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This article is about the Beliefs and theology of the Nation of Islam.
The main belief of The Nation of Islam and its followers is that there is no god but Allah. Their most important worship is praying five times a day. The official beliefs as stated by the Nation of Islam have been outlined in books, documents, and articles published by the organization as well as speeches by Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, and other ministers. These include inflammatory statements as well as the pejorative use of the term “white devils” to refer to white people. Many of Elijah Muhammad's teachings may be found in Message to the Blackman in America and The True History of Jesus as Taught by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad (Chicago: Coalition for the Remembrance of Elijah, 1992). Many of Malcolm X's teachings of NOI theology are in his The End of White World Supremacy, while a later more critical discussion of those beliefs can be found in The Autobiography of Malcolm X, co-written with Alex Haley.
Passed down via written lessons from 1930 to 1934 from Wallace Fard Muhammad to his student Elijah Muhammad, referred to and titled The Supreme Wisdom, the Nation of Islam continues to teach its followers that the present world society is segmented into three distinct categories. It teaches that from a general perspective, 85% of the world's people of all races and faiths are the deaf, dumb and blind masses of the people who "are easily led in the wrong direction and hard to lead in the right direction". These 85% of the masses are said to be manipulated by 10% of the people who are referred to as the rich slave-makers of the masses of the people. Those 10% rich slave-makers are said to manipulate the 85% masses of the people through ignorance, the skillful use of religious doctrine, and the mass media.
The third group referred to as the 5% is the poor righteous teachers of the people of the world who know the truth of the manipulation of the 85% masses of the people by the 10% and that 5%, the righteous teachers, are at constant struggle and war with 10% to reach and free the minds of the masses of the people. (Assignment of Mr. Elijah Muhammad, The Supreme Wisdom, February 20, 1934; Power at Last Forever, Minister Louis Farrakhan, Madison Square Garden, New York, October, 1985)
The official platform of beliefs as stated by Elijah Muhammad in Message to the Blackman in America published in 1965 are as follows verbatim:
1. WE BELIEVE In the One God whose proper Name is Allah.
2. WE BELIEVE in the Holy Qur'an and in the Scriptures of all the Prophets of God.
3. WE BELIEVE in the truth of the holy Quran
4. WE BELIEVE in Allah's Prophets and the Scriptures they brought to the people.
5. WE BELIEVE in the resurrection of the dead—not in physical resurrection—but in mental resurrection. We believe that the so-called Negroes are most in need of mental resurrection; therefore they will be resurrected first.
Furthermore, we believe we are the people of God's choice, as it has been written, that God would choose the rejected and the despised. We can find no other persons fitting this description in these last days more than the so-called Negroes in America. We believe in the resurrection of the righteous.
6. WE BELIEVE in the judgment; we believe this first judgment will take place as God revealed, in America.
7. WE BELIEVE this is the time in history for the separation of the so-called Negroes and the so-called white Americans. We believe the Blackman should be freed in name as well as in fact. By this we mean that he should be freed from the names imposed upon him by his former slave masters. Names that identified him as being the slave master's slave. We believe that if we are free indeed, we should go in our own people's names—the black people of the Earth.
8. WE BELIEVE in justice for all, whether in God or not; we believe as others, that we are due equal justice as human beings. We believe in equality—as a nation—of equals. We do not believe that we are equal with our slave masters in the status of freed slaves.
We recognize and respect American citizens as independent peoples and we respect their laws that govern this nation.
9. WE BELIEVE that the offer of integration is hypocritical and is made by those who are trying to deceive the Black peoples into believing that their 400-year-old open enemies of freedom, justice, and equality are, all of a sudden, their friends. Furthermore, we believe that such deception is intended to prevent Black people from realizing that the time in history has arrived for the separation from the whites of this nation.
If the white people are truthful about their professed friendship toward the so-called Negro, they can prove it by dividing up America with their slaves.
We do not believe that America will ever be able to furnish enough jobs for her own millions of unemployed in addition to jobs for the 20 million Black people as well.
10. WE BELIEVE that we who declare ourselves to be righteous Muslims should not participate in wars that take the lives of humans. We do not believe this nation should force us to take part in such wars, for we have nothing to gain from it unless America agrees to give us the necessary territory wherein we may have something to fight for.
11. WE BELIEVE our women should be respected and protected as the women of other nationalities are respected and protected.
12. 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.
13. WE BELIEVE further and lastly that Allah is God and besides HIM there is no god, and He will bring about a universal government of peace wherein we all can live in peace together.
The NOI teaches that Black people constitute a nation and that through the institution of the Atlantic slave trade they were systematically denied knowledge of their history, language, culture, and religion and, in effect, lost control of their lives. Central to this doctrine, NOI theology asserts that Black people’s experience of slavery was the fulfillment of Bible prophecy and therefore, black people are the seed of Abraham referred to in the Bible, in Genesis 15:13–14:
And Acts 7:6:
The Nation of Islam teaches that Black people are the aboriginal people, and that all other people come from them. Louis Farrakhan has stated "If you look at the human family — now, I'm talking about black, brown, red, yellow and white — we all seem to be frozen on a subhuman level of existence. In Islam and, I believe, in Christian theology and Jewish theology as well, there are three stages of human development. The first stage is called the animalistic stage of development. But when we submit to animal passions, then we can do evil things to one another in that animalistic stage of development. But when moral consciousness comes and we have a self-accusing spirit, it is then that we become human beings. Right now, we have the potential for humanity, but we have not reached that potential, because we are functioning on the animalistic plane of existence." [1][2]
In an interview on NBC's Meet the Press, Louis Farrakhan said the following in response to host Tim Russert's question on the Nation of Islam's teachings on race:
Pressed by Russert on whether he agreed with Elijah Muhammad's preaching that whites are "blue-eyed devils", Farrakhan responded:
While Malcolm X was a member of the Nation of Islam, he preached that Black people were genetically superior to white people. Elijah Muhammad respected all people, including Whites, especially those whites who embraced Islam. Elijah Muhammad thought that his teacher Master Fard had a white Muslim mother from the Caucasus mountain region of eastern Europe. Elijah also thought that Prophet Muhammad of Arabia was the last Prophet of God and that he was a White Arab.<Message to The Black Man in America>
Malcolm X said:
Elijah Muhammad taught his followers about a Mother Plane or Wheel, a UFO that was seen and described in the visions of the prophet Ezekiel in the Book of Ezekiel, in the Hebrew Bible.
Louis Farrakhan, commenting on his teacher's description, said the following:
The NOI has been seen by some as attempting to be its own religion separate of Islam. The first book analyzing the Nation of Islam was The Black Muslims in America (1961) by C. Eric Lincoln. Lincoln describes how religious services use myths and over-generalizations to indoctrinate NOI adherents.
It is also to be observed that the Qur'an does not teach the superiority of any race. The Quran in 49:13 (Arberry's translation) says:
O mankind, We have created you male and female, and appointed you races and tribes, that you may know one another. Surely the noblest among you in the sight of God is the most godfearing of you. God is All-knowing, All-aware.
Under the leadership of Louis Farrakhan since 1981, the current members of the Nation of Islam hold that Elijah Muhammad did not die, but was restored to health, and is aboard "that huge wheel-like plane that is even now flying over our heads." Minister Farrakhan stated that according to Elijah Muhammad, a person who dies can be restored back to life as long as it is done within a period of 24 hours. Also he claims to have had an encounter where he was taken aboard a 'U.F.O' and spoke with 'The Honorable Elijah Muhammad'.
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