Nation of Islam

The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a religious and sociopolitical movement founded in the United States in 1930. Centred on Black nationalism and the advancement of African Americans, it combines distinctive theological ideas with a structured programme of social discipline, economic development and separatist aspirations. Although it describes itself as Islamic, the religious doctrines of the movement differ markedly from mainstream Islamic theology, leading scholars to classify it as a new religious movement within the broader landscape of African-American religious innovation.

Origins and development

The Nation of Islam was established in Detroit by Wallace Fard Muhammad, who introduced teachings that drew on diverse influences including the Moorish Science Temple of America, Garveyite nationalism and elements of Freemasonry. His message appealed to African Americans living in conditions of urban poverty and segregation, offering an empowering reinterpretation of history and identity.
After Fard Muhammad’s unexplained disappearance in 1934, leadership passed to Elijah Muhammad. He expanded the NOI’s theology, declaring its founder to be Allah in person and consolidating the organisation into a disciplined, hierarchical structure. Under Elijah Muhammad, the movement grew significantly, attracting national attention through prominent converts such as Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali during the mid-twentieth century.
Following Elijah Muhammad’s death in 1975, his son Warith Deen Mohammed redirected the organisation toward Sunni Islam, eventually renaming it the American Society of Muslims. A faction loyal to Elijah Muhammad’s original teachings re-formed under Louis Farrakhan in 1977, reviving the Nation of Islam as a distinct body. From that point, the contemporary NOI has evolved separately, expanding its operations and adapting elements from other traditions, including Dianetics.

Structure, identity and social orientation

The Nation of Islam is a highly centralised, hierarchical and authoritarian movement. Unlike other African-American religious innovations such as Rastafari, the NOI exhibits a high degree of uniformity in doctrine and practice. Members worship in temples or mosques and follow strict behavioural codes involving dietary rules, modest dress and adherence to patriarchal gender norms.
Membership is open only to people of colour, reflecting the NOI’s commitment to Black separatism. The movement emphasises self-discipline, economic self-reliance and collective uplift, encouraging African Americans to withdraw support from white-dominated institutions and build autonomous communities. It has been particularly effective in prison environments, where its messages of dignity, discipline and self-knowledge resonate strongly among inmates.
Critics, including human-rights organisations, classify the modern NOI as a Black supremacist group, citing rhetoric hostile towards white people, Jews and LGBT communities. Many Muslim scholars reject its teachings as outside the boundaries of Islam, describing them as heretical or non-Islamic.

Theology and cosmological teachings

The Nation’s theology is unique and highly detailed, differing fundamentally from orthodox Islamic thought. Despite its claims to monotheism, the NOI describes a succession of mortal gods—each an anthropomorphic Black man called Allah—who have shaped human history. These figures are not eternal spiritual beings but powerful individuals living for a few centuries, ruling in cycles and possessing the ability to recreate the universe.
Wallace Fard Muhammad is regarded as the most recent Allah, a divine figure who revealed esoteric knowledge to African Americans before departing in 1934. The NOI teaches that he will return aboard a vast spaceship known as the Mother Plane to destroy the oppressive white social order and inaugurate a utopian future.
Central to NOI theology is a narrative about human origins. The earliest humans, it teaches, were members of the Arabic-speaking, dark-skinned Tribe of Shabazz. These people possessed innate divinity, and all people of colour are said to descend from them. The white race, by contrast, was created artificially by a scientist called Yakub, and is portrayed as inherently violent and spiritually deficient. This account underpins the movement’s critique of racism and its argument for Black empowerment and separatism.
The NOI also maintains that God and humanity are intimately connected; in its view, divinity resides within Black people, who constitute a “nation of gods”. Knowledge of self is thus central to realising one’s divine potential. Elijah Muhammad claimed that this inner divinity could manifest through special abilities, including telepathy.
The Nation rejects mainstream Islamic beliefs regarding the eternal, non-anthropomorphic nature of God, the finality of the Prophet Muhammad and the existence of an afterlife. It argues that heaven and hell are not metaphysical realms but conditions experienced on earth, and that white Christian teachings about the afterlife were imposed to pacify Black people.

Relationship to Christianity and Islam

The Nation of Islam emerged from a Christian-majority cultural environment and incorporated elements from both Christianity and Islam. It uses Islamic terminology, follows prayer practices inspired by Islamic ritual and adopts symbolism based on the flag of Turkey. At the same time, it denigrates Christianity as a system imposed by white oppressors and presents Islam as the natural religion of Black people.
Despite these Islamic elements, the NOI’s doctrines diverge sharply from the Five Pillars and core theological positions of Islam. Scholars have therefore classified it using terms such as quasi-Islamic, Fardian Islam and non-traditional Islam. Many Muslims regard its beliefs as shirk and fundamentally incompatible with Islamic monotheism.

Social movements and religious classification

Scholars describe the NOI as an African-American new religious movement, a black nationalist organisation and an ethnoreligious community. The movement also forms part of a wider “black cultic milieu” that includes Rastafari, the Black Hebrew Israelites and other African-diasporic religious innovations. Some religious scholars note parallels between NOI doctrines and UFO religions, particularly its eschatology centred on the Mother Plane.
Its high degree of organisational discipline, ideological coherence and charismatic leadership distinguishes it from more diffused movements. Although doctrinal uniformity is emphasised, not all members fully adhere to its strict rules in private practice.

Contemporary significance

Under Louis Farrakhan’s leadership, the modern Nation of Islam has continued to expand its economic and agricultural enterprises, engage in community outreach and maintain a national profile through speeches and public events. It continues to attract followers seeking cultural affirmation, structured discipline and a distinctive alternative to mainstream religious traditions.
Despite controversies surrounding its rhetoric and theology, the NOI remains one of the most influential African-American religious movements of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It has shaped debates about race, identity, religion and power in the United States, and its teachings continue to inform discussions within Black nationalist thought and alternative religious culture.