W. D. Fard (1891?-1934?), founder of the Temple of Islam, an American Black Muslim religious movement later known as the Nation of Islam.
In the summer of 1930, W.D. Fard was a door-to-door apparel salesman in the Paradise Valley area of Detroit, Michigan, then an enclave of African-Americans who had moved to the industrial north in the Great Migration from the south. In a speech in Detroit on 4 July 1930, Fard announced formation of the Temple of Islam, which later became Temple No. 1 of the Nation of Islam. One of his early followers, Elijah Muhammad, founded Temple No. 2 in Chicago, Ill., about 1932. Fard himself moved to Chicago in 1933. The following year, Fard disappeared.
Fard's origins are a mystery. Sources disagree on his birth year (1891,1877), birth place (New Zealand, Oregon, Indian subcontinent, Arabia, Britain, West Indies, California); ethnic heritage (British, Polynesian, Kuraishi tribe of Arabia, African-American), and even his name (see list).
Fard's public life is inextricably entwined with that of Elijah Poole, an African-American who moved to Detroit from Georgia in the late 1920s. After attending a Temple of Islam service in 1931, Poole approached Fard, who admitted he was the earthly incarnation of God - but cautioned Poole not to reveal that information. Fard later renamed Poole Elijah Muhammad and titled him Supreme Minister of Islam. After Fard's disappearance in 1934, Elijah Muhammad assumed the leadership of the Nation of Islam.
Elijah Muhammad was no newcomer to black separatist movements. His father had been an organizer for Marcus Garvey's "back to Africa" movement, which reached its zenith in the 1920s. Garvey extolled the virtues of blackness, preached pride in an African heritage and called for blacks to worship a black God, as did the Nation of Islam under Fard and Elijah Muhammad. Both also likely were members of a Moorish Science Temple, established in Detroit around 1928 by Noble Drew Ali.
The separatist movements were attempts to uncouple the history of blacks from whites in America by emphasizing their different origins. Garvey encouraged American blacks to rediscover their African roots by returning to their homeland. Titling himself a Prophet of Allah, Ali considered it more important for American blacks to rediscover their Asiatic or Moorish roots while remaining in the country where fate had led them. Fard and Elijah Muhammad drew from this ready reservoir of myth to create the Nation of Islam.
Fard was considered by some to be the reincarnation of Noble Drew Ali. Others knew him as "the Master", "the Prophet" or as "God-in-Person". Traditional Nation of Islam theology includes this belief, listed as #12: "We believe that Allah (God) appeared in the Person of Master W. Fard Muhammad, July, 1930; the long-awaited 'Messiah' of the Christians and the 'Mahdi' of the Muslims".
"All Muslims are Allahs," wrote Elijah Muhammad, "but we call the Supreme Allah the Supreme Being. And He has a Name of His Own. This Name is 'Fard Muhammad'" (Muhammad: 56). NOI celebrates a unique holiday, Savior's Day, on 26 February to commemorate Fard's birthday.
Despite the use of Muslim references, including the Arabic word for "God," Fard did not espouse the same Islam as revealed on the Arabian peninsula in the seventh century. The NOI theology holds that a mad black scientist named Yakub created white people 6000 years ago as a curse and test for the superior black people. Fard claimed to be sent by Allah to reclaim his people, the tribe of Shabazz that had been kidnapped and sent to America in chains.
In the racially charged atmosphere of Depression era Detroit, Fard and his followers soon ran into conflicts with the white political structure. Rumors of ritual killings came to a head when an NOI member arrested by police in 1932 confessed to having killed a man during a "sacrifice." As leader of the "voodoo cult," Fard also was arrested. Two more arrests for "cult activities" convinced him to leave Michigan in 1933. He last appeared on official records when he was arrested in Chicago for disorderly conduct in September 1933. After his disappearance, Elijah Muhammad revealed the truth: that Fard was not a prophet, but God himself, and he, Muhammad, was his messenger.
--by Susan McKee
Essien-Udom, E.U. Black Nationalism: A Search for An Identity in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962.
Gardell, Mattias. In the Name of Elijah Muhammad: Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. Duke University Press, 1996.
Marsh, Clifton E. From Black Muslims to Muslims: The Transition from Separatism to Islam, 1930-1980. Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, 1984.
Muhammad, Elijah. Our Savior Has Arrived. Newport News, Va.: United Brothers Communications Systems, [ca. 1992?] n.d.
Nation of Islam website: www.NOI.org.