Alternative names on record are numerous: Wali Farad, Farrad Mohammed, W.D. Fard, and F. Mohammed Ali. Within the NOI he is generally known as Master Fard Muhammad.
According to FBI records, Fard (pronounced "fuh-RAHD") Muhammad is identical to one Wallace Dodd Ford, also known as Wallace Dodd, whose birth is recorded by the FBI as February 25, 1891, of mixed European and Polynesian parentage. It is uncertain whether he was born in New Zealand or in Portland, Oregon, of parents who came from Hawaii. A recent researcher believes that Dodd was a New Zealander of half-Indian descent, born in 1893. Dodd was certainly in the United States by the 1920s, when he was arrested and imprisoned for drug offenses, serving three years in San Quentin between 1926 and 1929. Photographs and fingerprints of both men exist.
The NOI has, in the past, rejected this identification of Wallace Dodd with Wallace Fard Muhammad, interpreting it as part of a smear campaign. They also claim that he was born in 1877 (which would put him in his fifties when photographed), and that he came from Mecca. Elijah Muhammad-Fard Muhammad's student and successor-had this to say about his teacher, in his book, "Message to the Black Man":
"Allah (God) came to us from the Holy City Mecca, Arabia, in 1930. He used the name Wallace D. Fard, often signing it W.D. Fard. In the third year (1933), He signed His name W.F. Muhammad, which stands for Wallace Fard Muhammad. He came alone. He began teaching us the knowledge of ourselves, of God and the devil, of the measurement of the earth, of other planets, and of the civilizations of some of the planets other than earth."
Elijah Muhammad also challenged the Hearst press, which had publicized the story, to prove its assertion that the Fard and Dodd were one and the same person. A woman stepped forward with what she claimed was proof that Fard and Dodd were indeed one and the same. The woman also claimed to have children fathered by Dodd/Fard. Muhammad was not known to have responded to the claims.
The question of Fard's identity is unresolved, however the current NOI leader, Louis Farrakhan, does accept that Fard was imprisoned, insisting that this was because his preaching threatened the racist status quo, not because of any criminal acts.
Fard's activities were brought to wider public notice after a major scandal erupted involving an apparent Ritual murder in November 1932, reportedly committed by one of Fard's early followers, Robert Karriem, who had done so, in his own words, "to bring himself closer to Allah." Karriem had quoted from Fard's booklet entitled Secret Rituals of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam, "The believer must be stabbed through the heart." This quotation, as well as another stating that "every son of Islam must gain a victory from the devil. Four victories and the son will attain his reward," convinced the Detroit police—motivated in part by the anti-Muslim hysteria fueled by media coverage of the event—to seek out Fard in connection with the murder. Although not charged with any crime, Fard had been asked to leave town in early 1933 and to never return. Fard complied, but returned secretly to Detroit the next year. Fard was arrested and again asked to leave Detroit permanently.
One of Fard's first followers had been Eli Poole, who later changed his name to Elijah Muhammad. Elijah began preaching that Wallace Fard Muhammad was the Mahdi, and even "The True and Living God." Shortly before he departed Detroit for the last time, Fard had conferred leadership of the Nation of Islam on Elijah Muhammad. In 1934, Fard left Detroit and then had disappeared without a trace. According to the NOI, Fard had returned to Mecca. Others believe he had been killed by Elijah Muhammad (who was also suspected of ordering influential NOI dissident Malcolm X assassinated in February 1965). However, there is some evidence that Fard had lived at least until the 1960s; his alleged lover stated that he had returned to New Zealand.
The idea that Islam is the original true religion is derived from mainstream Islamic theology, which claims that Judaism and Christianity are corrupted forms of God's original message that Muhammad merely reaffirmed. The presence of Islam in eastern countries such as Indonesia as well as the Middle-East may have led Fard to conclude that it was the historical faith of Asian peoples as a whole, but this aspect of his thinking was directly influenced by Drew, who had claimed that all non-Europeans are in fact part of a unified Asian race, which he called "Moorish."
Christian missionary activity under Imperialism may also have contributed to Fard's association of White supremacy with the attempted imposition of "corrupted" religious ideas. The figure of Yakub is derived from the Biblical Jacob (Yakub being a variant spelling of the name), while his activities on Patmos recall St. John's revelations there. Thus, he combines central figures in the founding of Judaism and Christianity.
Fard's racializing of Islamic beliefs is part of the widespread preoccupation with racial theory and Eugenics among many people from various backgrounds at the time. The common white supremacist idea that Black people were somehow less evolved than whites is turned around so that Black people become the original uncorrupted peoples of the world and whites are defined as a degenerate offshoot of them, just as Muslims claim that Judaism and Christianity are corrupted offshoots of Islam itself. According to Fard, Yakub's progeny were destined to dominate the world for six thousand years, before the original Black peoples once more regained power. This process had begun in 1914 and Fard had been sent to proclaim it.
Fard's followers were given Arabic names to replace those that had originated in slavery. Fard offered Blacks a credo of moral and cultural superiority to their White oppressors. His birthdate is celebrated today by the Nation of Islam as Savior's Day.