Introduction to This Side of Paradise: The Religious World of Elijah Muhammad, by Pr. Curtis Tilleraas

INTRODUCTION

In Chicago, Illinois, in the heart of the Midwestern United States, at 7351 Stony Island Avenue, a former Greek Orthodox church¹ has been transformed into a mosque; and it now serves as the national headquarters of the Nation of Islam.  According to the Nation's official webpage, "The mosque is named Maryam after the mother of Jesus....  This is to identify it as a holy place from which men and women come forth reborn and transformed with a renewed mind in service of God to fallen humanity."²

No longer does Orthodox iconography adorn the dome and the great Iconostasis.  No longer can one enter the gates of heaven on earth during the chanting of the Divine Liturgy, enveloped in clouds of incense and prayer, bearing witness to “Christ our God.”  Rather, visitors will discover the following words written in Arabic, "There is no God but Allah."  The Nation's webpage goes on to say, "In the center of the dome is written, "Allah is the Greatest," and "Surrounding the dome, in beautiful Arabic text is the 24th Surah (chapter), verses 35-40 of the Holy Qur'an entitled, "Al-Nur (The Light)": Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth.  The similitude of His light is as a niche wherein is a lamp.  The lamp is in a glass.  The glass is as it were a shining star.  (This lamp is) kindled from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil would almost glow forth (of itself) though no fire touched it.  Light upon light, Allah guideth unto His light whom He will.  And Allah speaketh to mankind in allegories, for Allah is Knower of all things.  (36) (This lamp is found) in houses which Allah hath allowed to be exalted and that His name shall be remembered therein.  Therein do offer praise to Him at morn and evening.  (37) Men whom neither merchandise nor sale beguileth from remembrance of Allah and constancy in prayer and paying to the poor their due; who fear a day when hearts and eyeballs will be overturned; (38) That Allah may reward them with the best of what they did, and increase reward for them of His bounty.  Allah giveth blessings without stint to whom he will.  (39) As for those who disbelieve, their deeds are as a mirage in a desert.  The thirsty one supposeth it to be water till he cometh unto it and findeth it naught, and findeth, in the place thereof, Allah, Who payeth him his due; and Allah is swift at reckoning.  (40) Or as darkness on a vast, abysmal sea.  There covereth him a wave, above which is a wave, above which is a cloud.  Layer upon layer of darkness.  When he holdeth out his hand he scarce can see it.  And he for whom Allah hath not appointed light, for him there is no light."³

Years ago, when I was an Old Catholic priest (i.e. non-Roman Catholic) and a student of Islam, I was amazed to discover that an Islamic mosque had been named after the Mother of Jesus.  I understood that Muslims throughout the world hold Mary, the mother of Jesus, in high regard, and that almost as many Muslims make a pilgrimage to the House of Mary in Ephesus as Christians.  But I was also aware of a fundamental difference between the Christian's regard for Mary and the Muslim's regard for Mary.  For Catholic and Orthodox Christians, Mary is the Mother of God (the Theotokos, or God-Bearer) and the Mother of the Church.  She is also the Queen of Heaven (as revealed in the Apocalypse of John, otherwise known as the Book of Revelation, the last book in the New Testament).  A Catholic or an Orthodox church named after the Mother of God, then, would hardly be a surprise, but for the central mosque of an organization calling itself the Nation of Islam to be named after Mary?

That was a mystery that seemed to cry out for further investigation.

Another question I asked myself was this:  Who was Elijah Muhammad, the man who purchased the church in 1972 for the Nation of Islam (the religious organization he had ruled for nearly forty years) with the help of a $3,000,000.00 gift from Muammar Qadaffi?  Or rather, who was he and what did he believe?

I had heard of Elijah Muhammad a number of times, but I had never read any of his writings or speeches.  I had read the autobiography of his unfortunate disciple, Malcolm X, when barely out of my teen years; and I had heard of Minister Louis Farrakhan, the man who revived the Nation of Islam after Elijah Muhammad's son Wallace dismantled it, following the death of his father.  But I knew little of the man who was known among his followers as the Messenger of Allah, or the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.  This Side of Paradise is the result of my attempt to answer the question posed at the beginning of this paragraph:  who was Elijah Muhammad and what did he believe?

I began my study with many more questions and twice as many assumptions.  At first I thought I would attempt to write about 'The Theology of the Nation of Islam', focusing on a comparison between the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and those of Minister Farrakhan and other contemporary NOI (Nation of Islam) theologians.  It seemed worthwhile to study the development of the Nation's theology, to examine ways in which the Nation had remained faithful to the Messenger's teachings and to see whether or not they had abandoned any of his original designs.  Or, to see if certain revelations of the Messenger, which had been intended to be understood in a literal way, had been transformed into the language of metaphor and symbol.  This approach seemed especially compelling when I learned that a number of Christian ministers were crossing over into the Nation of Islam and that here and there, throughout the country, pulpits were being exchanged between Christian ministers and ministers of the Nation of Islam.  (This phenomenon is especially curious given the fact that Elijah Muhammad believed that the God of Christians is not the God of African Americans and that the preachers of Christianity are the greatest enemies of his people.) It wasn't long, however, before I realized that this, too, was a far greater project than I was in a position to undertake.  Eventually I concluded that I would focus my work on the religious world of Elijah Muhammad and see what the man himself had to say about the religious ideas that propelled him onto the world's stage.

The task that appeared before me, however, was not that of simply 'reporting' what the Messenger of Allah said about any particular subject.  Everything he said as a religious leader was about things that are of ultimate (as well as immediate) concern to a wide variety of people throughout the world; and the contents of his teaching ought to be of special interest or concern to Christians, Muslims and Jews.  This is so because he used the language of Christians, Jews and Muslims in the creation of his own religious worldview, and these were the religions which occupied his heart and mind day and night for many years.

In the course of this study, however, I came to see that Elijah Muhammad had created a brand new religion and a brand new god to go along with it.  Although he did not pretend to be a Christian, and would turn in his grave if anyone said that he was, in any way, a Christian, he was also not a Muslim.  Even if the house that Elijah Muhammad built was constructed of materials taken from the religions he sought to tear down (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) in the hearts and minds of his people, the final product was entirely his own.

That the religion of Elijah Muhammad bears a relationship to Islam is incontestable.  That it would have been inconceivable without Islam is also incontestable.  That the language of Islam was the language that claimed his heart and mind can hardly be questioned.  Nor can it be doubted that Islam was the oasis that led Elijah Muhammad out of the "wilderness of North America" with the promise of a new life.  Islam was, indeed, the religion that inspired in Elijah Muhammad a vision of Paradise and the Promised Land, but the Paradise he offered to his people was not the Paradise of Islam, nor was the god who rescued him from the depths of his depression, despair and alcoholism the Allah to whom the world's Sunni and Shiite Muslims pray.

The god of Elijah Muhammad was a man who went by the name of Master Fard Muhammad.  When followers of Elijah Muhammad confess the first part of the Shahada, "There is no God but Allah," they are confessing their faith in Master Fard Muhammad.  And when Elijah's followers declare the second half of the Shahada, "and Muhammad is his Apostle (or Prophet)" they are referring to Elijah Muhammad as the "seal of the prophets", a term of honor otherwise reserved for the Muhammad of traditional Islam.

Chapter 1 is primarily an introduction to the phenomenon of Elijah Muhammad.⁴  A narrative of the broad contours of his life is interwoven with significant names, dates and movements which were occurring in the world prior to his birth and during the course of his transformation from Elija Poole, the seventh child of a poor George sharecropper, into Elijah Muhammad, leader of a once significant American religious movement.

In chapters 2, 3 and 4, I examine fundamental aspects of the religious world of Elijah Muhammad, according to the standard order of almost any work in Islamic theology and doctrine.  After identifying Mr. Muhammad's Doctrine of Allah in Chapter 2, I have attempted to sort out the Messenger's understanding of the Books and the Prophets in Chapter 3.

In Chapter 4, I have studied Elijah’s major eschato logical teachings in light of his re-working, or re-creation of Biblical and Qur'anic themes.

In Chapter 5, I have compared the religion of Elijah Muhammad to a number of teachings that are found in radical (Ghulat) Shiism; and Chapter 6 is a rather brief look into possible influences Freemasonry may have had on the Messenger of Allah's religious development.

I have come to the conclusion that Elijah Muhammad believed in the god he created in the man known as Fard Muhammad; and he also believed in the truth of the religion he created and called the New Islam.⁵  At what point he fell prey to his own deceptions I do not know, but it may have been around the time that the prince of this world began showering him with wealth, prestige and the power to capture the hearts, minds and souls of desperate people – people much like himself. 

As much as he sought to destroy the God of Judaism and Christianity and the god of Islam, he could not escape the belief that there had to be a god for his people; and that god could not possibly be the God of the western world's major religions.     

Peace of mind and heart came to him through his encounter with Fard Muhammad.  Prior to that point in time he had been filled with rage for all of the evil that had been visited upon his people, and he had also been suffering from the disease of alcoholism.  

Fard Muhammad may have never claimed to be a god, but for Elijah Muhammad only a god, the "Supreme God," could have done for him what Fard Muhammad had done for him.  To bear witness to the power of this man, Elijah Muhammad set for himself the task of creating a new religion for all those, like himself, who felt that the history of the world was nothing other than a systematic and relentless attempt to exploit, torture and destroy his own people.  If he, Elijah Muhammad, could be set free, then surely this miracle of his own resurrection from the dead was only the beginning of what promised to be a worldwide phenomenon.  And the fact that no one had managed to assassinate him for the things he taught was a sign to him that his Allah was, surely, on his side.