Although given a national post by Mohammed, Farrakhan disagreed with Mohammed’s changes, and in 1978 he left to found a third Nation of Islam. Elijah Muhammad left the movement to his son Wallace, who assumed leadership of the Nation upon Elijah’s death in 1975 and later took the name Warith Deen Mohammed. Among those associated with the Moorish Science Temple was a peddler named Wallace D. Fard (or Wali Fard Muhammad). In 1930, claiming that he was Noble Drew Ali reincarnated, Fard founded the Nation of Islam in Detroit, Michigan, and designated his able assistant, Elijah Muhammad, originally Elijah Poole, to establish the Nation’s second centre in Chicago. Of even greater significance were the actions of Louis Farrakhan (originally Louis Eugene Wolcott), the successor of Malcolm X as leader of the New York Temple and the Nation’s most prominent spokesman at the time of Elijah Muhammad’s death. His teachings included many of the basic tenets of Islam, including monotheism, submission to Allah, and a strong family life, and these tenets were promoted in the Nation’s parochial schools. They formed two new organizations, both called the Nation of Islam, that continued the teachings of Elijah Muhammad.

The move toward orthodoxy was rejected by some former members, including Elijah Muhammad’s brother, John Muhammad, and national leader Silis Muhammad. In the remaining decade of Elijah Muhammad’s life, the movement was increasingly plagued by violence between members and former members. In 1973, for example, Nation members invaded the Hanafi Muslim Center in Washington, D.C., founded by Hammas Abdul Khaalis, a former Nation leader, and attacked his family, killing his children and leaving his wife paralyzed. He published Elijah Muhammad’s books, started a periodical, The Final Call, and eventually purchased Elijah Muhammad’s former mosque in Chicago and refurbished it as the new headquarters of the Nation of Islam. The majority of former members followed him into the larger Muslim community, where he remained a widely respected leader. 1839-1908), and of Shaikh Ahmed Faisal (1891-1980), the Moroccan-born leader of an independent Black Muslim movement. Muslim teachings were tied to Black nationalism by Noble Drew Ali, originally Timothy Drew (1886-1929), who founded the Moorish Science Temple of America in Newark, New Jersey, in 1913. He produced a new sacred text, The Holy Koran, that bears little resemblance to its namesake and was based on his limited knowledge of Islam and on spiritualist teachings.

Along with the Qurʾān (the holy book of Islam) and Hadith (recorded sayings of the Prophet Muhammad), it is a major source of Sharīʿah, or Islamic law. Muhammad provided what Fard lacked-strong leadership and a coherent theology. Wallace, who had been deeply influenced by Malcolm X and orthodox Islam, soon initiated a transformation of the Nation, changing its name to World Community of al-Islam in the West and again in 1978 to the American Muslim Mission and gradually dropping its racial and nationalist doctrines as well as its belief in Fard as Allah. While Fard retired into obscurity, Elijah taught that Fard was a Prophet (in the Muslim sense) and a Saviour (in the Christian sense) and the very presence of Allah. Before he could fully articulate his new views, however, he was assassinated while delivering a lecture in the Washington Heights neighbourhood of Manhattan. However, its supporters represent a tiny fraction of the overall population. The authoritativeness of the Sunnah was further strengthened when Muslim scholars, in response to the wholesale fabrication of hadiths by supporters of various doctrinal, legal, and political positions, developed ʿilm al-ḥadīth, the science of determining the reliability of individual traditions. The third element of religion is teaching traditions based on stories of significant figures, events and ideas from the past and beliefs about the future of time itself – like a spoiler alert about the end of the world.

Until the end of the 19th century, the Upper Volta was dominated by the Mossi Kingdoms, who are believed to have come from central or eastern Africa sometime in the 11th century. The central point of skeptical theism is that because of human cognitive limitations we are unable to judge as improbable the claim that there are various goods secured by God’s allowing the evils in the world. Suppressed during World War II for advocating that its followers refuse military service, the Nation rebounded in the 1950s after a charismatic young leader, Malcolm Little, better known as Malcolm X, took over the New York Temple. Elijah also encouraged his followers to drop their “slave” names in favour of Muslim names or, in most cases, an “X,” signifying that they had lost their identities in slavery and did not know their true names. How Can I Find the True Religion? The monument is located near large burial grounds, but archaeologists can only guess as to the purpose of the amazing structure. Working for God can be in your church, neighborhood, school, with friends, relatives, the list goes on and on. In the Bible, God is referred to by various names, each revealing different facets of His character and attributes.