Triple Bait-and-Switch: A Ramadan Dilemma

In the Spirit of the Gracious and Compassionate
Creator of the Heavens and the Earth

I hardly know where to begin.

Part One: The First Bait-and-Switch

In August 1971 – a reasonable starting point, perhaps – a friend and fellow musician returned from a several-months-long out-of-town journey clean shaven (including his head) and dressed in a black suit. He had joined Elijah Muhammad’s organization, The Nation of Islam.

Over the next two years, this friend – I knew him as “Monty” – and a fellow named William came to visit me from time to time. I was living in Yellow Springs, Ohio, teaching at Antioch College. Monty and William were living either in nearby Dayton or in Cincinnati, much further away.

What they were doing was called “fishing” in the Nation of Islam. They were fishing me in. The metaphor was not a secret, despite the obvious fact that, in fishing, the fish is offered what it thinks is dinner, but instead is eaten for dinner. In actual fact, most of those who did the fishing sincerely believed they were offering the “fish” a better life. But there were also many – especially among the higher-ups in the organization – who wanted as many “fish” as they could get, to exploit them.

I joined the Nation of Islam in March 1974. I had been fished in.

This first part of the “triple” bait-and-switch is not in the crude exploitation of the Nation of Islam membership, but in the entire existence of the organization. The Nation of Islam was established on a deliberately fabricated body of lies. The man who fabricated these lies was known to us as “Master Fard” (pronounced “fa-RAAD”), or as W.D. Fard, or as Fard Muhammad. In telling ignorant people – including Elijah Muhammad (originally Elijah Poole) – that this body of lies was “Islam”, he was knowingly deceiving people who knew nothing about Islam. I was one of them.

Fortunately for me, Elijah Muhammad died on February 25, 1975, and the very next day, the new leader of the Nation of Islam, one of Elijah Muhammad’s sons – W.D. Muhammad – was announced as the new leader, and he immediately began dismantling the body of ideas his father had taught his followers for over 40 years.

I had been what you could call a “true believer”, and for several months I had felt as though I was bending my brain out of shape trying to believe what Elijah Muhammad was telling us. When W.D. Muhammad began unraveling the miasma of crazy ideas, I felt greatly relieved. For the first time, those of us in the Nation of Islam were introduced to Islam as taught by Prophet Muhammad (who lived in Arabia 14 centuries ago) and as set forth in the Qur’an.

Part Two: The Second Bait-and-Switch

At some time during my first year in the Nation of Islam, I read a book by C. Eric Lincoln entitled, “The Black Muslims in America”. (We called ourselves “Muslims”, not “Black Muslims”, but the name stuck.) I am not sure I read the whole book, but one statement stood out to me. He said that most of the followers of Elijah Muhammad had “middle-class aspirations”. I was offended by that. For one thing, why would anyone with middle-class aspirations follow a man who was teaching that the white man is the devil and that America is going to be destroyed – bombed to smithereens and burned to ashes (and soon!) – unless, of course, they did not actually believe it? And, for another thing, I had abandoned a relatively comfortable middle-class life in order to join Elijah Muhammad’s mission to build a nation for the Black Man. “Middle-class aspirations”? Ridiculous!

Well, I was wrong. Most of my Brothers and Sisters in the Nation of Islam had joined the organization in search of a better American life. They indulged the fiery rhetoric of Elijah Muhammad, but they were not expecting to see the Mother Ship with its bombing planes destroying America’s cities and setting the air itself on fire, while the followers of Elijah Muhammad fled to Canada or Mexico. They expected to enjoy a better life in a safe and secure America.

I had given up my academic profession and my comfortable life for a humbug. I was working long hours at the Shabazz Restaurant, selling Muhammad Speaks newspapers on the street-corners and door-to-door, selling bakery products, and haranguing neighbors, friends, and strangers with the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. I was gone, right? And so that other people could achieve their middle-class aspirations.

I was all in for the mission. My Brothers and Sisters were all in for the American dream. This was the second bait-and-switch.

In full disclosure, I must confess that a particular selling point – part of the bait – was the promise of “money, good homes, and friendship in all walks of life”. For people who had experienced nothing but poverty, slums, and oppression, that was an attractive promise.

Part Three: The Third Bait-and-Switch

In August of 1975 (possibly earlier), I had begun studying Arabic, so that I could read the Qur’an. I had moved to Chicago, and I saw dozens of my Brothers and Sisters in classes, learning to read Arabic. I actually do not know what has happened to those people. It seems as though almost none of them completed the task.

I learned to read the Qur’an in two years. Forty years later, I find very few – almost none – of my Brothers and Sisters who have learned to read the Qur’an.

In a Christian society, this may not seem odd. So, I need to explain it.

I was raised on the Bible – on the King James Version, in fact. In the denomination I was raised in, we read the Bible more than most Christians, but like almost all Christians we were reading a verse here, a verse there, a short passage here, a short passage there. We did not read an entire chapter, let alone an entire book.

I would like to believe – though one can never be sure about these things – that almost all Christians are aware that every Bible in the English language is a translation. And, as a translation, the language of the King James Version is strange to our ears, so strange that it cries out to be translated into modern English.

Not only do we have several translations of the Bible in English, but there are at least hundreds of translations of the Bible into other languages. Not one of these translations is original.

Not one of the books of the Bible is an original. The original books have been lost.

Many Christians say that the Bible is “the word of God”. In what sense does this have meaning?

This is not a matter of doctrine or faith. This is a matter of history. The Qur’an that Muhammad presented to his companions has been preserved. If the Qur’an is “the word of God”, then the word of God has been preserved – for 14 centuries.

It has been preserved in writing. Copies made during the lifetime of Muhammad’s companions have been preserved to this day.

It has been preserved in memory. Every time a Muslim stands up in salaah, he (or she) is reciting the Qur’an. During the month of Ramadan, it is customary for those who have memorized the entire Qur’an to recite the entire Qur’an in the course of the month. (“Salaah” is purification, by the way, not prayer.)

While Muhammad was alive, hundreds of his companions had memorized the entire Qur’an. And all of the Qur’an had been put into writing.

When I started reading-reciting the Qur’an in March 1977 – abandoning the English so-called “translation” – I had a vision. There had been an earthquake and a jagged crack ran down the middle of the street; I was on one side of the crack, and the Muslims I knew were on the other side of the crack. At the time, my thought was that this was about the African American Muslims of the former Nation of Islam (the name had been changed by then), with whom I had had unpleasant experiences. But, over the years, and with considerable study, I have come to realize that reading-reciting the Qur’an has put me on one side of that jagged crack, and the Muslims of the world are on the other side.

Historically, what happened is that 29 years after the death of Muhammad, the Muslims came under leadership that deviated from the path of Muhammad – thinking that their mission and destiny was to conquer the world, rather than to deliver the message. The Muslims have not gotten back on the path of Muhammad since then. For one thing, only a tiny minority of Muslims read-recite the Qur’an.

The word “qur’aan” means “that which is to be read-recited. (It means both. It doesn’t have an English equivalent.) But the Muslims, world-wide, are not doing what the name of the book demands.

The expression “bait-and-switch” implies a deliberate conspiracy. In the case of the Nation of Islam’s members having middle-class aspirations, there was no deliberate attempt to mislead me, I’m fairly certain. Instead, I sense that many of them could not understand why I had walked away from my formerly comfortable life.

In the case of this third bait-and-switch, the conspiracy was actually committed 14 centuries ago when certain people (you don’t need to know them by name) conspired to take over, and having succeeded in becoming the leaders, they re-directed policy from defensive warfare – which had been necessary – to offensive warfare. Muhammad had never attempted to conquer people; he and his community were attacked, and they defended themselves.

Having deviated from the path of Muhammad, the Muslims set about emulating the religion of the Christians. They built magnificent temples (“mosques”). They had priests (“imams”), who wore special caps and gowns. None of this was established by Muhammad. For Muhammad and his companions, a masjid (“mosque”) was a simple shelter. No one went around being called by titles. Even Muhammad himself was called by his name, by friends and strangers alike. And Muhammad himself wore ordinary clothing. He said, “Ana basharun mithlukum.” “I am an ordinary person like all of you.”

To this day, Muslims say that Muhammad established a new religion. He did nothing of a sort. The establishment of a new religion became necessary once the Muslims had deviated. If the message of Muhammad, the Qur’an, is authentic, then believing that Muhammad established a new religion contradicts the clear message of the Qur’an. Not only did Muhammad set forth the same message, the same way of life, as Abraham and all of the prophets, but “islaam” is – according to the Qur’an – the nature of all reality. Everything that exists “aslama” (surrenders) to Allah. Islam is not a religion.

Before joining the Nation of Islam, I was “in the gay life”. I did not think it was morally upright. But after years of trying to be “straight”, I found no better way to be. When those who had fished me into the Nation of Islam told me that Elijah Muhammad had said that “once the devil is destroyed these evil conditions will go away”, I had found a way to be “straight”. Well, once Elijah Muhammad was gone and his teachings discredited, I was left in the lurch. Muslims – claiming or thinking that they are following the Qur’an and Muhammad – talk to me, about me, or about the situation of homosexual people, in a way that, in effect, tells me that it is impossible for me to be a Muslim.

The ironic reality of this bait-and-switch experience is that, without it, I do not see how I would have come to the Qur’an. As best I can tell, the Qur’an is actually a message from the one who created the entire vastness of the cosmos and the higher reality beyond that. If Muslims would actually read the Qur’an, perhaps they would be able to deliver the message of the Qur’an to the world.

(Incomplete)

15 Ramadan 1441
May 8, 2020