THE EXAMINATION OF A NATION
GOD
When studying the Nation of Islam's concept of God in contrast to both the God of the Christian scriptures, and the God of the Qur'an, we find something quite different from both. While the Bible presents the oneness of a triune God, and the Qur'an presents its god, "Allah," as a "sterile monad," neither of these views can adequately describe the god of the Black Muslims. Although The NOI lays claim to belief in the Allah of the Qur'an, nothing could be further from the truth, (except of course, their claim to belief in the God of the Bible).
In the theology of the NOI, Allah is said to be the proper name of their "One God." (OSA p.233) This sounds simple enough, until one considers the fact that Elijah Muhammad taught that "Allah is all of us..every righteous person is a godwhen we say 'Allah,' we mean every righteous person." (Ibid p.26)
Although it is believed by Black Muslims that all muslims are "little Allahs," they do in fact, have and worship a being identified as the "Supreme Allah" whose personal name is "(Wallace) Fard Muhammad." (Ibid p.56) Mr. Fard is the latest in a long line of some two billion six hundred-forty million (2,640,000,000) Supreme Allahs. While most Black Muslims have tried to dispute this contention, it is easily verified in the writings of Elijah Muhammad.
According to the teachings of Elijah, the "God in the beginning that created all these things (heaven and earth), does not exist today." (MBM p.9) Although "their wisdom and work may live six thousand or twenty-five thousand years, the actual individual may have died with a hundred or two hundred years, or the longest that we have record of, around a thousand years. There is no God living who was here in the creation of the universe." (Ibid pp. 96, 97)
The reason that the gods of the NOI are born and die is that while all Black Muslim men are gods, all Black Muslim gods are merely men. (Ibid p.14) This NOI reality is in violation of the Christian scriptures, which clearly teaches, "God is not a man," (Num 23:19), and that he exists "from everlasting to everlasting." (Ps 90:2) Further, this teaching is considered blasphemy, by the Qur'an, which teaches, "Allah is one. He begets not, nor is he begotten;" (sura 112:1, 2), and, "there endures forever the person of thy lord." (sura 55:27)
Now, as to how we reached the conclusion that NOI adherents are worshipping, in the person of Fard, the latest embodiment of some 2,640,000,000 "Supreme Allahs;" On page 98 of Our Savior Has Arrived, Elijah writes:
"The wisdom of each God, according to Allah (God), in the person of Master Fard Muhammad, to whom praises are due forever, taught me, has a cycle of twenty-five thousand years. Once every twenty-five thousand years, another God would be given a chance to show forth his wisdom to the people. This has been going on for many trillion years, according to his teachings to me at least since the deportation of moon and earth." (emphasis mine)
On page 31 of Message to the Blackman, Elijah Muhammad writes that the "deporta-tion of the earth and moon" occurred "66 trillion years ago when a great explosion on our planet divided it into two parts. One we call earth and the other moon." (emphasis mine)
Thus, sixty-six trillion years, (the number of years since the deportation of earth and moon), divided by twenty-five thousand years, (the maximum time given to each god to rule), equals two billion, six hundred forty million time cycles for two billion, six hundred forty million Supreme Allahs to rule; the latest of which is Mr. Fard. These reliability of these facts are indisputable without rejecting Elijah's authority to write them.
Further proof that these were in fact 2,640,000,000 separate Supreme Allahs can be found in Elijah's assertion that:
"No God who is going to rule the people of the earth universally was to be given a
history or know- ledge of the God who ruled before him. This is in order to keep the
present God from patterning (sic) after the former God, and to force him to use his
own wisdom in making a world, and not a world patterning (sic) after previous
wisdom of the Gods before him." (OSA pp.97, 98)
Mr. Muhammad goes on to assert on p. 119 of the same book that each successive God's "belief, teaching, and theology were (sic) different from the other God who preceded him." Thus, according to Elijah, each new god possesses(s):
1. Different Knowledge.
2. Different Wisdom.
3. Different Beliefs.
4. Different Teachings.
5. Different Theology.
Hence, we have different gods, all unique to, and supported by this organization's leader-ship and literature.
In conclusion, when studying all of Elijah Muhammad's teachings concerning God, one thing becomes increasingly clear; it is replete with contradictions. The God of the Nation of Islam is said to be:
- "One God." (SW2 p. 9)
- One "God" at a time. (OSA pp. 96-99)
- "The Maker of the universe." (MBM p. 220)
- "Born in an existing universe. (OSA p. 39)
- "He has no beginning, nor is there any end of him." (MBM p. 74)
- He "had to have some kind of a beginning." (OSA p. 39)
- His life span doesn't exceed a "thousand years." (OSA p. 96)
- He "created himself" first, then he "created the Heavens and the Earth." (OSA p. 46)
- He "was created on the very earth that we are on today." (OSA p. 146)
- "He begets not, nor is he begotten." (MBM p. 73)
- He was "begotten in 1877." (MBM p. 237)
- He was "put to sleep to let the white god rule," because "two Gods cannot serve at one time." (OSA p. 42)
- He is one of "two Gods" on the scene at the present time." (OSA p. 56)
- His 'proper name is Allah." (OSA p. 233)
- His proper name is "Fard Muhammad." (OSA p. 56)
- "He is self-sufficient. He does not need a son to help him with the people." (OSA p. 153)
- He was "self-created himself (sic), but he can't make man without help." (OSA p. 41)
When studying the validity of any nonfictional work of literature, one should take great care not to read his own predilections into the evidence. To avoid falling into this trap, any individual examining any document said to be factual should employ some sort of objective test by which to ensure that he maintains his objectivity. To that end, and to maintain our objectivity, we have deferred to the infamous dictum of the great Greek philosopher Aristotle (384 322 B.C.) concerning textual citicism. To Aristotle the benefit of the doubt was always to be given to the document itself, and not arrogated by the critic to himself. What this means, in the words of Dr. John W. Montgomery (Dean of the Simon Green leaf School of Law), is that; "One must listen to the claims of the document under analysis, and not assume fraud or error unless the author disqualifies himself by contradictions or known factual inaccuracies."
We have clearly given Mr. Muhammad's material every benefit required by Aristotle's dictum, and according to this test his material has failed miserably. Thus, he must be rejected as a reliable teacher of God's Word, and his writings, and theology, no matter how much they are beloved by Black Muslims, must also be rejected as inaccurate and unreliable as well in matters of theology.
