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What will happen to the Black Muslims in the future is hard to foretell,

but their puritanical spirit and economic successes have impressed black leaders

 who once made only disparaging remarks about the movement

 

 

Books by Elijah Muhammad

 Message to the Blackman in America (1997)  /  How to Eat to Live, Book 1 (1997)  / How to Eat to Live, Book 2 (1997)

Yakub: The Father of Mankind  (2002)  / The True history of Master Fard  Muhammad  (1997)

The History of Jesus' Bith, Death and What It Means to You and Me (1996) / The Secrets of Freemasonry  (1997)

The Theology of Time (The Secrets of Time) (2004) / The Mother Plane  (1996)

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The Achievements of Elijah Muhammad

Elijah Muhammad, the 77-year-old leader of “The nation of Islam,” died February 25, one day before the Black Muslim sect’s Savior day observance. He had been at the helm of the controversial black separatist movement for 40 years. During that time the Black Muslims grew from a handful of embittered urban blacks to an estimated 150,000 loyal followers – 20,000 of whom were present at his funeral in Chicago recently.

Throughout the civil rights era, when integration was the clearly stated goal of most of the country’s black leaders, Muhammad espoused separatism and still managed to keep his movement afloat. He also survived several internal disruptions, chief among which was the defection and eventual assassination of Malcolm X. Credited with a rare ability to rehabilitate drug addicts and incorrigible criminals, Muhammad built 75 Muslim temples in at least 50 cities by preaching the myth that blacks are the earth’s “original” people and that whites are “devils.”

Under his rigidly centralized authority, the Black Muslims developed hundreds of small businesses around the country – restaurants, dry cleaning establishments, beauty shops, grocery stores and bakeries. An estimated 25,000 acres of land, mostly in the south, is owned by the sect. The total assets of the Nation of Islam have been valued at $80 million – no mean achievement for the former laborer who had only a fourth-grade education.

The tremendous economic success of the Black Muslims led later to a softening of their antiwhite tenets and an increased emphasis on hard work and self-mastery. Muhammad apparently discovered that it was more productive to combat the demons within than those without. That shift in motivation might well be the reason for the relatively peaceful changeover in leadership to one of his six sons, 41-year-old Wallace D. Muhammad. Most outside observers expected a protracted and violent power struggle for leadership, as is so often the case when absolute rulers die.

What will happen to the Black Muslims in the future is hard to foretell, but their puritanical spirit and economic successes have impressed black leaders who once made only disparaging remarks about the movement. Such civil rights luminaries as Jesse Jackson, Julian Bond, Roy Wilkins and Vernon Jordan are now heaping extravagant praises upon the departed Elijah Muhammad, lauding him for presenting “to black people a model of thrift, of hard work, of devotion to self, and of cleanliness of mind and body.” Even Chicago’s white mayor, Richard J. Daley, sensing widespread black respect for Muhammad, said, “He was an outstanding citizen who was always interested in helping young people and especially the poor.”

Such lavish praise from former detractors demonstrates how much everyone loves a winter – especially someone who was willing to take society’s losers and make winners out of them. Said Father George Clements, pastor of Chicago’s Holy Angels Roman Catholic Church: “His teachings of dignity, self-respect, discipline and a sense of responsibility are great works he leaves behind. And this we admire no matter what our religion.”

Source: The Christian Century (March 26, 1975)

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posted 9 November 2007

 

 
 

Elijah Muhammad, born Elijah Poole 7 October 1897, in Sandersville, Ga., U.S., died 25 February 1975 in Chicago, the son of sharecroppers and former slaves. In 1923 Muhammad moved to Detroit where, around 1930, he became assistant minister to the founder of the sect, Wallace D. Fard, at Temple No. 1. In 1934, when Fard disappeared Muhammad became head of the movement, with the title "Minister of Islam." Because of troubles within the Detroit temple, Muhammad moved to Chicago where he established Temple No. 2. During World War II he advised followers to avoid the draft, as a result of which he was charged with violating the Selective Service Act and was jailed (1942-46).

 Muhammad slowly built up the membership of the Black Muslims. His most prominent disciple, Malcolm X, broke with the group and, before his assassination in 1965.

After Muhammad's death in 1975, the Nation of Islam split into what once known as the American Muslim Mission, now part of the worldwide orthodox Muslim community, and a resurrected Nation of Islam under the leadership of Louis Farrakhan

 

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