By Nida'ul Islam Magazine 

Although the 'Nation of Islam' still retains its original deviant beliefs, their popularity has remained dangerously high among many of the Muslim communities. This has only served to confuse the message of the real Islaam, and the following should clarify the position of the Nation in light of the Qur'an and Sunnah.

The religious doctrines of the NOI contradicts the essential teachings of Islaam, which includes the worship and recognition of One God, who shares His Dominion with no one and of Whom which there is non like Him. The Nation however believes that Allaah is a person in the name of Fard Muhammad who descended on Earth in July 1930. Elijah Poole Muhammad is recognised as their prophet, the Last Messenger mentioned in the Qur'an. In Point number 12 of their Testimonials of Faith, the Elijah Muhammad said: 'We believe 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...'"

They also negate the reality of the Day of resurrection, claiming it to be mental rather than physical, and that the "so-called Negroes are most in need of mental resurrection; therefore they will be resurrected first."

Prayer is not accepted without the mentioning of Elijah's Muhammad name: "I am the Door. By no means can you get by except you come by me. Your prayers will not be heard unless my name is mentioned in them ... I have the key to your salvation, and I have the key to your hell. I can, if you will let me, pull you out of hell and set you into heaven. Then I can keep you in heaven; or I can keep pushing you and push you into the punishment of hell until you acknowledge that there is no God but Allah Who came in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, to whom praises are due forever and that Elijah Muhammad is His Servant.."¹

We need only refer to Louis Farrakhan's words spoken at his ne plus ultra "Million Man March", where he opened with the following invocation, "I am so grateful to Allah for his intervention in our affairs in the person of Master Fard Muhammad the Great Mahdi, who came among us and raised from among us a divine leader, teacher and guide, his messenger to us the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad."

Final Call columnist Bernard Cushmeer, (Jibril Muhammad) states in his book, Is It Possible That The Honorable Elijah Muhammad Is Still Physically Alive? that Louis Farrakhan today publicly rejects the belief that Elijah Muhammad is dead, even though Farrakhan saw his teacher's corpse in a coffin in February, 1975. According to Cushmeer, this belief is so well established, that Farrakhan has said that if it is "determined that the body in the ground reported to be that of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, was in fact his, he would stop teaching."² It is for this reason that every issue of Farrakhan's The Final Call newspaper, prints the words, "He Lives" on the inside back page under The Muslim Program. Cushmeer also makes the following claim:

"If you will take the time and read the Qur'an, and look at the arguments of Messenger Elijah Muhammad on the subject of the identity of the person addressed by its Author (Allah), it will become clear that Muhammad of Arabia could not be the man for whom it was ultimately meant...The main thing to know is that the Qur'an was originally written with The Honorable Elijah Muhammad in Allah's mind as the ultimate recipient."³

On Sept. 1, 1985, Farrakhan's wife, Betty, speaking in Chicago after her return from Mecca where she accompanied her husband on Hajj, began her speech with the statement "In the Name of Allah, in the name of His True Servant and His Last Apostle, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, I greet you..." Thereafter, Farrakhan stated that while making Tawaf around the Ka'abah in Mecca, he had loving thoughts about the glorious Prophets Muhammad, Abraham, Isma'eel, and "my father the Honorable Elijah Muhammad."

On Oct. 24, 1989 and February 28, 1990, Farrakhan declared that he traveled to the "top of a sacred mountain in Mexico where he was taken in a UFO to a "mother wheel" containing the late Elijah Muhammad"⁴

Furthermore, in an interview held on December 24, 1989 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, he still maintained that he accepted Islam in 1955 under the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, and that Fard Muhammad, Elijah Muhammad's teacher was:

"...a means through which Allah presented himself to Elijah Muhammad in the same manner as the Angel Gabriel was a means through which Allah presented Himself to Muhammad (s.a.w) in the form of a man..."

This should leave no doubt in the minds of the Muslims as regards the true nature of the NOI.

1. See The Fall of America, p. 205.

2. p. iii.

3. See Is It Possible That The Honorable Elijah Muhammad Is Still Physically Alive? pp. 26-27

4. See The Washington Post, Oct. 26, 1989; p. B4; and March 1, 1990, page A1, see also ABC's Nightline, October 15, 1996.