Islamic Horizons Jan/Feb 14 by Islamic Society of North America

COVER STORY to survive, thrive and revive the inclusive ethos found on the early Muslim community. The task before them and the broader Muslim community is to reclaim Bilal in a way that does not end up essentializing racial identities and leaving it hopelessly divided on matters of race as the larger American populace. Rather, the task is to make the reclaiming of Bilal one that retains his African heritage, while providing critically needed leadership/direction to the whole Muslim American community and ultimately to the world.

RECLAIMING BILAL: FACING AND RENEGOTIATING THE FUTURE It is now 1435 Islamic years after the Prophet’s historic hijrah or emigration from Mecca to what was to become Medina. On the Gregorian calendar we are still in the first quarter of the 21st century. Although much has changed in the roughly 100 years since the establishment of such groups as the Moorish Science Temple and the Nation of Islam, one thing that still lingers in America is the fear-driven prejudices against certain groups. A visit to the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC; http:// www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map) this past December, yields the following disconcerting information, “The Southern Poverty Law Center counted 1007 active hate groups in the United States in 2012.” While we do not have an accurate census of such groups that existed 100 years ago, it would be fair to say that some things simply have not changed. Today, the U.S. public discourse is clearly racially, and religiously, overheated in a negative way. In New York State alone, the SPLC counted 38 known hate groups ranging from the anti-Muslim 9/11 Christian Center at Ground Zero to the white nationalist Women for Aryan Unity-Headquarters USA Chapter. It seems that Islamophobia and racism are still quite alive and well. In this racially and religiously overheated context, the Muslim African American community is at yet another crossroads when it comes to the issue of identity. What does it mean to be fully Muslim while being authentically African American, and responsibly American at the same time? Sherman Jackson’s thought-provoking book, “Islam and the Black American: Looking Towards the Third Resurrection” (2011), was a characteristically, academically well-grounded, bold, no holds barred attempt to open an honest discourse about this issue within the “Blackamerican” and between the “Blackamerican” and broader Muslim American community. Unfortunately, it still seems that African American Muslims and the rest of the Muslim community have yet to move beyond one-dimensional, essentialist caricatures of each other as “black” and “immigrant” that rectify the current serious ethnic divides in many of our communities and places of worship. There is no problem with Africans or African Americans being proud of or strongly identify24

ing with Bilal due to his African ancestry. While the Prophet loved Mecca and the Quraysh tribe to which he belonged, he consistently reminded that whenever his ancestry and worship of God were in conflict, God always came first. If Muslim Americans want to reclaim Bilal’s true legacy as they renegotiate their identity in this time and place, three basic points should be kept in mind: Despite being born into a society where he was disadvantaged because of his color and caste, Bilal asserted himself in a way that his primary identity was that of a true believer in and worshipper of God, and a devoted follower of the Prophet. Upon being released from the extreme hardship of being tortured by his master, Umayyad Ibn Khalaf, Bilal devoted himself to working with the Prophet to institutionally establish the Islamic political entity as Islam’s first treasurer distributing alms to the poor and needy. Finally, despite the hardship he had overcome and the companionship of the Prophet he enjoyed, Bilal seemed to be an unpretentious person who always kept his priorities straight. His love for God was unquestionable, his devotion to the Prophet unmatched, and his work for Islam was unceasing. Muslim Americans (African American and others) should strive harder to emulate Bilal’s virtues as a Muslim. One of Bilal’s contemporaries pointed out in this hadith found in Bukhari’s collection, narrated by Jabir bin ’Abdullah: “Umar used to say, ‘Abu Bakr is our chief, and he manumitted our chief,’” meaning Bilal.

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Jimmy E. Jones is associate professor and chair of the African Studies and World Religions Departments, Manhattanville College; president, Islamic Seminary Foundation, and national board secretary for CAIR.

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