Minor Sects of Islam
by Grady L. Davis, M.Div., Ph.D.
Former Chairman of Directed Individualized Studies
Golden State School of Theology, Oakland, CA ©1983,2003

Sufism

The most exotic variant of Islam proposes to reach G-d not through the Five Pillars, but by entering trance states induced by dancing. The Sufis (their name comes from the wool [suf] of their undergarments) are a mystical Islamic branch rooted in the ascetic pietism of Mohammad’s followers. Al-Hasan of Basra (643-728) was an early advocate of Sufism as was Melvana Celaleddin Rumi, a Turkish mystic who lived in the thirteenth century.

Their emphasis is on union with G-d through meditation and ritual rather than Koranic obedience. Combining Islamic doctrines with Christian and Gnostic beliefs, they have developed a pantheistic theology with a spiritual hierarchy of awliya (saints). Chief of these is Qutb, the Pole of the World. Sufi leaders known as shaikhs are held to be saints, and many of them have practiced celibacy, though it is not a requirement of their office.

While the average Muslim is content in submitting to the will of Allah, the Sufi wants an immediate, ecstatic experience of oneness with G-d. The means to accomplish this is a once-secret rite of twirling dance maneuvers. It was Rumi who adapted Asian shamanistic practices and formed a ritualistic approach to Islam. His disciples became known as “whirling dervishes.” Until recently dervishes were illegal in their native Turkey.

Dervishes turn for an hour or more at a time without any sign of fatigue, repeating the name of Allah in prayer to the accompaniment of a musical beat.

Until recently this was reserved for initiates only, but now their beliefs and practices are performed in public. The costume is a white skirt which represents a shroud, and a high felt hat, symbolizing a tombstone.

Among the eight Sufi precepts are: a concentrated breathing technique, returning to G-d from the material world, and being aware of the divine presence.

This group has about 6000 adherents in America.

Black Muslims

In 1913, a North Carolina black man named Timothy Drew arrived in Newark, New Jersey, under the name of Noble Drew Ali. He founded the Moorish-American Science Temples on the doctrine that Negroes were of Moroccan (Moorish) origin, and that Jesus was a black man killed by white Romans. Many of his teachings were taken from The Aquarian Gospel, an occult book written by Levi Dowling.

When Ali died, Wallace Ford, a door-to-door salesman from Detroit, suddenly appeared on the scene claiming to be Ali’s reincarnation. He asserted that he was born in Mecca and had been sent to America to redeem the black man from the “Caucasian devil."” One of Ford's spokesmen, Elijah Muhammad (formerly Robert Poole) helped him to found the Nation of Islam. [Elijah] Muhammad insisted that Ford was an incarnation of Allah. By the time Ford mysteriously disappeared from sight in 1935, [Elijah] Muhammad had assumed leadership of the organization.

While incarcerated as a conscientious objector during World War II, Elijah Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, effectively recruited black prisoners for his cause. His message to them was simple: Wallace Ford was G-d — the messiah predicted by Christians and the Mahdi proclaimed by Muslims. The white beast (created by a mad black scientist) has been allowed to reign for 6000 years, and that period ended in 1914; the time is ripe for the Nation of Islam and the divine black G-d-men guided by Allah to arise and claim control over the world.

Malcolm X was the mouthpiece of Elijah Muhammad and was an eloquent evangelist until he was murdered by one of Muhammad’s rivals on February 21, 1965. Membership blossomed in the turbulent, racially tense sixties. Dozens of temples were opened in ghetto neighborhoods, usually by acquiring the abandoned churches of white congregations who fled to the suburbs. A half-million circulation newspaper, Muhammad Speaks, (now called Bilalian News) was hawked by well-dressed militantly organized youth.

Though their racial intolerance separated them from the world community of Islam, they did practice some Muslim precepts. Members prayed five times a day facing Mecca. Women were admonished to respect their husbands and were required to have their heads covered. The Qur’an was deemed to be the holy scripture of G-d’s prophet, although they also entertained fanciful speculation about the black man having originated on the moon 65 trillion years ago.

Though most critics labeled their theology as “racial hatred,” Black Muslims preferred to call their views “social separation.” They wanted no part of integration. Why should they? The white man’s day of destruction was coming, and blacks should avoid sharing in his judgment. Heaven and hell were considered irrelevant concepts because the black man in America had already gone through the hell of slavery.

Upon the death of Elijah Muhammad in 1965, his son Wallace took over the movement. His initial most important accomplishment has been to drop the strident racial invectives that had aroused the fear and dread of whites. This new image has enabled the Black Muslims to gain official recognition as an orthodox Islamic body under the name Community of Islam in the West.

After the death of Malcolm X, militant groups splintered off from the main group, which is now led by Wallace Muhammad. Such is the group led by the “Reverend” Louis Farrakhan.

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Page last revised on Thursday, 11 September 2008