Imam W. D. Muhammad in a March 19, 1976
article in the Bilalian News (Muslim Journal) entitled “Self-Government in
The New World” said the following concerning W. D. Fard Muhammad Ali or
Fard Muhammad: “The Honorable Master Fard Muhammad has been called by names.
He was called Professor Fard Muhammad, Prophet Fard Muhammad, W.F. (Wali Fard)
Muhammad, Wallace D. Fard Muhammad, and many other names. This should tell us
something about this great personality. Obviously, he was not known by the
people to whom he was introducing himself. We have said here in the Lost-Found
Nation of Islam[1]
that the only one who knew him was the one that he taught and prepared to do
the job of resurrecting the black community the Honorable Master Elijah
Muhammad (peace be upon him).
The
Honorable Master Elijah Muhammad taught very vaguely about the Honorable Master
Fard Muhammad as a person. He said that he was a "savior," he
said that he was "God," and he said that he was “God in the
person of Master Fard Muhammad”. He also said that Master Fard told him
that he would have to go away and that he (the Honorable Elijah Muhammad) would
have to do the job. This did not please the Honorable Master Elijah Muhammad
because he had become very much attached to Master Fard Muhammad, as were the
other followers in the early days of the mission of the founding of the Nation
of Islam. He said that he told Master Fard that he wanted to be with him.
Master Fard told him that he would be with him, but that he should do the job
because he did not need him anymore. Almighty God would never tell any creature
that it did not need Him anymore. We always need Almighty God. But, Master Fard
told the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, "You don't need me anymore."
He also told the believers, 'Accept Elijah, follow Elijah, you don't need me
anymore."
Master
Fard Muhammad was a "shrewd" planner. He had observed the
situation here in America and he knew the conditions that kept us down as a
people. He, himself, was a Muslim who believed in the scripture called the Holy
Quran. Master Fard let us know that by having his picture taken with the Holy
Quran in his hands. In fact, the only picture that we have of him is a picture
of him holding the Holy Quran in his hand, in a very pious, sincere and
reverent manner.
If
"God" cherished the Holy Quran, that should also suggest
something to our mind. He was saying something very important to us, but he had
to say it in such a way as to get us to come where he wanted us to come,
without us discovering his shrewd plan. If we had discovered his plan, we would
have walked away before we arrived at the goal that he wanted to bring us to.
Master
Fard saw that the church was a failure in the Bilalian (black) community. In
the early 1930's, the Bilalian church community was mostly a community of dead,
so-called Negroes. Most of the church people were hating their own identity,
and they didn't even know it. They hated their black skin, and they hated any
connection or association with so -called Africa. They hated their so -called "Negroid"
features. This is the condition in which Master Fard Muhammad found us in the
early 1930's when he came to America. He observed that the so-called Orthodox
Muslims had come here and tried to reach us, but they had failed. They invited
us to Islam, to Allah, and to the Holy Quran. They told us that Islam was a
better religion, but only a very few of us listened to them.
Master
Fard discovered the real problem, and then he designed a skillful plan to bring
home the prize. Master Fard Muhammad is not dead, brothers and sisters, he is
physically alive, and I talk to him whenever I get ready. I don't talk to him
in any spooky way, I go to the telephone and dial his number.
When
he saw that our problem was that we were already too spiritual (too wrapped up
in the Bible), he devised a plan. He knew he could not get us if he came at us
with the Holy scripture. Whatever anyone had come at us with, it would not have
been any stronger than what we already had in the way of spiritual force. Who
was more spiritual in America or in the world than the Bilalian community in
America? Our churches were filled with more spirit than anybody else's
churches. No one could come to us telling us that we needed spirit. Anyone who
would have come to us would have had less spirit than we had, and we would not
have paid any attention to them.
Master
Fard Muhammad discovered that what was absent in the dead Bilalian community
was material - we were totally ignorant to material worth. So, he began to
study scripture, and he designed his plan step by step after the plan of
Almighty God. People had come to us with God and religion and they have
approached us with the spirit, talking to us about holiness, righteousness,
divinity, God and the saints. Master Fard discovered that that is not the way
Almighty God develops the community of His people. When you study the Holy
Quran and the Bible, you will see that that is not the way that God does it.
The Bible says that God made His man out of the physical earth.
The
first thing that He made was a physical man and the next thing that He did was
to give that physical man a physical world and a physical mate. After He gave
the man a physical body and a physical world, then God told him that there were
two kinds of knowledge in the world. One knowledge is pure divine knowledge
that is from God, and the other kind of knowledge is mixed up with falsehood.
God warned the man not to eat of the tree of corrupt knowledge. But God did not
give him that kind of instruction until he had already made him physically and
given him an opportunity to live with other people. In Genesis, if you follow
that story in the later chapters, you will see that God did not make just one
Adam.
The
Bible says that God made the man and made for him a mate, but He made a society
when He did that. It says that God made male and female and that He named them "Adam."
God made a society of physical people. He introduced them to a physical world,
and He let their minds grow to become aware of the physical environment and to
grow in the physical environment first. The physical world is not in existence
for no reason.
The
birth of the human being into the world is not a spiritual birth first. No baby
comes from the womb as a spirit. The first body that comes out of the womb of
the mother is a flesh body, and the first thing that the baby wants is some
physical milk. Master Fard discovered this secret of the high knowledge that is
in the scripture that people had overlooked. When you find a people completely
dead, you do not come to them with the spirit. You can come to a society that
is alive socially and economically by teaching them the spirit (the
"heaven"), but you cannot teach the "heavens" to a society
that has not yet been formed in the earth. You have to teach them the earth,
first. That was the wisdom (the key) that Master Fard Muhammad discovered.
He
said, "The way to get these people, Elijah, is to hold out to them the
bait that represents to them the things that they need and want right now. Tell
them, Elijah, that if they follow you to me, they will get good homes, money,
and friendship in all walks of life. Tell them that the streets of the holy
land where their ancestors came from are paved with solid gold."[i]
That kind of description made us want to go there. He did not say that the
streets were filled with spirits playing on invisible harps, walking around
with golden slippers that did not really exist. He said to tell us that there
was real gold over there. This bait of a well-to-do society was the right bait
to attract our people. He said that we would get money, good homes, and
friendship. He included friendship because the Bilalian people in America were
friendless. We knew that we did not have any friends. We could not even trust
each other as friends.
Master
Fard offered friendship because he knew that the only friend, we identified
with was the friend "Jesus." We identified with that friend
because our suffering resembled his suffering. Master Fard began to take our
minds off that Jesus because he realized that until we could see our own
suffering, we would never be able to be serious about doing something to remove
that suffering - so he began to tell us about our own suffering. The church had
made the mistake of telling us about the suffering of the Hebrew boys in the
fiery furnace and the suffering of the Jews under Pharaoh. They made the
mistake of telling us about what was happening "over yonder across
Jordan" instead of bringing our minds home to see what was happening
to us right here in America.
Master
Fard Muhammad sneaked into America and used a name that made it hard for them
to identify him. Because he did not wear a turban, he looked like an American.
He called himself "Wallace Fard." He was wise because he knew
how to hide his identity, to do his job, and sneak out. Master Fard Muhammad
worked for almost three years in Detroit and Chicago to bring the dead Bilalian
community to life so that they could grow into the religion of Islam. What was
his objective? What did he want for us?
He
wanted us to be free when the new world came. He was wise and he had vision and
foresight. He knew that the America of the 1930's was a dying America and that
the hand of God was against it. It would only be so long before it would be killed
or die outright. He did not want to see the Bilalian people of America come to
life in that new world under somebody else's leadership. If it was not for him,
we would have come to life under somebody else's leadership. We would have come
to life because everything was moving us in this direction.
The
reality of the many African nations that had come into independence would have
affected our minds over here and forced us to get together and come into some
kind of idea of self-government or leadership in the society. If Master Fard
had never brought Islam to us, the natural development would have eventually
brought us together as a family. I do not mean that it would have
"integrated" us. Integration with the society is something that you
do after you have integrated with yourself. How can you integrate before you
put yourself together?
We
would have as a family if we had not received Islam and we would have had a
voice as a family, but that voice would have been under somebody else's voice.
We would have come under the socialist voice, the capitalist voice, or some
other established voice. Anything other than what Master Fard Muhammad brought
was not designed to bring about the total birth of the total person. It was
designed to only take care of part of your human needs.
The Bilalian[2]
people of America were a different people in the world. You can go to poor
people on any continent and you can teach them civilization if they do not have
it; you can teach them science and industry if they do not have it; you can teach
them religion if they do not have it; but you do not have to teach them
everything because they have not lost everything. You can deal with the people,
teach them, build them up, and bring them into a self-government, pride and
dignity without going about a thorough restoration of the human form. But, over
here it was different with us. We had nothing at all but the false picture of
ourselves that was given to us by a people who were intent upon keeping us
empty-headed slaves for all of our lives.
How
do you bring that kind of man back to existence? Can you teach him economics
and bring him back to existence? No, the man is not even alive as a human
being. You have to teach him what it means to be human. You have to teach him
that a human being is a natural creation. You have to first put the life that
belongs to the empty vessel back into the vessel. This world was putting
foreign life into the empty vessel, and the foreign life could not grow in a
vessel that was foreign to it. They wanted to make us anything but ourselves. So,
the Honorable Master Elijah Muhammad said that we should know ourselves. For
the first time, thanks to Master W.F. Muhammad, Bilalian people in America
began to act naturally. The Muslims who followed the teachings of Master W.F. Muhammad
and the Honorable Master Elijah Muhammad, were singled out in the community as "foreign
people" or "crazy people." Those people who were
pointing at us were unnatural people themselves, so they saw us as being
unnatural.
Master
Fard Muhammad's masterful plan was to do first things, first, and keep last
things out of sight until we could first get the people established in first
things. His first aim was to get us firmly grounded in reality, as we were
capable of knowing reality. The community of poor, robbed, deprived, dejected,
so-called Negroes was not capable of knowing a spiritual reality since they
were not yet alive in a social reality or a physical reality. He first had to
establish us in a physical reality, doing it as Almighty God did it according
to the Holy Quran and the Bible Genesis. He formed us physically and then put
desire in us. When he brought our attention to our physical needs and showed us
that we were obligated to do something about fulfilling those physical needs,
the desire in us for physical pleasures and physical wealth increased.
We
had been satisfied with a little of nothing, but the more Master Fard's
teachings went into our ears, the more our appetite for physical things
expanded. Pretty soon we were not satisfied to have a little apartment and a
few shabby pieces of furniture in the house. We wanted our own house and our
own automobile. Before, we had no incentive or desire in us for these things.
Our only desire was to be accepted by Caucasian people because that is the way
this world had fashioned our minds. We were an artificial society; it took this
real teaching to make us real.
Master
Fard told the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to get the people to come into the
temple at any cost. Once they were gotten into the temple, they would gradually
come into the knowledge of themselves and their own. When they woke up, they
were then able to value and to appreciate Islam. He did not worry about
teaching them Islam then, he wanted to teach them to know self, to do for self,
and to separate from the destructive relationship that they had with the
Caucasian people. That is what Master Fard did, and he was successful.
He
told the Honorable Elijah Muhammad that he could not attract the "fish"
to come into this ideal society (the Lost-Found Nation of Islam) with knowledge
alone because the fish had been mentally, spiritually and morally killed. He
was not able to see the value that was in this heavenly order. He had to hold
out to him the things that he knew in his life and attract him with the bait of
meat that satisfied only the stomach -money, food, good homes, and good
clothes. He said, "Put that bait on the hook, Elijah, and bring him
into yourself. One day you will be able to put that fish into the waters of the
new world, but it will take time." When we examine the works of the
Honorable Master Fard Muhammad and the works of the Honorable Master Elijah
Muhammad, we can see the terminology in the real substance, the real sense. We
now see that what was said also had another meaning.
Later, in this March 19,
1976 lecture he said the following concerning W. D. Fard Muhammad: “The work
of Master Fard Muhammad was the work of change or revolution. Revolution is not
the final object or the final aim of his great work, revolution is a means for
reaching the final object. If you design a revolution to bring people out of
their condition into another condition, you cannot continue to always put
emphasis on revolution.
The emphasis has to be
taken off of revolution and put on objectives or aims one day. Master Fard
Muhammad had a design to bring about changes that would bring us into a new
world, a new life, and a new mind. The steps of the change cannot be looked at
today as part of our world structure, but they are steps towards the structure.
Now, we are at the structure. The emphasis should be taken off of change and
revolution and be put on building and construction.
We want to save our
people who are in the hands of strong people. We know that we cannot just go
and ask for them - we have to take them. So, the first thing that we had to do
was to design a plan to get our people. Once we get our people, we cannot
continue to preach to them the philosophy of attack and capture. We have to
teach to them the philosophy of construction because, if we take them out of
one world, we are going to have to build another world for them to live in.
Master Fard Muhammad
taught us the plan (the philosophy) of reaching our goal and the Honorable
Master Elijah Muhammad began to gradually take the emphasis off of battle
strategy and put it on building. Today we have arrived at our goal and the trip
was successful. The great plan achieved what it was designed to achieve. If we
get busy right now and build the new world, I assure you that we will not be
ruled by any other government in the new world but our own self -government.”
Imam
W. Deen Muhammad (raa) in a December 9, 1977 Bilalian News article entitled “Educational
Conference Address: Part 2” states the following concerning Fard Muhammad: “Master
Fard Muhammad we call him Master because that was the term he used. He was
professor of a school in what we call the "Old Country." Over
there they still call professors "Master," Headmaster, etc. He
played on the mystical name, "Master" that is the Bible name
for Christ Jesus: It means a master teacher. His students were a whole
community then called the Lost-Found Nation of Islam.
We
have lessons[3]
right today where he referred to all the believers as students. "Ask
your teacher, learn all about yourself." The Honorable Elijah Muhammad
was a Minister, but he called himself "teacher." When Fard
first came, he preferred to call himself "Professor Fard."
This man had an interest in the re-development of education. He established the
University of Islam. University. You know, "university" is a big
word: it means a group of schools—of colleges, right? He called the elementary
school that he established, the University of Al-Islam. The man was very wise.
When
you separate people from identifying with one value system or system of values,
you have to be careful to make them feel sure they are not stepping down. He
knew that! Professor Fard (Doctor Fard) called the elementary
schools—university. Knowing that some of his students were going to run into
students from the "enemy" learning environment and they were going to
challenge some of the things that he was teaching his new "world,"
Fard gave his students a mystical and real sense of superiority
He
knew some of his students wouldn't be able to match challengers from the enemy environment,
but the feeling of superiority makes you feel victorious even when you are
defeated. So, if some students should challenge one of his students from the
other world and should defeat Fard students, his students would never admit
defeat. They would not see the defeat; they are too superior. "This is
a university. What school do you go to?" He was a very wise man; he
knew the problem. He knew how to correct problems; he knew how to save the
people from problems by putting them in a completely new learning environment.
Imam
W. Deen Muhammad in a Feb. 19, 1987 lecture delivered at Berea College in
Berea, Kentucky entitled “The Nation of Islam As A Controlled Environment
for Treating the Social Ills Of African-Americans”[4]
said the following concerning W. F. Muhammad: “In keeping with the
college's commemoration of Carter G. Woodson — I believe it’s a two week
commemoration — this presentation addresses the black Muslim Nation of Islam as
a controlled learning environment for treating the social ills of America's
discarded Negro population. At this particular time, I will attempt to give
some background, because it is important to know and understand what transpired
in the early 30's. It is also important to know something about the
little-known professor, W. Fard in the encyclopedia it's spelled F-a-r-d who
conceived this correctional environment and skillfully named it though
erroneously the Lost Found Nation of Islam.
It
is important to know him for his boldness, which is seen in his formation of a
language, that would serve to create his new black man. He used what some call
a reverse psychology. His aim was to reverse the psychology of white supremacy
with his own psychology of black supremacy. Like Carter G. Woodson, Fard
considered the reeducation of the African American to be the greatest need. To
accomplish that, he conceived what is called the "University of
Islam."
At
that time I am now speaking of 1934 the University of Islam was a black I hate to
use the language that has been made popular, but I have to, it's easier and
clearer he formed a black Muslim school that served the need for teaching
writing, arithmetic or the basics to not only the children, but also to adults.
The
school at that time included all members of the Nation of Islam who wanted to
take advantage of that school. Men and women, some of them past 65, I'm sure
some of them were 80 or more, attended the school, and they were eager to learn
how to read, write and do simple arithmetic. Fard's boldness is seen also in
his naming that school the University of Islam.
However,
the work of this man is shrouded in mystery, which he created to shroud himself
in. It was complicated by his own necessary role in it. Fard was by America's
description, a white man. He tactfully identified with the black man in his
teachings and secret lessons to the members of the Lost Found Nation of Islam
that he created. Soon, he had to trust his learning or laboratory environment
to the late Elijah Muhammad, the builder of the Nation of Islam, and a man who
is well-known.
Once
I was in a meeting with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and some of his staff
members, in his home in Chicago, when he mentioned some of the difficulties
that this teacher had. He said that in one of their temple meetings the houses
of worship were called "temples" while he was teaching on the
superiority of the black man and the black man being god, and descending from
God, and should come back into the godship, one of the members stood up and
said, "Well, if that's the case, why don't you leave and let us take it
from here, because you are a white man, you are a devil."
I'm
sure that after that member stood up and challenged him, by identifying him
with the whites, that he had condemned as a race of devils, Fard saw a need to
quickly disappear. And it wasn't long before he did just that. The history says
that as mysteriously as he appeared, he disappeared, leaving the leadership
with my father, Elijah Muhammad, our late and honorable benefactor in many
ways.
It
appears that in the language of black supremacy and the defiance of the black
man, a provision for the transformation of that created Nation of Islam was
skillfully worked in. I won't take the time to mention all the elements or the
language and terminology that was used to aid or help us work out a
transformation for ourselves, but I will mention a few things. Fard's obvious
contradictions served to arouse our curiosity.
In fact, he worked hard to get the members to
question everything. Although in the meetings, orientation and teaching classes,
no one was allowed to challenge the ideas that were being given. Still, that
invitation to question everything was in the lessons. You might have been
afraid to question the minister, captain, lieutenant or an officer, or your
teacher, but when you were alone, you accepted that invitation to question
everything.
Please
understand that Fard, in spite of his myths and racist or fictional language,
was a social reformer. He was trying to reform the social habits and thinking
of the discarded Negro or black man, if we prefer to use that term. And in
understanding Fard as a reformer, it appears that he intentionally did some
things to complicate his masterpiece so that it would be seen as having flaws.
There were obvious mathematical and grammatical errors. There was also the
obvious neglect of important information about black people that should have
been included if he was really bringing knowledge of black people to black
people.
Also,
the terminology itself was full of holes; if anyone had tried to make it stand
a test of reason, he or she would have had to give up. So, it is believed that
he intended it for people desperately enough to grab hold to something that
would give them a sense of belonging, separate identity, independence and an
origin, even if it was a myth. Most of those people were uneducated and worldly
naive. Many of them were brilliant, but never had the opportunity to receive
formal education.
Imam W. Deen Muhammad in an April 2, 1993 Muslim
Journal article entitled “The Popularity of Malcolm” said the
following concerning Fard: “I'm sure Fard, who is also called W. Fard and
Fard Muhammad and even Wallace D. Fard, borrowed from everything he thought
would work. He borrowed from black nationalism. He borrowed from Drew Ali's
Islam. He borrowed form his own experiences in India. We were told he was
Turkish or an Arab, but I am convinced he was Indian. And he put together a
powerful myth.
Fard
really put together a satire on White arrogance, on White racism. We call that
satire Yakub’s History in the teachings of the Nation of Islam. Fard did a
satire on the evils of white supremacy, and that man was successful in
influencing the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to become his mouthpiece.
Imam
W. Deen Mohammed spoke on Fard Muhammad in a June 16, 2001 address in Detroit,
Mich., at Orchestra Hall entitled “Justice in Islam: How Close Are We
Muslims To Western Democracy?”[5] in this
address he said: “The first understanding that I had of the
word "Islam" was "freedom, justice and equality."
That meaning lives today in the hearts and minds of many of us, whose first
acquaintance with Muslims and Islam began right here in this city of Detroit,
the Motor City, with the Hon. Elijah Muhammad and his teacher, W. Fard
Muhammad.
I
recall words being painted on the blackboard. I was a boy, younger than my
11-year-old son. I would be sitting in my seat in the Temple with the men and
other children, and there was a blackboard there with paint on it. It said:
"Islam - Freedom -Justice - Equality." We could see it as soon as we
entered the seating area where the lecture or preaching would be given. The
first thing to hit your eyes was that blackboard. Islam was the staff with
Freedom, Justice and Equality going out from Islam. The teacher of my father
had a master plan for helping our people with their cause. He was a Muslim; his
religion was Islam. But he did not come to us to give us Islam right away. He came
to help us with our cause -right away! He hoped that we would have Islam
by-and-by.
Imam
W. Deen Muhammad in a "Savior Day” Feb. 26, 2002, address[6] in Charleston, SC said the following concerning Mr. Fard: “Mr.
Fard said of himself, that 24 scientists met in Mecca concerning the Lost Found
Nation of Islam, stating that they must return to their own. And they sent a
messenger to teach them their own. Here Mr. Fard was identified as a messenger
sent by 24 scientists. We have him, too, identified as the "son of
man" in the Lessons. He said: "There was no help coming to
them (the African Americans), until the coming of the son of man”."
Imam
W. Deen Mohammed in an article entitled “Focus on Reform” which
appeared in the Muslim Journal from Jan. 27, 2006 to Mar. 31, 2006 said: “W.
D. Fard was a satirist, more than any other thing. He even used us and created
a living, live theater to criticize the ideas that this society built itself
upon and positioned in the mind of the whole world - that it is the Boss, the
G-d, the Son of G-d over the whole world. That is what White Supremacy thought.”
Imam
Mohammad in an interview conducted by Imam Abdul Ghani which appeared in the
Muslim Journal from July 28, 2006 to September 22, 2006 entitled “The
Interests of All People At Heart” made the following comments
concerning Fard Muhammad: “I will begin by saying that the Nation of Islam
was built by the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, with its blueprint given to the Hon.
Elijah Muhammad by an Arab or a Muslim from overseas, whose name was W. Fard
Muhammad and also called W. D. Fard.
It
is important for us to know that Mr. Fard was interested in all African
Americans. Mr. Fard came from a people in India, who were also under British
rule. And many of the Indians under the British rule, their skin color was
black. It was not black people like we know black people, but their skin color
was definitely black. They ranged from white to black, the whitest of white and
blackest of black.
Northern
Indians are of white color. They have mixed all together now. But the Indians
who live in the hotter zones are black in skin color. When Mr. Fard came to
America, he experienced, as he had dark color - not white skinned; he was brown
skinned - some discrimination.
I
think what he experienced in his own country of India under the British with
his people there and what he experienced when he came to America had something
to do with him accepting to assist African American people in the ghettos with
their lives. He came to Detroit, Mich., to the black bottom or poor area of
African American poor people.
He
began teaching "separation from White people and having your own."
He told the Hon. Elijah Muhammad and other African Americans whom he would
teach to or speak with, that the African Americans or Blacks in America had a
great past, that they came from an Islamic past. He told them they should
return to their religion.
That
gives you an idea of how it all started. It is important also to know that Mr.
Fard had all African Americans' interests at heart. There were approximately 17
million of us exiting then, when he came in around 1930. In his exoteric
language or teaching, a kind of cult or secret language, he said that he had 17
million keys to unlock or free Black people.
Further
on in this interview he says: “Mr. Fard planned to introduce the Qur'an and
real Islam in America. But he knew Blacks were militant and angry with Whites,
so he sought the angry ones, the dissatisfied ones. And they were accepted and
accepted his teachings, but he planted among them the Qur'an. He didn't say for
them to teach the Qur'an, but he planted it among them and told them that that
was the Pure Book, The Holy Book without defect or error. He pointed to that
Book only in that way. He never gave his esoteric teachings that kind of sacred
respect that he gave the Qur'an.
Imam
W. Deen Mohammed in a Muslim Journal article[7] entitled “The
Temples of Islam” said: “For the general audience or for the White
world, the role Fard chose was the role of a satirist. What is a satirist? I
did some research and not just in the dictionary. In myth, a satirist is a
creature of the wild. In reference to literature, a satirist is one who
ridicules the world he is living in. Or he designs language to really attack
and hurt the world he lives in, but he always hides himself and hides also his
work. So, when you read it, you will take it just for fun or as an exciting novel
or something.
When
you understand what he is addressing with his metaphors and his allegorical
language, when you come to understand it, you will see that he is dissatisfied
with the political order at the time or with other things happening in the world
at the time of his writing. For outsiders, the Temple of Islam only makes sense
as satire. It does not make sense, if you take it word for word, literally. If
you take even its message to the members, if you don't see it as allegorical or
not literal, as figurative, you will certainly miss what Mr. Fard brought to
America.
Professor
Fard, the one who came from overseas, was working hard for a certain result in
our life and in our community. The Hon. Elijah Muhammad understood him to be
like Christ Jesus, Allah or G-d in the person. And we were told that he was
born of a White woman and a Black man. Quote: “G-d is Black." That
is what we were taught.
We
were taught that Blacks were the superior although deprived of the knowledge of
self under the White man. The dictionary meaning for the term "black,"
we can give a long list. Black has many meanings. Some familiar meanings as
church goers, we recall the Bible says, "sin is black." The
same Bible also says that "the Holy Ghost overshadowed Mary."
If I am black, tell me what color is a shadow?
If
a shadow is dense enough or big enough, it puts us in the black. That is to
say, it puts us in the dark. Many of us are not familiar with general science
enough to know that night is only a shadow. That is all that nighttime is. In
the countryside where there is no development or electric lights, unless the
moon is shining, you cannot see your hand before your face. That is how dark it
gets.
That
night or darkness is caused by the turning away of the earth, away from the
sun. It is the absence of sunlight. It is a shadow produced by the other side
of the earth and the light now is shining on the other side of the ball. The
ball is so big, it blocks out the sunlight so completely, you can't see your
hand before your face - unless you have the help of some moon light.
When
the Bible says that the Holy Ghost overshadowed Mary, it is saying that the
Holy Ghost blackened Mary. What is that saying about Mary? The Holy Ghost is of
a spiritual nature and Mary is of a spiritual nature, and one of the
descriptions of spirituality in religion is blackness.
Allah
says in the Qur'an that He made the night to precede the day, to come before
the day. So, for Mary, this was an experience she was having before the birth of
her son, Jesus Christ, peace be upon both of them. Once he is born there will
be no more darkness, for he will be the light of the world. Isn't that what it
says in the Bible?
Allah
says in the Qur'an, and I repeat: "He made the night to come before the day." The beginning of creation
in the Bible does not start in the day; it does not start with night. The Bible
says there was darkness upon the deep, and the spirit moved along the face of
the waters. The spirit begins on the surface of the waters, where an image can
be seen. If the right conditions are brought about and the water is still, not
in motion, it will show you your image.
In
myth, there is the story of Eros the male and Psyche the female. They went to
the water and looked down and saw their images and both of them jumped into the
water together. Another meaning of black is faith and faithfulness. Why do you
think priests and leaders in religion choose to wear black? Don't forget the
major topic: Meeting of Religion and Science.
They
wear black to say, "I am dead to this world and alive only to the Word of
G-d. I am a man who keeps the faith. My life is firstly in my faith, not in
this material flesh, not in this material world." Now in the world
supported by science, black is formal dress for the most serious and most
special occasion. These are good meanings for black.
Now
let us look at white, and white has many meanings like pure. It is always associated
with light and purity, because the sun is the biggest and most important of purifiers
in our solar system or in our existence. The sunlight itself kills sickness and
kills impurities. My mother would hang her clothes out in the sunlight. And the
fresh smell they would have after hanging out in the sunlight and let dry was
better than the smell of any clothes from the laundromat.
So,
the Bible speaks of whiteness and associates it with purity and light. The same
Bible also gives these words that are aimed against a people who were corrupt. It
says, "Your white is the white of leprosy." And leprosy is a
contagious, nasty and dangerous disease. This is the white of disease. White
supremacy is the white of leprosy.
Imam
W. Deen Muhammad in a Muslim
Journal article entitled “Life: The Final Battlefield - Part 2” which appeared
in the journal from April 18 2008 to May 9, 2008 said: “Now I want to share
some more information with you on WD 40 or Mr. W. D. Ford Muhammad, who also
was known by two or three other names. They arrested the Hon. Elijah Muhammad
for what they called "contributing to the delinquency of minors"
-just to make the charge sound real bad.
What
the charge actually was for was him keeping the children out of public schools.
He kept them out of public school, because his teacher told him to set up a
school and teach his own children. That is what he did. He spent some time in
prison and was then let out. But they got him a second time not long after
that, less than two years, on draft evasion charges and convicted him.
The
charge carried another charge of "subversive teachings" to
under mind the United States of America. The judge dropped that charge and only
sentenced him for refusing the draft. He would not accept to have a draft card,
not to mention being inducted. He was sentenced to five years in the
penitentiary without parole - five years straight.
When
they were first arrested, they were arrested in Detroit. The leaders and
everybody who went along with the leaders were put in jail men and women. About
a year or so later, the same thing happened in Chicago. They were arrested, men
and women, and put in jail, because they insisted on teaching their own
children and having their own school.
The
police confiscated the early lessons, Student Enrollments, English Lesson Cl,
Actual Facts and Problem Books. The FBI took copies of all of those things. When
the Hon. Elijah Muhammad was released from prison, he told us that the officer
who cleared him for release told him, "Elijah, go on out and teach as you
were before." The officer told him that.
He
was going to do that, because he had been teaching in prison and made several
converts in prison. One was a wonderful Minister, Minister Louis. He turned out
to be a very influential Minister. Everybody liked to hear him speak. He could
inspire you and arouse you. He was educated and did not talk like a preacher;
he talked like a professor. His major was in physics. He had a nervous
condition in his jaw from using so much drugs, but he would say, "Islam
is no vain imagination or superstition. Islam is reality." We loved
that brother and loved the way he taught. He was a teacher.
I
bring this to your attention to say to you: What did Mr. Fard put into his
esoteric, private, organizational teachings to make the FBI tell the police
department to leave him alone and let him teach as he was teaching before? That
should make it easy for me to tell you again, that Mr. Fard did not come into
America just to help Blacks. He came into America to show America how to solve
the race problem. And it was to show them that Blacks have less of a race
problem than you. "You are that fallen Angel Lucifer. Lucifer is in
you. You are that bright and morning star."
The
Bible says, "Oh Lucifer, why have you fallen? It is because you have
exalted yourself in the Heavens. And you would exalt yourself up to the very
Throne of G-d and put yourself there as G-d." That is the Bible. You
who know the Bible know that I am giving you the Bible.
Then
Jesus comes behind that and says, "I know your Father. He abodes not in
the Truth. When he speaks a lie, he speaks his own lie." That means
nobody gave him the lie; he invented the lie. "You are not the children
of Abraham. You are the children of your father, the Devil."
This
is Jesus Christ speaking to the Gentiles. I will finish this shortly, insha
Allah. And I do not say "Insha Allah" from habit. I say it
from my conscience, "Insha Allah." There was a sister named
Dorothy something X and I gave her the name Fardan, before I even saw her. Some
brothers were asking me for names for different ones, and I said to tell her
that I think her name should be Fardan.
I
was told she was a Catholic before she converted to the Nation of Islam, and I
was told that she was a White woman. I knew she was not stupid or naive. She
was a Catholic sister in the church, and I knew she would think about the name
I gave her. So, I gave her that name "Fardan," which meant a
person influenced by Mr. Fard. Finally, I met her in my office.
She came to my office and wanted to speak with
me. When I saw her, she said "As-Salaam-Alaikum," and I said
the same to her. Before she got started, I said, "You joined the Nation
of Islam and you were a Catholic and a White person?" She said, "Yes."
I said, "Actually, that was a concern for me, and I could not
understand that." She said, "I know I am not a devil."
And
that was enough for me. She didn't have to say another word to me. I knew she
was sincere, and she was coming from the heart. She said, "I know I am
not a devil." So how come a White woman will join a man who is calling
all White people devils by nature? He said, "Every one that is born is
a devil by nature."
But
she knew how to look into language and how to make the connections. She arrived
at that understanding by recognizing that Mr. Fard did not invent that
language. He got it from somewhere. She saw that language coming from the
Bible, where it said, "Lucifer was a bright star in the heavens." Do
you know the Black Stone in the Ka'bah has a lot to do with that same idea of a
bright star falling from heaven? Abraham was looking for a spot on which to
build the House for G-d. The stone fell down from the heavens.
Remember
it was white in the heavens and it burned from white to red to black, and it
hit the earth as black. Abraham took that as an answer from G-d, telling him
where he should build the House. And he made that stone the corner, the most
important place in the construction, in masonry as the cornerstone of the
House. It also is a sign of the movement after Christ Jesus in the leadership
of his followers, that went from addressing social issues of the people to
studying and dwelling on the hidden sciences in Jesus' teachings.
What
occupied them more than anything was about how many "natures"
there are, the three natures in one or human nature separated from divine
nature. That was the issue, and they argued it for three hundred years, going
into the 4th Century. They were not able to settle this issue for the Christian
population.
Finally,
the Western Church under the Pope settled it, and they settled it like Peter
understood it from the very beginning, when Jesus Christ asked Peter: "Peter,
who do you say I, the son of man, am?" That question tells us that
Jesus Christ was telling Peter, "Begin your answer with this. I am the
son of a man.... Peter, who do you say I, the son of man, am?"
Something
will have rushed to your head real quick, "No, Jesus is not the son of
man. He had no father. He is not the son of man." That is true. But by
genealogy, say there was no Joseph, and he is the son of Mary. Did Mary have a
father? So, he had a grandfather. And he traces his genealogy or lifeline all
the way back to Adam. That is the Bible. The Bible says "Adam,"
tracing his genealogy back.
If
he came from Adam, is he the son of man or not? Did he have a father or not?
All of us call Adam our Father, and he is a man. So, we have to understand this
and separate spiritual language from calendar language. Spiritual wise, he had
no father. And who is he? He is a Word and a Spirit from G-d. G-d created him.
Word wise, he had no father, for G-d revealed him and thereby created him. So,
in Islam, we do not accept to say that Jesus Christ was born of a man. That is
wrong and un-Islamic.
Jesus
Christ in reality is not flesh and blood. Jesus Christ in reality is the
Revealed Word of G-d. And the Revealed Word gives you a Spirit. Once that Word
goes into you, you get a Spirit. And where is that Spirit from? It is from the
Word. And where is the Word from? It is from G-d. G-d has given me all the help
I need and more to make it clear, plain to you that Mr. Fard had a scheme, a
strategy, to attract us to build up ourselves in a way that we would be happy
and proud of our achievements in the Nation of Islam or as the Temples of
Islam.
But
when the circumstances would favor us coming out as citizens with full rights
of citizenship, the intelligent ones and educated ones who could see light in
scripture separated from the ink print, that eventually one from among us would
lead us to the international Ummah of Muhammed (SAW).
That
was the plan, but it could have missed before I came out of my mother. It was known
that she was pregnant with me. Mr. Fard said, "If it be a boy, give him
my name." After writing my name on the wall behind the door, and the
door was close to the wall — if you closed the door, it would cover my name and
you wouldn't see it. But if you opened the door, my name was in that space that
the door would cover written there in chalk: Wallace D.
That
is all it said, and that was one of his names. He told them to promise him that
they would give me his name. And he told my father - now this was before I was
born, so I had to get this from them - speaking to my father, he said: "Promise
me that you will raise him to help us in this work." He said "us."
So, he had sensitized my parents and sensitized me to grow up one day and
accept the responsibility to help Mr. Fard and help my father.
He
conditioned me to not fear prying into his language. This is the language of
the man who asked me to help him. And because G-d blessed me with a sincere
heart and with a pure heart, that is what has saved me. And I was able to look
into his language and come out on the path from the Temple to the Mosque.”
Imam
W. D. Muhammad in a Muslim Journal article entitled “Remembering Those Who
Sacrifice” which ran from June 27, 2008 to July 18, 2008 said the following
concerning W. F. Muhammad: “No wonder
Detroit is where we met Mr. Fard Muhammad or Mr. W. F. Muhammad, who introduced
himself to the poor African American community of Detroit - called the Black
Bottom. He invited them to come to "their religion." He called
them "the lost people, who had been lost from their religion."
He established the idea of the "Lost Found Nation of Islam in North
America" and called it "in the Wilderness of North
America" or the "Wilds of North America."
He
established that and named their places not mosques or Masaajid; he named them "Temples"
after the order or design of the Shriners or Masons. They called their places
Temples and until now call them Temples. Mr. Fard also designed a plan for us
in North America and called them Temples.
He
started here in Detroit and called this Temple No. 1. From here, Mr. Fard went
to Chicago, and the Hon. Elijah Muhammad already had been selected from among
the people here to be his assistant. So, my father went with him to Chicago.
And there together, they established Temple No. 2. Before Mr. Fard left
America, they went to Milwaukee and they established Temple No. 3. Those three
Temples were established with the Master Teacher.
He was a Headmaster in the Fiji Islands and in
what is now called Pakistan, although it was not called Pakistan then. The
Muslims had not yet achieved political independence and established the state
called Pakistan. This was done in the early 1940s, and I am talking about in
the early 1930s.
Mr.
Fard left and went to Mexico, and after Mexico we don't know if he went back to
England he also came here out of England, or he could have gone back to
Pakistan, then called India, his birthplace. Or he could have gone to the Fiji
Islands, a place where he gained a big following and was called Master G. He is
still called Master G by his followers in the Fiji Island.
[3] W. F. Muhammad’s
Lesson Codes called the Supreme Wisdom contained 154 questions and answers,
including Actual Facts.
[4]
March 13, 1987 Muslim Journal: Part 1
[5] August 3, 2001, The Muslim Journal News paper
[6] The Muslim Journal May 3, 2002 to May 17, 2002
[i] After learning
Mathematics, which is Islam, and Islam is Mathematics, it stands true. You can
always
prove it at no limit of time. Then you must learn to use it and secure some
benefit while
you
are living, that is - luxury, money, good homes, friendship in all walks of
life.
Sit
yourself in Heaven at once! That is the greatest Desire of your Brother and
Teachers.
(W.
F. Muhammad the teacher of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad)
[ii] On January 19,
1934, in a letter to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad Master Fard Muhammad writes,
"Tell Sister [referring to Sister Clara Muhammad - Mother and Wife of the
Honorable Elijah Muhammad] I received her letter and will write soon. Take good
care of the family and Wallace D. Mohammed. ~ Best wishes to the family &
all The labors from W.D. Fard" - On
another occasion, Master Farad Muhammad expressed strong care even over the
details of Imam W.D. Mohammed's feedings, "You MUST TAKE care of W.D. Mohammed
Do not feed him too rich of MILK - Have a close watch so that the children
would not feed him anything AGAIN when you are not looking, that's just what
happens and must not happen again. Write and tell me all about him and the
whole family. Best wishes from, W.D. Fard"
(https://www.facebook.com/notes/table-talks-project/imam-wd-mohammed-and-hon-minister-farrakhan-to-mop-up-the-wilderness-the-honorab/519455908089321/)
