09/00/2008
IWDM Study Library
IWDM Radio Broadcast

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Imam Mohammed: When he left, he left my father as the temple leader, the head of the religious organization. It wasn't called mosque. Mosque is what Muslims called their places of worship all around the world. Ours was called temple, the holy temple of Islam, that's what it was named. Anyway, he left my father in charge, but there was a unit, a military unit, not a real army, but just to discipline the following, the men mainly and the women that had a similar unit also to themselves. These units I think were copied from Booker T Washington's school that they built and had included military drill to help discipline the thinking, their mind, get the blacks to be more organized.
Mr. Fard copied the same and he established what was and still is called under minister Farrakhan, the Fruit of Islam, FOI, Fruit of Islam, meaning product of Islam and Islamic influences. I remember being told by me that the head of that unit was my father's blood brother. His name was Kalot Muhammad. The following divided when the teacher left who was not an American that I told you from outside. There was competition for the following. They were competing for the following. My father Elijah Muhammad, Elijah Poole Muhammad, his Christian family name was Poole before it was changed to Elijah Muhammad.
His brother got big support from the men in the military unit called FOI, Fruit of Islam. They encouraged him to take over, take control of the organization from my father. What I'm getting at is my own experience with rejection, with people who already were rejected. We were told that he and his followers were really off to kill my father, and my father moved from Detroit to Chicago and established this headquarters in Chicago. Following his teacher who had left Detroit, came to Chicago, taught in the black, always in the black community, taught in the black community of Chicago, and then the last place we went to was Milwaukee.
He taught in that community and each place he spoke in he gained a following and left the following there, so he was establishing. He established three of temples himself with my father as his assistant. Now, they've got 200 maybe or more temples throughout the United States. Getting back to the problem, my uncle, Kalot, I'm a little boy, maybe about seven or eight years old, and he saw me in the streets once in the neighborhood, and he says, "Son, As-Salaam Alaykum?" He gave me the greetings of the temple of Islam and I didn't give him the greetings back because I knew my parents wouldn't approve of me doing that.
He was the one who was fighting my father, supported by people who wanted the leadership to be taken from my father. We were told that physical threats had been carried out too. Anyway, I couldn't speak to him, but he touched me inside because he didn't appear to look like a bad man. He didn't speak to me like a bad man, so what I felt was not something from a bad man, I felt something from a good man, but I couldn't accept it. Another experience I had, I was left at home by my father. My father, on a Wednesday night, they would have court if there was anyone who had, in the language of the temple Islam, broken the law.
Anyone who had broken the law, they would be heard and maybe tried and a decision made, and they'd be either put out of the temple of Islam for their infractions. Anyway, this night I was doing my homework late and I know from the house, we moved from that house when I was a 13, so I had to have been like 11 or 12 years old. My father, I'm surprised, I'm thinking they're in the bed because this is like ten o'clock almost, 9:00 at night. He came down all dressed up and my mother's behind him coming down the stairs from the bedroom areas all dressed up, little cheap wood-frame house 6116, Michigan.
They're coming down the stairs and I looked up and seeing my father said, "Son, we're going to leave you with the house. We have to go out and take care of some business, your mother and I, so we are going to leave you with the house." I didn't think much of it then, I knew I was the only one in the house and that didn't happen. That's the first time that ever happened that I was the only one at home and was going to be left alone there. They left and it was a season, I don't know the month, but I knew it had to have been a season when the night turns cold, so like spring or fall. I'm sure it was close to spring. They left and now the house starts talking to me, making funny noises.
I got scared, I was afraid, I was so afraid. Now, it's time for me to go to bed, I finished my homework and I'm sleepy, very sleepy. So I went upstairs to my bedroom and I remember holding my hands out like this because this is the only way we pray in the world of Muslims. This is the natural world of Muslim. This is not called Salat praying, this is called Dua, pleading to G-d. That's what this is called, pleading to G-d or calling to G-d. I held my hand. We were not taught the regular Salat, which is very important in Islam, the Salat as Muslim practice it all around the world. I'm holding my hand like this because it's all I know.
This is how I know to pray and I say, "Oh, Allah," I remember my exact words, "Oh, Allah, if I'm not seeing you correctly, will you please help me see you correctly?" That's what I said. That, I never did give it much thought until much later when I'm a grown man. Got one child, Laila, our daughter, our first child and I start to feel the pressure of the contradictions and the teachings that this mysterious man left among us. I'm looking back now, I said, "Wow."
I said, "I didn't just start having problems with the teachings or the language of the nation or temple of Islam, it must've been bothering me even back then because it wasn't bothering me, why would I ask G-d, "Am I seeing you? Please show me how to see you if I'm not seeing you correctly"? Bringing it up close now to the present time when I learned Arabic, and who made it possible for me to learn Arabic? My father, the leader, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam or the holy temples of Islam in North America. The full statement, in the wilderness of North America.
Anyway, I'm having other problems too and I said to myself, I cannot accept that it's wrong for Christians to believe that a man is the embodiment of G-d, or G-d is in the body of a man. I said, so if I can't accept that, I can't accept that this mysterious man who looks like a white man, the picture he left looks like a white man, pious white man. The only picture he allowed to be circulated of him, this picture of him holding the Quran, our Bible, and he's looking so piously and concentrated. Looked like all of his being is concentrated right there in the pages that he's looking at.
Anyway, it got to my father that I didn't believe in G-d the way they believed in G-d, so my father took me to trial. They had a hearing and had the supreme captain, who was very stern, especially when there was an infraction, you're not obeying. He was sitting there and he had two of those little small business briefcases I think, cases, and one was open filled with money, and he just had it there, right there for me to look at, for me to see. So we're sitting at this little long narrow table and he said, "It's reported that you don't believe in our savior, our Allah." He said, "Who is Allah if it's not our savior?" and I said, "Daddy, you have the Holy Quran."
I said, "I wouldn't want to tell you, you're familiar with what the Holy Quran says." He didn't answer that, he didn't reply to that, so he gave me another chance, he says, "You know what's going to happen?" I said, "Yes, sir." He wasn't satisfied that I knew what was going to happen I guess. He said, "You're going to be put out," excommunicated that is, banished. "You're going to be put out and you're going to have it hard." Now he was not sailing me out for any special treatment, this is the thing that would be done for anybody who broke the law. He said, "You won't be able to call here to speak to your mother."
I said, "Sir, I understand," but he didn't get me to change, he excused me. He said, "You're not to come back here," and he excused me. I went to the door and my mother asked my father's permission. She was not in that particular room, but she was outside in another area, so she saw me coming out of that room. She asked my father, said, "May I go with him to the door?" and my father said, "Yes." She went to the door with me, the front door. Now, this is a nice house in Woodlawn of Chicago, near Chicago University. This is when he moved up. He went into business, and built businesses, and attracted a lot of blacks, so now his following was much, much bigger than it was when we were living in that little frame house on 6116 Michigan Avenue when I first had that experience of being afraid and left alone. We were living in what we called a mansion. My mother went with me to the door and I stepped out of the door and she stepped halfway out of the door. She said, "Son, if you go back in there and tell your father that you agree to the terms that he wants you to agree to, he'll accept you back." She was hurt knowing that I was going out on my own and she didn't know how I was going to fair.
I said, "Mama, did Mr. Fard tell you all he was G-d?" and she looked like she was in deep thought for a few seconds. She said, "No."
She said, "In fact, he told us that prophet was too big a name for him." He introduced himself as Professor Fard, but he did leave hints that would cause my father or anyone familiar with the Bible enough to know Christ Jesus, peace be upon him, his role would see that this man was actually coming in the role of Christ Jesus and meant for his following to accept him in that role. Anyway, she said, "No." I said, "Mama, how can you insist that I accept a man as G-d who told you all prophet was too big a name for him?" She was puzzeled quit a bit and burdened quit a bit.
The confusion and hurt was on her face and I left, and it tore my heart out and it tore her heart out. That was another experience I had that helped shape my life for where I am now. I'm trying to please my father, I had another experience. I was sent to prison for failing to answer Selective Service Order to go to Alton State Hospital and do conscientious objector's work. I had no problem with that, and my father could never accept that I was safe even if I did that. He was thinking of me being safe and I'm thinking of me being compliant with the law so I don't go to jail.
I got a girlfriend that I had been promising I was going to marry and afraid I was going to be sent away at any time, so it was prolonging that for me, and I wanted to get married. It's a big thing for me going to jail, so I didn't want to go to jail, and I did get conscientious objectors status. I went to prison and in prison, I'm hearing what's going on outside, and not getting better for the religious community, it's turning into more business, and more black power thing, so this is not what I felt comfortable with as a member of the Nation of Islam. The Nation of Islam spirit and membership is changing, changing from religious people or religious following to a worldly following.
Anyway, I said to myself, I said when I go back I'll never teach that again, I made up my mind in prison. Prison can help you think straight. I said I'll never go out and teach that teaching again. When I was finally in parole, I didn't get parole on my first opportunity. The second opportunity they paroled me, and I'm going back home now, they picked me up, the supreme captain and the assistant supreme captain. Supreme captain Raymond Sharrieff, the assistant supreme captain is my brother, Elijah Muhammad Jr. They drove up there, just the two of them and picked me up to take me home.
All the way they're telling me about what has gone wrong for the money, that we have over extended ourselves, and buying property, and we're subject to lose everything, materially they were saying. I'm wondering, "Don't they know that I've been locked up for 15 months in this place? I don't want to hear all this stuff, I want to see mom, and daddy, and the family, and my family." I suffered that all the way from Sandstone, Minnesota to 4047 Woodlawn where my parents were living at that time in Chicago. When we get there, what happens? My brother, who was the manager for Muhammad Ali, he rushes toward me before I can get to the door of the house and he gives me an envelope.
He said, "Here, take this." He said, "This will help you so you don't need to be a burden on daddy. This will help you, take this." A little yellow manila envelope. I didn't like that either. I said, "Why would he want to help me before I see my father? Let me go in the house and see him. Give me that later." I didn't look into it to see what was in it. Later on, $10,000 was in that envelope." I go in and see my father and everything, and I didn't want to preach but to thank G-d. He excused me from that obligation right away. After I agreed with him and everything, he said, "Son, it won't be good for you to just go right back into preaching, being a minister," so I understood that.
I came back in, but I was not free to actually speak to the audience. I think he was really protecting me and his following. Anyway, that was the experience for me. It didn't happen once. Somebody told him, "Daddy, we saw Wallace on the street and he was looking real bad." Maybe I had on my work clothes, but I wasn't suffering, I was all right, so he let me back in. I was reported again for the same thing, teaching a different idea of G-d than what they were believing in, again, he put me out. The last time he accepted me back was right after the assassination of Malcolm, the killing of Malcolm X, of Malcolm Shabazz.
When I heard on the radio that Malcolm had been assassinated, I moved almost on instinct, impulse and I went to the phone, I just got in from work. I went to the phone and I called my father. Now, you weren't supposed to do this because you're outside, you've been excommunicated. I called him and one of the secretaries who was very powerful, maybe the strongest of his secretaries when it came to getting things done and moving people who were in the way. She answered the phone and she said, "Dear Holy Apostle, your son, Wallace, is on the phone." He came to the phone. I was gambling that he would after the assassination of Malcolm X. He came to the phone and I spoke to him.
He said, "Yes, son." I said, "Daddy," I said, "You have your Saviors' Day coming up and I want to be there at your side at Saviors' Day." It was coming up like the next two days, I think, after the assassination of Malcolm X. It was right near the Saviors' Day of our community. He said, "You know what that means?" I said, "Yes, sir." He said, "You will have to come before the people." He always asked me and then answered. He said, "You would have to come before the people and you have to tell them that you were wrong." I said, "Yes, sir." That Saviors' Day I come to a wall of F.O.I. men and it looked like it was a half a block long.
It started on the streets. I walked between the wall of brothers, shoulder to shoulder they were, and it took me all the way to the rostrum where my father was. I guess he knew I was coming. He had already paused in his speech. He turned around and looked at me, I was just right there at the podium almost right there at that time. He said, then he's turned around and he looked at his followers, he said, "My son Wallace is back." They all were very quiet and still. Usually, it would be clap, clap, clap, "Stand up. All praises to Allah," but they didn't do that, they were just very quiet and still.
I came to the podium and I said, "As-Salaam Alaykum," to them. I said, "No one is to question The Honorable Elijah Muhammad" and I walked away, and I got away with it. [laughs] [inaudible 00:22:48] I didn't say I was wrong, I said, "No one is to question The Honorable Elijah Muhammad."
That's the main highlights in my story, but I've had a lot of spiritual experiences as you perhaps will know or guess. I mentioned in the beginning that I had difficulty not responding to my uncle, Kalot, who was supposed to have been the enemy and also leading a violent group against my father. I had difficulty not responding to him as a child when I felt his goodness and his innocence and saw it in his face. That's true of my experiences with whites when I was young. He told me that white people are born devils, but when I looked in their faces, and some of them would speak to me, "Son, are your all right?"
I always had a lonely face, a sad face if they said. I didn't think I did, I wasn't sad, that's a fact, but they would think that and people would ask me, blacks are more than whites, but I've had whites ask me too, "Are you okay, son? Everything's all right?" I say, "Yes." That's all I wanted to say at this time. Perhaps I took too much time.
Host: No, thank you so much, that was great.
Imam Mohammed: Thank you.
Host: We have an opportunity to engage in some dialogue. An opportunity to ask questions and invite the imam to respond. If I'm correct, there are microphones to the side. Professor Simpson and I also have some questions that we'd like to do to get the discussion started. Our brother, imam, we hope that you'll be comfortable in your seat here so you don't have to come. We'll bring the mic right to you.
Imam: Thank you, yes. 
Participant: I'd like to ask a question, and it really relates to my personal experience as a child.
Host: Is that good enough? Is that okay for you?
Imam: I will tell you how I prefer, I prefer the big thing, the seat here.
Participant: I'd just like to bring up about How to Eat to Live and ask the question about the motivation for addressing the issues of nutrition and health within the black community at that time. Then related to that, I'd like to know about how your views and teaching address some of the current concerns of public health in our country. It has to do with health, there's diet and the emotional health of people in our country today. Going back the first edition of How to Eat to Live and what motivated that particular book in being kind of a sign of the message of Islam in America.
Imam Mohammed: The work of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the leader for us was, in his own words, "My job is to clean you up and put you in a decent dress." That was his statement he would often make. To prepare you, he would use that language too, to prepare you. We had a diet that I think was respecting, if not following exactly or following it, respecting what is the diet for Muslims in our Holy Book, the Quran; no pork, no liquors, no strong drinks. There's certain foods, healthy foods; vegetables, fruits, and some starch, of course, but not a lot of it, but we ate too much sweets, that was one thing we were not too good about it. Too much cake, and pies, and turnovers that I love so much.
Apple turnovers and peach turnovers. Oh, man, that stuff was killing me. It almost killed me because I'm a number two diabetic right now. I got it under control. The discipline that they put in me as a young junior FOI has stayed with me, so I know how to stay away from things when I found out something's hurting me. The diet was also spiritual. It was to be understood as a spiritual diet, not just as a material diet or food, the diet from physical food. It was teaching us to train our willpower and to stay away from things that are no good for us. The dress was also to be understood in a cultural language, not just a dress, not just a suit, but dressing the soul and spirit.
To wear always a decent dress and the business. Poor men that were used to looking like bums in the street, they come and join the Nation of Islam, they put on a businessman, a banker's dress. Every day, a suit, a nice dress, shirt, tie. What it was doing, it was really changing the way we felt inside, and changing where we put out values.[00:28:57] [END OF AUDIO]

