The Nation of Islam (NOI) in America is 77 years old, dating back to July 1930 when W.F. Muhammad – Allah in person according to NOI theology – made himself known in the U.S. From there, and later called Master Fard Muhammad, he went on to meet a man, Elijah Poole, who became his top disciple and whom was later named Elijah Muhammad, a powerhouse of a man who took the seeds Fard Muhammad gave him and began planting them all over in the garden which came to be known as the “Nation of Islam.”
In taking a 50-year step back in time, Adeeba Folami of The Black House News (BHN) asked long time NOI student, minister and member Abdul Wazir Muhammad (AWM) to share what believers in 1957 foresaw at that time for the NOI 50 years into the future (2007). He was introduced to the NOI in Los Angeles, California in the 1950s and his interesting and insightful explanations and answers are the subject of this interview.
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(BHN) – At a recent seminar, NOI members were asked to consider what the Nation will look like 50 years from now and in considering that question, listeners were asked what they thought believers from 50 years ago, (1957), saw as the future for the NOI in 2007. As one who was there 50 years ago, will you share what it is that you foresaw for the Nation? Is it true that many expected “the end” because at one point the Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught that the end would come in the 60s?
(AWM) - The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that when he first got the mission, he thought because of the beauty of the message that he would be finished in six months and as of right now, we’re not finished. He spent 44 years of his life for just a phase – the first part – of his mission, so it was not just a struggle but, in fact, it was a protracted one. My brother-in-law, when he came into the Mosque, he saw something that I didn’t see and that was that we were going to be at this job for a long, long time so he was prepared for a long haul. I was optimistic, not as optimistic as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, but I thought that I was going to immediately see the things that he taught about.
There was a point at which Elijah Muhammad taught us that scientists had visited him and told him, ‘Get all you can in 1960 because, ‘61 is doubtful,’ and we thought the end was coming in ‘61 or close to that. Now, there’s been to this day, to my knowledge, nothing that was said to explain that away – ‘61 being a doubtful year. Not even necessarily explain it away, but explain it so that we could take it in the right context. It turned out not to be the year of destruction and the year of us going into what we had been looking for but it turned out to be a point at which we worked a lot harder because we thought the time was a lot shorter. We accomplished things going through that period that if we didn’t have that kind of fever, or fervor, based on what we perceived being the shortness of the time, we would not have done so much to get over what it was that we did.
Elijah Muhammad, to give us some kind of idea of how to live our lives, he told us to live everyday like we were going to be here forever but be ready to leave right away. Now, that gives you some flexibility of thought in regards to where you are. One thing he told us was that the last thing you would hear would be the ring of the hammer. We were of a mindset – downtown in Los Angeles they build high rises because of the advance in architecture; they build buildings now that are skyscrapers but when I came to Los Angeles during the early part of my tenure [the 1950s], the buildings, because of the earthquake potential, were not very tall and so when they started building all these new buildings, we said they would never get them up. They didn’t have that much time. Now, you come to Los Angeles and see the skyline and not only are all those buildings up but taller buildings are up and when you look back at what it was at that time, those buildings are maybe three stages behind as far as the building is concerned. Everything is up and there’s a sprawling metropolis that indicates that we had no real idea as far as what time was concerned. I’m trying to put this all in perspective because the way that we were really laboring, and the way we’re laboring right now, and the way we were believing, and the way the believers are believing right now, is that everything hinged upon what the Christ really said to us about what was to transpire and what would be the eventual end.
What we were looking for was freedom on some land where we could govern ourselves and do for ourselves what other people were doing. We looked for chastisement or destruction to the people who have got a well earned, well bought doom, and we were looking and hoping for God to come and take this [white] man away. What we were looking for as far as 50 years is concerned, we didn’t think the man had 50 years. We were looking for Christ’s imminent return. All the things that God told [Elijah Muhammad] was gonna take place, we were looking for them to take place in a hurry and we were working as hard as we could to make those things come about.
Christ’s imminent return explained
(BHN) – When you mentioned “Christ’s imminent return,” were you referring to Elijah Muhammad? [NOI theology today recognizes him as the Messiah or Christ.]
(AWM) - At the time, the identity of Elijah Muhammad had not been revealed so when we thought of the return of Christ, we thought of the return of Master Fard Muhammad. When I said Christ’s imminent return, we were looking for the Saviour to come and deliver us from all our oppression. We believed that Elijah Muhammad would be with Master Fard Muhammad on his return and we do still believe that, however, Elijah Muhammad, according to what we believe, has been exalted and everything except God himself, has been put under his foot and he in fact is bringing about the judgment with the authorization of Almighty God Allah. To clarify, we were looking for the same thing we are looking for now but we did not have the true identity of Elijah Muhammad because he had not been exalted and he was not the Christ. Truth of the matter is, Jesus was not the Christ. Christ is a title and is an exalted state and it’s only when [Jesus] is exalted and put in power to crush the wicked that he becomes the Christ.
At the outset, before we recognized that the Jesus spoken of in scripture, both Bible and Quran, was in fact Elijah Muhammad, Elijah Muhammad said, ‘If my people really knew the truth about Jesus [they] would be resurrected at once.’ [They] would know, since [Elijah Muhammad] had been chosen from among us, that not only was he blessed [but] his choice blessed his family and all of us. We are all the chosen people of God and Elijah Muhammad’s the one chosen from among us. If we really knew that, and understood what the scripture’s referring to and whom, we would be resurrected at once.
When Elijah Muhammad left, he put us on a course of building. Up until that time, Malcolm – who was the chief exponent – had been spreading the word and our whole thing was on the word but the words had not made anything in reality. Then when Malcolm was killed, Elijah Muhammad immediately started building and in the short period of time between Malcolm’s demise, [Feb. 1965], and Elijah Muhammad leaving, [Feb. 1975], we put schools all over the country and established a center in Chicago: Mosque Maryam*. All the business and everything that was at [Chicago] headquarters was looked at as a marvel by all the Blacks especially because we made so much material progress. Elijah Muhammad said all this was, in fact, what he had to do in a hurry because he knew his time table and he had to establish a sign for the people to see that if just a few got together and accomplished all this, what could we produce if we all got together and worked for one common cause.
Also, I learned later that what he was putting down was a blueprint for Minister Louis Farrakhan to continue to work, although I had no idea that this was in reality. What we built in the time that [Elijah Muhammad] did his work to establish the sign, is what we were looking forward to as far as the Nation of Islam was concerned but we were not looking no 50 years down the line. We did not think in that context, 50 years down the line was not something that we thought about in any form of reality at all. But we were looking for the promise of God: money, good homes and friendship in all walks of life. We were looking for freedom, justice and equality and we were expecting that but not in the next 50 years, we were expecting that tomorrow.
I’ll end all of that by saying that all of the things that Elijah Muhammad told us about, all the signs and everything have just about taken place and it’s very obvious that we’re standing at the door, at the very end of everything that he taught and our deliverance from this condition is imminent.
(BHN) – As of 2007?
(AWM) - As of 2007. We’re not talking a whole lot of time before we’re on our own, maybe not all together in the way that we’re ultimately gonna be established but the goals that we’re striving for is right at our fingertips.
Malcolm’s role in building the NOI
(BHN) – You mentioned that tremendous building occurred from the time of Malcolm’s demise and the departure of Elijah Muhammad, in that, the Nation put schools up all over the country and established Mosque Maryam* in Chicago. Were there no schools across the country and how much building had been done prior to Malcolm’s separating himself from the Nation because some people have the impression that Malcolm was the one behind all the building and the more widespread notoriety of the Nation.
(AWM) - Most people do not have a good knowledge of exactly what role Malcolm played. He did the work that Elijah Muhammad gave to him to do. He spread the truth because of his youth, his zeal and his God-given gifts, he went all over the country in the name of Allah and Elijah Muhammad and did the work of spreading the truth, setting up new mosques, organizing and he was very good and efficient at all of that.
He did a very wonderful work of spreading Islam, organizing, establishing mosques where there were no mosques, revitalizing mosques that were there but were inactive or static and not growing because leadership was not attracting the people. He was like a breath of fresh air to the Nation when he came and, therefore, that time of proselytizing was greatly enhanced by Malcolm’s presence and there were things that he did that were very, very progressive. For example, he established the newspaper called Mr. Muhammad Speaks. He put out an issue of it and that was like once a month he put out that paper. Later on, when Muhammad Speaks was established, Elijah Muhammad took it from where Malcolm had brought it and built it up to the Muhammad Speaks that we knew toward the end.
[Mr. Muhammad Speaks] was not the first Muhammad Speaks Newspaper. [The first] was done by Elijah Muhammad in the 30s. As a matter of fact, I don’t have a copy of them but I do know who does have [copies], and I have had a copy. It was just a small paper but the idea was already there and Malcolm made it a reality at one point and then Elijah Muhammad took it on to where we were at a weekly newspaper.
As far as schools were concerned, part of the program of Elijah Muhammad from the inception was to educate our own in Universities of Islam. At one point the believers had a confrontation with the police department because they wanted to make the believers send their children to the public schools and they wouldn’t do that. So the schools in the 30s were always part of the program. In other words, it was like a seed. When you plant an acorn in the earth, in that acorn, in that seed, is a tree. The trunk is in there, the limbs, the leaves, everything is in that little acorn and as it grows, all of it is manifested but there’s not something put into the seed at a later date, it’s just something that becomes manifested. If you look at the program of Elijah Muhammad in the 30s, then you’ll see everything that is in the program in later days only just smaller because it had to grow to that, it had to be built to that. After this seed that God gave – truth, that [encapsulated] the program – was given to Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm took it and planted it all around by spreading the truth and he did such a good work at that. Then after his demise, all that work that was done, it was time now to make manifest the things that were talked about in that seed. What Elijah Muhammad did, at the time that I do remember, he contemplated on Universities of Islam around the country in all the big cities and in the small places he wanted the University of Islam to grow from whatever infant stage it was in into a full fledged institution of learning.
During that time [Elijah Muhammad] was emphasizing education and universities all over the country at the same time he was emphasizing economic growth because Mosque Maryam* and the headquarters took on growth. Then we had the farms and the airplane.
(BHN) – That all came after Malcolm?
(AWM) - All that came after Malcolm and Elijah Muhammad put emphasis on all that. He made everything grow to the kind of – remember – these are not new things, these things were there but with the right sunshine, the right rain, then there’s a growth factor. Elijah Muhammad knew his time table and said if Allah had not shown him the way that he was to escape, he would not have seen the possibility of a way out and he knew that the enemies were on him, the hypocrites were on him and he escaped on the heels of a death plot but, before he left, he established all of these things so that Min. Farrakhan would have a blueprint and so that Black people could see that if just a few Muslims could get together and do all this, what would happen if all Black people got together – what could we do.
Today’s believers not as fired up?
(BHN) – Back in the 50s you said you were expecting the things Elijah Muhammad spoke of to happen tomorrow not 50 years down the line. Do you see a more lax attitude of believers today who have seen decade after decade after decade go by and maybe the mindset is, ‘Well – there’s probably gonna be more decades to go by and maybe I’m not gonna see the fulfillment of these things’?
(AWM) - Let me say this. For the believers who have not fallen out of the process, who have stayed in the struggle, they are of a mindset that deliverance is, in fact, nigh. The kind of thing that’s on the mindset of those who have remained steadfast and stayed in the process, their mindset is that we’re right at the door and it’s a matter of the race is not given to the swift nor the strong but he that endureth to the end and we’re right here, right now and we see that. It’s a matter of not to get caught slipping, working all this time and get to the door and then fall weak. We’re not of the kind of mindset that it’s not gonna happen we’re of a mindset that it’s about to happen. There are a few things that we have to go through, the darkest hour is just before dawn and that’s where we are right now and that’s how the believers are thinking.
Master Fard Muhammad’s life span
(BHN) – This question has nothing to do with the above but concerns the saying that “Master Fard Muhammad would live a minimum of 400 years” and who said it because it’s not found in any writings of Elijah Muhammad. Do you know where it can be found? Some attribute the saying to Wallace [Warith Deen Mohammed].
(AWM) - I don’t know because I’ve never read it but I ‘know’ it and I think it was 500, not 400, but either five or four this is very important, God coming in the person of Master Fard Muhammad because Allah is the ever living and dies not. In 500 years the universe is still going to be in existence and there’s [to be] thousands and thousands and millions and trillions of years in the future and Allah’s still gonna be God and He lives. He’s the beginning and the end, if there ever is to be an end.
Elijah Muhammad says to us in regards to Master Fard Muhammad: ‘to whom praise be forever’ and ever’s a long, long time for a man of perishable flesh that is going to be gone 500 years from now. It’s a very interesting thing because Min. Farrakhan, [in Nov. 2007], said some things that went clear up into the minds of those who don’t have a real good grasp on Master Fard Muhammad as God. The first thing, he was born in 1877 and we know that the universe is 78 trillion years [old], that the sun was made and put into our flag 78 trillion years ago and this was all done by a creator. Here’s a man that is born in 1877 and we say that [he] is God and is going to live 500 years and Allah is the ever living but yet [this man's] going to be gone in 500 years and after his demise, look at this. You don’t know – history is written every 25,000 years in advance but the man that was Allah during the time of Jesus, we don’t know his name. You look and go back 25,000 years [plus] 25,000 years, you can go back as far as you can but you don’t know that person’s name, so how is it that Master Fard Muhammad is [one] ‘to whom be praise forever?’ This is all things that Elijah Muhammad is saying, things that we’re believing and things that we, if questioned, just maybe we cannot represent this truth in the right way. That’s another subject for another time.
(BHN) – Thank you.
*NOTE: Mosque Maryam was the name given to the NOI’s Chicago headquarter mosque during Min. Louis Farrakhan’s rebuilding efforts in the 1980s. During Elijah Muhammad’s time with the Nation, headquarters was known as Temple #2, Chicago.
© 2007 – All Rights Reserved – The Black House News
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