As a non-black, Arabic-speaking Egyptian, I was hesitant to write about this
topic for so long because I
believe that no one can own the story of the black agony better than someone who has
been through it and lived it. Surely, our Black brothers and sisters are way more articulate than any other non-Black to address this issue. And surely, our Black brothers and sisters have their own foundation of great folks affirming that a Black person doesn't have to have a seat at the table because they are the table! All I'm trying to say here is that it's my duty to share the little knowledge I have from an Arab Muslim non-Black perspective. It's my duty to reflect and let my audience know about you, lead them to your story, and affirm to you that You Don't Need a Seat at the Table. You are the Table!
You need to hear that from all and not only your great ancestors!
BTW, my dad is from people of color; my brother, my sister, and half of my in-laws are Black people from Sudan. My youth are people of color. You don't have to be fully Black to feel for Black people or people of color. If you have someone you care about who is Black or from people of color, it is enough.
To be honest, as we are not Black and we haven't been through the decades of oppression and suffering our Black sisters and brothers have long endured, and after the lawless unjustiefied imprisonments, mass incarcerations, unfair lynching, arrests, and unbearable insurmountable systematic racism, they have been through, I can tell, this is heavy and tough, and it takes time to process, and it takes time to heal, but
it also takes time for the immigrant community or people from non-Black backgrounds to understand.
My suggestion for my non-Black immigrant community is to reach out, ask questions, and get proper knowledge. Be kind. Pick your words and be considerate of people’s sensibilities. Maybe, I started my learning journey earlier, but I don't claim any expertise, but, I can direct you to the right resourceful people and credible resources. If you acknowledge that you have wronged someone, seek forgiveness and try to do better. We all make mistakes and maybe our previous mistakes will eventually lead us through. Stay perserverant.
To fathom how the non-black communities can educate themselves and help their Black brothers and sisters, let’s look in-depth at the prophetic example. Let's deep dive into how Prophet
Mohammed dealt with racism in his brand-new Muslim community.
As we all know, the Prophet Mohammed
was born in the Arabian Peninsula.The Arab community was known for
showing off pride in their lineage, bragging about their linguistic skills, their social rank, and
money. They even show off their outfits. Arab men and women used to
dress in a one-piece outfit, and the longer the dress train and the more it was
embellished, the richer the person was.
Allah sent prophet Mohamed who was
the opposite of all of that, he was born as an orphan, he was illiterate, he was born to a highly respected family, however, they were opposing him publicly; the Prophet Mohammed’s uncle
Abu Lahab (Abdul-Uzza) and his wife went so creative when it came to humiliating the
Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him).
At some point, you might ask, “If God sent him as a
Prophet, why did He almighty have to have his favorite Prophet go through all
these traumatizing events?”
I’m assuming because if the prophet himself went through all these atrocities, he would at some point understand where others
were coming from, and he would be able to best serve them from a better seat because he had been
there.
And when we look at the most famous incident that
addressed racism in Islam, our minds would unwillingly think of Bilal Ibn Rabah,
the most famous Muslim Black-Figure.
Bilal was born and lived in poverty because of
his slavery despite his well-respected but enslaved lineage.
His mom was known by Hammama. They said she named
herself so because she learned that hammama in Arabic means pigeon. So she wanted
to refer to herself as a free pigeon.
Bilal was enslaved by Ommaya Ibn Khalaf. Bilal was the smartest among his slaves, and Ommayya would
trust Bilal with his money, financial issues, and secret meetings. He rarely
left him to watch his flock of sheep and always highlighted that Bilal had too
strong mental skills and abilities to be involved in the shepherding work. This
was not good news for his fellow, Orwa, the second-best choice for Ommayya. Orwa
was always jealous of Bilal and was tired of his master praising Bilal’s mental
strength and charming voice. Bilal also used to sing during Ommaya’s parties.
Orwa was the one who told on Bilal
when the latter converted to Islam. Orwa was appointed by Ommaya to torture
Bilal in all sorts of ways. Orwa hit Bilal, he kicked him, he lashed him, and
he dragged Bilal all over the sandy streets in Mecca's extremely hot weather while
calling on everyone passing by to watch the disobedient slave getting tortured for
disobeying their master Ommaya.
As a typical arrogant Arab, Ommaya was enraged with Bilal's
perseverance. He kept on torturing Bilal. Ommayya tied Bilal's hands and
limps, but nothing turned Bilal’s heart. Ommaya’s last option was to place a
heavy rock on his poor slave’s body to retaliate. Bilal was weakened from the
long weeks of torture without eating. All he could do was to recite “Ahad…
Ahad”.
"Ahad" is an Arabic word that means God is one, which is the opposite of what Ommaya believed in.
Ommaya believed in polytheism, and like most Meccan people, he worshipped
idols.
Later on, Abu Bakr, the Prophet Mohammed’s best friend bought
Bilal and sat him free. Bilal was so in awe and disbelief!
It was too hard for the new Muslims to stay in Mecca
after what they all had been through, so they moved to another city. The city of Medina.
After migrating to Medina, the
Prophet Mohammed was in wonder, how to gather people all at once for prayer, and how people would know prayer times until one of
the companions came and told him that he had dreamed of someone calling people for
prayer. Then, he recited the Athan recitation, Athan is an Arabic word that means the call for prayer.
The prophet listened and asked him to teach the Athan
words to Bilal. Then the Prophet -peace be upon him- appointed Bilal as the caller for prayer.
He said Bilal had a soft and dew-like voice. He didn’t say a good voice or a charming voice; he said, a dew-like voice to reflect on how lively and cheerful Bilal’s voice was. :)
When Prophet Mohamed won his first battle against the Meccans, he asked Bilal to go to the highest peak of the holiest building figure for all Muslims, “The Kaaba,” the cuboid structure where Muslim piligrims perform pilgrimage. Then, the Prophet asked Bilal
to call people to prayer. He put Bilal in the spotlight. The Prophet was honoring Bilal as he and placed Bilal at the center of attention in such a victorious moment to give him credit, to raise his status, to uplift him and shift the narrative. The Prophet made sure people would see Bilal in a victoriuos moment like they saw
him in a vulnerable humiliating moment once before.
There is one more incident that had happened when
Abu-Zarr accidentally pumbed into Bilal, and he insulted Bilal, and said, “You son of
a black woman!”
The Prophet Mohamed immediately called that person out and told
him, “You still have ignorance in your heart!” The Prophet referred to Abu-Zarr as someone practicing non-Islamic practices from the pre-Islamic era.
That was how the Prophet Mohamed handled it. In my humble opinion, this is
the best way to handle racism in our community. To give people who have suffered
from systematic racism a platform, we need to make sure to put them in the spotlight and hand
them the responsibility to represent us, speak on our behalf, and let them
lead the efforts for a better future.
The long years of suffering, oppression, and the unfairness of broken racist societies are their best resume builders.
Prophet Mohamed made sure to unify people and gather
them around one God. He planned to end social discrimination and end the habits of categorizing people
based on their social rank, skin color, tribes.
In the Quran, God never said a white prophet or a black prophet. When God explicitely spoke about race in the Quran, he said, “O mankind, indeed We have created you from
male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another.
Indeed, the noblest of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of
you. Indeed, Allah is the All-Knowing and Aware.”
Prophet Mohammed said, “There is no superiority of an Arab
over a non-Arab, or of a non-Arab over an Arab, and no superiority of a white
person over a Black person or of a Black person over a white person, except on
the basis of personal piety and righteousness.”
Update: This blog was published on February 6th, and I unpublished this blog post for a while to do edits and rephrase things that were misspoken in the original blog. Thanks for all who took the time to reflect and give me their honest feedback.
Also, thanks to my amazing Black sisters and brothers who reached out to me regarding my book I'm Different...I'm Special. Just to let you know, I edited the wording, and if you get the first copy, I would love to take it back and give you the second edition at no additional cost.
If you didn't get a copy yet, make sure to check the second edition here
There are always many ways to help, like supporting a Black business.
Listen to Mr. B, a local talented artist. Here is his Youtube channel.
Modest Family Solutions is a Black Muslim-owned business that offers gardening classes for kids and has a homeschooling facility. Check out their Facebook and their Website.
Mixed is also a Black-Latina local business. Show your love and support. Here is their Facebook page.
Also, if you have a good grasp of the Arabic language, you can still look up great Arab writers who wrote about Bilal in-depth and in Arabic, like the Iraqi Novelist Dr. Ahmed Khairy El- Omari, who wrote Bilal’s Code Arabic Novel. He did a brilliant job mapping and mixing both Bilal’s experience with racism during the Islamic era and the American Cultural systematic racism. Dr. Omari’s novel was transformed into Bilal’s American movie. Watch the trailer here,
Make sure to check out his novel here,
Note: My opinions are opinions, they are representing only me, and they are subject to discussions and modifications.
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