is challenged with Alzheimer's Disease,” took shahada some 44 years ago, impressed by the character and conduct of the Sunni Bilalian Muslims who had recently left the Nation of Islam. As a mother of three sons and two daughters, she lost one son in a car accident and one to police violence. Bahiyah hopes that Muslims will help uplift Black boys and men and asks them to remember her sons in their prayers. Her surviving son, a University of Houston Clear Lake graduate, has created his own legacy in the Muslim poetry scene in Houston as well as his Firm Apparel and Know Resources businesses. Raised in a good home but living as a single mom on food stamps for a few years, she accessed college programs and earned her nursing degree while navigating through the Tablighi Jamaat and other Islamic groups. Like most Black Muslimahs of her generation, she rose from socio-economic distress to socio-economic gains and leadership. Her daughter Aisha R. M. Pratt followed in her mother’s legacy as a loving wife, mother and nurse. These are the types of strides that Black women (descendants of slaves) are accomplishing as models for the entire community and society at large.
MOVING FORWARD Many of us are raised to believe that we are better than others. For example, I grew up believing that Blacks were superior to Whites. Somehow this seemed okay because I had White friends. I had nothing against Whites, although privately my friends and family had our jokes about them. The jokes seemed harmless, especially since we were the race that some Whites were trying to oppress. However, practicing Muslims cannot accept such thoughts and ideologies, for the Quran and Hadith condemn them. God knows what’s in our hearts, and thus all of us would be well advised to remember the dua “ya muqalab al-qulub, thabat qalbi ‘ala dinik” (Oh controller of hearts, establish my heart on the deen). Moreover, we need to take a deep look at why we feel the need to subscribe to racial supremacist ideas that determine who is worthy and who is not. Are we ascribing to these notions because they are just so deeply ingrained in our subconscious and culture that we never thought to challenge them? Do we ascribe to these stereotypes because it makes us feel that we are better than others and because we just have to feel that way? If so, what does that say about our true character, who we really are and our actual relationship with God? Whatever the reasons for the stereotypes and values placed on Black women through the lens of white supremacy, it is time to dig down deep and challenge how we think, to not continue to be blinded and controlled in how we view the world. ih Baheejah Aaliyah Fareed, administrative coordinator at The Islamic Seminary of America, is a global student, writer, traveler and cofounder of various successful startups.
ISLAMIC HORIZONS 27
Muslim Americans and Race: The Way Forward Muslims, especially Muslim Americans, need to understand the daily realities faced by their Blackamerican brothers and sisters
“
BY JAMES WRIGHT
O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes that you may know one another. Verily, the most honorable of you with Allah is that (believer) who has At-Taqwa [i.e., one of the Muttaqun (pious)]. Verily, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware” (Quran 49:13, Muhsin Khan trans.)
S
ome of the most prolific commentators of the Quran explain that Allah’s oft-cited verse 49:13 is an admonishment and reminder to humanity that they emanated from one source, the offspring of Adam and Hawaa (Eve) [‘alayhum as salaam]: whom Allah created from dust. Allah then reminds us that from this one source, Adam and Eve, He distinguished and differentiated us, male and female, by nations, tribes, languages, skin colors, and cultures. Allah signifies his stark, vast, and infinite power by the vast and stark differentiations and distinctions among people and nations. Furthermore, Allah reminds us that the purpose of these differentiations and distinctions were so that we would come to know each other as family and attribute such vast differences to Allah’s immense power. Moreover, the most important reminder is that Allah says none of these differences, gender, tribe, culture, and skin color, make any individual or group better than the other. However, Allah established that At-Taqwa determines those best among humanity. At-Taqwa refers to
