What is the Nation of Islam?

The short version: the Nation of Islam is an American religious movement that used the name and some of the practices of Islam, but taught doctrines that Sunni and Shia Muslims regard as outside Islam. Its history is also one of the main routes by which African Americans came to mainstream Sunni Islam: its most famous member, Malcolm X, made that journey in 1964, and most of its members followed in 1975 (Islam §11). Consensus

Origins in Detroit

Muslims had come to the Americas with the enslaved Africans of the Atlantic trade, and as immigrants from the Ottoman lands from the late nineteenth century. But the movement that made Islam visible in twentieth-century America began in Detroit. On 4 July 1930, by its own dating, a peddler who called himself Wallace Fard Muhammad began teaching African Americans that they were the original people, Muslims by nature, robbed of their religion and names by slavery.^[1]​^[2] Consensus

Fard drew on an earlier movement, the Moorish Science Temple of America, founded in Newark in 1913 by Noble Drew Ali, which taught African Americans to see themselves as “Moorish Americans” with a Muslim heritage; scholars describe the Nation as growing out of that movement and the Black nationalism of Marcus Garvey. Majority Who Fard was remains uncertain. The FBI later matched his fingerprints to a man named Wallie D. Ford with a record of arrests; the Nation rejects the identification. Contested

Fard disappeared in 1934. His follower Elijah Muhammad, born Elijah Poole, led the movement from Chicago until his death in 1975.^[1]​^[2] Consensus

What it taught

Under Elijah Muhammad the Nation of Islam taught:^[2]​^[1]

• that Fard had been God in person, and Elijah Muhammad his messenger;
• that Black people were the original humanity, and that the white race had been created by an evil scientist named Yakub;
• that there was no life after death;
• and a programme of discipline, self-reliance and separation from white America.

Consensus on the doctrines. It also adopted Islamic names, prayers and dietary rules, and called its places of worship temples.

Growth under Elijah Muhammad

The movement grew sharply in the late 1950s. Its newspaper, Muhammad Speaks, launched by Malcolm X in 1960, claimed a circulation of over 600,000, and the Nation built up businesses that included apartments, factories, farms and a small bank. Men joined a disciplined corps, the Fruit of Islam, and women a parallel training programme. Majority on the figures. Elijah Muhammad demanded a separate state or territory for the descendants of enslaved Africans, to be supported by the United States for its first twenty to twenty-five years. Consensus that this was his demand. The boxer Muhammad Ali, who had encountered the Nation in 1961, announced his membership in 1964, which made it famous far beyond its numbers. Consensus

How it differs from Sunni and Shia Islam

The differences are not matters of detail. Sunni and Shia Islam teach that God does not take human form, and that Muhammad of Arabia was the last prophet (Islam §2). The Nation’s teaching that Fard was God and that Elijah Muhammad was a messenger after him contradicts both, and Muslim scholars and the immigrant Muslim communities of the United States rejected it. Consensus Its racial doctrine of Yakub has no counterpart in Islamic scripture or tradition. Consensus

Historians nonetheless include the Nation in the history of Islam in America. Edward Curtis argues that it should be studied as such because its members understood themselves as Muslims, and because many of them later became Sunni Muslims through it.^[2] Majority

Malcolm X

The Nation’s most famous preacher, Malcolm X, broke with Elijah Muhammad and announced his departure on 8 March 1964. In April he made the pilgrimage to Mecca. In a letter from Mecca he described “tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world… of all colors, from blue-eyed blonds to black-skinned Africans” performing the same rites together.^[3] He returned as el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, a Sunni Muslim, and was shot dead in New York on 21 February 1965. Three members of the Nation were convicted of the killing; in November 2021 two of them, who had always maintained their innocence, were exonerated.^[3]​^[4] Consensus Manning Marable’s biography shows him still changing his views in his last year.^[4] Majority

1975: the turn to Sunni Islam

When Elijah Muhammad died on 25 February 1975, his son Wallace, later known as Warith Deen Mohammed, succeeded him. Within months he began dismantling the doctrines: Fard was not God, Elijah was not a prophet, and the temples became mosques practising the five pillars. Ministers became imams, the Fruit of Islam was disbanded, and the movement gave up Black nationalism. The organisation was renamed the World Community of al-Islam in the West in 1976 and the American Muslim Mission in 1978, and opened to white members. Most of the membership followed him into Sunni Islam.^[2]​^[1] Majority on the proportion. It was one of the largest conversions to Sunni Islam in American history, and the origin of much of today’s African American Muslim community. Majority

Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam

Not everyone followed. From 1977 Louis Farrakhan rebuilt a Nation of Islam on Elijah Muhammad’s original teachings, presenting himself as their true heir.^[1] Consensus This is the organisation that bears the name today. In 1995 Farrakhan organised the Million Man March in Washington, one of the largest Black demonstrations in American history. Consensus Its membership is small, with estimates in the tens of thousands. Majority

Farrakhan’s Nation has been the subject of sustained controversy. The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League classify it as a hate group, citing statements by its leaders against white people, Jews and gay people. Political

Is the Nation of Islam part of Islam?

There are two answers, and they are answers to different questions.

• By doctrine: no. Its central teachings about Fard and Elijah Muhammad contradict the beliefs that Sunni and Shia Muslims hold essential, and Muslim scholars have rejected them. Consensus
• By history: it is part of the story of Islam in America. Its members called themselves Muslims, it introduced many African Americans to Islamic practice, and most of its members became Sunni Muslims in 1975.^[2] Majority

A comparable question, who counts as a Muslim, is argued over the Ahmadiyya, though on different grounds (Islam §13).

Debates

A religion, a political movement, or both?

Older accounts often treated the Nation mainly as a Black nationalist movement that borrowed Islamic dress. Historians of American religion such as Edward Curtis treat it as a religion in its own right, whose members’ self-understanding as Muslims has to be taken seriously, while recording how far its doctrines departed from Sunni and Shia Islam.^[2]​^[1] Contested on emphasis. Both sides agree on the facts: its theology was new, its politics were separatist, and its members’ path often led into mainstream Islam.

Common misconceptions

• “The Nation of Islam is the main body of Black American Muslims.” Most of its members became Sunni Muslims under W. D. Mohammed in 1975; today’s Nation is a separate, smaller organisation.^[2] Majority
• “Malcolm X died a member of the Nation.” He had left it a year earlier and become a Sunni Muslim. Consensus
• “The Nation of Islam teaches the same beliefs as other Muslims.” Its teachings about God, prophethood and race differ fundamentally from those of Sunni and Shia Islam. Consensus