Imaam W. Deen Mohammed Speaks on Mujaddid and Mahdi

Imaam W. Deen Mohammed

Speaks on Mujaddid and Mahdi

 1.     B.N.: As Chief Minister, will you have all of the powers that your father had, or does 'not being the Messenger' imply that you will have less power and authority? If so, in what areas?

Chief Min.: Well, I will ask those who would like to know more on this question to research or study the history of prophetic figures in the Bible and Qur'an. Moses was called the Prophet or Messenger of God, may peace be upon him, and Joshua came into that leadership. When Muhammad, the Holy Prophet of Arabia, physically passed away and spiritually returned to his God, the leadership remained. History shows it as a power equal or the same as that which existed under the personal supervision of that Arabian Prophet. Messenger is a title. It speaks of or describes a birth and mission. That is, how that mission came to that man. One who inherits and is favored with the same support that is given to the Messenger has another name to describe him or to identify him or to stand as a title for him.

That name or title for me is Chief Minister of the Nation of Islam. And my role is not that of a Messenger of God, but that of a "Mujeddid," meaning "One to watch over the new Islam" and to see that it is constantly and continually being renewed.

B.N.: Brother Minister, I noticed when you mentioned the Prophet Moses, you said: "May the peace of Allah be upon him." Will you teach your followers when they refer to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to say this?

Chief Min.: Yes.

B.N.: You used the word "mujeddid" (Mujaddid) to describe your position. What is the translation of that word into English as one word?

Chief Min.: Mujeddid (Mujaddid) means reviver; one who renews. 

(First Official Interview Muhammad Speaks “I Was Born For The Mission” March 21, 1975)

2.     “Every man who is a good receptor of divine truth is not a prophet. One man will be a prophet because a message is needed and another man will be a saint because interpretation, adjustments and corrections are needed at that particular time and not so much a new message. That's why saints, mujeddids, mahdis and even messiahs came when the people were in need of more religious light or knowledge. If a man is a messiah, it doesn't necessarily mean that he is a prophet. Any man who is divinely clean, who has received the Word of God and who is a perfect representative of that truth is a messiah. To be perfect in this sense means that the person doesn't introduce foreign ideas when he talks about God and His message.

The messiah is not attached partly to the divine message and partly to a political doctrine or to some other doctrine. He is able to give out the message of God without corrupting that truth. The messiah has been wiped clean with divine truth and knowledge. This cleansing has made him clean, pure and upright. Jesus did not attach a great importance to calling himself Messiah or Christ. He knew that being Messiah or Christ was no supernatural thing about which one should boast. Not only was Jesus a messiah, but he also was the Son of Man, a holy prophet of Allah.” (December 19, 1975 Bilalian News, "

(Coming of the Son Of Man: Part 2, From out of the East Even Unto the West”)

 3.     “Dear beloved Muslim Brothers and Sisters, in restoring pure Islam we have to follow the guidelines of the Quran. We have to exemplify the life of Prophet Muhammad to whom the Quran was revealed. We have to reflect the Quranic teachings and also reflect the leadership that was established in Prophet Muhammad of Arabia, the one to whom the Quran was revealed. We also have to follow and understand the Mujeddid of this day and time, the new revived mission of Islam in the West, so that we will be guided to the roots of the knowledge that we have. We must come to understand that religious knowledge or revealed knowledge speaks to world knowledge or scientific understanding. We have to understand that the job of Chief Imam W.D. Muhammad is the answer to the Bible saying in Ezekiel "that the bones came together."

 (Imam W. D. Muhammad, “World Community of Islam in the West: Purpose, Aim, and Goal” March 4, 1977 Bilalian News) 

4.     No, let's look at the word "secularism." We speak of our world as being divided: secular and non-secular. When we check this word in the dictionary we find that it also has a very interesting meaning, and that is "aging and cycling." Once in an age or once every century. The Muslims will recall in the sayings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH and all the righteous servants) "that once at the head of every century there will come a Mujeddid who will renew for you my religion or the religion of Al-Islam." What is this secularism now? Should it be a secularism? No! It should be the light that is reflected out of the Divine revelation or from the Divine revelation. It shouldn't be materialistic, it should be knowledge that is of the essence of Divine revelation. But instead, our world is filled up with lies, materialism, corruption, injustice.” 

(December 22, 1978 Bilalian News “The Shackles Of Mystery: Part 1”)

5.     “Mujeddid (Mujaddid) simply means one who revives, brings back to the original, and brings the freshness back that was there; that's all Mujeddid means. Any person that has a problem with me being called Mujeddid in this country – where our work has been done - believe me, they don’t belong in here with us because they are not with us in the first place. They are against us. I never asked anybody to "call- me Mujeddid, I said I "am" the Mujeddid. They wanted to call me a Messenger of God. I said, no, I not a Prophet. I'm no Messenger of God. I'm a Mujeddid. You hear me on the National Hookup; am I preaching I'm the Mujeddid? No! I'm not asking anybody to call me that. In fact, I would advise you not to put too much importance on that because you just give people something to talk about.

They think I'm like them. They think I want to rip somebody off like they want to do. They judge others by what they are. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said that at the head of every century. At the head of every generation, Allah will raise up a Mujeddid. That doesn't mean every time a child is born. What's the problem-? They just don't want follow right guidance. They want phonies and hypocrites for their leaders. If they get a sincere person, they don't want him; they look for some excuse to condemn him, to write him off. My given name is Wallace D. Muhammad, and it doesn't make me feel proud whether you call me Mujeddid or Imam Muhammad. Prophet Muhammad didn't give people fancy titles. In fact, people weren't addressed as "Brother- all the time. All Muslims are Brothers and Sisters, that's understood.” 

(Imam Warith Deen Muhammad, (These excerpts are from a masjid lecture in Miami, Fla, Oct. 20 1979)

6.     QUESTION: Are you recognized internationally by the leaders of Eastern countries as being the Mujeddid (Mujaddid)? —Ashland, Ky.

IMAM: “My concern is not to be recognized as the Mujeddid (reviver of religion). Here in the States, the Muslims who belong to our community refer to me as Mujeddid, and they mean by that that I have revived religious conscience. There are many, many meanings that are given to the term "Mujeddid.1* some think of Mujeddid as being a supernatural being. I am no supernatural being. Understanding the different meanings and connotations of the word, I have discouraged even the use of the word Mujeddid. I would like to be called the Imam.” (April 30, 1982 World Muslim News)

 

7.     “The next point I want to bring to your attention is that we believe along with you, that is the immigrant Muslims and the Muslims of the international Muslim community or world, that there is definitely a revival of Al-Islam going on. And it is not going on only in our location, it is going on all over the world. It is growing and it is spreading. There is a definite revival going on; there is a return. I can agree with Muslims, for we can have good intentions and the choice of language starts out being good. But in time if we go from pure intent, then in time the language becomes bad. So they tell me that I am the Mujeddid of America.

And after reading so much about the trouble with mujeddids I don't care to be called that; I am afraid of the word, itself. So I don't like for us to talk about mujeddids. To me it simply means to make something new, it is from "jeddidun." When something is new, it is "jeddid." And "mujeddid" is to make something grow. And if you make something new, it had better resemble the old! We don't want to make any new religion. But I do recognize along with the Muslims of the world that (here is a definite return. We are returning to conscious religion. I have read the Bible and the history of the Christian religion, how it developed and grew, and how it had the problem of people just falling asleep under ritualism. It was condemned even by Jesus The Prophet, peace be upon him. Jesus condemned just having empty ritualism: he condemned people following rituals blindly. We are happy now to know that Muslims are becoming conscious and attentive to the demands in their life from the true religion of Al-Islam and also attentive to the demand in our life for commitment.” (February 12, 1988 Muslim Journal “Human Rights in Al-Islam: Part 2” Lecture by Imam W. Deen Muhammad at 4th Annual Seerah Conference in New York)

8.     “This religion prepares us to accept responsibility for the community life of man on this planet earth. The great messengers and teachers of G-d come from mankind and they put mankind in the right position and on the right road. But in time because man is encouraged by religion to engage the world so that it becomes a better world as a home for the human soul, or in trying to protect the human soul, man gets too involved in material things and things of the flesh and forgets what he was given from the messenger or the prophet that started him on the road. Pretty soon, he is so far lost that he has to have another messenger or revivalist or someone to bring him back to where he is supposed to be. This happens, it has happened and will continue to happen. Muhammed the Prophet prophesied that his community would go down and fall under darkness, but it would be revived.

He promised his community, and that is us we are his community and all of the people who follow the Qur'an and Islam knowing that it was revealed to Muhammed the Prophet; there are over 1 billion of us now on this earth in most of the countries of the world. Muhammed the Prophet told us that at the head of every 100 years, there would be someone to revive the religion. Now if he said these things, should we be thinking that the Islamic world is all right all the time? How can it be all right all the time, if the Prophet said it was going to go into darkness, even after he had guided it right; he had set it up correctly?

He himself said it was going to go down. He himself said that at the head of every 100 years, there would be someone to revive it, a mujeddid, to bring back the newness or freshness – as it was before.

So we shouldn't then think that the Islamic world is in good shape all of the time, if what he said is correct. There are going to be times when the whole Islamic world is under darkness and not finding its way. But we shouldn't give up hope, because he said that there would come at the head of every 100 years a revivalist. What is he saying?

 

Do you think you can watch your calendar and say, "its a hundred years at this moment, brother the revivalist is here?" No, that is not how it works. In the Arabic language, Islam is science, Islam is revelation, Islam is language that is on the level of the common man and at the same time is much higher than the grasp of the common man. You need a special man inspired by G-d at times, or sometimes it is a woman, who will get us back to where we are supposed to be in our thinking. When the thinking is corrected, the thinking then can correct the heart. But when the thinking is in the dark, all we can depend on is the heart, and at first the heart is innocent and good.

When Muhammed said "every 100 years," it has to be translated or interpreted. The word in Arabic for 100 is "niat" and a death is "miat." These two words have the same essential constitution, when it comes to lettering. So when the Prophet said a hundred years, it was a play on "death." Whenever his community dies, there is going to be one to resurrect it. Whenever this community dies to the right perception and way to live and practice Islam, there will be one to revive that understanding, to give it life again.” 

(July 26, 2002 to August 30, 2002 Muslim Journal “G-d Needs Nothing From His Creation; His Creation Needs its Creator”)

9.     Mishhkat Siddiqui 1p.143#247-8;   Muieddid every 100 yrs. Sami reported: about what I know from the Prophet (pbuh) he said: “The Almighty and Glorious Allah (swt) will send for this community at the head of every century 100 yrs.” One who will revive their Religion for them. Abu Dawud.

Let us take this further so we will be perfectly clear. The lost of the savior for them is for us like the lost of knowledge and no mujeddid is around to help us. Muhammad the Prophet (pbuh) said we will have a mujjedid at the head of every hundred years. That is not to be taken literally it is to be translated or interpreted.

A hundred years mean when the enlightenment is lost or when it dies in the society and ignorance prevails G-d will bring about the birth of a mujeddid. He is giving us comfort Muhammad pbuh is leaving us with these words so we will be comfortable. When the ignorance begins lo fill the Islamic world we won't lose hope we will recall what Prophet Muhammad pbuh said. The darkness is spreading but when it becomes intense and complete G-d is going to bring about the birth of a mujeddid so that the life will come back into the Islamic world.

(IWDM Ramadhan session)

“The Nation of Islam is proclaiming in a loud voice today that we are the Savior for the world. We are the ones to solve the very serious problems that have spread through all the world's societies. There is no supernatural Christ to ever come out of the physical clouds in the sky. The clouds that the Christ is coming down from are the clouds of mental, moral, and intellectual confusion and darkness. The Nation of Islam is that Body - Christ that the world has been looking for, for almost 2,000 years.

(Imam W. Deen Mohammed, “Religion is Alive.” 1975)