Defending the Nation of Islam's practice of Islam
Thank you for your question dear brother and thank
you for you patience in waiting for this response. Not all of the
questions that come through this page are posted, but yours is of
such great significance to other Believers who have the same question
that it is posted here for all to see.
First of all, we must analyze the motivation of a
person who would tell someone that they are not Muslims, when it
is Allah alone who has the right to Judge someone as a worthy servant
or not. Why would a person tell another human being that
they are not a true Muslim? What does such a person have to gain
(or hide)? What does it even mean that a person is not a true
Muslim? I too have encountered such people and, if I understand
the charge correctly, they mean that the practice of Islam by the
Nation of Islam is not in accord with the "correct"
practice of Islamic beliefs and rituals. Let's finish the
analysis of such wicked motivation and then let's analyze
the Islamic practice of the followers of the Honorable Louis Farrakhan.
The Motivation of the wicked
Allah says in the Holy Qur'an 22: 17, "Those
who believe and those who are Jews and the Sabians and
the Christians and the Magians and the polytheists — surely
Allah will decide between them on the day of Resurrection. Surely
Allah is Witness over all things." Allah is the decider
of who is who.
Again, the Holy Qur'an says 2: 62, "Surely
those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the Christians, and
the Sabians, whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day and
does good, they have their reward with their Lord, and there
is no fear for them, nor shall they grieve." Are Jews, Sabians
and Christians "true" Muslims? Those who say that the
Nation of Islam doesn't represent "true" Islam
also denounce Jews, Christians and everyone else who does not practice
"Islam" as they do, yet does Allah affirm the righteousness
and worthiness of the faithful in other religious groups. If someone
challenges your belief in Islam as practiced by the Nation of Islam,
recite to them this verse and ask if they are worthy to
determine who is a Muslim and who is not. If they respond, "Yes,
I am worthy" then you know you've got a self-righteous
person on your hands.
Holy Qur'an 5: 40 says, "Unto Allah belongs
whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth. He
forgives whom He wills, and punishes whom He wills. Allah is Forgiving,
Merciful."
In the collection of 40 Hadith Qudsi (no. 31), it
says, "On the authority of Jundub (Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu),
who said that the Messenger of Allah (Sallallahu alayhi wa Sallam)
related: A man said: By Allah, Allah will not forgive So-and-so.
At this Allah the Almighty said: Who is he who swears by Me that
I will not forgive So-and-so? Verily I have forgiven So-and-so and
have nullified your own good deeds."
The right of judgment is Allah's alone. It is
dangerous and presumptuous to tell someone what Allah will do by
them until Allah tells you that He will do it. Can we determine
if someone is a disbeliever or not? Can we pass judgment on an obviously
deviant person as if they cannot be redeemed by the Love of God?
Certainly if someone were of rotten character, a prostitute or a
cutthroat kind of fellow who never prays or gives in charity, we
could say, "you're no Muslim!" right? Wrong!
Master Fard Muhammad, the Teacher of the Honorable
Elijah Muhammad, asked the question in the early 1930's, "How
many original Muslims are there in North America? A little over
seventeen million." Remember, this was in the 30's.
There were nearly no Muslims in North America,
as "we" would determine! He continued, "Did I
hear you say that some of the seventeen million do not
know that they are Muslims? YES, SIR! I hardly
believe that unless they are blind, deaf and dumb. Well, they were
made blind, deaf and dumb by the devil when they were babies."
Being Muslim is inherent in the human being. Master Fard Muhammad
knows the nature of people so well that he taught us our original
nature, knowing that it would resonate with us and begin the process
of resurrection. When you hear a truth that you've never heard before,
sometimes it can feel like a memory instead of something
just learned! Your soul "remembers" the truth that had been beaten
or bred out of your cultural and societal life. This is why the Holy
Qur'an is called "ad Dhikr", the Reminder. It reminds us, rather than
indoctrinates us, of our original religion or nature.
"Nature" is the key to understanding the position
of the Nation of Islam. Allah says in the Holy Qur'an, "So set thy
face for religion, being upright, the nature made by Allah in
which He has created men. There is no altering Allah's creation.
That is the right religion — but most people know
not." This is what Master Fard Muhammad taught us, and is now being
taught by the Honorable Louis Farrakhan. Islam is the unalterable
nature of the human being. To tell someone that they are not a true
Muslim, ultimately, is to tell someone that they are a devil and
to arrogate to oneself judgeship.
Holy Qur'an 53: 32, "Those who avoid the great sins
and the indecencies, but the passing idea— surely thy Lord
is Liberal in Forgiving. He knows you best when He brings you forth
from the earth and when you are embryos in the wombs of your mothers;
so ascribe not purity to yourselves. He knows him best who
guards against evil."
We know that no one can properly judge the fate of
other people as Allah determines. Of course we all have faults;
we swerve from right and we commit sins. This is why Allah has the
attributes of Mercy and Forgiveness. Master Fard Muhammad saw the
original nature of Islam in a population of people who had been
utterly destroyed and were living the life of devils or beasts.
He determined us to be Muslims even in that condition; He saw in
us what others could not see and He knew about us what others could
not know! And like a "true Muslim" he began to teach and
guide us toward the straight path.
A person who claims to be a Muslim and tells other
people that they are not "true" Muslims should know all of this.
Yet such charges against the righteous reveal that the
accuser is tainted by one thing: hatred.
There are two verses from the Holy Qur'an that make
this clear. Sura, or chapter, 4: 135 says, "Believers, be steadfast
in justice, bearing its witness for God. Even though it be against
yourself, your parents or your kinsfolk. Be they rich or poor, God
knows better about them both. So do not be led by passion
so that you swerve from the truth." We are guided to stand
for the truth even when it condemns ourselves. Adherence to principles
of justice is the duty of a truly righteous person. And the Holy
Qur'an says, "Believers, be steadfast for God, bearing just witness.
Do not allow your hatred for another nation
to turn you away from justice. Deal justly, that, indeed, is
closer to true piety." It is hatred that motivates someone
to get in your face and tell you that you are not a "true" Muslim;
it is hatred for the Nation of Islam that enables such a
person to say that we do not practice "true" Islam. Such a person
is manifestly unjust and has allowed his hatred to turn
him away from justice.
The followers of the Honorable Louis Farrakhan
The Nation of Islam is the Community of the Mahdi
and anyone who says that we are not practicing "true"
Islam is out of touch with Allah's plan. This could be put
into book form and by now I'm in the mood to write such a
book for the defense of Islam, but I shall resist for the sake of
your question dear brother! We practice the principles of Islam
as taught to us by Allah and His Messenger as found in the Holy
Qur'an. We practice the "sunnah" of Allah's
Last Prophet, Muhammad ibn Abdullah of Arabia. Now let's see
if such is true.
There are five principles of Islam: 1. faith in the
one God whose proper appellation is Allah, 2. Pilgrimage 3. Prayer
4. Fasting 5. Charity. We believe in the God Who revealed the Holy
Qur'an as the one deity to worship. Check. We believe in the ritual
and reality of pilgrimage and we are on that trek to oneness
with Allah. Check. We pray to Allah five times a day, making salaat
and turning to the east spiritually and physically. Check. We fast
in the month of Ramadan as all Muslims are guided to do in the Holy
Qur'an. Check. We, though generally poor to "middle class", give
our nickels and dimes for the propagation of Islam and the defense
of the poor (no one can deny our 70+ year track record on that).
Check. Alright then.
Do we follow the sunnah of Muhammad? If so, how? This
is one of the most misunderstood points of our Islamic identity
and I pray to Allah that I can clear it up a bit for you so that
you may stand firm in the face of anyone who would challenge your
legitimacy as a Muslim. In Sura 2: 128, Prophet Abraham says, "Our
Lord, and make us both submissive to Thee, and (raise) from our
offspring, a nation submissive to Thee, and show us our
ways of devotion and turn to us (mercifully); surely Thou
art the Oft returning (to mercy), the Merciful. Abraham asks Allah
to show him (and Ishmael) their ways of devotion.
What are "ways of devotion"? It is the way, the path,
the procedure, and the technique that Allah uses to guide you
into harmony with Him. If you are not in harmony with Allah
(and who is) then He has to guide you toward Him. He promises us
that He will do this. If you deviate from God one way, and I deviate
from Him another way then you and I will have "different" ways to
reach Him. This is symbolized by the Hajj Pilgrimage where Muslims
from different parts of the earth travel, in different directions,
to the same place or point. Did you ever notice how some people
who sin will not commit some other sin? You may be a fornicator,
but you would never ever under any circumstance murder someone!
We have different requirements to reach God, requirements that someone
else may not have. Those differences can be personal, such as between
you and me, or national, such as between Blacks in America and Chinese.
When Muhammad (pbuh) was raised to guide his people,
the Arabs, he allowed them to drink alcohol, for a time. Eventually,
slowly, he told them not to drink before prayer. Then, finally,
he told them not to drink at all. The early Muslims were guided
by Muhammad to pray twice a day, in the morning and then in the
evening. Eventually, slowly, he introduced the five daily prayers
which he was told to do in a vision called the Mirage. Some of the
Muslims doubted his vision, and thus the instruction to pray five
times a day. Muhammad first told his followers, the Muslims, to
pray toward Jerusalem. Later, after the emigration to Medina,
the prayer direction, or qibla, was changed to the Kaaba in Makkah.
These are but a few of the evolutionary steps taken by
the Prophet to guide his people to the practice of what we recognize
today as Islam.
Holy Qur'an 3: 67 says, "Abraham was neither a Jew
nor a Christian but he was an upright man, a Muslim,
and he was not one of the polytheists." The Qur'an itself calls
Abraham a Muslim yet he did not pray the salaat
prayers five times day, nor did he fast in the month of Ramadan
or instruct his community to make pilgrimage to Makkah. The next
time someone says the Nation of Islam doesn't practice "real" Islam,
tell them this. Jesus is recognized as a Muslim
in the Holy Qur'an, and his mother. Yet we know that they
did not practice the "deen" or religious practices as Muhammad did.
The rituals (ways of devotion) practiced by the prophets were different,
yet the core principle followed by every prophet and messenger
that made them all Muslims is the same: obey God.
The "ways of devotion" for the Nation
of Islam were likewise tailored for the particular problems of the
Black man and woman of America, that we may be one with Allah and
the peoples of Allah. Of particular note is our month of fasting.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad had us fast in the month of December
instead of Ramadan. This revealed many hypocrites and ignorant people
among so-called "orthodox" Muslims. The Honorable Elijah
Muhammad did this to get us away from the practice of Christmas
and many of the vices that go along with it such as drunkenness
in the name of Jesus, going into debt and gross materialism. He
also chose December because, desiring ease for us, it has the shortest
daylight hours and the fast is during the daytime. Oh, this incensed
the Muslim world! "How dare he go against the Qur'an!"
they would say! But these people ignored the guidance of Allah to
His Messenger when He said in the Holy Qur'an 2:183 - 185,
"O you who believe, fasting is prescribed for you,
as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may guard
(against evil). For a certain number of days; but whoever
among you is sick or on a journey, then he shall fast a like number
of other days; and those who are not able to do it may
effect a redemption by feeding a poor man; so whoever does good
spontaneously it is better for him; and that you fast is better
for you if you know. The month of Ramadhan is that in which the
Qur'an was revealed, a guidance to men and clear proofs of the guidance
and the distinction; therefore, whoever of you is present in the
month, he shall fast therein, and whoever is sick or upon
a journey, then he shall fast a like number of other days; God desires
ease for you, and does not desire for you difficulty, and desires
that you should complete the number and that you should exalt the
greatness of God for having guided you and that you may give thanks."
Thus, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was guided by
Allah, following the principles of the sunnah of
Prophet Muhammad to eventually, slowly guide and raise a dead nation
to life. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote a small book in 1957
titled Muslim
Daily Prayers where he teaches us how to perform salaat. Yet,
He also taught us (if you have to, go and study the suffering of
Black people in America over the past 453 years), that separation
is more important than prayer! Can you see the jaws of
the sheiks and muftis and mullahs dropping to the floor! Allah reveals
in the Holy Qur'an 4:101 "When ye travel through the earth, there
is no blame on you if ye shorten your prayers, for fear the Unbelievers
May attack you: For the Unbelievers are unto you open enemies."
Perhaps there are some who don't know or believe that being a Black
person in America is dangerous. And to be a Muslim also is very
dangerous. These are the provisions of Allah for a people praying
in the midst of their open enemies. There is also a provision for
a portion of the Believers to watch while the other portion prays;
when those praying are done, they switch roles and those who were
guards then make their prayers. We do pray the salaat prayers today
when we are in relative safety, but for the most part, for Black
people, we must be careful at all times. If we were in our own land
or territory under our own guards and defense corps, we could make
our national prayers openly, freely, and without the fear of attack.
You've seen the Honorable Louis Farrakhan. He's a
perfect example of the Muslim man. Dressed in a suit and tie, clean
and articulate. Some denounce us as Muslims based on our cultural
expression. There was an interview of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad
(the historic
1964 Buzz Anderson Interview with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad)
where Louis
Lomax recounts a story he heard about a black woman who attended
a Nation of Islam meeting where the son of the Honorable Elijah
Muhammad was speaking. He'd just gotten back from a trip to the
Middle East and was dressed in "traditional" Muslim garb: long
white robe, or jalabiya, and a white head covering.
She gave her impression of brother Muhamamad saying, "look just
like the Ku Klux Klan to me." We can't, and don't, approach our
people with the cultural trappings of traditional Arabian culture.
Arabian culture is not Islam. We don't go to our people speaking
in Arabic terms and phrases (to show off our knowledge of al-Islaam,
smile), though many of us can. The Holy Qur'an guides us to speak
the language of the people lest they say they could not understand
the message and reject it.
Again brother, I could go on and on, proving that
the Nation of Islam indeed practices "true" Islam, in principles,
rituals, according to the sunnah of the Prophet and according to
OUR WAY OF DEVOTION. I pray that this gets you going in the right
direction in defending our religion. Another way to defend Islam
as taught by the Honorable Louis Farrakhan is to live the life he
teaches us, which is from the Mahdi. Practice "How
to Eat to Live", fight for the cause of the Black Man and Woman,
give good news to the poor and destitute and warn
the enemy of the Justice and Judgment of Allah on America. I'm
glad that you wrote that you know that the Nation of Islam
practices real Islam. And I'm prayerful that Allah the Mighty, the
Wise will continue to guide you to be a brave fighter for Islam.
|
