00/00/0000
IWDM Study Library
IWDM at Florida International University

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed

I was in Rome and really amazed to see the library in the Vatican on Islam. I think I walked for more than a block through the library, all books and manuscripts on Islam. And in America, Islam is just beginning to be known by American people as a religion that should be respected and accepted as Christianity and Judaism and Buddhism, Hinduism, and all the other religions that's in America now. Our experience is very different from what anyone would expect of a Muslim community or people that say they believe in Islam. We didn't begin with Islamic knowledge. We didn't begin with the knowledge of the Qur'an, our Holy book. We began as a Nationalist movement, Black Nationalist movement with Islam as its religion, but not taught. We were not taught Qur'an, our Holy book, and we were not taught the religion of Islam. The teacher preferred to attract us to Islam, to make us curious, to instill in us a strong curiosity, to know ourselves and to know ourselves as blacks and as Muslims, both as blacks and as Muslims.

I'll begin with a quote from Qur'an, our Holy book. It reads, In the name of G-d. I read now, "Surely in the alternation of night and day and in whatever Allah created in the skies and in the earth are definite signs of revelation for people who are regardful. "This is from our Qur'an. It's most important for us to respect sacred matters. And G-d says to us in our Holy Book, "Reverence your Lord who created you, but also reverence the close relatives, your close ties of relationship," beginning with parents, brothers and sisters and their family, et cetera, the family. Mr. Farad used the name Fard. When you see the English spelling, it does not read Farad. It reads Fard. This name in Arabic is F-A-D-A and pronounced Farad, and it means just anybody. It's like John Doe. It's like saying John Doe you know. Anybody, a person. It's just saying a person. So that tells us something about this person who came among us in the slums of Detroit, Michigan and introduced his ideas.

I tend not to want to say Fard because that's how his name is pronounced, but I will pronounce it Farad, because that's how it's known by us in America. Mr. Farad as Savior and his student, Elijah Pool Muhammad as leader of the Nation of Islam. I think everybody's hearing clearly. I grew up in Chicago, Chicago, South side. The first Temple I can recall was a garage house off Vernon Avenue in the slums of Chicago's South side. My age was about nine, as I can recall.

The place was where we had our meetings, it was a Temple. That garage house was a Temple. The men, most of them were in prison. They were in prison for refusing the draft for World War II, Selective Service. They were in prison for refusing the draft. Most of our men were away. Why not? Because they had to go to jail was because they didn't believe that they should even have a draft. And if you didn't have a draft, if you didn't accept to have a draft, you went to prison. I remember that place in the alley, the garage in the alley, how poor the lighting was.

Lighting was provided by kerosene lamps and wax candles. I remember seeing a pot belly stove there. I'm a boy now. I'm about eight or nine years old, but I can recall it vividly right now. I remember seeing that stove and smelling acorn squash pipe being baked on that stove. The next Temple I can recall was a Masonic Hall. No other place would rent to us. I was told that later in my life. I was told that the reason why we had our meetings in the Masonic Hall was because others wouldn't rent to us. The churches, they wouldn't rent to us. Other places, they wouldn't rent to us.

Yes, and finally we got in a very wonderful, beautiful building, and that's the building now that the Nation of Islam under the Minister Louis Farrakhan meets in. They meet in that building Now it's on Stony Island, on the South Side of Chicago, near the lake in a nice environment, very nice environment. The church was an Orthodox Greek Church and it had a dome like a Mosque. So, I think that's what attracted to my father at that time, to want the Nation of Islam to purchase that house, that building, pardon me. Now, the Temple of Islam was not any of those places and some of us tend to take the physical structure to be the place.

It was not that place. It was not the Temple. The physical structure was not the Temple. We left that place on Vernon, South Vernon Highway on South Vernon Avenue in the alley garage. We left that place. It was a poor structure, but we were inside enjoying it as though it was the Greek Orthodox Church on Stony island. And once we were in there and hearing the words, the teachings from the Minister who was serving as an assistant of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, my father, we forgot about the environment, the physical environment, that it was so poor. Even the lighting, we weren't conscious of that. All we were conscious of is hearing the words from the Minister to show you how powerful those words were on African American people.

Bear with me. I don't want to take much time. I want most of the time to be given to you who are gathered here, especially to the students of the Islamic studies class. I would like to give Sister Aisha's students as much time as you'd like to ask questions and to make statements to me or comments or to make comments. That will be fine. So, I continue now in our Holy book and I'll be going from Islam proper to Islam as an attraction, just merely as a sign or attraction for us. G-d says, "The earth is G-d's Mosque." Allah says, I'll say it in Arabic, "Al Ardu Masjidulah" -The earth is G-d's Mosque.

And I said that because I think what is being said here is directed to many issues, to many issues, for religious people in their worship on earth. They think the building, begin to think the building as a place of importance for worship. Or that the building is the Mosque, the building is the Temple. No, what is happening inside us, that's the temple within. What is happening inside our minds, our hearts, our feelings and all, that is the Temple. And the words go into us to create a new consciousness, a new consciousness. Mr. Fard obviously had knowledge of all of this, deep knowledge.

Therefore, for Muslims the Masjid, or the house of worship, it's a gathering. We call it Jumu'ah, the gathering, the collective body, the congregation. Collectively and individually, the Muslims embody the life that G-d wants in us. For Christians it's a Christian life, for Muslims it's the Muslim life. NOI is the abbreviation for Nation of Islam. Nation of Islam was given to us and it was given to us to contain us in a language environment, to contain us in a language environment. We lived in the United States. Yes, we lived on our block in the neighborhood. Yes, we lived in our homes. Yes, sometimes in our homes there was more Christians in the family than Muslims. So, we were given a language environment to contain us.

The name Temple is found in different lands and in different religions. Under the Romans, the Jews had their Temples. Hindus, Buddhists and Christians of America and other places have their Temples. Usually called Churches, but sometimes Temples. Fard’s Promised land for us was a Promised land where we would have plenty money, good homes and friendships. I'm using his exact words. And friendships in all walks of life. This was a promise he made to us. Plenty money, good homes, friendships in all walks of life. But it's little known that he also promised us a family Qur'an. a big Qur'an for the family. And that was the highest prize for his students who would be successful in working out his problems that he left for us. He left problems, language problems, mathematical problems, different problems. Problems of astronomy, different problems. But none of these problems really told what he was really searching for.

To have us respond to his teachings and searching for in us to say, "Oh yes, now you understand." None of these problems of astronomy, of arithmetic or mathematics or whatever were really the real purpose. The real purpose was to strain our minds and to teach us to discipline our minds and to be curious and want to have answers, to be curious and want to have answers. Understand that his students were not educated. Most of his students were from the slums or from the ghettos some people say. And their education was very low. Mostly elementary education, few grade school graduates. Few, maybe every now and then a high school graduate. Hardly ever a College graduate. Or a person with College level education or any level of College education.

This was the case for most of the followers up until the time that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad returned from prison. He served a prison term too for refusing the draft, refusing to accept the draft. About five years. He served five years, a five year term. And he served most of that time. He did not get parole or anything. He served most of that time. So, destiny for us was money, good homes and friendship. Now he picked the things that he knew we were having a need for in our lives. Things that really weighed heavily on our souls. He picked money because we were poor in our material state. Conditions in our neighborhood was very, very bad.

He picked good homes and he picked friendship because we were rejected. We're talking about early thirties, the early 1930s when there was still two laws in this country. One for whites in the South and one for blacks in the South, and an acceptance of that in the hearts of most of the whites up North. Though they didn't have the discrimination plainly written into law or segregation written as a law, their hearts and their opinion of us was much like those of the South. I remember mistreatment in the North and I remember brutal, brutal, savage beatings of black innocent blacks in the North, the same that was received by blacks in the South. So, if we understand the circumstances for our people in that time, we can better understand Mr. Fard and what he came and presented to us in that time, to African Americans in that time.

Now in the Bible is where Mr. Fard got his idea of the Temple. Muslims don't call their places of worship Temples, Mr. Fard got that from the Bible. The Temple represents for Mr. Fard, the temple represents a sacred concept that conceals or hides a strategy. The Temple has no meaning whatsoever except to provide a physical environment for the activities that go on in the Temple. As a physical concept, the Temple may have some meanings, but by chance, by interpretation. So, the Temple is only a means to and end and not the end itself. So again, I repeat that Mr. Fard got his concept from the Bible, the name Temple from the Bible. Also, the concept and also the strategy. All of that came from the Bible. He got it from the Bible.

The Temple of Islam as conceived by Mr. Fard and given to its leader who built it, established it until he passed in February of 1975. That is my father who I pray for all the time his soul be in heaven, Elijah Muhammad. The Temple has no obvious resemblance to anything in Islamic teachings. Nothing in Islamic teaching resembles what Mr. Fard established as the Nation of Islam. Fard was definitely a Muslim, and I believe a pious, saintly Muslim who undoubtedly had keen insight into both the sacred book of Muslims and the Christian Bible. My studies extend over period of more than 30 years now, and I'm referring to my studies of what he did when he left with us what he had conceived from his mind. You can know a person's mind, not by their looks, their physical looks, and most of the time, not by what they say. But you have to study their language, study their language, then you can identify them. You can see their mind. You can see their mind, the nature of their mind.

It's not expected that you and this audience agree with my findings. Some of you will, and most of you perhaps will not. That does not surprise me. I expect that because this is very difficult language to understand. If you are not yourself established in the study of scripture, then you'll miss a lot esoteric teachings. Esoteric means the language that's limited or restricted to a secret group, a secret art or cult or something. It should be understood that Mr. Fard attracted the discontents, and he attracted Masons, black Masons. They saw in his teaching something that excited them. They were already students of esoteric language as Masons. And it attracted also some Moorish Americans who also identified themselves as Muslims but did not have the Qur'an. Maybe now they're having it, but for most of the years that I have known of them, and that's just last year too. I conclude that last year they did not have our Holy book the Qur'an. They have a little booklet like that and they call it Qur'an and it was given to them by their leader Noble Drew Ali, an African American.

This is not to criticize anything, nothing negative is in my heart thank G-d. Mr. Fard wanted only those who were not satisfied to have a future here in America. Those who wanted to go back to Africa or those who wanted an independent state of their own. They were not accepting to live under the United States or under the white race, majority whites in this country. They were very dissatisfied. And those are the ones that he appealed to. Those are ones that his message appealed to during those bad times in the thirties and forties and fifties, up to the sixties, when the Civil Rights movement brought about changes with the help of others. And we must acknowledge pardon me, that before Mr. Fard, we had other Saviors. He was not the first Savior for us. John Brown, most of us forget John Brown. But John Brown knew he would be killed and he made a demonstration, broke into the armory and brought out weapons for him and his soldiers.

And he led black soldiers in a demonstration against slavery. And he was killed. And all those soldiers with him, black soldiers with him was killed. So, he was a Savior who knew he was sacrificing his life to help bring consciousness to slavery from the American whites of the United States of this country. And he was not the only one. There were others too, who put their life on the line. The Quakers. And during the Civil Rights movement, Jews lost their life going down South to try to break segregation, destroy segregation, discrimination against the blacks. So, we should remember all of our Saviors that we have had. And I'm not taking anything from the Savior, Jesus Christ, taking nothing from him. It was Dr C. Eric Lincoln I think it was. He said, most of the time of our life in America, our only institution was a Church. And the Church led the way for us in America to have a good life, to have a good life. And the Church exposed itself to risk too, risk of property and risk of life. So, we should remember all of that.

Yes. Now when I say that he copied the model for the Temple that is in the Bible, we find that it was not Mr. Fard who first targeted dissatisfied citizens. Those who were discontent in the Bible, Jesus Christ, he selected the same people. Give me your tired and worn out, those who are not happy with you. Give them to me. They're bothering you. They're a problem for you. Give them to me. So, you find Mr. Fard using the same strategies, the same model, and the same strategy. Mr. Fard’s teaching also is a reverse psychology to destroy the feelings of inferiority in his following. He reversed the psychology. When blacks, especially the discontent, those who were happy, they don't say this, but those who were discontent in the early thirties, they said like Julia said to the white man. Julia the slave, she said to the white man, which is quoted in the book, Those who walk in Darkness have seen a Great light. In there, the author says the slave Julia told a few white men that she was talking to, she said, "You look like G-d in the face, but act like the devil in your hearts." And what she meant by you look like G-d in the face was this. You look like the picture I've seen of the Son of G-d Jesus, whom they say is also G-d, or whom they say is G-d.

And understand that in 1930s there was a Preacher preaching, and he had a big following. He's in Detroit also and his name was Father Divine. That's how he was known, by the name Father Divine. He had a big following, a strong following. And he told his congregation, he said, "If you want to see Jesus Christ or G-d, look at me." So, Mr. Fard had some help. He saw the problem of African American people. He saw the issues that were weighing on them, and he selected to give his teachings with respect to what was already serious issues in the life of the down and out African Americans of the slums. So, his was a kind of reverse psychology. He said, the black man is G-d. Didn't the world say the white man was G-d? You don't have to believe me. So, he said the black man was G-d, a reverse psychology. He even gave a myth of creation, the beginning of creation to us. It was not like anything you could find in any of the books anywhere. Only from the mind and creation of Mr. Fard. He gave us a myth of origin, the origin of the black man. He made us first and superior. He gave a myth of creation.



