Understanding the Teachings Of the Nation Of Islam -Eric Muhammad

A lot of people say they want discipline, community, and purpose, but they usually mean a personal reset, not a total change in direction. We sit down with Minister Eric Muhammad for a direct, no-soft-edges conversation about the Nation of Islam and why he believes the real foundation is knowledge of self, Black history, and what he calls the truth of the time. If you’ve ever searched for Nation of Islam beliefs, Elijah Muhammad teachings, or what “knowledge of self” actually means, this talk is built to give you a clear map of the ideas, not a watered-down summary. 

We get into origins and leadership, including how he explains the Nation of Islam to someone unfamiliar, and the role of Master Fard Muhammad and the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad in shaping the movement. We also address the most common misconceptions head-on, especially claims surrounding Malcolm X and rumors about Elijah Muhammad. Minister Eric Muhammad shares why he sees Malcolm’s influence as powerful while still warning against turning the “man next to the main man” into the main focus. 

Then we bring the teachings into everyday life: diet and health, fasting and mental sharpness, and how “How to Eat to Live” connects to modern buzzwords like intermittent fasting and autophagy. We talk family structure as the base unit of nationhood, marriage and responsibility, and economic empowerment as more than businesses inside someone else’s system. If you care about Black nationalism, separatism, entrepreneurship, and spiritual discipline, there’s a lot here to wrestle with. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review with the one point you agreed with most or strongly rejected.

Transcript

Staying Focused And Cutting Distractions

SPEAKER_01 0:10

What's going on, everybody, out there? It's Ron Brown, LMT, the People's Fitness Professional, aka Soul Brother Number One, reporting for duty. And we have Minister Eric Mohammed in the building this evening. How are you doing, Brother Minister Eric Muhammad?

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Sir, all praise is due to Alam and the most honorable Elijah Muhammad.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Now, um, just before I go into the the the uh podcast questions, I have my own personal question. Um now how do you stay focused every single day on the teaching? Just reading?

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Um it's it's very difficult not to stay focused on the teachings when you are seeing the teachings being borne witness to by the events that are shaping the world in which we live. It's very difficult.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Okay, that's a good answer. I mean, I see it myself. Um, you know, however, like the distractions. I even to get rid of the distractions, I got rid of my my personal Facebook page. I just got my uh yeah, I got rid of it because uh, you know, I you watch people talk on Facebook and then you want to chime in, and then you say, How do you come up with that in your mind? And I and then it's like and then when you get off Facebook and you think, like, how did this person think of that? Like, what kind of what kind of mind is that? And I said, I say, you know what? So I let me just mind my business, let me just focus on what I got going on, uh, get the distractions out of the way. So now the distractions are gone, and I could completely focus. This is what I need. Um, so I want to go into the first question.

What Sparked His Nation Of Islam Path

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Uh, what inspired you on your journey into the nation of Islam?

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Black history. Uh, we call it those of us who have supreme wisdom, we call it knowledge of self. What started me was finding out things about our history that made me to understand that we were not inferior to white people. When you don't have knowledge yourself, you think white people were the first people to do everything, and that we learn to do things from white people. When you start getting knowledge yourself, you realize white people are very, very late in the game, and really it's we're the fathers of civilization. That's what made me interested in Islam, and this is why I couldn't be an Orthodox Muslim. This is why I can't be anything but a follower of the most honorable Elijah Muhammad, because although I have come to greatly, and I really mean this from a heart, I have come to greatly appreciate Islam as it is taught in the Quran, just for the sake of Islam. I've come to appreciate it. I'm not interested in Islam at all, without militant black nationalism, radical black separatism, and revolutionary Pan-Africanism. I'm not interested in Islam at all, without the black man being God, the white man being the devil, and the history of the two nations as taught by the most honorable Elijah Muhammad.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Beautiful answer, brother. We got to drop a bomb for that answer right there. All right.

Explaining Origins Without Dumbing It Down

SPEAKER_01 3:54

So, uh, how would you explain the origins of the nation of Islam to someone unfamiliar with the nation of Islam?

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Hmm, that's a good one. It would all it would actually depend on the person and what specific thing they might say, but just coming from nowhere, I would go to the student enrollment and I would say that we have a question in our student enrollment that asks, What is the birth record of the said nation of Islam? I would explain that the term said nation of Islam would refer to what you believe to be an organization that started in 1930. But the actual nation of Islam has no beginning, nor does it have any ending.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Okay, so now remember this person is unfamiliar. Right now, don't you think that that answer would further confuse them?

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Yes, and I would give them that answer deliberately so that they would have to ask me another question. You know, even if the question is nothing more than well, what do you mean by that? Like if if I give you that and you don't answer me any further, then I don't want to waste any more time with you anyway. You know what I mean? I'm not here to talk your ears off. I'm not part of my slang, but and I don't mean this as nasty as it may sound, but to a person, my position is I'm not sweating you. You understand what I'm saying? Like, I'm here to serve you, and I will do anything I can to do just that, but you have to want to be served. I can't want this more than you want this for yourself, right? So I'm gonna give you answers that are designed to see just how much you want this. I'm not just going to go all in when you ain't really that interested in the first place. I don't have that kind of time to waste. Right. Well, I would expect you to ask me, well, if it doesn't have any, what do you mean by you something? Then I can, you know, then I would say that the nation of Islam actually is all black people, and black people have no beginning, we have no ending. We black people are the nation of Islam, and we are self-created, and that there is no way to put a date on our origin. The origin of the black man is the origin of the nation of Islam, and no one can come up with a record of that origin. We've always been and will always be.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

This sounds like a crazy question. I'm asking questions as if I don't know anything about the nation of Israel.

Elijah Muhammad’s Leadership After 1930

SPEAKER_01 7:15

So, what role did Elijah Muhammad play in shaping the movement?

SPEAKER_00 7:21

Master Farad Muhammad, after spending a little over three years with us, chose the most honorable Elijah. When I say a little over three years, it wasn't quite four years, if I remember correctly. And he chose the most honorable Elijah Muhammad to be his representative to his followers after he would depart from us. And so the most honorable Elijah Muhammad was chosen by Master Farad Muhammad to lead the nation of Islam in his absence, and that's the role the most honorable Elijah Muhammad played. He played the role that Master Farad Muhammad played before he departed.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Okay, okay. All right, so if you can give me a little a little more detail after 1930, what did he do exactly?

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Actually, up until 1934, he was one of the laborers, a minister of Master Farad Muhammad. After Master Farad Muhammad's departure, he was the rightful leader, teacher, and guide of Master Farad Muhammad's followers. So from 1934 all the way up to 1975, what he did was establish temples and schools and businesses throughout Black America. And the movement that was known as the Nation of Islam, he is the one who built it up to what it became by 1975.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

All right, indeed. Um, so fourth question.

Malcolm X And The Batman Problem

SPEAKER_01 9:23

Um how important was Malcolm X to the growth of the Nation of Islam?

SPEAKER_00 9:30

I would say that as long as Malcolm X was a student and follower of the most honorable Elijah Muhammad, he was greatly important to the growth of the nation of Islam. Uh the most honorable Elijah Muhammad entrusted Malcolm with a lot of responsibility. And the amount of responsibility he entrusted Malcolm with, pardon me, it served both a good purpose to the extent that we allowed it to be a good purpose, and it served a not so good purpose to the extent that we went to the left with it. You understand what I'm saying? Some of that responsibility went to Malcolm's head, and he got a little too big for his britches, as you know, that that country saying from the old days, you know. When I was growing up in the 60s, those are the type of terms I grew up listening to. You're getting too big for your britches. That's not a city term. But in the south, which is where my people are from, it was britches, you're getting too big for your britches. And that's what happened with Malcolm. He got a little too big for his britches, and the shine that Malcolm received that was deserved, he deserved the shine that he received. It caused people to take their eye off the prize, which is the most honorable Elijah Muhammad, and start focusing on Malcolm as if he's the main man. Malcolm was never the main man. Malcolm was the man next to the main man. And so when you fall in love so much with Robin that you start disrespecting Batman, it's gonna affect the ability to, you know, to deal with the penguin and the riddle and all the motherfellas.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Now, uh this is kind of off the cuff a little bit, kind of like going off my format

From Church To Islam At 21

SPEAKER_01 11:47

here. Um the age that you got when you went into the nation of Islam was what age? 21. 21. So before 21, what were you what were you doing? Like what kind of teachings were you dealing with? Were you uh a complete 85 pork eating and all that? Wild and out were you dealing with that? I went through stages.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Um overall, the big picture, hog-eaten Christian Negro. When I was born, I was christened, or uh, yes, christened. When I got the age of 20, I was baptized. Uh I grew up in the church. There were years that I didn't go, but I basically grew up in the church, and I fell away from the church, you know, at a young age. You know, when you're a little boy, you you being dragged to church by certain relatives, and when you get old enough, they're not dragging you as much, and you're not going. You you want to watch television, cartoons, play around and you know, with your friends and do uh do little boy things. Uh, so I fell away when I got old enough to fall away, and then when I got 13, I wanted to get back into it. So I started going to church on a regular basis by myself. Nobody taking me. My my parents and grandparents weren't even going. I was going myself, and I did that for you know a certain amount of time. It wasn't a long time, but I did that for a certain amount of time until I started getting a little more into the one of the two things that make us stupid. The two things that make us stupid are money and women. So when I started getting a little more into women, I started falling away from constantly going into the church. And so that was my mid to upper teens. And then when I got through my teens and got to the age of 20, I got right back in church again. And that's when I became a Bible thumping Christian. And uh that lasted until I ran across Islam as taught by the messenger.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

Okay, that's peace. That's peace.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

And this is all in uh New Jersey, all in New Jersey, first in Newark and then in Plainfield. Plainfield. I keep hearing that.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

I keep hearing Plainfield. I hear that a lot. Jersey. Anyway, um, so the next one I want to go into is uh what are the common misconceptions about the organization?

Misconceptions About Malcolm And Elijah Muhammad

SPEAKER_00 14:55

One that we killed Malcolm because Malcolm busted the messenger having relations with his secretaries. It's a damn lie. The messenger never had relations with his secretaries, they were neither his girlfriends on the side nor his lawful Islamic wives. He has no children by any other woman than Clara Mohammed. He has no other wife other than Clara Muhammad. So everybody talking about the messenger had more than one wife is a liar. And you are a liar because you believe in a liar. You believe your liar is telling the truth, and that's fine, that's what you believe. But when you are under the influence of a liar, you believe their lies. So that's misconception, in my opinion, misconception number one. That the most honorable Elijah Muhammad did some good things, but he had some girlfriends on the side. Malcolm found out about it. And when Malcolm realized he wasn't the man that he thought he was, you know, he tried to do the right thing, and Elijah Muhammad was jealous of him because he could preach better than him and he had him killed. That's not only a misconception, it's just downright stupid and half-retarded. It's just not the case. All right, now, other misconceptions that we are somehow just angry with white people, and because we're angry with white people, we call white people bad names and want to, you know, speak and act against white people. No, that's a misconception. White people, I'll give you an example in myself. I have had very, very, very few bad experiences with white people. White people ain't done nothing to me. Personally, white people ain't done nothing to me. I never hit that racial wall that many of us uh hit. I don't have the experience of being called nigga by white folk. I don't have the experience of white folks, you know, making me go to the back of a restaurant or drink from a particular fountain. Or, you know, I have not had bad racial experiences with white people. I was born in the early 60s, and so, you know, the civil rights movement was going pretty good by then, and I was born in Newark, New Jersey. I was born in the north, and so and I was, you know, born in the hood and grew up in the hood. I didn't go hood, but I grew up in the hood, and so there were, I had hardly any dealings with white people at all. White people were my teachers in school, but basically, I don't have any experiences like Malcolm had when he was young. A teacher telling him when he wanted to be a doctor, ain't nobody trying to be no uh doctor uh with you. You just go be a carpenter or something. I don't have any experiences like that. Any racial mistreatment that I received as a young black male, I didn't perceive it. So why am I so anti-white? It's not because I'm mad at white people, it's because white people are devils. It's just that simple, it's not personal with me.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

They're devils. Now, I want to I wanna say

Doctrine Versus Personal Experience

SPEAKER_01 18:44

this. I don't mean to cut your wisdom. No, you're sorry now the teachings come from Master Farad Muhammad and Honorable Elijah Muhammad, right? Now, I was looking, I was watching this video about Honorable Elijah Muhammad and his story and how he came up. Um, and it seems that the way he came up, he came up in up in a of of course, of course, a racist community, right? Right, right, and he he received a lot of bad treatment from from uh uh so-called white people Caucasians. Would would you think that his experience would influence the doctrine?

SPEAKER_00 19:29

No. The doctrine would influence him. This is what I mean by that. It wouldn't be that his experience would influence the doctrine because the doctrine had nothing to do with his experience, the doctrine had everything to do with Master Farad Muhammad. So, again, like I say about me personally, what did the white man do to Master Farad Muhammad, brother? Master Farad Muhammad was born in Mecca Arabia. What what what racist experiences did Master Farad Muhammad ever tell the most honorable Elijah Muhammad that he experienced? I have no teaching from the messenger about Master Farad Muhammad ever experiencing any mistreatment on any level whatsoever from white people. And I'm not saying that he had some great exposure to white people and white people just loved him half to death. I am saying, and all I am saying is, we have no record of any teaching of the most honorable Elijah Muhammad of Master Farad Muhammad being influenced in terms of the doctrine he taught us by mistreatment of himself by white people. Master Farad Muhammad wasn't even born to the type of people, the class of people that would be exposed to something like that. Master Farad Muhammad taught what he taught because that's what he learned. And he taught that to the most honorable Elijah Muhammad. So the doctrine is simply from Master Farad Muhammad to the messenger without any of the messengers' experience influencing it. The messenger's experience would only influence how he received it.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Okay, gotcha, gotcha. That makes sense. Now, um I want to go into uh what are the core teachings of the nation of Islam.

SPEAKER_00 21:47

The core teachings of the nation of Islam are the knowledge of self, that would be black history, the knowledge of God, that would be theology, the knowledge of the Devil that would also be theology, but since the devil is a man and not a spirit, it would also be the knowledge of others than self. Now, when I say others than self, you gotta understand you don't get to white people unless you go through brown people and yellow people, and you don't have red people without the mixture of the other races of people, because the red race is not an independent race, and so the knowledge of self and others is really the knowledge of God and devil, black man, God, white man, the devil. But since you can't get to the white man unless you go through the brown and the yellow, and you only get the red from mixing of the other races, then it becomes the knowledge of others. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

All right, I like that. Okay, all right. Uh, check, check in the chat. Thank you. Uh, thank thanks to the chat. Thank you, everybody in the chat. I see you chiming in. Peace to y'all. Uh, also, no, we have super chats available if you want to support the movement. Super chats available if you want to support the movement. All right, so let's go into

Discipline, Separation, And Rejecting Self Improvement

SPEAKER_01 23:26

it. Uh, seven, how does the nation of Islam define discipline and self improvement? This question is very important for me.

SPEAKER_00 23:41

The nation of Islam, I mean, self-improvement is not our course. That's not our course at all. That's a course that the government determined it wanted us to go into self-improvement. Our course is the supreme wisdom, and our main aim is separation. The government wanted to lead us astray from our black nationalists, black separatists, meaning separation, wanted to lead us away from that because black nationalism and black separatism they considered political. They wanted us to go away from a political Islam, a politicized Islam, and go into more of a religious, spiritual Islam. And so they literally said they wanted to focus the direction of the nation of Islam into more of a spiritual focus, away from black nationalism into self-improvement. And it's no accident that we ended up talking about with the nation of Islam, some of us, depending on what leadership we were following, and saying that our principal course of study is self-improvement. Now we have another watered down focus called, and I and when I say we, I mean some of us, some of us, depending on what leadership we're following. We have another watered down focus. Let's make our communities a safe place to live. Stop it already. We're not interested in self-improvement, we're not interested in let's make our communities a safe place to live. We want nothing short of complete separation in a state or territory of our own. So having a safe place to live, we'll have that. You can't, there's no safe place for us to live under the white man's authority. We live in the valley of the shadow of death. How are you gonna make the valley of the shadow of death a safe place to live? Why not just get out of that valley and go live someplace safe? It just makes no sense. So, no. Uh, self-improvement is something somebody else came up with that's not our focus at all. We ain't even trying to define it. Now, what what was the first thing you asked about defining?

SPEAKER_01 26:45

Uh, how does how does the nation of Islam define discipline in self-improvement? All right.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

Discipline, we do need that now. We do need some discipline, but you know, and discipline will improve us. Don't get me wrong. But as far defining discipline, I don't know anything about us defining it. I I I could sit here and come up with a definition, but there is no official nation of Islam definition of discipline that I'm aware of, and I don't want to give you my brain part of what it is and say that's the nation of Islam and have people think that's the messenger's teaching.

SPEAKER_01 27:31

Right. Got you. I like that answer. Hold on one second. Uh let's shop 22 2205. Thank you for the $20. I really appreciate you, brother. Thank you, thank you, thank you. All right, so now let's go into what is the meaning behind knowledge of self within the nation.

Knowledge Of Self As Thorough Black History

SPEAKER_00 27:57

The knowledge of self is black history, and the thing about black history that we need to understand is the history of black people is the history of all people, because all people come from black black people, pardon me. So knowledge of self simply means black history, and and when we say knowledge of self, we're talking about a thorough knowledge of self. You get some knowledge of self in the white man's schools, wherein you go into African studies, but it's not thorough. In the nation of Islam, you are given a thorough knowledge of self, you're taken way farther back than the white man takes you, and you're given far more details of your history than the white man gives you. And when I say the white man gives you, that includes your black professors, teachers, grandmasters, whatever you want to call them. The bottom line is very few, if any of us at all have learned black history in Arabic. So would you please stop acting like you did? You didn't learn black history in any of the Mandi languages, you didn't learn black history in any of the Cushitic, Nilotic, or any of these other languages, which means you learn black history no matter how black the person is that you learned it from, from the white man. Stop it already. You learned it in English. How are you gonna learn black history in English and and and try to act like you learned it from a black source? No, you didn't. No, you didn't.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

Gotcha. Okay.

Diet, Fasting, Autophagy, And How To Eat

SPEAKER_01 29:56

Uh, how does diet and health play a role in the teaching? That's like I just want to hear how you would answer that.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

Well, you are what you eat, you are what you eat, and to the degree that you eat the best of foods, and eat those foods at the right time, then your abilities to learn are going to be increased to the degree that you eat bad food and eat it after all kinds of times. Your ability to learn will be, and I'm saying ability to learn because you said teachings, uh, your ability to learn will be adversely affected. And so we teach a lot with respect to fasting, and there's a term that we are now using a lot now called called autophagy. And the white man is telling you that autophagy makes your brain very, very sharp when you're going, when you're in autop that phase of the digestive process, when you're in autophagy, it talks about how it increases your mental acumen. We get excited when the white man starts talking about the benefits of fasting, and we we use his term intermittent fasting and autophagy and all of that. Well, it's just how to eat to live, brother.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

I must I want to say that I want to add on to this. One of the reasons what that got me really like taking a zero in on the nation of Islam is a few reasons. You know, I always say in the beginning, I'm a fitness professional. Yes, sir. I've been in the fitness profession profession for over 20 years at the top, like the most corporate part of it, right? And like all of the stuff that that business wants people who really want to be successful, want them to do, the nation of Islam pretty much does it with the with the FOI and the MGT, right? So like uh like clean shaving, you know, um uh creating a community, being sharp, on point, on time, like like basically strict in a sense. Um you know, I just started to see all that's taught in the nation of Islam is in in business, in a sense.

SPEAKER_02 32:44

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 32:46

So, you know, just like the professionalism and how to handle people and things like that, and um, you know, that's what that's what drawn me more to the nation of Islam, noticing that the corporate world basically does the same thing in in some cases.

SPEAKER_00 33:05

Now, let me tell you why. The most honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that the white man commercializes, corporate commercializes on everything. All the white man did was take the supreme wisdom of the nation of Islam and commercialize it, and you ended up in the commercialized version of what the white man took from the most honorable Elijah Muhammad. Plain and simple. The white man is gonna make commerce out of whatever he he runs across, and that's what he did.

SPEAKER_01 33:45

All right, now let me go to the next one.

Nation Of Islam Versus Sunni Islam

SPEAKER_01 33:48

What separates the nation? This is this one is this is gonna be a long answer, hopefully. Uh uh, what separates the nation of Islam from to traditional Sunni Islam?

SPEAKER_00 34:02

I like that question. The most honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that the old world of Islam that would be the orthodox world of Islam, that the old world of Islam was ruled by white Muslims, but that the new world of Islam will be ruled by black Muslims only, only black Muslims. That's what the new world of Islam will be ruled by. In the old world of Islam ruled by white Muslims, you find much of the abuse of black people that you find outside of Islam, you find it right inside Islam. And so when people want to attack Islam and say Islam is a slavery religion too, just like Christianity, you don't expect us to have suffered slavery in Islam. Why? It was ruled by white Muslims. Listen, whenever you're dealing with a black white dynamic, the late Dr. Not King Bak said, and history bears witness. No matter where you find the black white dynamic, whether you find it in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, any communism, socialism, capitalism, no matter what the ology, no matter what the ism, no matter where you find the black white dynamic, you find whites at the top, blacks at the bottom. Because there is no ideology, there is no philosophy, there is no ology, no ism, no nothing that changes white people from being white people, and it is naturally born in white people to rule black people and not to rule us with justice. And so you have the same thing in Islam: white Muslims have ruled us without freedom and justice and equality. It's just that simple. And the new world of Islam is designed to put an end to that and to restore us back to the place where we were before there was any such thing as white people.

SPEAKER_01 36:44

Now, why has the nation of Islam had such a strong impact on black culture?

SPEAKER_00 36:51

Because the nation of Islam, what it is in essence, agrees with our nature. Like it's it's ours, it's naturally ours. So it appeals to us. It's like fish for a cat, a bone for a dog. You know what I mean? It's it's just us. And that's why when we run across it, even if we don't want to accept it, even if we don't want to get involved with it, there's just something about it that appeals to us. It's a natural attraction we have to it, and that's why it has such an impact. All right.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

Um, how has it influenced hip hop activism and entrepreneurship?

SPEAKER_00 37:52

I can say that it has greatly influenced hip hop. I don't know about too much activism.

SPEAKER_01 38:03

Well, I mean, I mean, if you think about it, you know, out of out of um uh Michael Mix's uh uh, I would say was the mosque he was a part of, a lot of a lot of brothers and sisters came out of that influence at that time for activism. You know, from what I know, like the Black Panthers is one of them. You know, uh uh you got the 5% nation is another one. And then other groups sprung up out of that that era in that time through the nation of Islam. So I would say activism was strong back then. Um entrepreneurship, uh I'm gonna tell you, uh, the nation of Islam definitely uh uh uh influenced me as far as entrepreneurship, as far as like saying, you know, do for you know, accept your own and do for your do for self. You know, I'm like like I'm in this industry and I'm like, should I keep climbing the ladder here and like deal with the politics and the nonsense? Or should I just because you know, in this in the fitness industry, being black is is it's it's something it's not like it's like anything else. Like because you're black, you just don't get the door open. You know, they're gonna kind of make it a little harder. Like, hold on, let's hold the door, let's keep it shut for a little bit until he does this. It's like then you do this, and then it's the oh no, no, no, no, not that. Do this now. Like, nah, man. So, how about this? Let me just do for my let me just be more independent and just do for myself. And uh, the nation of Islam inspired me in that in that regard.

SPEAKER_00 39:50

Praise be to Allah for the most honorable Iraq Muhammad. Well, in your lessons, brother, it says the devil's physical power is less than one-third that of the original man because he's weak boned, he's weak-blooded, because he's drafted from the original man, right? So when that's what you're dealing with in physical fitness, that's physical power, right? Okay, so this is why being black in the fitness industry, because the white man, because he commercializes everything, he takes physical fitness and turns it into commerce. If you look, brother, at the history of various original peoples, the study of wisdom, especially of wisdom with respect to you know, righteousness, you know, how to live a good life, you know, uh, morals, discipline, values, principles. That type of study coupled with some type of physical fitness, like martial arts, for example, there's a spiritual, uh, there's a spiritual uh context to it or aspect of it as well. It's not just throwing punches and kicks and doing katters and stuff like that. It involves spiritual development and mental development as well. You know, you go in kung fu, shaolin temples. You know what I mean? I mean, in the white man's society, kung fu is something you just go to a dojo and learn. You know, it's commerce, it's commercial, but it's just a regular part of certain oriental societies, physical fitness coupled with educational and moral development. You look at all cultures, and it's just a part of the culture, it's not commercialized, though. The white man takes that and turns it into an industry to make money off of it. And this is why, again, you you run into the problems that you are running into because the white man has taken it and shifted the focus of it to a whole nother level. The the morals, the principles, the values, the spiritual, the inner development, all of that is dispensed with. I know you say it's some discipline involved in it, but nah, it's not it's not like it is in its original form. And it doesn't produce the type of individuals that if it had been left in its original form, that it would have produced. Make sense?

SPEAKER_01 42:58

Makes sense. That makes

Family, Marriage, And Nationhood

SPEAKER_01 42:59

sense. Now, um, I want to go to what role does family structure play within the teachings.

SPEAKER_00 43:08

It is absolutely essential that the whole family thing, pardon me for saying it like that, be stressed. Because the most honorable Aja Muhammad teaches us that family is the basic unit of a nation. Family. Without family, you don't have nationhood, and so this is where morals, disciplines, and values come into play. He teaches us that we must respect, we must protect, and we must elevate our women. Men are the maintainers of women, and so we can't just be boyfriend and girlfriend or friends with benefits. You understand what I'm saying? Having relationships. And female that do not involve the type of commitment that forms a family. We can't do that. None of this boyfriend, girlfriend stuff. None of this, you know, you got a fiance that you know has been your fiance for 37 years. I'll never understand that. You've been living with this woman for 37 years, y'all ain't married yet. That is the stupidest, most half-retarded thing. Why don't you just get married? You know what I mean? Uh, but we are anti-marriage, we're scared of that commitment. So we fake it. My fiance. So you're close enough to marriage to fake the fact that you ain't trying to be married. My fiance. Interested in no damn fiance. Wife. That's it. You know what I mean? Um, and so the physical relations, you know, intimate relations, those that should never take place outside of the commitment of a marriage. And the children that are produced from that relationship should be produced from marriage and raised in marriage so that the children grow up learning that responsibility and commitment from their parents. So family is very, very, very important. Very, very important. Without family, you got nothing.

SPEAKER_01 45:38

That's true.

Economic Empowerment As A Nation

SPEAKER_01 45:39

Um, so how does the organization, quote unquote, approach economic empowerment?

SPEAKER_00 45:48

By stressing the fact that it's not an organization. See, as long as it's seen as an organization, the you know, the economic empowerment is never real. No, we believe in economic empowerment as a nation of economic empowerers, just like point number eight in what the Muslims believe. We believe in equality as a nation of equals. You know, black people talk equality outside of the following of the most honorable Elijah Muhammad, but when they talk about equality, they mean within the context of America. No, that's not equality. You ain't equal with the white man until you have what the white man has. White man has a country and a government and a flag to represent. Countries, countries, we, yeah, exactly. We need a government, we need a country, we believe in being equal with the white man as a country like the white man. I don't mean our country is like his, I mean that we have a country like he has a country. That's the kind of equality we believe in, and we only believe in economic or in economic empowerment within that context. We don't want businesses in America, we need them as long as we have to live here. We need businesses here. As long as we live here, we're gonna have to eat here, we're gonna have to sleep here. So we're gonna need to do something. So, yeah, let's do for self. But doing for self does not mean living under the white man's flag and country with our own businesses under governed by his laws and regulations. Doing for self means having a country ourselves and our own economic system, which would do us much better than we could ever do economically, as long as we're under the laws and regulations of the white man. So we believe in economic empowerment as a nation of people, not as an oppressed minority in the white man's nation. All right.

How To Reach Muhammad’s Temple 15

SPEAKER_01 48:27

Now we got uh brother Les Shop. Uh, he asks, where is the mosque that Eric represents in Atlanta? I want to know as I need to speak with him or attend the temple. Well, I put up his email right there, uh, no y temple15 at aol.com. You could reach him through that email or if Eric Mohammed would like to give any other information for the brother. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 48:59

Yes, I would definitely say reach out to us in an email. However, we are located at 5540. That's 5540. Old National Highway. We are in building two. We are in suite number eight. There's a big old Muhammad's Temple 15 sign right above the door, so you can't miss it. Building two is the building that's in the back of building one. Don't forget that. Don't forget that part. Go to the back, go to the back. People will come here, you know, and they'll see the building. And they you can't see the back building right when you pull into the plaza. You can't see the building that's in the back. No, there's a whole nother building in the back, and that's the one we're in, and it's number eight.

SPEAKER_01 50:05

And there's the email if you need to reach him, brother Let's shop.

What Young Men Learn In FOI

SPEAKER_01 50:09

Uh uh, what can young men learn from the discipline emphasized in the nation?

SPEAKER_00 50:17

There's no limit to what a brother can learn about a myriad of things in the FOI. Like we have junior FOI, like we start the brothers age four. You know what I mean? Oh, yes, we start the brothers at age four, and we raise them up as juniors, and then when they get to the age of 16, then they are able to, you know, be in ranks with the senior FOI. So there's no limit, you know. We teach everything. Wait a minute.

SPEAKER_01 50:57

So yes, sir, junior FOI until 16. Yes, sir. From four to sixteen, junior FOI. That is interesting, anyway. Uh let me see. And the reason why I say that is because uh five percent is teach the babies, right? And the babies are 16 and under. Yes, sir. And so I thought that was interesting. So now um uh what challenges does the nation of Islam face today?

The Hardest Challenge: Truth Of The Time

SPEAKER_00 51:34

Oh my god. I mean, the most seemingly impossible challenge facing the nation of Islam today is reaching our people with this truth. The messenger said in his lecture, why I teach separation. There is so much confusion today, and this was back in 1962. There's far more confusion now than it was back then. He said, There's much confusion today, and the people's minds are clouded with that confusion, and it makes it hard to get straight truth to the people, especially the truth of the time. Now, if you look at the messenger's words, the number one thing that it is difficult to get into the minds of our people is the truth of the time. So you have everybody out here teaching what they claim is the truth, and a lot of it sounds pretty good, some of it is pretty good, to be honest with you, but a lot of it sounds pretty good, and again, some of it is pretty good, but even the pretty good does not deal with the time, and so we have all of these different teachings out here from all of these different teachers, we have all of this different so-called black knowledge, and our minds are attracted to any new, unheard-of-before, different black-sounding knowledge, and we're totally missing the truth of the time, and the truth of the time will focus you on absolutely no one else but Master Farad Muhammad through his messenger, the most honorable Elijah Muhammad, and nowhere else, no other movement but the nation of Islam that follows the most honorable Elijah Muhammad and none of these other nation of Islam leaders. Now, he he here is message to the black man where I get this idea from. Uh, not he took that name for himself to correspond with the time of his coming. You got a lot of people that's gonna tell you a lot of things, and a lot of those things are gonna be about Islam, but they're not gonna tell you about the time, how the white man was given 6,000 years to rule us, his time is up, and now the God of the righteous is on scene today, in his time, to remove the devil's world and set up a kingdom of righteousness that will know no end. Well, what is that time? That time is Farad. What Farad? The Farad of the Seventh millennium after the grafting of the white race, the first few years of the seventh thousandth year after the six thousand years of the rule of the devil, there is a man whose name corresponds with that time because his coming at that time signals that he himself is the one who is going to rule in that time, and so that puts your focus on Master Farad Muhammad. If you're focused on Master Farad Muhammad, you got to go through Elijah Muhammad to get to him. You don't have to go through no damn minister to get to Elijah because ain't nobody trying to get to Elijah in the first place. So when you tell me you got to go through some minister to get to the most honorable Elijah Muhammad, I'm telling you, ain't nobody trying to get to the most honorable Elijah Muhammad. We're trying to get to Master Farad Muhammad, and we have to go through the most honorable Elijah Muhammad to get to Master Farad Muhammad. Nobody's aiming for Elijah, we're aiming for Farad and the sight. Elijah Muhammad is the sight. That's what we're on. So get your minister out my face. Nobody is going through your minister to get through no messenger because we ain't trying to get to no messenger. We are trying to get to the savior, Allah, God in person. And so we go through the messenger to get to him. It's Master Farad Muhammad's time. That's why his name is Farad. It ain't because he liked the way the name sounds, it's because this is his, it's ours, but it is more his time than anybody else. It is Master Farad Muhammad's time. What time is it, Master Farad? That's what time it is. And so that's who you are going to have to bow down and submit to, Master Farad Muhammad, because this is his time. And if you like some other black teaching and don't want to bow down and submit to Master Farad Muhammad, deuces. Good luck with that. We ain't gonna sweat you. Go ahead. But this is Master Farad Muhammad's time. It ain't Jesus' time, it ain't Moses' time, it ain't Abraham's time, and it ain't no other black leader's time. It's Master Farad Muhammad's time. It's his time. He will rule.

SPEAKER_01 58:19

All right. Check, check. We got some questions in there in the chat. We got some uh comments too. Um I comment I don't even want to address right now. That's a whole uh that's a whole uh podcast. Someone's in the comments going on and on. Uh but I like

Why Go Through Farad And Elijah

SPEAKER_01 58:47

this question right here. Mr. Amazai. Amazai, is that Amazai, the Moorish brother that I uh uh interviewed? Let me know if that's who if that's who this is. Uh so he said, why the brother Amazai said, why do we have to go through either one when we are gods? Because Farad is the God of gods, even gods have a god.

SPEAKER_00 59:17

We we automatically assume that if you're God, you don't have a God. Well, who taught you that? Where did you get that from? And why are you so sure that's the truth? Who in the hell told you that if you God, you don't have a God? Yes, you do. Master Farad Muhammad is the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, and the God of Gods. That's why we have to go through him. And to make it more simply, Master Farad Muhammad has more knowledge, more wisdom, more understanding, and more power in his pinky fingernail than all of us together have. That's why. Because Master Farad Muhammad decides whether you live or die. He has the power, the messenger said, to force the whole world into submission to his will. I'm not asking you to believe that, I'm asking you to be aware of the fact that the most honorable Elijah Muhammad taught that. So if you ask me the question, I'm gonna give you Elijah Muhammad's answer. We have to go through Master Farad Muhammad because, according to the most honorable Elijah Muhammad, he has the power to force the entire world to submit to his will. None of us have that power. So you can talk about how much God we are. I'm God too. And you're not gonna tell me that I don't realize my godhood as much as you realize yours. The hell I don't. Oh, yes, I do, but I pray to Master Farad Muhammad, I submit to Master Farad Muhammad because I believe that Master Farad Muhammad has the power to make me wish like hell I did if I didn't.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:13

Check

Final Thanks And Sign Off

SPEAKER_01 1:01:14

now. Before we cut out, man, I just want to let everyone know that uh thank you for coming out this evening. I really appreciate you. Uh, if you're just getting on now, we got 50 people viewing this right now. Understand, I always start pie. Oh, hold on. Okay, no, Ron. This is a brother that supports your show. Okay, okay, okay. I thought I had you on the show before. All right there, brother. Um, thank you for coming on, man. I've been seeing your name. It's peace to see you up here. Uh, you know, continuously follow what we got going on up here. Um uh uh so again, I was getting ready to say I start the podcast on the dot. If it's not on the dot, it's technical difficulties. It will probably be five minutes late. If that, if that. If you come in later, you miss the whole show, you're gonna have to rewind it. All right. So uh again, thank you guys for coming out this evening. Thank you, brother uh minister Eric Muhammad, the one who uh opened my eyes to the nation of Islam, uh uh and and has me totally uh interested in the teachings. Thank you, brother Eric Muhammad, for what you do. Um, and uh if you have any last words, you know, you floor is yours. Just asalam alaykum. Always a privilege and a pleasure. Indeed. Always always a privilege and a pleasure, brother. Peace to everybody, and we are out of here. Peace, asalam alaykum.