ABSTRACT
The Nation of Islam was the first significant Muslim movement in the United States of America. It (re-)introduced Islam, the Quran, and Muhammad to thousands of African Americans, many of whose ancestors may have been Muslims when they were taken from Africa to be slaves in the Americas. Perhaps uniquely among Muslim groups, the Nation of Islam see the origin of Islam stretching not just millennia, but eons before Muhammad and even Adam and Eve. A broader conception of Allah is evident in some of Elijah Muhammad's writings: a collective Allah. Islamic origins, as traditionally understood or even as re-envisioned by skeptical scholars, has no role in Elijah Muhammad's teaching. The Quran and Muhammad are just not features in "early Islam", as he understood it. Elijah Muhammad was adept at drawing on the Quran itself to support his formulation of Islam.
