOI members at on
Saviour’s Day celebration and rhetorically asked, “How can you worship a man who doesn’t
look like us, who doesn’t act like us, who doesn’t talk like us and who doesn’t walk like us or
even smell like us. There are over 17,000,000 so-called Negroes in America, but still we have to
look to the white man for everything?”68
Farrakhan Broke Away from Warith’s Muslim American Mission
Warith Deen (Wallace) Muhammad changed several fundamental NOI doctrines. He said
that W.D. Fard was not God and Elijah Muhammad was not the Messenger of Allah. He dropped
the racist overtures that blacks were superior to whites and he dismantled the militant Fruit of
Islam. He sold off most of the commercial establishments that his father had acquired over his
lifetime. The minister Louis Farrakhan went along with Warith for a few years. He took an Arab
first name (Abdul Halim), studied Arabic and the Qur’an, and even grew a beard, but it was clear
that Farrakhan disagreed with Wallace’s changes and the direction that his organization was
heading.69 In 1978, Louis Farrakhan separated from Warith Deen Muhammad because of
doctrinal disagreements. Farrakhan formed a splinter group using the original name, the Nation
of Islam. He reestablished the Fardian teachings of Elijah Muhammad and also reinstated the
movement's security force known as the Fruit of Islam (FOI). Wallace and Farrakhan were bitter
rivals for over two decades.
The NOI split into four separate factions after Elijah Muhammad died and W.D.
Muhammad moved the NOI into Orthodox Sunni Islam. Minister Farrakhan founded the NOI-
Final Call in Chicago. Silas Muhammad formed the Lost-Found Nation of Islam in Atlanta.
Brother Solomon founded the United Nation of Islam, in Kansas City, and he teaches that he is
“Allah-in-the-flesh in the same way that Fard was Allah-in-the-flesh. All four sects strongly
disagree in who is the Messenger’s legitimate inheritor, but all agree that Fard was God and
teach Elijah’s Fardian theology.
From the mouth of John Muhammad-Elijah Muhammad’s Youngest Brother
The Messenger’s brother, John Muhammad (not Kallet) claimed to be the lawful heir of
Fard’s NOI. He also claimed that Fard continued to speak through him. He died on May 7, 2005,
at the age of 95. He called himself the Supreme Minister of the Nation of Islam. His cabal
embraced the following doctrines:
“We who continue to stand in agreement with the blood
and spiritual brother of Messenger Elijah Muhammad, may the
peace and the blessings of almighty God, Allah, in the person of
Master Fard Muhammad be upon them both strive to continue in
the rality (sic) of actual fact: WE BELIEVE Allah Came in The
Person of Master Fard Muhammad (emphasis mine).
WE BELIEVE The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was The
Last Messenger of Allah. WE BELIEVE Messenger Elijah
Muhammad (PBUH), Died a Physical Death on February 25, 1975
And Will Not Return! (emphasis mine) WE BELIEVE The
Honorable John Muhammad is The Supreme Minister of The
Nation of Islam. WE BELIEVE The White Man is and always will
be: "The Real Devil!"70
Supreme Minister John Muhammad wrote a short biography found on the Muhammad
Speaks website.
He wrote, “I am the eighth (8th) son and the thirteenth (13th) or as you might say, the
baby of thirteen (13) children of Messenger Elijah Muhammad's parents. It was five (5) girls,
that made thirteen (13) children. I was born in Cordele, Georgia.
In 1923, I came to Detroit with my mother, and
grandmothers and two brothers. I was a small boy. In 1924 I joined
the Baptist Church. Late in 1931 I heard Islam as taught by Master
Fard Muhammad, and by 1932 the whole family had become
Muslims under the guidance of Master Fard Muhammad and
Messenger Elijah Muhammad (P.B.U.H.).
My First Post or Duty was as a helper at the door and an
usher. I became a Teacher in the University of Islam as taught by
Master Fard Muhammad. Late in 1932, Master Fard Muhammad
gave me the Authority of Acting Principal of Temple No. 1,
Michigan, University of Islam. I was Assistant Secretary and Secretary. At this time there was
only one Temple of Islam in this Wilderness of North America for the so-called Negro.
Early in 1933, I was permitted to the rostrum to ask the members to give charity and
Teach what I had learned in Islam. I taught the Meaning of Our FLAG OF ISLAM, given to us
by Master Fard Muhammad, I taught it as I had learned. I served in every position that is
known in The Nation of Islam, except becoming God and The Messenger of Allah; I was,
for one day, Everything” (emphasis mine).71
From the mouth of one of Elijah Muhammad’s Mistresses
Tynnetta Deanar Muhammad (Tynnetta Nelson),
describes herself as the “wife” of Elijah Muhammad. She is a
regular columnist on Farrakhan’s Final Call newspaper. This is
misleading because Tynetta was never married to him legally,
illegally, nor does she even meet the legal definition of a
common-law wife. She is merely a courtesan in a long line of
mistresses that bore Elijah illegitimate children. Sadly enough,
Elijah publicly denied fathering her children until the final
months of his death. Tynetta was bitterly jealous of all of his
other mistresses and the FBI captured her enviousness on audio
tape during their investigation of the NOI. Nevertheless, the
minister Farrakhan recognizes Mother Tynnetta Muhammad as an
official wife of Elijah Muhammad.
Mother Tynnetta Deanar Muhammad spoke at the Nation
of Islam Laborers Conference held September 6-9, 2007, hosted
by Minister Louis Farrakhan at the NOI’s Michigan Farm.
Excerpts of her speech were posted in an article at Farrakhan’s Final Call website entitled
“Master W. Fard Muhammad Lives, as well as His Servant and Exalted Christ, the Honorable
Elijah Muhammad.”
Mother Tynnetta greeted her audience by proclaiming the following: “It is my great
pleasure to greet you as my Sisters, my Brothers and fellow students of this Great Moment in
Our History. Calling to praise Almighty God, Allah Who did not come to us in an extraordinary
way; but He is an Extraordinary Person Who came to us as Master Fard Muhammad, the Great
Mahdi, Who searched among us to find one in whom He could place His spirit; His guidance;
His mind; His brain; His heart; His thinking. And that Great One is the Honorable Elijah
Muhammad, who is now in the Exalted Position on The Right Side of Almighty God, so they
become two in one.” 72•
•
Interesting note: Imam W.D. Muhammad never recognized Tynnetta Muhammad and her four children (his
siblings) because they were not from the womb of his mother, Clara Muhammad.
What are Farrakhan’s and the NOI’s Current Belief about Master W.D. Fard’s
Disappearance?
Farrakhan and his particular NOI sect currently teaches that Elijah Muhammad is still
alive. Farrakhan preaches that the Messenger and Master Fard are orbiting the earth in the
Mother Plane (a spaceship) waiting for the right time to return to Earth and destroy the white
devils and the black “Uncle Toms” of the United States and Great Britain.
Does Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam-Final Call still believe that Fard is God?
Farrakhan and his NOI ministers continue to teach that Fard is Allah. The current NOI
statement is published in every issue of their weekly newspaper, The Final Call, in an article
titled “What Muslims Believe,” listed as tenant # 12. It states, “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.”73∗∗ Farrakhan and his NOI ministers deny that
God is spirit and teach that Christians worship an "invisible spook somewhere in space.”74
According to Elijah Muhammad, “God is in person, and stop looking for a dead Jesus for help,
but pray to Him whom Jesus prophesied would come after Him. He who is alive and not a
spook.”75
Elijah Muhammad declared February 26th as Saviour’s
Day. This celebration continues under the leadership of
Minister Louis Farrakhan. Saviour’s Day is the official
holiday of the Nation of Islam (NOI). Other offshoot branches
of the NOI, such as the Nation of Gods and Earths, also
celebrate the Wallace Fard Muhammad birth date as Saviour’s
Day.
In 1973, on Saviours Day, Elijah Muhammad preached
a message entitled, “A Saviour is Born.” He said, “Brothers
and Sisters, I'm so happy to see your smiling faces, who have
come here from far and near to help us give thanks to
Almighty God, Allah, Who came in the Person of Master Fard
Muhammad, To Whom Praises is due Forever. A Saviour's
Day! Think about what we are here to worship. A Saviour's
Day! Who is Lost that we had to have a Saviour's Day?”76
Farrakhan and his Nation of Islam-Final Call still Celebrate Master Fard’s
Birthday as Saviour’s Day
The Minister Louis Farrakhan and the NOI still celebrate Saviour’s Day every year. In
fact, many Christian churches, in the name of racial solidarity, have allowed the NOI to come
inside their sanctuaries and honor a man whom they proclaim is God.
Minister Farrakhan has continued teaching Elijah Muhammad’s lore that Master Fard
Muhammad, a convicted con man, is God and Savior to the black race. Farrakhan in a speech on
April 1, 2001, titled “The Greatness of Master Fard Muhammad,” he reiterated Fard was born
and raised in Islam’s holy city of Mecca. Farrakhan referred to Fard as the “Mahdi,” a man
absolutely guided by God in the Islam faith. Farrakhan referred to the knowledge that Fard
passed onto the Nation of Islam as “actual facts.”77 ∗
…and yet the lies continue
There is an old church growth adage that says, “What it takes to bring them in, it’ll take
to keep them.” If church growth is built on promotional giveaways, showmanship,
sensationalism, and gimmicks, then that sets the standard to keep the people coming. Since the
Nation of Islam was built on lies, deceit, conspiracy theories, black supremacy, racial hatred,
spaceships, and anti-Christian rhetoric, then Farrakhan has and must keep spreading these
falsehoods to entice new followers and to keep current members loyal to his organization.
Minister Farrakhan is a millionaire. He lives in two mansions, and drives luxury cars,
travels the world with an entourage, while most of his members live below the poverty level
selling bean pies and peddling newspapers on street corners (more will be written about
Farrakhan con-jobs at a later date).
His real desire is to become the voice of African Americans in the United States. He can
only do this if he is accepted by Christians. This is why he has stated that he is both a Muslim
and a Christian. He preaches that believers can be both a Muslim and a Christian. In fact, he has
stated that he is now a “Christian too.” He said “A good Muslim is a Christian and a good
Christian is a Muslim.”78 This is a contradiction of beliefs and doctrines. It is the same as pagans
who assert that they can be both a Christian and a Wiccan (yes, there are such people). You
simply cannot be both. Jesus spoke about the danger of serving two masters. He said you must
love one and hate the other.
Minister Farrakhan has an open invitation in many Christian churches. They stand up and
cheer him on whenever he quotes the Bible and starts talking about speaking in tongues and that
Jesus is both Lord and Savior to the Muslims and the Christians. However he uses doublespeak
with dual meanings to deceive well-meaning believers. He has stated that the historical Jesus of
2,000 years ago is not the Messiah, but the type and shadow of the prophetic Messiah that is to
come. Farrakhan has said that the Messiah was not born in Bethlehem, of Judea, but he was born
in Sandersville, Georgia. Minister Farrakhan met with a group of Orthodox Jews at his Chicago
mansion, the home of Elijah Muhammad. He told the Jews, "We do not believe that Jesus of
2000 years ago was the Messiah. We believe the Messiah was yet to come, and this is the time
period that the Messiah would make himself manifest.”79 It seems that Minister Farrakhan is a
chameleon. He tells Christians, Jews, and Orthodox Moslems whatever they want to hear.
Louis Farrakhan founded The Final Call newspaper. In large capital letters beneath a
picture of Elijah Muhammad it declares “HE LIVES.” Farrakhan wrote, “The Honorable Elijah
Muhammad, I am here to declare, is risen. The Jesus you have been seeking and waiting for His
return has been in your midst for 40 years, but you knew not who He was. A Holy One was
working among us, and it is only now, after He is gone, that we realize who He was.”80
∗
The speech is at the Nation’s Web site at www.noi.org
Farrakhan has publicly stated that Elijah Muhammad is the Lord, Savior, Messiah, and
Deliverer. “I, Farrakhan, have no power to give life. However, the voice of Elijah Muhammad
coming through me is giving life to the entire Nation [of Islam]. I warn you that when you turn
me down and refuse this truth, you are turning down the Lord, the Savior, the Messiah, and the
Deliverer that you seek. This Deliverer is the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.”81
This is why it is so important for Christians to avoid getting caught up in the emotional
hype when Farrakhan and other Muslims use Pentecostal buzzwords like Jesus, Messiah, and
Holy Ghost. They need to look beyond the verbiage and examine the Nation of Islam’s belief
system.
In 2008, Farrakhan was still praising Master Fard, Elijah Muhammad, and Talking
about UFO’s and Compared Barack Obama to Fard Muhammad and Called Him
the Messiah
At the 2007 AWCF Convention, I presented a lecture about Radical Islam. I covered the
heresies and lies taught by Minister Farrakhan and the threat he poses to the Christian church that
sees him as a uniter and not as a divider. Afterwards, I was confronted by several Apostolic
defenders of the Minster Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. One person even announced that the
Holy Ghost is moving in the NOI and that Farrakhan was baptized in Jesus’ Name. He had
received the Holy Ghost and spoke in tongues and now he preached from the Bible and the
Qur’an.
One woman told me that CNN did a story about
how an Apostolic preacher healed Farrakhan of cancer. It
sounded too good to be true…and it was. There was not a
shred of truth. These were just rumors and urban myths that
were circulating Pentecostal circles.∗
The truth is that even though Farrakhan soften his
rhetoric towards Christians and Caucasians, he still has not
changed his stance on many of the Fardian doctrines of the
NOI. As recently as February 24, 2008, at his last Saviour’s
Day address entitled “Gods at War,”♦ he praised W.D. Fard
Muhammad, Elijah Muhammad, and spoke again of
Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO’s).82 Farrakhan gave a
two hour speech and spent much of it complementing
presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Minister Farrakhan even compared Obama to the
founder of the NOI, Master W.D. Muhammad, whom Elijah Muhammad said had a white mother
and black father. Farrakhan said, “This young man is the hope of the entire world that America
will change and be made better. This young man is capturing audiences of black and brown and
red and yellow. If you look at Barack Obama’s audiences and look at the effect of his words,
those people are being transformed.” Farrakhan told the crowd, “A black man with a white
∗
See the article “The Farrakhan Controversy: A Wolf in Sheep Clothing,” found at www.awcf.org
♦
Notice that Farrakhan is still using Fardian terminology by refering to the Black Muslims as “Gods”
mother became a savior to us (emphasis mine). A black man with a white mother could turn out
to be one who can lift America from her fall.”83 Farrakhan went even further and called Obama
the “Messiah.” He said, “You are the instruments that God is going to use to bring about
universal change, and that is why Barack has captured the youth. And he has involved young
people in a political process that they didn't care anything about. That's a sign. When the Messiah
speaks, the youth will hear, and the Messiah is absolutely speaking."84
A Farrakhan Acolyte is now Evangelizing Apostolic and Pentecostal Churches
Recently, there has been an ex-NOI minister, formerly known as Jeremiah Fard
Muhammad, who has been circulating Pentecostal churches in the United States and Europe.
This minister, Jeremiah Cummings, claims that Minister Farrakhan revealed to him that “Jesus is
the Messiah!” Cummings believes that one day he will personally baptize Farrakhan.
This evangelist has been welcomed into many Apostolic and Pentecostal churches and
has even been interviewed on at least two separate occasions on the Trinity Broadcasting
Network (TBN). Cummings preaches that the Qur’an was divinely inspired and that the prophet
Muhammad was used by God to lead the pagan Arabs into monotheism. Cummings has testified
that as a Black Muslim he was filled with the Holy Ghost and only later learned that Jesus is the
Messiah while studying the Qur’an.
This international evangelist boasts of leading tens of thousands of Muslims to Jesus by
showing them how the Qur’an revealed Christ as the Messiah. Jeremiah Cummings went on the
TBN Broadcast of Behind the Scenes on August 30, 2006, and gave an interview to Paul Crouch
and his son, Paul Jr. Cummings pronounced that Muhammad ibn Abdullah (the founder of Islam)
was a “genuine prophet of God.” Furthermore, he declared that Moslems∗ do not have to turn
from the Qur’an or Muhammad in order to be saved. All Moslems need to do is add Jesus to
their lives to be complete. Cummings has claimed that 95 percent of the Qur’an came from the
Bible. Thus he is going to take that 95 percent and “save the world.”
Apparently, Cummings has not read the Qur’an through and compared it to the Bible.
The truth is that the Qur’an often contradicts the Bible more than agrees with it. To quote the
late Kirby Tiller, “Rat poison is 90 percent grain and 10 percent poison. It’s still poison and it’ll
kill you.”
Charisma magazine published an article entitled, “Ministers Use the Quran as ‘Ultimate
Tool’ to Evangelize Muslims.” According to the Charisma article, A Messianic Muslim is an
Islamist who has accepted Jesus but refuses to be referred to as a Christian and chooses to stay
within the Islamic community. “Some Christians have taken the controversial approach of using
Islam's holy book to bring Muslims to Jesus. They say by communicating the gospel in a manner
Islamists can understand, many receive Christ. Their converts are called ‘Messianic Muslims,’
partly because they are encouraged not to abandon some Islamic traditions.’ Patricia Bailey, who
has ministered in many Arabic nations said ‘I use their own book of precepts to validate the
authenticity of Christ. If Muslims embrace the Quran as their holy book, then it is the ultimate
∗
NOI scholar C. Eric Lincoln coined the term “Muslim” to distinguish the NOI from “Moslems,” those who practice
Orthodox Islam
tool to reach them and at least to provoke them to question what is written in their own book of
the law,’ she added.”85
It is important to point out that the Qur’an makes references to the Bible, but the Bible
never refers to the Quran for truth or authenticity. The Qur’an is full of Biblical contradictions
and there are over 100 suras calling for violence against those that reject Islam. For example,
“...fight in the way of Allah with those who fight with you.”(2:190). Another violent sura, “And
kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from whence they drove you out, and
persecution is severer than slaughter, and do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque until they
fight with you in it, but if they do fight you, then slay them; such is the recompense of the
unbelievers” (2:191).
Jeremiah Cummings is not an expert on the Qur’an. If he was educated as an NOI
minister, then he studied Fardian theology and Fardian mythology and this does not make him an
expert on the Bible, nor does it make him an expert on the Qur’an. He has cherry-picked certain
suras and bent them to fit his own twisted, form of eschatology. He has told his enthusiastic
Pentecostal audiences that he can win the Islamic world by using the Qur’an to introduce Jesus
to the Moslems. He has stated that 95 percent of the Qur’an came from the Bible. But can he
validate or quantify this statement?
Facts about the Qur’an
It is true that Muhammad plagiarized the Jewish Talmud and the Christian Gospels. The
Qur’an acknowledges several Old Testament prophets such as Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, Noah and Moses. The Qur’an mentions New Testament figures such as John the Baptist,
Mary and Jesus. The Qur’an is equivalent in length to the New Testament and is divided into
114 sections, or “suras.” The Qur’an consists of 28 suras revealed in Medina, and 86 in Mecca.
Islamic Qur’an scholars proclaim the “doctrine of abrogation.” Under the Moslem doctrine of
abrogation, the Qur’an does not contradict itself, because it cancels out certain suras.
The Qur’anic Doctrine of Abrogation
When Muhammad resided in Mecca, he attempted to recruit new followers. In Mecca, he
taught a monotheistic religion that was peaceful and similar to Christianity and Judaism. For
example, Muhammad proclaimed in Mecca, “There is no compulsion in religion” (2:256). It was
later in Medina, after he became a vengeful warlord that he declared war on the Arab pagan
idolaters, Christians, and Jews. In Medina, Islam became political and aggressive. The violent
suras in Medina cancelled out the peaceful suras taught in Mecca. In Medina, Muhammad
exhorted, “O you who believe, take not Jews and Christians as friends. They are only friends to
each other, and who befriends them becomes one of them” (5:51). Moderate Moslems will quote
only the peaceful Meccan suras either out of ignorance or to lull Christians and Westerners into
believing that Islam is a “religion of peace.”
The Qur’an is only authoritative in Arabic
Additionally, the Qur’an is only authoritative in Arabic, the language of the Muhammad
and his companions. The problem here is that 70 percent of Moslems are illiterate. Of those that
can read, only a small percentage can read in Arabic. This is why they depend on their imams to
interpret the suras. Moslems all over the world, from Chechnya to the Philippines, memorize and
recite the Qur’an in Arabic without fully understanding what they are saying.
The suras vary considerably as to length and format, and with no chronological or
thematic order as to their placement. This makes it very confusing to read. In general, the suras
are organized according to their length, beginning with the longest sura first. “Not only does the
Koran jump from topic to topic, but it also repeats itself. For instance, there are over thirty
versions of the story of Moses and the Pharaoh.”86
The Qur’an Changed Important Details of the Stories of the Bible
A significant large portion of the Qur’an re-tells various stories of the Bible. Many of
these stories are retold with some interesting changes. Many of the stories from the Old
Testament (Torah) are in the Qur’an, but they are not precisely the same stories and make
different points.87 For example, many Catholics are impressed that the Virgin Mary is mentioned
34 times in the Qur’an while Jesus is mentioned only 33 times. However, Mary is mentioned by
name primarily to denigrate Christ. The two are usually mentioned together and over and over
again, Christ is called “Jesus, the son of Mary,” as opposed to Jesus, the son of God,” to
emphasize that Allah has no son.88 For example, the Qur’an says, “Christ, the son of Mary, was
no more than a Messenger” (5:75). Furthermore, Muslims believe that Christ was born only a
man and died a man. They do not believe that he was crucified on the cross and resurrected from
the grave. The crucifixion and the resurrection is a central theme in Christianity, a notion that
Islam rejects.
The Jewish concept of Messiah to Moslems does not have the same meaning as to
the Christians and Jews
Even through the Qur’an acknowledges that Jesus is called the Messiah, and that he was
born of a virgin and performed many miracles; he is still only one of many messengers to the
Moslems. The Qur’an says that “The Messiah son of Mary was only a Messenger; many
Messengers have passed away before him…” (5:73-78). The Qur’an also says “They are surely
infidels who blaspheme and say: ‘God is Christ, the Messiah, the son of Mary’” (5:72). “Those
certainly are disbelievers who say: Allah is none but the Messiah son of Mary: whereas he
Messiah himself taught: Children of Israel, worship Allah Who is my Lord and your Lord.”
(5:73-78) and “Jesus was no more than a mortal whom Allah favored and made an example to
the Israelites. They are unbelievers who say God is Messiah, Mary’s son” (43:59).
Therefore, when a Moslem states that he believes that Jesus is the Messiah it does not
have the same connotation that it does for Christians and Messianic Jews. For Moslems do not
believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Furthermore, Christians should not celebrate when
Farrakhan announces that Jesus is the Messiah. It should be pointed out that Farrakhan
acknowledging that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah has no more meaning to him than when I write
and refer to W.D. Fard as “Master Fard Muhammad,” and when I give Elijah Muhammad the
title of “The Messenger.”Christians should wait and see if Farrakhan renounces Fardian theology
and proclaims that Jesus Christ is God and savior of all mankind, regardless of a person’s color
and creed.
Farrakhan’s Pentecostal Protégé
Jeremiah Cummings, the former NOI minister, knowingly or unknowingly, is assisting
Farrakhan in trying to merge the black Christian church with the Nation of Islam. Cummings
wrote that the Minister Farrakhan personally told him that one day people will be able to walk
into a mosque and then into a church and not be able to tell the difference! “Just before I
resigned from my position as a leader in the Nation of Islam, I was having dinner with Minister
Louis Farrakhan. He looked me straight in my eyes and said to me, ‘Brother, one day people will
come to the Mosque and will not be able to tell the difference between the Church and the
Mosque.’”89 This is indeed a frightening prediction. This Pentecostal Farrakhan protégé is
teaching that Moslems are the physical and spiritual descendants of Abraham, Ishmael, and Esau,
as opposed to Christians and Jews who are the spiritual descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob.
It must be noted that the Qur’an is the record of the message of one man, Muhammad ibn
Abdullah, told over 22 years. Muhammad was illiterate and his words were committed to
memory or inscribed on bark, parchment, leaves, and animal hides. The sayings were not
collected and put into written form until 59 years after his death. The Qur’an is full of
contradictions and is a document of hate on the highest level. On the other hand, the Bible was
written in three different languages, on three different continents, by 40 different authors over
several centuries and carries a common, consistent theme of redemption and salvation. The Bible
prophecies the virgin birth of our redeemer, Jesus Christ, his crucifixion, and resurrection. No
where in the Bible does it mention or prophecy the birth of Muhammad. The Bible does not
mention the Islamic holy city of Mecca, Allah, or the Qur’an. All are central icons in orthodox
Islam.
This evangelist treaded on dangerous ground when he publicly declared the Qur’an was
divinely inspired and Muhammad was a prophet used by God. Fourteen-hundred-years ago,
Muhammad taught his Moslem companions that the Christians and Jews had corrupted the Bible,
thus it could not be trusted. He declared himself as the “Seal of God,” and the final prophet. He
proclaimed his Qur’an as the final word of God. In 1903, Sir William Muir who wrote several
scholarly books on Muhammad and Islam said, “The sword of Muhammad and the Qur’an are
the most fatal enemies of civilization, truth, and liberty which the world has yet known.”90
Craig Winn, author of Prophet of Doom, one of the best books researched on the words
and deeds of Muhammad and the danger of Islam said, “Islam is a lie. Truth is lethal to all
lies.”91 He also wrote, “Let me give you an example of accurate disclosure wielded
appropriately. In the early 1920's one out of every ten adult men in America were members of
the KKK. Some courageous journalists gained access to the Klan's charter documents and
published them in a scathing attack. People were so repulsed by what they read, it became
impossible for the Klan to recruit and maintain devotees. Membership fell 95% in less than two
years.”92
Jesus said in John 8:32, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
It is imperative that Christians use the truth to expose the wolves in sheep clothing who try to
creep in and destroy the flock.
1
Pipes, Daniel, “How Elijah Muhammad Won,” Commentary, June 2000, http://www.danielpipes.org/article/341,
retrieved 09-04-2008
2
Ibid
3
White, Vibert L. Jr. Inside the Nation of Islam: A Historical and Personal Testimony by a Black Muslim,
University Press of Florida, 2001, p. 26
4
Black America, Prisons and Radical Islam: A Report, September 2008, p. 6, Center for Islamic Pluralism,
Washington, D.C., www.islamicpluralism.org
5
Ibid
6
Dubois, W.E.B., "The Crisis", Vol. 28, May 1924, pp. 8-9
7
Spartucus Educational website, Ku Klux Klan, quoting from Negro World (September, 1923), retrieved 09-04-2008
8
Moore, Richard B., "The Critics and Opponents of Marcus Garvey," Marcus Garvey and the Vision of Africa, ed.
John Henrik Clarke with Amy Jacques Garvey, New York, 1974, p. 228.
9
Ibid
10
Ibid, p. 24
11
Clegg, Claude Andrew, III. An Original Man: The Life and Times of Elijah Muhammad, St. Martin’s Press, New
York, New York, 1997, pp.20-21
12
Evanzz, Karl. The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad, Pantheon Books, New York, 1999
13
A scathing letter written by former NOI member, Imam Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, leader of a Hanafi Muslim sect
located in Washington, D.C. It can be found in Karl Evanzz’s The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah
Muhammad, “The Scarlet Letter,” Appendix B, p. 448
14
Turner, R.B., Islam in the African-American Experience, Indiana University Press, 2003, p.165
15
Essien-Udom, E.U., Black Nationalism: A Search for Identity, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962, 1971,
p. 43
16
One can go to the FBI website and type in “Wallace D. Ford,” and look at Ford’s criminal record (Freedom of
Information Act)
17
Evanzz, p. 87
18
Kavanaugh, Kelli B. “Mystery Man: At the root of the Nation of Islam, a cipher and a controversy,” Metrotimes:
Detroit’s Weekly Alternative, 03-05-03 http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=4650
19
Pipes, 2000
20
Wilson, Peter Lamborn, Sacred Drift: Essays on the Margins of Islam, City Lights Books, 1993
21
Pipes, 2000
22
Evanzz, 1999
23
Prince-A-Cuba, “Black Gods of the Inner City,” Gnosis Magazine, 1992, pp. 56-63.
http://www.geocities.com/dre_wali/blackgods.htm, retrieved 09-06-2008. Prof. Ravanna Bey, third-generation
Moorish Scientist and Adept, in personal communication with author Prince-A-Cuba
24
Collins, Rodnell, P. with A. Peter Bailey, Seventh Child: A Family Memoir of Malcolm X, Birch Lane Press, New
York, 1998, pp. 134-35
25
Evanzz, 1999, p. 73
26
Ibid, p. 74
27
Ibid
28
W.D. Fard FBI File
29
Muhammad, Elijah, Our Saviour Has Arrived, Newport News, Va.: UB & USCS, 1974, p. 21; Essien-Udom, pp.
45-46
30
San Franscisco Herald-Examiner, July 28, 1963, and February 26, 1965; Lincoln, C. Eric, The Black Muslims in
America. 1st ed., Beacon Press, Boston, 1961, p. 17.
31
Prince-A-Cuba
32
Lincoln, pp. 17, 199
33
“Black Muslims’ Founder a Fake; Posed as Negro,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 28, 1963, p. 4
34
Muhammad, Wallace D., “Self-Government in the New World,” Bilalian News, Vol. 1., No. 19, March 19, 1976;
also cited in Milton C. Sernett, ed., Afro-American Religious History: A Documentary Witness, Durham, N.C.: Duke
University Press, 1985, pp. 413-20
35
Turner, Richard Brent, Islam in the African-American Experience, Indiana University Press, 2003, p.165
36
Interview with Dr. Alauddin Shabazz in New Trend, July 1991
37
Ibid
38
Lincoln, C. Eric. Black Muslims in America, Beacon Press, Boston, 1961, 1973, pp. 17, 199
39
Muhammad, Elijah, History of the Nation of Islam, Secretarius Publication, Cleveland, 1994, p.2
40
Evanzz, p. 80
41
Hakim, Nasir Makr. The True History of Elijah Muhammad, Messenger of Allah, Atlanta: Secretarius M.E.M.P.S.
Publications, 1997, p. 37; Clegg, Claude A. III. An Original Man: The Life and Times of Elijah Muhammad. New
York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997, p. 340
42
Evanzz, Karl. The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad, Pantheon Books, New York, 1999, p. 102
43
The Final Call to Islam, August 24, 1934. (Note from Karl Evanzz-Muhammad and Muslim were initially spelled
“Mohammed” and Moslem” by the NOI. The later spellings are used here for clarity)
44
Rassoull, Abass. The Theology of Time: The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, U.B. and U.S.
Press, Hampton, Va., 1992
45
Pittsburgh Courier, July 20, 1957
46
Evanzz, Karl, “The Scarlet Letter,” The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad, Appendix B, pp.
446-49
47
Evanzz, p. 103
48
Ibid
49
Tsoukalas, Steven, The Nation of Islam: Understanding the “Black Muslims,” Phillipsburg, New Jersey, P&R
Publishing, 2001
50
Lincoln, p. 75
51
Muhammad, Wallace, As the Light Shineth from the East, WMD Publishing, 1980, p. II
52
Ibid, pp. 10-11
53
The Pittsburgh Courier, May 26, 1956.
54
Muhammad, Elijah, Message to a Black Man, Muhammad’s Temple of Islam, No.2, 1965, p. 17
55
Muhammad, Elijah. Message to a Black Man in America
56
Muhammad, Elijah. Fall of America, Newport News, Va.: The National Newport News and Commentator, 1973,
p. 143
57
Muhammad, Elijah, Message to the Blackman in America, p. 6.
58
Haley, Alex and Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Grove Press, New York, 1965, pp. 151-168
59
Evanzz, Karl, The Judas Factor: The Plot to Kill Malcolm X, Thunder’s Mouth Press, New York, 1992, p. 1
60
Ibid, p. 2
61
Ibid
62
FBI file on Wallace Fard; FBI file on Elijah Muhammad; Lincoln, The Black Muslims in America, pp. 109-111
63
Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, p. 186
64
Ibid, pp. 186-188
65
Ibid
66
Ibid
67
Evanzz, The Judas Factor, p. 6
68
Saviour’s Day address (audiocassette); FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad
69
Pipes, 2000
70
“A Tribute to the Supreme Minister,” www.webspawner.com, retrieved 06-29-2007
71
“Minister John Muhammad Passes On,” http://www.muhammadspeaks.com/smJohnMuhammadpasses.html,
retrieved 06-21-2008
72
Muhammad, Mother Tynnetta. “Master W. Fard Muhammad Lives,“ FinalCall.com, September 21, 2007,
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_3935.shtml, retrieved 07-12-2008
73
NOI.org. The Official Site for the Nation of Islam, retrieved 05-30-07
74
Muhammad, Elijah, Message to the Blackman, p. 5
75
Ibid, p. 3
76
“A Saviour is Born, February 26, 1877,” by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the Last Messenger of Allahtranscribed from a video-taped lecture of the 1973 Saviour's Day Lecture, “God in Person,” Muhammad Speaks
Website, retrieved 05-27-07
77
Kavanaugh, Kelli B. “Mystery Man,” Metro Times: Detroit’s Weekly Alternative, March 5, 2003,
http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=4650, retrieved 07-27-2008
78
Hogan/Albach Susan. “Louis Farrakhan claims he is both a Muslim and a Christian,” Chicago Tribune, May 26,
2007
79
Muhammad, James, “Minister Farrakhan and Jewish Delegation meet in Chicago,” Final Call, November 25,
1999, http://www.finalcall.com/national/mlf_rabbis11-25-99.htm, retrieved 09-17-2008
80
Landess , Thomas H. and Richard M. Quinn, Jesse Jackson and the Politics of Race , Jameson Books, Ottawa,
Illinois, 1985, p. 94
81
Ibid
82
“Farrakhan calls Barack Obama the Messiah,” Youtube
83
“Farrakhan Praises Obama as the ‘hope of the entire world,” Associated Press, February 25, 2008,
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/02/25/farrakhan-praises-obama-as-hope-of-entire-world/, retrieved 09-20-2008
84
“Farrakhan on Obama: ‘The Messiah is absolutely speaking,’ October 9, 2008,
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/?pageId=77539, retrieved 10-10-2008
85
“Ministers Use the Quran as ‘Ultimate Tool’ to Evangelize Muslims.” Charisma, January 4, 2005
86
An Abridged Koran: Readable and Understandable, The Islamic Trilogy, Volume 4, Center for the Study of
Political Islam, CSPI, 2006, p. ix
87
Ibid
88
Sperry, Paul, Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington, Nelson Current,
2005, p.39
89
Cummings, Jeremiah, Reaching the World: Revealing Jesus as the Messiah in the Koran, One Big Family
Publishing, 2005, pp. 35-36
90
“All About Muhammad: But Not Very Politically Correct,” http://www.allaboutmuhammad.com/page7.html,
retrieved 09-21-2008
91
Winn, Craig, “To those who have not submitted to Allah: Welcome,” Prophet of Doom: Islam’s Terrorist Dogma
In Muhammad’s Own Words, 12-22-2003, http://www.prophetofdoom.net/Open_Letter_Infidels.Islam, retrieved
09-17-2008
92
Ibid