Take Another Look: The Quran, the Sunnah and the Islam of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad

Book excerpt: Did the Honorable Elijah Muhammad teach true Islam or was he simply a powerful social reformer who spun an interpretation of Islam which, while socially and culturally uplifting, was religiously blasphemous? What criteria should be used to assess his Islamicity? The Qur an and Sunnah obviously, but whose reading of the Qur an and Sunnah is to be privileged in this discussion? Islamic scholar Dr Wesley Muhammad, who holds a Doctorate in Islamic Studies from one of America s top Public Ivy League universities, brings to this discussion for the first time a wealth of information from and concerning the Classical Arabic/Islamic tradition that has up until now been omitted. This work by Dr Wesley puts the most controversial aspect of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad s teachings the claim that God is a man in the context of the Classical Arabic/Islamic Tradition. He demonstrates that the original Arabic context of the Qur an and the Sunnah, as well as the Arabic Sunni orthodoxy that first came together in the 8th-9th centuries, was markedly different from the de-Arabized orthodoxy that will develop later and which now dominates all discussion of God in Islam. When judged on the basis of this de-Arabized Islam, the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad indeed appear radically divergent and un-islamic . However, when viewed from the perspective of the Arabic Qur an and Sunnah and the Arabic Sunni Tradition that Dr. Wesley has helped rediscover, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad s teachings appear recognizably Islamic as they are consistent with what came to and through Prophet Muhammad b. Abd Allah, the Seal of the Prophets. This newly revised 2nd edition also includes an intense academic dialogue between the scholars of the respective religious communities of Minister Louis Farrakhan (Nation of Islam) and Imam W.D. Mohammed (Mosque Cares) discussing the controversial subject matter.