How 3 men brought 1 million Americans to Islam

did you know that there's at least one muslim revert in every black family in america you see the 1930s was not a good time to be black in america hateful attitudes towards the black population were rampant and tension could be felt in every part of the society it was also a time marred by one of the longest and most intense economic crises in modern history the great depression african americans began to migrate in waves from the southern states to industrial cities in the north hoping to find work but this only added fuel to the fire as jobs in these cities were already scarce enough as it was there were protests riots stores were burned down people were injured and some people were even killed and it was within this environment of chaos and violence that a mysterious man by the name of wallace fard muhammad arrived in detroit no one knew who he was or where he came from in fact wallace may not have even been his real name fbi has records of him using 57 other aliases and just like a salesman he went from door to door and started preaching to people about a new religion he liked to call islam he managed to get around 30 close followers over a few years but just as he arrived in detroit he disappeared without a trace and that was the year 1934 and soon after one of his closest and most loyal followers took charge of the new religion his name was elijah muhammad you see both wallace and elijah called the new religion islam but if you take a closer look you'll find something completely different they preached that white people were a race of devils created by an evil scientist named yakub some 6 600 years ago and that allah had come to america in the form of wallace himself to remind the black people that they were the true inheritors of the earth and while it may seem like a crazy cult from the outside it gave reason for why the white man was so cruel to the black man it gave purpose to the black people of america and it reminded them of how the american slave trade was prophesized in the bible according to him of course what they had invented was definitely a new religion and although they had many words that were related to islamic concepts none of these beliefs were truly islamic nonetheless they still called themselves the nation of islam elijah's message of black supremacy was quickly gaining followers in the black neighborhoods of america perhaps its most important follower though was the man whose story you don't know the name given to him at birth was malcolm little he was born in omaha nebraska and had experienced the full force of american white supremacism during his childhood four of his uncles were killed in anti-black attacks and his family had to move states twice to escape the violence when he was only six years old his father was also murdered by white supremacists though the police tried to push it under the rug calling it a traffic accident in high school he was a bright student with dreams of becoming a lawyer but his teachers let him know that there was never going to happen he soon dropped out of high school and traveled to boston hoping to make a life for himself in the black community there and malcolm was a hustler he got involved with drug selling and pimping armed robbery and he made a name for himself in the process while also getting the attention of the police in 1946 at the age of 21 he was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison and that's where he learned about the nation of islam his brothers had already joined the nation and they would constantly send him letters telling him about this new movement malcolm little began writing his own letters to elijah directly who in fact wrote back to him frequently and elijah managed to convince him to give up his evil ways over the years this had an influence on malcolm and he began while in prison by giving up smoking and pork he also started praying to allah worshiping him and asking him for his guidance malcolm little joined the nation of islam and changed his last name erasing the name given to his ancestors by their slave master and instead adopting a single letter in its place his name was malcolm x in 1952 malcolm was released early from prison he immediately went to chicago to meet elijah and become one of his ministers and at the time the nation of islam only had around a thousand members but that soon changed malcolm was an incredible speaker with a fiery personality to match he would speak to the black communities about their fears about their poverty their misery and about how these blue-eyed white devils were oppressing them tens of thousands of people would show up to hear him speak and the nation grew exponentially and by 1960 some estimates show that the nation had even grown to more than a hundred thousand members and malcolm x would soon cross paths with someone just as energetic and charismatic as him this is the legend of cassius clay the most beautiful fighter in the world today cassius clay was an up-and-coming star in the boxing world he was fast he was pretty and he had a devastating punch he was undefeated and hugely popular among the black community and the nation of islam took note in 1962 malcolm x met cassius becoming both a close friend and a spiritual and political mentor to him the nation of islam was still an extremely controversial political force and so he kept his relationship with him secret cassius went on to win fight after fight winning 19 bouts in a row all while becoming more and more politically provocative in the process he called for black men of america to stand up for themselves and not turn the other cheek against the white aggressors and in 1964 cassius got the opportunity to set his legacy in stone a championship fight the odds were against him his opponent was a seven to one favorite cassius was the underdog and yet he completely dominated in the ring and after the fight cassius found a new confidence in himself and announced to the world that he had joined the nation of islam and just like malcolm x before him he changed his name from cassius clay to muhammad ali a few weeks after muhammad ali had become the world champion malcolm x flew across the ocean to mecca for hajj and what he saw there changed him forever now remember malcolm x had been part of the nation of islam and although there were some concepts such as allah the quran prophet muhammad peace be upon him hajj fasting all these things they originally came from islam but they were completely distorted by the nation it was a black supremacist cult only black people could be muslim and they were better than all other races so imagine how malcolm x felt when he stood in front of the kaaba in his ihran in front of him was a sea of people from every country on earth all in the same clothes all praying and worshipping in the same way it was both shocking and humbling all at the same time everything he had ever stood for all that he had fought for his entire life had led up to this moment and then he realized something that gave him tremendous guilt he had called himself a muslim for the last 15 years and yet he didn't even know how to pray when he returned to the us he quickly began preaching about islam and speaking out against the nation and elijah muhammad at the time muhammad ali was still with the nation and broke off his friendship with malcolm x and soon after the nation began terrorizing malcolm sending him death threats and even burning down his house and finally on february 21 1965 39 years old in front of hundreds of people malcolm x was shot 21 times fell to the ground dead and that would have been the end of this story but there's one more person you should meet worth dean muhammad was one of elijah's 23 children in 1961 around the same time muhammad ali was getting involved in the nation of islam worth was sentenced to three years in prison for refusing to do his military service and during this time in prison he studied the quran extensively coming to the realization that his father's religion really had nothing to do with islam at all and when he was released in 1963 he began forming close ties with malcolm x just two years before malcolm was eventually killed and because of this relationship with malcolm and his disbelief in elijah's false prophecies worth was repeatedly suspended from the nation but at some point in 1974 nine years after malcolm's assassination he managed to mend relations with the nation and was reinstated as a permanent member and interestingly enough just one year after being reinstated elijah muhammad died and the nation was now left without a leader warth managed to take control of the nation of islam and immediately began making changes worth removed all claims that wallace was the incarnation of allah and that his own father elijah was a prophet he abandoned black supremacism and allowed white people to join temples were changed into mosques ministers became imams and the paramilitary wing of the nation was completely disbanded yeah the nation had their own mini army i just thought i should mention that and most of these mosques stayed loyal to warth and were willing to turn towards the practices and the beliefs of islam there was only one minister farahan who rejected these reformations and he eventually split off from the rest over time worth managed to transform all of the nation's mosques towards islam and in 1985 he disbanded the nation of islam altogether leaving each mosque to maintain the authentic teachings of islam on its own in the span of only 10 years worth brought hundreds of thousands and potentially millions of african americans into the muslim community to the point where it is said that there is a muslim in every black family in america because of him i mean just think 20 percent of the entire muslim population in the us is african-american and half of them are reverts and that's not even mentioning the children of those reverts who are now born into muslim families it was a monumental moment in the history of muslim americans and a huge blessing for the ummah and it was all because of the efforts of these three great men and their sincerity towards the people and towards the religion of islam now there's a couple of things i should mention before i wrap up this video when malcolm x was killed muhammad ali was still on the side of the nation and black supremacy and all this as i mentioned earlier and he wasn't really a muslim yet but later on he converted to islam because of all those reformations that worth had made and he later said he deeply regretted ending his friendship with malcolm before he was assassinated he spent the rest of his life trying to do good to prepare for the day of judgment on the other hand the man named far khan was still the sole minister keeping the nation of islam alive till this day he still has some followers but it's slowly shrinking every year and at the time of writing this video he's 89 years old and there's some hope in the muslim community that when he passes away his remaining followers will abandon the nation of islam and come to islam instead and if you liked the video or found it at all interesting please give it a thumbs up and share it with all your friends and subscribe if you want more videos about muslim history and culture from around the world muhammad ali used to say what i'm the greatest when i met him in riyadh alzheimer's had already set in and he could he had difficulty speaking but slowly he could speak he said to me you know the best thing that ever happened to me was alzheimer's if that hadn't happened to me i would have gone to my grave thinking i was the greatest which is shirk allah humbled me [Music] i was not the greatest he humbled me

Channel: Omar of the Orient

Views: 10,550

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Id: VHAzNCDKuvw

Length: 12min 7sec (727 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 22 2022