TESTIMONIALS

THANK YOU! I enjoyed reading “The Honorable Elijah Muhammad: The Man Behind The Men”. I really appreciate you writing this book. I have a new beginning of seeing the many influences of the teachings of Mr. Muhammad. He is the reason for my beliefs then and now. I have read other books about Mr. Muhammad, however, yours is the best ever. Mr. Muhammad has so much positive about him that more books need to be written about him.

Wardah Haqq

New Orleans, LA

The 2001 Ramadhan Session, Homewood, Illinois. Imam W.D. Mohammed publicly honors and acknowledges Imam Mikal Saahir and testifies to him being true to the meaning of his name Saahir, which means alert or alertness. Descriptions for the word alert include: bright, intelligent, wise, clever, sharp, wide awake, observant, vigilant, perceptive, active, lively and spirited. Imam Saahir’s book, “The Honorable Elijah Muhammad: The Man Behind The Men” bears witness to the truthfulness of his above named character(istics). This work is very informative, an eye opener, a must read. “The Honorable Elijah Muhammad: The Man Behind The Men” is a very important work for serious students of contemporary American and world history. A psychological-social-historical masterpiece!

Muhammed Jihad

Washington, D.C.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammed, The Man Behind The Men, is a must read book. It is written not only for Muslims or the Black community, but a lesson for all races and creeds who desire to live in unity. In this eloquently written book, with its deep historical findings, the author, Mikal Saahir, points out the necessity of forgiveness without forgetting where we’ve been and what can be achieved if we desire this unity and mutual respect for one another. Thank you Mikal.

Millie Komro

Indianapolis, IN

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad: The Man Behind The Men by Michael “Mikal” Saahir is a “can’t put down book”. Good reading from start to finish. I became a member of the Nation of Islam in 1964 and have been through the 1st and 2nd experience under the leadership of Imam W.D. Mohammed. The book brought back many good and bad memories of the past. But more good memories than bad. It present a very good snapshot of where we came from as a people and where we have to go to complete our journey to the destiny; Freedom, Justice and Equality, here and abroad.

Khalid Sharrieff

Chicago, Illinois

I thank Allah for You and Your Book, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad: The Man Behind The Men. As a second generation Muslim with third generation coming up behind me, it’s wonderful to see this beautifully worded history recorded and put in our hands to share with the world Your book touched me in a deep and abiding way, it was a gift from my Mother Ruth Bilal. Again, may Allah continue to bless you.

John Bilal

Forestville, Maryland

As-Salaam Alaikum. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad The Man Behind The Men is a masterpiece This book is a wonderful resource tool that highlights the influence of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad behind the four African American Muslim leaders, Minister Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Minister Louis Farrakhan and Imam Warith D. Mohammed. Michael Saahir has a done a great job by providing facts from primary sources that helped to shed light on the teachings and achievements of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. I was captivated by the content and explanation given on the esoteric teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Michael Saahir has done a great service to academia by providing us with this great research tool.

Bilal Hassan

Queens, New York

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad: The Man Behind the Men is an historical jewel, a great contribution to the history of Al-Islam in America. Imam Saahir has done an excellent job of research and presentation in a sensitive and fair minded manner. He puts the achievements, efforts and even short comings of the NOI and its leader in appropriate perspective, so that a balanced picture of their influence on four great leaders and others emerges. This book had to be written, and Imam Mikal Saahir is the blessed one to write it. It is a must read for all students who wish to understand the development and growth of Al-Islam in America. I intend to order more copies of this book and I have recommended that friends and colleagues order it.

Imam Bilal Yasin El-Amin

Richmond, Virginia

I am very impressed with Michael Mikal Saahir’s book The Honorable Elijah Muhammad: The Man Behind The Men – especially the chapters on Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X. It is extremely helpful for people to know the obstacles that Malcolm faced and overcame in his life, and the role his faith played in making him the outspoken leader he became. Imam Saahir has provided a remarkably thoughtful and well-documented examination of American social history centered around Elijah Muhammad. It is a perspective that helps me better understand another side of the African-American struggle in the United States, in addition to side articulated by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. Your book should be very much appreciated in the Black community, but the people who really need to read it are White folks like me! Unfortunately, probably both of us will wind up “preaching to the choir” more than we’d like.

Dr. George Wolfe

Ball State University, Author of The Spiritual Power of Nonviolence: Interfaith Understanding for a Future Without War, and named by conservative commentator David Horowitz as “One of the 101 most dangerous academics in America.”

I had the great honor to know Imam W.D. Mohammed, and to witness, in many occasions, his profound faith and fruitful work for an authentic interfaith dialogue. Saahir’s book, “The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, The Man Behind The Men”, sheds light on Imam Mohammed’s thirst for a more united world; letting us enter into a world of charismatic people who have shaped the lives of many.  Saahir is not afraid to face controversial issues, brings clarity and gives hope. I would highly recommend this book, especially to those who, through interfaith dialogue, strive for mutual understanding and peace.

Marco Desalvo

Chicago, IL

As I was growing up in Chicago in the 1950s and 60s, we heard a lot about a dangerous man called Elijah Muhammad and his powerful congregation called the Nation of Islam. We were told he was dangerous because he kept provoking us white people, denouncing us as White Devils and showing off his young African American followers as a highly disciplined army of thousands of black-suited, bow-tied young men. We thought that Elijah Muhammad’s racist rhetoric and his strange religious views had a bad influence on Americans. Most of us feared him as a violent man, a real threat to society. We preferred the pacifist revolution of Martin Luther King, Jr.

This widespread and one-sided view of Elijah Muhammad is precisely what Mikal Saahir addresses in his book The Honorable Elijah Muhammed, The Man Behind The Men. He offers a broader view of this paradoxical man. His method is twofold: focusing on Elijah’s impact on four of his famous followers and providing the historical context for Elijah’s controversial speech and behavior.
Saahir helps me understand how much good this man did and how unfair was my narrow view of him. Above all, Saahir demonstrates that Elijah Muhammad left an important legacy for all Americans because he used his power to lift up countless numbers of our downtrodden young men and women and to teach them to recognize the dignity and beauty they possess. This is the legacy of a courageous man who never got beyond the third grade but knew how to inspire and lead others.

Even the most troublesome aspects of Elijah Muhammad’s life, his inflammatory rhetoric, his claim of divinity for his teacher and himself, his infidelities to his wife Clara become more comprehensible within the larger context that Saahir carefully describes.
At the same time, this book, The Honorable Elijah Muhammed, The Man Behind The Men, offers insights into the lives of four of the most interesting and influential African Americans all of whom acknowledged how Elijah Muhammad changed their lives for the better. The stories of the boxing champion Muhammad Ali and the eloquent ex-con orator Malcolm X are certainly well known, but Saahir reveals what is little known: their great debts to Elijah Muhammad. His influence on the two charismatic religious leaders, Elijah’s son and heir Imam Wallace D. Mohammed, and Elijah’s radical follower Minister Louis Farrakhan is perhaps less known. It is, however, more profound and far reaching because it impacts on the thousands and thousands of people who follow them.

Saahir shows us that Imam W. D. Mohammed is the best witness to his father’s complicated life. At the same time, his father’s loving but uneasy relationship with him can help us understand Imam Mohammed’s roots and the roots of the Imam’s many devoted followers.

Tom Hartmann

New York, NY