Description
Book SynopsisAlmost four decades after his death Elijah Muhammad (1897-1975) remains by far the most influential African American Muslim. Leader of the Nation of Islam movement for over thirty years and a mentor to Malcolm X, Muhammad was responsible for introducing hundreds of thousands of African Americans to Islam. In this fascinating biography Herbert Berg assesses the impact of Muhammad’s unique and intriguing perspective on Islam, and seeks to understand why he formulated it. Careful to consider Muhammad’s career within the context of the significant racial tensions of his time, this volume investigates a figure whose formulation of Islam, however divisive, forced Muslims and scholars alike to evaluate their often normative definitions of this religious tradition.
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgments
Main Persons and Technical Terms
Chronology
INTRODUCTION
1 ISLAM AND AFRICAN AMERICANS
African American Muslim slaves and African American religion
Ahmadis and the Moorish Science Temple
Wali Fard Muhammad
Wallace D. Ford
Detroit’s Allah
2 ELIJAH POOLE
Racism in the South
Racism in the North
The Nation of Islam
3 THE APOSTLE OF ALLAH
A decade of persecution, preaching and prison
Two decades of success
A decade of decline
4 BLACK ISLAM
The rise and fall of the white race
The five principles of Islam
Allah and Allahs
Black angels and white devils
Black prophets
Glorious, poisonous, and future books
The Last Day and the Fall of America
The five pillars of Islam
Shahada
Salat
Sawm
Zakat
Hajj
Dietary regulations
5 WHAT MUSLIMS BELIEVE AND WHAT MUSLIMS WANT
Do for self: economic self-sufficiency
A land of our own: separation, not integration
Protect your women!
Be yourself! Black pride
6 THE TEXTUAL SOURCES OF ISLAM
The Sira
The Sunna
The Qur’an
7 OTHER MUSLIMS
Hypocrites
American Muslim opposition
“Copper-colored” brothers
White Muslims
Islamic trajectories
Warith Deen Mohammed
Louis Farrakhan
CONCLUSION: THE LEGACIES
Further Reading
Bibliography
Index
