Warith Deen Mohammed

Warith Deen Mohammed
Leader of the Nation of Islam
In office
February 26, 1975 – 1976
Preceded byElijah Muhammad
Succeeded byLouis Farrakhan
Leader of the American Society of Muslims
In office
1976 – August 31, 2003
Director of The Mosque Cares
In office
2003 – September 9, 2008
Succeeded byWallace D. Mohammed II
Personal details
Born
Wallace D. Muhammad

October 30, 1933 (1933-10-30)
Hamtramck, Michigan, U.S.
DiedSeptember 9, 2008(2008-09-09) (aged 74)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Resting placeMount Glenwood Cemetery, Thornton, Illinois, U.S.
Spouses
  • Shirley Mohammed
  • Khadijah Siddeeq Binah Muhammad
Children8
Parents
Relatives
Alma materMuhammad University of Islam
OccupationImam, religious reformer, Muslim scholar, businessman

Warith Deen Mohammed (born Wallace D. Muhammad;[a] October 30, 1933 – September 9, 2008), also known as W. Deen Mohammed, Imam W. Deen Muhammad and Imam Warith Deen, was an African-American Muslim leader, theologian, philosopher, Muslim revivalist, and Islamic thinker.

He was a son of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam from 1933 to 1975.[4][5] In 1975, upon Elijah Muhammad's death, he became the Nation of Islam's national leader (Supreme Minister).[6][7]

In 1976, he disbanded the original Nation of Islam (NOI) and transformed it into an ostensibly orthodox and mainstream Islamic movement.[8] He rejected the previous deification of Wallace Fard Muhammad, accepted whites as fellow-worshippers, forged closer ties with mainstream Muslim communities, and introduced the Five Pillars of Islam into his group's theology.[3][9] This organization was called the Bilalians (1975), World Community of Al-Islam in the West (1976–77), American Muslim Mission (1978–85),[10] and finally the American Society of Muslims.

Splinter groups which resisted these changes were formed after Elijah Muhammad's death, particularly under Louis Farrakhan, who would revive the name Nation of Islam (from Final Call) for his organization in 1978. Farrakhan's NOI and the previous Final Call claim that they are direct continuations of the pre-1975 NOI and the pre-1975 Final Call.[3][11]

  1. ^ Muslim Journal, Vol. 15, No. 19, December 22, 1989
  2. ^ Wall Street Journal, Vol. CIV, NO. 6, Friday, July 9, 1999
  3. ^ a b c Esposito, John (September 10, 2008). "W.D. Mohammed: A Witness for True Islam: On Faith". The Washington Post.
  4. ^ "The Emergence of Islam in the African-American Community" Archived February 20, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ "Warith Deen Mohammed", This Far By Faith, Public Broadcasting Service.
  6. ^ Lincoln, C. Eric. (1994) The Black Muslims in America, Third Edition, William B. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing Company) page 263
  7. ^ Fraser-Rahim, Muhammad. America’s Other Muslims: Imam WD Mohammed, Islamic Reform, and the Making of American Islam. Lexington Books, 2020.
  8. ^ See Al-Islam, The Islamic Movement Journal, vol. 4, no. 4, p. 19-20, July–August 1975; vol 4. no. 6, p. 10-12, Nov-Dec, 1975; Unrecanted Statements, 1990; The Truth Regarding Warith Deen Mohammed, 1993
  9. ^ "Conversion of the Muslims", TIME, 14 Mar 1977
  10. ^ See Bilalian News/A.M.Journal, 1976–1985
  11. ^ Lincoln, C. Eric. (1994) The Black Muslims in America, Third Edition, William B. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing Company) page 274


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