Ramadan for the Nation of Islam
MESSENGER ELIJAH MUHAMMAD (How to Eat to Live: Book 2 | Chapter 14):
WE HERE (Elijah Muhammad and his Followers)...I prescribe for you the month of December to fast in - if you are able to take the fast - instead of the regular month that travels through the year, called Ramadan by the Muslims; the month in which they say Muhammad received the Holy Qur’an.
WHY DID I prescribe for you the month of December? It is because it was in this month that you used to worship a dead prophet by the name of Jesus. And, it was the month that you wasted your money and wealth to worship the 25th day of this month, December, as the Christians do. The Christians know that it is not the birthday of Jesus; for they do not know the birthday of Jesus. No one knows it, because being persecuted by the Jews, Joseph and Mary feared the death of not only their newborn baby that they were bringing to birth, but even feared for their own lives for committing the act out of wedlock. They feared Herod and his army and the religious set of the Jews condemning them to be punished with death. But, they were not to be killed for they were for a sign of the Black Man in America, according to the Holy Qur-an. See Holy Qur-an, Chapter 4:171.
While Christians have deceived you in worshiping the birthday of Nimrod who was born the 25th day of that month, no man knows the day Jesus was born, but they (Joseph and Mary) themselves. This is a sign right there; no man of the evil world was to know when the spiritual birth of Muhammad was to take place. And, surely they do not know. So, do not fast as the other religious people fast, for they have different objects and ways in which they fast, which are against the meaningful fasts that we take.
FASTING takes away evil desires. Fasting takes from us filthy desires. Fasting takes from us the desire to do evil against self and our brothers and sisters. We are created of the material of goodness. Therefore, good belongs to us...and it should not be hard for us to turn to our own selves in which we were created...good.
SUPREME MINISTER JOHN MUHAMMAD (The Dooms, One):
Now, the Ramadan that we have in December, that is not the Ramadan that they have in the Eastern world. Theirs come in the hot month. So the Messenger ask Master Fard, says, “Can not we have Ramadan any time that we wish?” He said, “Yes, a fasting month and you fast in that month for peace in the hereafter and peace now.” He says, “Yes Karriem, you can have it.” He says, “Let us have our Ramadan in the month of December.” “Okay.” So we got it. Why? We don’t have to go through the hot heat of the day and not drink water. That’s why he ask it. We don’t have to wait a long time before we eat; we can soon eat after 5 or 6 o’clock, we can eat. When it’s dark we eat. We don’t we eat none of this animal here, none of these beasts here, we won’t eat them. We’ll go to the water where life, that I came from.
MESSENGER ELIJAH MUHAMMAD (How to Eat to Live: Book 2 | Chapter 14)
WE are approaching the month of December, in which we usually abstain from eating in the daylight hours, as the Orthodox Muslims do, the ninth (9th) month of their calendar, the month of Ramadan.
I set up this for you and me, to try to drive out of us the old white slavemaster’s worship of a false birthday (December 25th) of Jesus.
ALLAH (God) Who Came in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, to Whom Praises are due forever, Taught me, that Jesus was not even born during the entire month of December.
THE scholars agree, that according to their history, Jesus could not have been born in December.
ALLAH (God) Taught me that Jesus was born between the first and second week in September, instead of December. But no one knew the day of Jesus’ birth except Joseph and Mary.
BECAUSE of the Jews’ hot persecution against the birth of Jesus, the exact day of his birth was kept a secret, from the public. So, to break my people up from the worship of a false birthday of Jesus, we turned to abstaining from eating in the daylight hours during the month of December. This is, in no way, a FAST!
WHEN we abstain from food for so short a time as for early morning until after sundown and darkness begins to appear - we cannot call this a FAST, for we are eating the same way that we have always been eating (one meal in that day). IT is no FAST to me and to my followers to eat a meal after Sunday. We cannot call it a FAST!
A FAST should be from two (2) to three (3) days without eating food. If we are seeking spiritual advancement, we should fast for three days.
IN the case of Orthodox Muslims worshipping Ramadan by not eating until after sunset, and darkness approaches (they can eat all night long if they want to, until the next morning at dawn) - they call this a FAST!
THEY say that they do this in the Month of Ramadan because Ramadan is the month in which the Holy Qur-an was revealed to Muhammad.
BUT, the way that I understand scripture, it teaches us that Muhammad received the Holy Qur-an over a period of twenty-three (23) years.
MUHAMMAD did not receive the Holy Qur-an in one night or in one day. And, if he received the whole Holy Qur’an in the month of Ramadan, WHY FAST in that month?
IF we are given what we want (Holy Qur’an) in that month, without FASTING, I cannot understand why we should FAST in the month of Ramadan, for the first revelation of the Holy Qur’an was already given in that month, without FASTING.
IT would look more proper for us to be rejoicing over the great salvation (Holy Qur’an) that Allah (God) sent to us, in the month of Ramadan.
If you can convince me it is necessary to Fast in the month of Ramadan because of Muhammad receiving the Holy Qur-an, or the first revelation of the Holy Qur-an, then I will go along with it. However, since the Qur-an was received over a period of years, I am very much baffled in trying to understand why we should FAST in the month of Ramadan.
WE should be rejoicing because of receiving the Holy Qur’an and we should teach others to rejoice throughout the month of Ramadan, if it is because the Holy Qur’an was revealed in that month.
OF COURSE, this is the Arab way, in their religious belief, that they should FAST. But I do say that it is not necessary to FAST to get something that you have already received.
WE should all thank Allah and be grateful to Allah (God) for Giving us the truth, or the Great Revelation (Holy Qur’an), that will guide us into a clearer truth than we have had in the past.
SO, I am not asking my followers to FAST in the month of December because of the birth of a prophet (Jesus) nor do we want to worship his birth or worship because some great Revelation was sent down to another prophet. No, it is just to keep my followers from worshipping falsehood, instead of truth, and to prevent them from spending their money in the falsehood of Santa Claus.
There are so many untruths that the people of untruth (white race) have mislead us in. We must come out of untruth, we must come out of falsehood.
I do know that FASTING is good. I have tried FASTING for many years myself. I do know that FASTING is good for our health and FASTING is good for our spiritual advancement.
IT is actually good for us to take a FAST and abstain from eating food for a period of days.
BUT, you are not actually FASTING when you are going to eat everyday, regardless to what time you may set for the meal. If you eat within twenty four (24) hours, you cannot really consider it as a FAST.
AND, so I say to my followers, WE ARE NOT FASTING (in December) we are just abstaining from taking a part with false worship. We abstain from eating throughout the month of Ramadan - the month of December.
It is good for us to abstain from eating meat, for we should not eat meat at all. Meat is not good for our health nor for our body.
ACTUALLY by nature, we are not made to live off meat.
ALLAH, (God) Who Came in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, to Whom Praises are due forever, Taught me, that no meat is good for us, except the little pigeon (squab) that has never flown from its nest. But, we eat meat.
BEEF - coarse meat, such as beef - we should not wear out our stomach trying to digest this coarse meat. We should not eat any meat - not even lamb.
FISH - we can eat fish. Fish is raised under a different atmosphere. Fish is from a different world of life. Fish is born and fish lives, in the water of life. Fish is good for us.
SUPREME MINISTER JOHN MUHAMMAD (East Point, Georgia, 1988):
Well [the Messenger] asked Master Fard Mohammed for the month of December, and Master Fard told him, “Yes, you can have it. You can have Ramadan any month.” You don’t just have to go for the changing of the moon like they do, that was for those people. You know, I see in Detroit, brothers and sisters taking Ramadan in the hot summer month, standing in the beginning… and brother they would wanting water so bad, but they can’t drink the water. That’s a sin, for you to want something for the upkeep of your life and you can’t get it. God don’t put them kind of punishes on people.
If you want your Ramadan in December, you can have it. If you want it in November, you can have it. Whatever month is better for you. You don’t have to go with the rest of them. That’s why the Messenger put ours in December, so that we wouldn’t be buying whiskey, we wouldn’t be… you know, cause sometime peoples that drink a lot, they don’t drink water. Say, “I didn’t drink no water,” and he had just got through with a keg of beer. (laughter). Excuse me from jumping off like that. But you can have Ramadan anytime. You ain’t keeping up with the correctness of times of prayer in the day.
