08/14/2026
HOLY DAY MESSAGE: RECAPTURE THE SPIRIT OF THE PROPHET
Islam, Moorish Americans.
On this Holy Day, I want to speak plainly to the heart of our nation.
We are witnessing too much open disrespect toward our Holy Prophet, Noble Drew Ali, and toward the movement he established. Naturally, when we love our Prophet, something within us wants to rise immediately and defend him.
But before we turn our attention outside of ourselves, we have some work to do inside the house.
I have always believed that when someone feels comfortable coming into your house and openly disrespecting your home, you have to examine what has made them believe that behavior will be tolerated.
And when someone feels comfortable publicly disrespecting your family, sometimes the family has to examine how that family has been moving and treating itself.
Moorish Americans, we have to examine ourselves.
How can we demand that the world respect our Prophet while we publicly disrespect one another?
How can we demand respect for his movement while those claiming his name attack, ridicule, slander and tear down one another before the eyes of the world?
How can we tell outsiders that this is a great divine and national movement while we make public entertainment out of our disagreements?
It must stop.
Before another Moorish American debate is organized, before another public argument is broadcast, before another brother or sister is humiliated for belonging to a different temple, jurisdiction, administration or interpretation—let us remember what we actually have in common.
Across this country, Moorish Americans are standing in different rooms and different buildings, yet giving praise to the same God, Allah.
Giving honor to the same Holy Prophet, Noble Drew Ali.
Giving honor to the same Forerunner, Marcus Garvey.
Reading the Divine Constitution and By-Laws.
Studying the Holy Koran of the Moorish Science Temple of America.
Teaching the Command Questions.
And declaring our obligation to uplift fallen humanity.
We may not all be at the same place along this journey. We may disagree about history, administration, succession, procedure and interpretation.
But disagreement does not require disrespect.
Difference does not require hatred.
And organizational separation does not require us to behave as enemies.
But I must say something especially to those of us who have accepted the responsibility of leadership.
Too many of us are still stuck.
We are still stuck in the need to distinguish ourselves from one another.
We are still stuck believing that recognizing another Moorish American leader somehow diminishes our own authority.
We struggle to compliment one another.
We struggle to publicly acknowledge good work being done outside of our own circle.
Sometimes we will even see another brother, sister, temple or organization doing something productive, adopt the idea ourselves, and then behave as though there was nothing worthy of acknowledgment in the place where we saw it.
That is not strength. And that is not leadership.
The work before us is far too enormous for any one leader, temple, administration or organization to accomplish alone.
There is enough work for everybody.
One group may be doing tremendous work with our youth. Another may be strong in education. Another may be feeding people. Another may be developing businesses. Another may be preserving our history. Another may be caring for our elders. Another may possess administrative knowledge that others need.
Why can't we honor that?
Why can't I say, “My brother is doing excellent work over there,” without believing that I have somehow weakened what I am doing over here?
Why can't one temple learn from another temple?
Why can't one leader acknowledge that another leader has developed something worthy of being studied and reproduced?
We should be borrowing good ideas from one another, improving them, sharing resources and celebrating the results.
Because none of this work belongs to any one of us.
The mission is bigger than all of us.
Yet too often we search for another distinction.
Another reason why we are different from them.
Another argument about authority.
Another historical personality through whom we can trace a division—even though those individuals themselves were supposed to be following the same Prophet Noble Drew Ali that we claim to follow today.
And Moorish Americans, understand something:
The world sees us.
The world sees the competing claims.
The world sees the divisions over authority.
The world sees us refusing to acknowledge one another.
The world sees people carrying the same Prophet's name, reading the same teachings and proclaiming the same mission while constantly explaining why they cannot stand together.
And eventually the world reaches a very simple conclusion:
“They are not together.”
“There is no union among them.”
People will listen to what we teach, but they will also examine what our teachings have produced among us.
If we teach unity but cannot demonstrate union, people notice.
If we teach love but publicly disrespect one another, people notice.
If we teach nationality but cannot conduct national business together, people notice.
If we teach upliftment while spending our energy tearing one another down, people notice.
Leadership in this hour requires something greater from us.
It requires enough confidence to honor another leader.
Enough maturity to acknowledge another temple's success.
Enough humility to learn from somebody else.
Enough vision to understand that another Moorish American succeeding does not take anything away from me.
If the work is truly being done in the spirit of Prophet Noble Drew Ali and fallen humanity is being uplifted, then our Prophet's movement is winning.
That should be enough for us to celebrate.
We do not have to become one administration tomorrow.
We do not have to surrender our organizational structures.
We do not have to pretend our disagreements do not exist.
But surely we can begin behaving like one people.
Perhaps that is where union begins—not with everybody occupying the same building, carrying the same title or answering to the same officer, but with Moorish Americans finally recognizing that the success of one of us in this great work can become strength for all of us.
Because if you have sincerely committed your life to becoming a better man or woman through the teachings of Prophet Noble Drew Ali; if you are trying to uplift yourself, strengthen your family, help your community and contribute something meaningful to humanity—then we already have too much in common to spend our lives fighting one another.
This is a critical time.
There are hungry people.
There are struggling families.
There are young people searching for direction.
There are elders who need us.
There are communities desperately in need of organization, education, economic development, discipline, morality, leadership and service.
And while humanity is waiting for workers, too much Moorish energy is being consumed fighting Moorish Americans.
While we are debating one another, somebody is hungry.
While we are arguing about who has authority, somebody's child needs direction.
While we are attacking another temple, one of our elders needs assistance.
While we are fighting over who represents the Prophet, there are people who have never experienced the practical benefit of what the Prophet taught us.
We are missing people who need us because we are too busy fighting people who should be working beside us.
Imagine what happens when that energy is redirected.
Imagine our temples feeding families together.
Imagine our young people learning together.
Imagine our businessmen and businesswomen trading together.
Imagine our scholars studying together.
Imagine our elders being cared for together.
Imagine Moorish Americans entering communities not merely talking about nationality and upliftment, but demonstrating what those principles produce.
That is how we recapture the spirit of the Prophet.
Not merely by saying his name louder.
By making his work visible again.
The greatest defense of Noble Drew Ali is not an argument on the internet.
It is a people transformed by his teachings.
It is families becoming stronger.
It is temples becoming productive.
It is children seeing something worth inheriting.
It is brothers and sisters learning how to disagree without becoming enemies.
It is hungry people being fed.
It is fallen humanity being uplifted.
And when the world sees Moorish Americans loving one another, respecting one another, protecting one another, building together and serving humanity together, disrespect becomes much harder to entertain.
Because then people will understand:
These people take their Prophet seriously.
These people take his movement seriously.
These people take one another seriously.
So on this Holy Day, I am calling first upon myself, and then upon every Moorish American who will receive it:
Let us declare an immediate cease-fire among ourselves.
No more public spectacles designed to embarrass another Moorish American.
No more building ourselves by tearing another temple down.
No more believing that disrespecting another leader somehow establishes our own authority.
No more measuring our devotion to Noble Drew Ali by how viciously we can attack somebody else who claims him.
Correct where correction is necessary.
Teach where teaching is necessary.
Stand firmly upon truth.
Maintain your structure.
Maintain your organization.
Maintain your convictions.
But let us recover love, truth, peace, freedom and justice in the way we deal with one another.
Our Prophet did not organize us so that generations later we could inherit his movement and spend our strength fighting over the inheritance.
He gave us work to do.
The world is still waiting.
Our communities are still waiting.
Our families are still waiting.
Our children are watching.
And history is recording what this generation of Moorish Americans will do with what was placed into our hands.
Will we spend another generation proving who is right while our communities continue suffering?
Or will somebody finally say:
Enough.
We know who our Prophet is.
We know what he taught us.
We know humanity needs uplifting.
So let us get to work.
And maybe the simplest way to recapture the spirit of our Prophet is to look again at the man himself.
Prophet Noble Drew Ali did not spend his mission ridiculing everybody else.
He did not build his movement around endless public debates.
He did not waste precious time trying to prove himself by tearing everybody else down.
The Prophet was a man of business.
The Prophet was a serious man.
He carried himself seriously.
He organized seriously.
He taught seriously.
He built seriously.
And because he treated his mission seriously, people had to treat him accordingly.
That is something this generation must recover.
The Prophet instructed us to imitate him.
Then let us imitate more than his words.
Imitate him in your speech.
Imitate him in your teaching.
Imitate him in your walk.
Imitate the seriousness with which he approached the mission.
Imitate the discipline.
Imitate the courage to organize.
Imitate the willingness to work.
We don't need another generation of Moorish Americans who can only tell the world what Noble Drew Ali did.
We need Moorish Americans whose lives demonstrate what Noble Drew Ali taught.
And I close with these words attributed to our Holy Prophet, Noble Drew Ali:
«“You stop trying to figure your way, how salvation will come. Just follow me.”»
Maybe we have spent enough time trying to figure out every separate way.
Follow the Prophet.
Follow him into better conduct.
Follow him into organization.
Follow him into nation building.
Follow him into service.
Follow him into the work of uplifting fallen humanity.
And if we truly begin to imitate our Prophet in our speech, in our teaching and in our walk, perhaps the world will once again recognize the seriousness of the movement by witnessing the seriousness of the people who claim to represent it.
Let us stop fighting long enough to build.
Let us recapture the spirit of Prophet Noble Drew Ali.
Islam, and a blessed Holy Day to all.
From the Office of the National Grand Sheik
Uniting of the Moorish Science Temple of America
