Religious movement leader, born near Sandersville, Georgia, USA. The son of former slaves and sharecroppers, he left home at age 16 and went to Detroit, where he worked in a Chevrolet car plant. Having had his own spiritual revelation (c.1930), he fell in with the Nation of Islam, a movement founded by W D Fard (or Farad), a somewhat mysterious African-American who was working as a salesman in Detroit, but whose followers believed he had come from Mecca to save blacks from the white devils. When Fard disappeared from Detroit (1934), Poole took over, changed his name to Elijah Muhammad, proclaimed himself the Messenger of Allah, and made a national movement out of the Black Muslims (a name that Muhammad and his followers neither used nor liked). He stressed the need for separation of the races and scorned attempts of the civil-rights movement to bring about integration; he even called for an all-black state or territory within the USA. He advocated the need for African-Americans to establish their own economic power-base, and he required strict obedience to certain tenets of Islam.
Although never implicated in any improprieties, he definitely imposed one-man rule. Most Americans were totally unaware of Muhammad and his movement until the 1960s, when its most noted convert, Malcolm X, drew attention to Black Muslims, and it was at this time that they gained an undeserved reputation for threatening white people. When Elijah Muhammad died, his son Wallace Poole took over and soon led the movement closer to traditional Islam, changing its name to the World Community of Islam in the West. But certain of Elijah Muhammad's teachings - the goals of hard work, discipline, self-support, and self-esteem for African-Americans - came to be accepted by increasing numbers outside his movement.
Early life
Muhammad was born Elijah Poole in Sandersville, Georgia as one of 13 children of tenant farmers (share croppers) .
In the early 1930s, Muhammad became acquainted with a W.D. Fard also known as Wallace Fard Muhammad, whose followers consider to be Allah "in Person".(Theology of Time Series) This consideration, however, is entirely against the teachings of mainstream Islam, though followers of Elijah Muhammad are quick to support this controversial position using both Bible and Qur'an.
Fard Muhammad, then working as a peddler, had already established his Temple of Islam in Detroit. Scholars who reject the idea that Fard Muhammad is "Allah in Person" have identified a wide range of possible influences on Fard's theology including Sufi Islam, the teachings of the contemporary Noble Drew Ali of the Moorish Science Temple, Egyptology, Numerology, Eastern mysticism, Black Nationalism, the earlier ideas of economic independence as espoused by Marcus Garvey, and more.
Upon Fard Muhammad's disappearance in 1934, following his arrest and departure from Detroit, Elijah Poole, renamed Elijah Muhammad, by Fard Muhammad, became the successor to the Nation of Islam and Supreme Minister. Elijah Muhammad was sent to Federal prison for four years.
Teachings
Elijah Muhammad teaches what is almost always considered a racist doctrine, following Fard Muhammad's religion. Elijah Muhammad took white supremacy and turned it on its head.
Believing white supremacy to be in essence the open enemy of blacks, the Nation of Islam preaches complete separation from white society.
Elijah Muhammad used the newly won independence of many African nations as an example for his followers in America to follow. Unlike many other black leaders in mid-twentieth centry America, Elijah Muhammad believed that it made more sense to seek aid from independent African nations rather than going overseas to Africa while their communities at home in America were non-independent. Elijah Muhammad did reach out to African leaders, setting an example for his second National Representative, Louis Farrakhan, to follow.
Simultaneously, Elijah Muhammad showed pride in his ability to stand equal with whites, and was willing to work with them when this would further the aims of the NOI.
The teachings of the NOI and Elijah Muhammad would have a profound impact on black American life.
One of those Elijah Muhammad would influence was an ex-convict whom the world would come to know as Malcolm X. Though he would later leave the NOI, the influence of Elijah Muhammad on Malcolm's life was undeniable. The young Malcolm developed his speaking and political outlook within the NOI and under Elijah Muhammad's near-direct tutelage.
In the late 1950s, rumors began to circulate that Elijah Muhammad had fathered eight children by six young women who worked for the NOI. The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad had wives and children who also helped build the Nation of Islam (and still do today) such as Mother Tynnetta Muhammad, and their children, Ministers Rusal and Ishmeal Muhammad. This, according to Malcolm (who had taken the name of El-Hajj Malik al-Shabazz) was an important cause of his break with the Nation of Islam, though followers of Elijah Muhammad often insist that this was a propaganda device used by Malcolm.
The subsequent assassination of Malcolm X, and the suspicions of NOI involvement, would forever tarnish Elijah Muhammad and his group. Elijah Muhammad managed to hold onto recognition, as his teachings were spread through his still well-read books: Message to the Blackman in America, How To Eat To Live, and his newspaper, Muhammad Speaks.
Legacy
With the death of Muhammad in 1975, the NOI went through a brief period of upheaval. Under the guidance of his son, Warith Deen Muhammad, the NOI was moved into the mainstream of Sunni Islam and even began to accept white members. Such shifts away from the original black-nationalist teachings of Muhammad soon caused a split within the organization, as some members preferred to espouse Muhammad's original teachings. The name and ideology of the Nation of Islam was appropriated by a splinter group led by Elijah Muhammad's second National Representative, Louis Farrakhan, who re-established it in 1978.
Muhammad and the NOI's messages of self-help, self-sufficiency, self-defense, and self-love have shaped deeply the path of black politics.
Figures that found inspiration from Muhammad's teachings included Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, boxer Muhammad Ali, Clarence 13X and artists like the Poor Righteous Teachers and Wu-Tang Clan.
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