Elijah Muhammad

Elijah Muhammad (October 7 1897–February 25, 1975) led the largely Black American spiritual and political organization, the Nation of Islam from 1934 to 1975.

Related Topics:
October 7 - 1897 - February 25 - 1975 - Black - Nation of Islam - 1934

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Born Elijah Poole in Sandersville, Georgia, he claimed to have received the word of Allah, in 1931, from Wallace Fard Muhammad in Detroit. This teaching became the basis of the Nation of Islam's radical spiritual and political theology. Elijah Muhammad began preaching that W.F. Muhammad was literally God in person. He eventually travelled all across America setting up mosques or temples (as they were commonly called) and named them based upon his sequence of arrival. In New York, to this day, the mosque there is still referred to as Mosque No. 7 because that was the seventh place visited by Elijah Muhammad during his travels. Likewise in Cincinnati, Ohio temple no. 5 was the fifth temple he set up.

Related Topics:
Sandersville, Georgia - Allah - 1931 - Wallace Fard Muhammad - Detroit - Theology - Mosque

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Controversy arose when it was alleged that Elijah Muhammad had affairs with several women members of the Nation of Islam, a charge that eventually led to his split with his protégé; Malcolm X. Initially, however, Malcolm took the view that Elijah Muhammad's were in accordance with Muslim teachings, if the women were accounted as his "wives".

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Muhammad was succeeded following his apparent death by his son Warith Deen Muhammad, who brought about many reforms bringing the Nation of Islam closer to mainstream Sunni Islam, and eventually renamed the organization to the Muslim American Society Louis Farrakhan led a breakaway "purist" faction retaining the name of Nation of Islam.

Related Topics:
Warith Deen Muhammad - Sunni Islam - Muslim American Society - Louis Farrakhan - Nation of Islam

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