"Allah Has Truly Blessed Me": Material Spirituality Among Believers in the Nation of Islam

ABSTRACT: Much of the literature on the Nation of Islam focuses heavily on what is interpreted as the Black nationalist disposition of the group. This essay, focused on lived religion, uses ethnographic data collected over an eight-month period—highlighting the annual Saviours' Day—to uncover a material spirituality in the Nation of Islam through which believers exhibit a performance wherein their Black spirituality is more salient than their Black nationalist politic. Believers ground their reversion to the Nation in its potential to provide a moral and social compass. Spiritual practices such as prayer, bodily discipline, and communal gathering aid believers in their pursuit to develop a stronger relationship with Allah, other humans, and their bodies. Such practices offer an opportunity to interrogate the religious lives of NOI believers in their quest to shape their Black identity through a lens of their Islamic spirituality.