RECLAIMING BIL Can Muslim Americans rekindle the spirit of Bilal ibn Rabah in founding an inclusive community? BY JIMMY E. JONES
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ny cursory, open-minded reading of the numerous non-polemical biographies of Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu ’alayhi wa sallam) and accounts of the Meccan and Medinian communities led by him would reveal three inescapable conclusions. The Prophet’s announcement of and belief in the worship of the one God alone presented a clear, unmistakable threat to the then-existing Meccan economic, political and social order. This was a society wherein “might made right,” and one’s social status was highly dependent either on the group you happened to be born into, or alternatively, what powerful group you and your people were able to attach to in a subordinate “client” status. Consequently, power almost inevitably trumped justice with the powerful usually taking advantage over the others. The emigration (hijrah) of the nascent Muslim community from Mecca to Yathrib (Medina) not only marked the beginning of a new era for the Prophet and his companions, but as is clear from any honest rendering of world history, was the beginning of what the 2001 PBS mini-series on great empires called “The Empire of Faith.” It is clear that from its early beginnings, the community that the Prophet gathered around him was multigenerational, multicultural and relatively womenfriendly. It easily assimilated and respected the young, such as the Prophet’s cousin, Ali (radi Allahu anhu), one of the first believers, the Jewish youth who took shahadah on his deathbed, and Usama ibn Zaid, (radi Allahu anhu), who though still in his teens was tapped by the Prophet to lead a major military expedition force that included many men who were much older and more experienced. Furthermore, Usama was of mixed parentage — son of Arab Zaid and African Barakah (radi Allahu anha) — both former slaves, which was an indication of the multicultural nature of early Islam. This community founded on the Arabian Peninsula also welcomed Salman the Persian (radi Allahu anhu) and Suhayb ar Rumi (radi Allahu anhu) from the Byzantine empire. Early Islam also was relatively women-friendly in that it categorically banned the
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widespread practice of female infanticide, established women’s universal right to own property and to consent to marriage, allowed women’s worship in the Prophet’s Mosque, and allowed women to voice their opinions in public when it came to discussing matters, major and minor, affecting the entire community. Inclusiveness seemed to be a core value of this fledgling community.
The Unbroken Chain of Quranic Freedom: From Africa to New Africa
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he emergence of the Black Power movement of the 1960’s could be ideologically traced to the first Muslims to come to the Western hemisphere, through the resistance of Muslim Maroons and their ultimate influence on Marcus Garvey and his ideology, and Garvey’s influence on the Nation of Islam and the Islamic perspectives of Malcolm X and Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, said Dr. Hakim Rashid, professor of human development at Howard University, addressing a panel at the recent 98th convention of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) in Jacksonville, Fla., held Oct. 2-6, 2013. ASALH was founded by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the father of Black History Week, now Month, in 1916. Rashid was addressing a panel at the 98th convention of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in Jacksonville, Fla., held Oct. 2-6. Rashid’s paper formed part of the panel discussion titled, “The Unbroken Chain of Quranic Freedom: From Africa to New Africa,” which was chaired by Dr. Sulayman Nyang, professor of African Studies at Howard University. Presenters included Dr. Qadir Abdus-Sabur, chairman of the board of the Richmond, Va., based Tawheed Prep Academy, and Dr. Zakiyyah Muhammad, executive director of the Institute for Muslim American Studies. Rashid, in his paper “From Slave Revolts to Black Identity: The Historical Influence of Al Islam and Muslims on the African American Freedom Struggle,” discusses the historical presence of African Muslims in the Western hemisphere prior to the voyages of Columbus. He examines the role of Muslims in major slave revolts beginning with the 1522 revolt of Wolof Muslims from Senegal against Columbus’ ISLAMIC HORIZONS JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014