Elijah Muhammad

From Freepedia

Image:Hon-elijah muhammad.jpg Elijah Muhammad (October 7 1897–February 25, 1975) led the largely Black American spiritual and political organization, the Nation of Islam from 1934 to 1975.

Born Elijah Poole in Sandersville, Georgia, he claimed to have received the word of Allah, in 1931, from Wallace Fard Muhammad in Detroit. This teaching became the basis of the Nation of Islam's radical spiritual and political theology. Elijah Muhammad began preaching that W.F. Muhammad was literally God in person. He eventually travelled all across the United States setting up mosques or temples (as they were commonly called) and named them based upon his sequence of arrival. In New York, to this day, the mosque there is still referred to as Mosque No. 7 because that was the seventh place visited by Elijah Muhammad during his travels. Likewise in Cincinnati, Ohio temple no. 5 was the fifth temple he set up.

Controversy arose when it was alleged that Elijah Muhammad had affairs with several female members of the Nation of Islam, a charge that eventually led to his split with his protégé, Malcolm X. Initially, however, Malcolm took the view that Elijah Muhammad's affairs were in accordance with Nation of Islam teachings, as the Bible depicted the prophet David as an adulterer. It has been alleged, but not proven, that Elijah Muhammad ordered the assassination of Malcolm X before Malcolm formally left the Nation of Islam and had it carried out after the fact. Elijah Muhammad denied this, but maintained his anger at Malcolm X, in speeches, for leaving the organization.

Following his death, Muhammad was succeeded by his son Warith Deen Muhammad, who brought about various reforms bringing the Nation of Islam closer to mainstream Sunni Islam and eventually renamed the organization the Muslim American Society. Louis Farrakhan led a breakaway "purist" faction retaining the name of Nation of Islam.