by Naba’a Muhammad, Michael Z. Muhammad and Shawntell Muhammad
The Final Call @TheFinalCall

“WE BELIEVE that Allah (God) appeared in the Person of Master W. Fard Muhammad, July 1930; the long-awaited “Messiah” of the Christians and the “Mahdi” of the Muslims. We believe further and lastly that Allah is God and besides HIM there is no God and He will bring about a universal government of peace wherein we all can live in peace together.” 
Point Number 12, What the Muslims Want and What the Muslims Believe

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, made a bold and uncompromising declaration in the 1930s when he announced that God Himself had visited America, chosen him as His divine servant and messenger and chosen Black people to usher in a new world reality as the world of Caucasian rule was ending. 

This year marks the 92nd anniversary of that great announcement and the great, ongoing work of resurrection that began with the Great Mahdi of the Muslims and the Messiah of the Christians, Master Fard Muhammad, and the fulfilment of the prophecy of Abraham. The Bible tells us that Abraham’s seed would go into bondage in a strange land, under a strange people for 400 years. But after that time God Himself would come, deliver those who were suffering and judge the nation that had held them in bondage. The Mahdi and the Messiah are powerful figures, described in scripture and theology, who bring a government of peace and who establish peace and justice in the earth.

Advertisement

Master Fard Muhammad fulfills that prophecy and made Himself known July 4, 1930, in Detroit as the United States was celebrating its independence anniversary. It was a signal that a new nation was on the rise and that the divine hand had intervened in the lives and plight of the so-called American Negro.

“Those of you who do not know Master Fard Muhammad may think that we are in error for believing in Him as Mahdi. I want you to give Him a chance to tell you, through the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, what He revealed; then, you study it. If He (Fard Muhammad) lied, we can cast Him aside. But, if He told the truth, you will have to reason with this man,” said the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, upholding and explaining his teacher and the man who taught his teacher. 

“The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, ‘Little did our fathers know that it would be 400 years before the real ship Jesus came to get us.’ The real ship Jesus is Allah (God) in Person; The Mahdi coming to raise a Messiah. The Messiah did not live 2,000 years ago. Jesus of 2,000 years ago was a prophet. The Messiah is more than a prophet. He is a man in whom is the Indwelling Spirit, Wisdom, Knowledge, and Power of Allah (God), Himself. Therefore, He opens the eyes of the blind. He makes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. He cleanses the leper and raises the dead to life, by Allah’s (God’s) permission.”

The Minister added, “I want you to think: Either this is a revelation or some made-up madness. But tell me: How could made-up madness raise a man from the dead? Tell me: How could made-up madness take a fool like me and make me honored and respected all over the world? Tell me: How could made-up madness make Malcolm X? How could made-up madness make Muhammad Ali?”

“Let us reason together,” said Minister Farrakhan, in a message devoted to sharing and explaining the greatness of Master Fard Muhammad.

Prayers for a deliverer

The declaration of independence for the Black man and woman came with the admonition and divine decree to separate from the children of our slavemasters, who Allah in Person, Master Fard Muhammad, promised to destroy as the judgment of the wicked and the end of Satan, evil and demonic people and systems, are foretold of in scripture.

Student Minister Ava Muhammad, National Spokesperson for Minister Farrakhan, told The Final Call, “If we just go over the last 500 years when the Caucasian people began the trans-Atlantic slave trade. If we just go back to that, which is the most recent phase of a very lengthy and complex history, when our people were taken into this strange land that was prophesied in the book of Genesis and underwent untold suffering, untold brutality day and night. We prayed that God would come and deliver us. And unlike today in the Black Christian church in America, where the central preaching is around parts of the New Testament, our people during chattel slavery prayed from the Old Testament.” 

“For generations, we prayed for a deliverer, and he came in 1930,” she continued. “A complete universal change began in 1930 when Master Fard Muhammad arrived on these shores. This was the title of the book by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, ‘Our Savior Has Arrived.’ When we compare our condition before and after the arrival of Master Fard Muhammad, just some of the major events and changes that happened to us and within us would not have occurred. Looking back on this, the first thing that came to mind was that we would not even be Black,” Student Minister Ava Muhammad said.

In a short time, Master Fard Muhammad’s Supreme Wisdom has had an immense impact on Black people and others the world over. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, who dispensed the Supreme Wisdom and began the work of nation-building, and his students, shook the world, from religious thought and understanding of scripture, to Black identity, Black economics, international affairs, politics and government, to dieting and holistic health and all aspects of life.

The Nation of Islam begins in Detroit where the Great Mahdi made Himself known. As the Bible prophesized, he came as a thief in the night, undetected by our enemies. In 1930, Detroit had a population of nearly 1.6 million people, of which 180,000 were Black people. Due to real estate steering and redlining, the area where over a 100,000 Black people called home, was the Lower East Side neighborhood of Black Bottom.

Paradise Valley, a small area adjacent to Black Bottom, was mostly comprised of 300 Black owned businesses, however, thousands of Black men were employed at the Ford Motor Company. The Ford Company paid $5 a day, and in 1930, that was very good money. However, when the Great Depression took its toll on the United States, including the automobile industry, thousands of men were out of work.

Living in overcrowded Black Bottom, unemployed, and very little food to eat, the residents were in an extremely bad condition.

Supreme Wisdom and  the knowledge of self

Master Fard Muhammad, in Detroit, and Black Bottom, specifically, went door to door selling silk, as a way to gain entry into homes. Once inside, he would spread the knowledge and wisdom of Islam, little by little. Over time, people in the community learned everything from their true history, proper diet, hygiene, to proper styles of dress, housekeeping, and much more. 

“He began teaching us the knowledge of ourselves, of God and the devil, of the measurement of the earth, of other planets, and of the civilization of some of the planets other than earth. … He measured and weighed the earth and its water; the history of the moon; the history of the two nations, black and white, that dominate the earth,” writes the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in his book “Message to the Black Man.”

“He gave the exact birth of the white race; the name of their God who made them and how; and the end of their time, the judgment, how it will begin and end. … He taught us the truth of how we were made ‘slaves’ and how we are kept in slavery by the ‘slave-masters’ children. He declared the doom of America, for her evils to us was past due. And that she is number one to be destroyed. Her judgment could not take place until we hear the truth. … He declared that we were without the knowledge of self or anyone else.  How we had been made blind, deaf and dumb by this white race of people and how we must return to our people, our God and His religion of peace (Islam), the religion of the prophets.” 

“We must give up the slave names of our slave-masters and accept the name of Allah (God) or one of His divine attributes. He also taught us to give up all evil doings and practices and do righteousness or be destroyed from the face of the earth. He taught us that the slave-masters had taught us to eat the wrong food and that this is the cause of our sickness and short span of life.”

“He declared that he would heal us and set us in heaven at once if we would submit to Him. Otherwise, he would chastise us with a severe chastisement until we did submit. And that He was able to force the whole world into submission to his will,” the Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote. 


The Teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad ressurrected, restored and rejuvenated Black people in America and around the world. His Teachings continue impacting and influencing Black and Original people in areas of economics and business, culture, spirituality and much more.

Master Fard Muhammad taught the Honorable Elijah Muhammad for three and a half years and this Georgia-born Black man used that divine wisdom and guidance to build a new mind, and a new spiritual, educational, social and economic reality for Black people.

For over 40 years, in the absence of his teacher, Min. Farrakhan has taught millions and taken the Nation of Islam’s teachings literally around the world as the work of resurrection, spiritual, economic, and mental, has advanced.  

A teaching with  international impact

James Tyler, author, and associate professor of geography at Kent State University, told The Final Call that some in a number of White-dominated disciplines and academies unfairly dismiss and ignore that the ideas of people like Elijah Muhammad and others in the Black Radical tradition are global in scope. 

“Elijah Muhammad was a noted thinker within the broader history of not only Black radical thought, but in political philosophy more broadly,” said Prof. Tyler, in a previous interview. “His ideas were both global in outlook and global in reach,” he added.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad engaged the global landscape in the 1940s by lifting his voice and opposing Blacks fighting for the U.S. in World War II and was labeled a “Japanese sympathizer” by the U.S. government. He was falsely charged, and imprisoned under an Executive Order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt for draft evasion, though he was older than the required draft age.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad had relationships with world leaders like Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Between November 1959 and January 1960, he embarked on a world tour where he met and made friends. He was received in Turkey, Pakistan, Syria, Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia where he made Umrah (mini pilgrimage). He was received and afforded the hospitality of a king and head-of-state. The trip also stilled the slanderous voices of detractors spreading lies that the Nation of Islam was not recognized by the world of Islam.

By the early 1970s he guided the Nation of Islam into international trade and commerce. Elijah Muhammad began importing millions of pounds of fish from Peru as one of a number of international business relationships. 

His international influence attracted relationships during the 1950s and 1960s when many African nations were breaking the yoke of colonialism. As African nations were winning liberation, they attained membership at the United Nations in New York City where they formed bonds with Elijah Muhammad’s representatives. Through Minister Malcolm X, and later Minister Louis Farrakhan, ambassadors and leaders interacted with the Nation of Islam.

From 1961 to 1975 the Muhammad Speaks newspaper played an important role of propelling Messenger Muhammad and his mission and work forward. Affixed to every edition was a masthead depicting the outstretched hand of the Black man in the western hemisphere clasping the outstretched hand of the Black man in the eastern hemisphere. This illustrated the mind and mission of Elijah Muhammad to unite Black people worldwide.

While he spent 40 long years reclaiming, redeeming, and saving Black people in America from the clutches of a 400 year enemy, he also worked to connect the Original family of Black, Brown, and Red people worldwide. He linked with the indigenous nations of America and formed a base in Mexico where he established a home. 

NOI Latino representative and Student Minister Abel Muhammad stated, “I’m going into my 24th year of being a member in the Nation of Islam, and each year there has been an increase in not only the awareness of the teachings that Master Fard Muhammad revealed to the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, but also its affect upon the Latin American and indigenous communities.”

“The impact can be seen in the culture, and even in the change of language. Now many of the people that were referred to as Native Americans, and indigenous no longer want to be referred to by those terms. They don’t want to be referred to as tribes, but they want to refine to a more improved language and many are beginning to refer to themselves as Original People. You can see that’s absolutely due to the influence and the absolutely perfect and far seeing guidance that Master Fard Muhammad gave to us knowing that in His identification of the proper identity of the people, at first as always there’s resistance because it’s new, because it’s different. But eventually the truth will win out, and we’re beginning to see that more and more.”

“This year since Saviours’ Day, I’ve personally been able to experience the impact and the acceptance of the teachings amongst the Latin American people from Mexico,” he said. Saviours’ Day, an annual NOI celebration marking the birth of the Saviour, is observed every February. 

“Having been invited to a Christian church for a month straight where I gave their Sunday service, teaching what the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has given to us from the teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, which is of course what was revealed to him by Master Fard Muhammad.”

He thanked Master Fard Muhammad for thinking “enough of us as the members of the Indian and Original People to include us in not only the numbers that He gave for our nation, but to include us in His plan of salvation and to include us in His program, which was ultimately to establish a government of people where we all could live in peace together,” stated Abel Muhammad.

“As we gain knowledge of the scriptures, we find that the prophecies of the scriptures are fulfilled, that both the Bible and Qur’an speak of a time when no prophet or messenger could handle the world’s problems, and that God prophesied through His prophets, that He would come himself,” said Carlos Muhammad of Muhammad Mosque 6 in Baltimore. He is a local student minister and NOI historian.

The resurrection of  the mentally dead

Prolific writer, scholar, and noted Nation of Islam researcher Dr. Wesley Muhammad told The Final Call for Black people in America the coming of Master Fard Muhammad represents “restoration, resurrection, the end of the mystery of God and is the trigger for global human perfection, starting with the Lost-Found so-called Negro here in the wilderness of North America. It makes us the cornerstone of the first perfect civilization.”

Wesley Muhammad, who holds a PhD., in Islamic Studies, added, if not for Master Fard Muhammad and His teaching, the Black man and woman would have been destroyed. “We would be completely consumed by now; a social genocide would have melted us away. The bastion of White privilege that Donald Trump envisaged in the MAGA movement would be a reality, Black America would be devoured.”

Master Fard Muhammad’s timing of his appearance, on America’s Independence Day, deserves special attention. Carlos Muhammad observed that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote, “The coming of Allah on this day means the freedom of the Black man too. The clear significance of Allah’s coming on this day shows the great wisdom of Allah. Let us rejoice on this day, the 4th of July, in the coming of Allah, who came in the person of Master Fard Muhammad to whom praises are due forever and give thanks to Him. Let us enjoy the independence He brought to us and the freedom, justice, and equality.”   

An essential aspect of freedom was liberating Black minds from the belief in a false, immaterial something as God instead of the reality of God, the divine nature of God, found within human beings, except the rebellious devil. 

Ava Muhammad noted, “And this idea that God is something akin to a ghost, unseen, unheard, something that blows in the wind or is the wind and exerts no power over us.”

“If you can keep someone’s mind on the unreal, you can work the power of the real over them and against them. And you have to give some credit to the development of the concept of fairy tales, which are told to our children from infancy to reinforce this idea with talking rabbits and Santa Claus,” she continued.

“If you can sell this to a child, and you can, because their mind is open. This preps them for the ultimate fiction: Jesus is a White man. And if Jesus is White, then God, his father, is White; ergo, White people are God. And that’s why ridding us of this thinking was so critical,” she explained.

And, she concluded, “This represents the ultimate in love, and love is the creative force behind the universe. So, never forget that because He came, no matter what’s going on in our individual lives, you are loved.”

(Final Call staff contributed to this report.)