Elijah Muhammad and Islam

5. Elijah Muhammad, Other Muslims, and Islam

105 5 Elijah Muhammad, Other Muslims, and Islam Was Elijah Muhammad a Muslim? Can the Nation of Islam be considered part of the larger Islamic tradition? These questions vex scholars and Muslims alike. A broad definition of Islam might begin with the Five Principles of Islam: belief in Allah, angels, prophets, scriptures, and judgment day. Obviously, Elijah Muhammad’s teachings are at variance with several of these principles as traditionally defined. Not surprisingly, therefore, many Muslims have objected to some of the more prominent features of Elijah Muhammad’s formulation of Islam. They rightly ask, if the assertions that Fard Muhammad was “Allah in person,” that Elijah Muhammad was Fard Muhammad’s Messenger, that heaven and hell are here on earth, that the white man is the devil, and so forth do not exclude one from the Islamic tradition, what does? Given these beliefs, many Muslims outside the Nation of Islam continue to vehemently object to the use of the words “Islam” and “Muslim” by Elijah Muhammad and his followers. Several scholars are likewise hesitant to link Elijah Muhammad with traditional Islam. For instance, Sherman A. Jackson claims that “there was only the most perfunctory attempt to integrate even the most basic Islamic doctrines and rituals into the religious life of the community, from the Five Pillars to the finality of prophethood resting with Muhammad of Arabia.”1 Many scholars, however, have attempted to minimize the differences between the Muslims of the Nation of Islam and “orthodox” Muslims. Aminah McCloud argues that the differences among the various Muslim groups can be traced to the relative importance each places on the concepts of the larger and inclusive umma (community of believers) and narrower ‘asabiya (solidarity). This latter concept, which is a key theme of nation building, is in tension with the former, but Islam, according to McCloud, has always incorporated such diversity and multiculturalism.2 106 Elijah Muhammad, Other Muslims, and Islam Most other scholars seek to establish the Nation of Islam as a heretical sect, but one that is still part of Islam. C. Eric Lincoln acknowledges that differences exist, but argues that the Nation of Islam is a legitimate sect of Islam.3 According to Steven Barboza, for most Muslims, calling members of the Nation of Islam “non-Muslims” might be going too far, but they still consider members of the Nation of Islam to be too politicized, racist, and/or heretical.4 And recently, Claude Clegg concluded that “[o]verall, the basic outlines of both religious traditions do appear to overlap enough to allow the black organization to reasonably claim membership in the body of Islam, albeit as a heretical limb.”5 As discussed at the outset of this book, these rationalizations seem to place the scholar in the role of arbiter of orthodoxy—largely because scholars, like their Muslim counterparts who have come to the opposite conclusion, still assume that there is something they can identify as “orthodox,” “normative,” “heretical,” or “sectarian” Islam. An even more vehement polemic suggests that the Nation of Islam does not even constitute a religion. Scholar of African American Islam Edward E. Curtis IV, however, demonstrates clearly that by any standard definition of religion, even one as simple and concise as the system of beliefs and practices relative to supernatural beings,6 the Nation of Islam is a religion. “Of course, not every activity of NOI members was religious in nature, and it is important to emphasize that their religious activities, like those of all other human beings, were tied inextricably to their politics , social location, and their cultural orientations.”7 Thus, the issue for the scholar is not whether the Nation of Islam is a religion; it clearly is.8 Curtis also points us in the right direction for the question of whether the Nation of Islam, whose members vocally state that they are Muslims, is a form of Islam: [There is no] minimal definition of what it means to be a Muslim. Instead , wherever and whenever a person calls himself or herself Muslim, scholars should include this person’s voice in their understanding of what constitutes Islam. The mere fact that one has labeled oneself a Muslim indicates some sort of participation, however slight, in the process of Islamic history.9 If one were to attempt such a “minimal definition,” however, despite the inherent difficulties of doing so, it might be something akin to “a Muslim is someone who holds the Qur’an revealed to Muhammad to be the [3...