Wallace Muhammad - Disappearance

Disappearance

In June 1934, Fard left Detroit for Chicago and disappeared without a trace. When nothing further was heard from him, some rumored that he had been killed by police. Others asserted that he had returned to Mecca to prepare for his eventual return. The later official view of the Nation of Islam was that he was in Mecca. Today, the Nation of Islam teaches that he boarded the Mother Plane and is still alive.

There is some evidence that Fard lived at least until the 1960s; his alleged lover stated that he had returned to New Zealand. The FBI maintained an open file on Fard Muhammad up until as late as 1960, according to documents published through the Freedom of Information Act.

In 1981, Pakistani scholar Zafar Ishaq Ansari researched Fard's life and claimed that Fard was identical with Muhammad Abdullah, a Pakistani Ahmadiyya Muslim. He was an adviser of Elijah Muhammad since the late 1950s and was the tutor of his son and successor Warith Deen Mohammed. After Elijah's death, Warith Deen appointed Abdullah imam of Mosque #77 in Oakland, California. The 26 November 1976 issue of the Nation of Islam journal Bilalian News reports Muhammad Abdullah's first khutbah at the mosque and shows a photo. Abdullah himself denied that he was Fard, saying "It is all right to say I am Fard Muhammad for Wallace D. Muhammad. I taught him some lessons. But I am not the same person who taught Elijah Muhammad and I am not God."