The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Bilal, Aaliyah. Temple Folk. Simon & Schuster, 2023.

Temple Folk consists of 10 short stories, moving chronologically forward through time, concerning Black Muslims in the orbit of the Nation of Islam.

"Blue" concerns a group of women in the Nation of Islam who are being bussed to a religious celebration. On the bus ride there, Sister Memphis is tasked with watching over another one of the women's daughters, Danielle. She feels a bond with the girl over her dislike of her family; Memphis remembers her childhood, when she was routinely insulted by her mother for having dark skin. Constantly, she was made to feel like she was less than her lighter-skinned sister. Danielle steals something from a car when they stop at a gas station, and the police board the bus to search it. They fixate on Memphis, likely because of her dark skin. After this, one of the women on the bus says the Messenger -- Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam -- has taken flight. Danielle tells Memphis that he is dead. Angered, Memphis hits her and draws blood. She had joined the Nation of Islam mainly because they value darker-skinned people.

"New Mexico" is about a Black FBI agent, Calvin, who is tasked with training Basil, a new white agent. They are at a hotel trying to covertly get information about Elijah Muhammad from one of his wives, who happens to be there. Calvin's father turned toward the Nation during his ten years in prison. The Nation offers an olive branch to Calvin after children in his neighborhood egg his house.

"The Spider" concerns Omar, a man who is in an offshoot organization of the now-defunct Nation of Islam. Omar is attending a meeting with the new leadership. He thinks about how one of the high-ranking members in the new organization won the lottery, directly breaking one of the tenets of their religion against gambling. Later, Iklas, a member of the Community that left, tries to get Omar to join the new Nation of Islam.

"Candy for Hanif" concerns Sister Norah, a single mother who is part of the Community after the Nation of Islam's folding. Her husband has just died after an illness, leaving her alone to raise her cognitively disabled son. A friend of hers, Lunell, tried to get Norah to put her son, Hanif, in an in-patient facility, because his cognitive disability leads him to act violently toward Norah. The women in this part of the Community are gifted a cruise of the city by the imam. Norah agrees to go because Akil, a janitor, agrees to watch her son while she is away. After the cruise, Norah does not return to the temple. Instead, she boards a bus that drives far away.

"Janaza" sees Harold, the main character, arriving for the body washing (or janaza) of a recently deceased man, Captain Michael 2X. Disturbed by the actions of the deceased man's white wife, Harold throws his wedding band out of his car on the drive home, as he too is married to a white woman.

"Woman in Niqab" concerns Imani, a 17-year-old girl, who has vowed not to cover her hair anymore after returning from a trip to Egypt. At the beginning of the trip, she is steadfast in her desire to remain devout, but she witnesses actions from religious men that cause her to question this, leading her to not want to cover her hair. Eventually, her mother supports her in this.

"Who's Down?" follows a high school sophomore who goes to a vegetarian restaurant run by Black Hebrews with her father. She gradually realizes her father's positions are based in hypocrisy.

"Nikkah" is about a woman named Qadirah who is dating and trying to find a husband. Her parents were famous Christian pastors, but she has converted to Islam. She meets a man named Arik online. Arik is a hard-line Muslim. Over time, she becomes less tolerant of secular lifestyles and is driven closer to him and farther away from her friend, Ihsan.

"Sister Rose" shows Intisar, a woman who left the Temple long ago, visiting Sister Rose, a woman she has not seen in 20 years. When Intisar was 15, vicious rumors started about her being pregnant because she was seen kissing a boy. Sister Rose tells her that she wanted to kill her husband for taking more wives. She laments not being closer with Sister Rose.

"Due North" is about Taqwa, a woman whose father, a famous imam, has just died. She keeps seeing visions of his ghost in the aftermath. When she was younger, Jabril, her brother, left the house, and she assumed he was gay because he once was caught painting his nails with a marker. As a young girl, she also grew enchanted with a girl named Zainab at Arabic lessons. Meanwhile, their Aunt Lottie tells them that their father was a Christian pastor before a friend of his was lynched and he was forced to give a sermon asking for the aggressors to be forgiven. Disgusted by this, Taqwa does not know how to eulogize him, and she passes out at the funeral when she sees a vision of him running toward her. On the way home, the siblings go fishing together, and Jabril tells Taqwa he is not even gay before trying to get Taqwa to realize that she has amorous feelings for women herself.