New Directions

Volume 3 | Issue 1 Article 5

1-1-1976

The Ways of IslamGenevieve Ekaete

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Recommended CitationEkaete, Genevieve (1976) "The Ways of Islam," New Directions: Vol. 3: Iss. 1, Article 5.Available at: http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol3/iss1/5

NATIONAl

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In the Name of Allah, TheBeneficent, The Merciful

The Ways of Islam

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"It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of looking atone's self through the eyes of others, ofmeasuring one's soul by the tape of aworld that looks on in amused contemptand pity. One ever feels his two-ness-an American, a Negro; two souls, twothoughts, two unreconciled strivings; twowarring ideals in one dark body, whosedogged strength alone keeps it frombeing torn asunder."

-WEB. DuBois

"The question, then, is posed whetherthis unparalleled alienation and our par-tial entrance into what is termed themainstream of American life precludesour exploration of our identity as a minor-ity of African descent and our recourse tothe African heritage as a fructifyingsource of our creative endeavor."

-Samuel W. Allen

By Genevieve Ekaete

They said it in different ways but theyboth said the same thing: that for manythere is an emptiness which goes alongwith being an American of African de-scent. Many have filled this spiritual voidwith Islam and it works for them.

It is not hard to see why Islam is gettingincreasingly popular to Black Americans.Islam believes in "an eye for an eye"rather than the "turn the other cheek"philosophy of Christianity. While Islamcautions that Muslims should never beaggressors, it implores Muslim victims ofaggression to retaliate. That is a welcomechange for Blacks in this country whohave turned the other cheek too often toolong.

The only criterion for comparison al-lowed in Islam is the degree of one'srighteousness. This is refreshing to BlackAmericans, a people whose former frameof reference was "white" or "Black."

Add to that the fact that Islamic theol-ogy is simpler than Judaic or Christiantheology. Very strictly monotheistic, Islamholds fast to its basic belief that there isone and only one God who is not begot-

ten and has not begotten any children.Jesus Christ is regarded as just anotherProphet.

Another attraction for Blacks in Islamis the fact that this religion does not per-mit pictorial representation of God andHis Prophets. That way, no one race canclaim a monopoly on God and His Proph-ets. There are no picture-images ofProphet Muhammad, who is said to havereceived the words of the Quran, the holybook of Muslims, from God and gone onto establish the Islamic religion about1,400 years ago. Muslims abhor the factthat supposed photographs of JesusChrist abound in the West. They alsobelieve that the existence of photographsand statues of holy men and women en-courage idolatry.

Minister Abdul Haleem Farrakhan, thespokesman for the Nation of Islam, in arecent speech at Howard University ex-plained how Blacks in America have beenpsyched out at the altar of Christianity.

"Let me show you the height of aracist mentality. He (white man) says 'Godis a spirit so you can't see him. If you seehim you will die. And you can't see himuntil you die.' Since nobody wants to die,nobody wants to check out the father.

"Then he (white man) slips in the backdoor and says, 'But dig it, Father had ason.' Well, if I can't see the father I'll beso happy to see the son because the sonis from the father. The catch is: the fatheris the spirit and the son is flesh.

"They didn't have cameras in the daysof Jesus. All of a sudden he (white man)paints a picture out of his mind and hepaints Jesus blond hair, blue eyes, whiteskin and then he hangs it on a cross andsays 'This is your savior. He died for you.'He hangs there real pitiful looking. Thisinvokes sympathy in us.

"See what your clever enemy hasdone. He took white flesh and throughsubliminal seduction, he puts it on across and here is what he was telling you,'You can't see the father but here's theson. The son is white.' So, subtly he wassuggesting to your subconscious mind

that white is godly, white is pure, white isclean, white is ethereal. It is metaphysical-out of the physical into the realm of theangelic.

"So in your subconscious mind whenyou see white skin you automaticallybegin to melt because you are looking atGod's people."

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There are anywhere between one andthree million Muslims in the UnitedStates, according to one source. InWashington, D.C., there is the Nation ofIslam, the Islamic Party in North America,some minor cleavages here and there,along with an internationally-orientedIslamic Center. They have one thing incommon: increasing membership.

But when one thinks of Muslims in theU.S. and in Washington, it is the Nationof Islam that immediately comes to one'smind. The Nation, as it is called for short,founded since 1930 by its late spiritualleader, Elijah Muhammad, has gained alot of respectability. With more than 80temples around the country, 46 univer-sities of Islam and schools for Muslims,thousands of acres of farm land and afinancial empire whose worth is said tohover around $80 million, its respectabil-ity is well in order.

Watched closely by critics as well asprospective converts, the activites of theNation seem close to the heart of mostpeople.

When the Nation relaxed its dress codefor women (women no longer have towear uniforms. They can even wearpants), non-Muslim Black women as wellas Muslims applauded. They applauded,too, the appointment of women ministers.

When the Nation recently opened itsdoors to whites ("though whites are notbreaking down the door to get into thetemple"-Farrakhan), many non-MuslimBlacks as well as Muslims felt that theonly thing they have all to themselveswould no longer be solely theirs.

But obviously the Nation has no choicesince, under the leadership of SupremeMinister Wallace D. Muhammad, it isdeliberately moving closer to Muslim 2

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12 orthodoxy. The fact that it is emphasizingthe teachings of the Ouran and hasdropped all references to whites as"devils" proves this.

Minister Farrakhan has the responsi-bility for explaining the shift of stance ofthe Nation. To a packed Cramton Audi-torium audience he explained that ElijahMuhammad came to Black people in1930 when the Black mind was as lowlyas the beast's. Elijah Muhammad couldn'ttake the holy Ouran and give it to theBlack mind in its pristine stage then, hesaid. "It is too much light for a man who'stotally in the dark. It is cruel to bring aman out of total darkness into total light.You'll blind him forever.

"When the dawn strikes on the easternhorizon, you don't see pure light. You seelight mixed with darkness. And then thehigher and the brighter the light gets, themore darkness disappears until the dark-ness is gone completely and all that's leftis a pure shining light."

Similarly, he contends that when youhave an ignorant people as students youmust wean them away with light mixedwith darkness. The light is the Ouran."The Ouran doesn't teach color. ButElijah Muhammad said the white man is adevil. When we looked at white folks wesaw the embodiment of sin, evil, decad-ence, murder, lying. Elijah Muhammadknew then that not all white people werelike that. But when you are rearing chil-dren you can't tell them that some snakesare poisonous and some are not. We inthe Nation have now put down the chil-dishness of racism."

This recanting is not good enough forat least one segment of the Muslim com-munity, specifically, The Islamic Party inNorth America, which is feuding with theNation over whether or not the Nation'smembers can be called Muslims. In fact,they insist, as long as members of theNation continue to believe that God ap-peared in the person of W. Fard Muham-mad to the late Elijah Muhammad in 1930,they are not Muslims. Further, they saythe late Elijah Muhammad's claim that he

Dr. Muhammad Abdul Rauf

was a divine Messenger of God put himat variance with Islamic theology whichstates that Islam's founder, Muhammad-ibn-Abdullah of Arabia, was Allah's lastMessenger. So the argument continuesin the Nation's weekly, Bi/a/ian News(formerly Muhammad Speaks), and a/-is/am, the newspaper of the IslamicParty. Theologically, the Islamic Partystands on solid grounds. The Ouranquotes Allah as saying, "Muhammad(ibn-Abdullah) is not the father of anyman among you, but he is the Messengerof Allah and the Seal of the Prophets .... "

The Islamic Party is too doctrinaire intrying to determine who will or will not becalled Muslim.

But the director of the Islamic Centerin Washington, Dr. Muhammad AbdulRauf, an orthodox Muslim from Egyptwho at the age of eight (like most devoutMuslim children) had memorized the en-tire Ouran, doesn't think that anotherhuman being has the right to yank thename Muslim from anyone. In fact, hesees members of the Nation as orthodoxMuslims and sometimes worships withthem in their temple. He, however,doesn't believe that Fard was Allah andElijah Muhammad, Allah's Messenger.And he explained the reason for his toler-ance of other Muslims:

"Among American Muslims, Blacks orwhite, as well as among immigrant Mus-lims of any color, you have people ofbetter knowledge than others. So if youhave among American Muslims somepeople of lesser knowledge, I don't liketo call them unorthodox or to mark themoff as a different group."

Dr. Rauf has noticed that Muslims inthe U.S. make quite an effort to observethe five "pillars of Islam" which are: theprofession of faith, praying five times aday, giving alms to the poor, fasting dur-ing the month of Ramadan and makinga pilgrimage to Mecca, Islam's holy city,by those who have the means.

He has noticed other Islamic traits inmembers of the Nation: "They aspire toimprove their conditions, to lead a decent

t _Ahmed Abdullah

life and undertake certain economicprojects in the interest of the community.They seem to maintain clean houses. Allthese are features of Islam."

During an interview with Ahmed Abdul-lah, an official of the Islamic Partywhose temple is located on Park Roadand Sherman Avenue in northwestWashington, Abdullah never looked mein the eyes. I called his attention to it,not quite sure what it meant.

"The etiquette of a Muslim is that theman doesn't look into the eyes of awoman and a woman doesn't look intothe eyes of a man. It's a form of modesty.It's a form of respect for you that I amnot leering at you," he explained, thuspainting a picture of belonging to oneof the strictest Muslim groups anywhere.

The Islamic Party is five years old inthe U.S., and Abdullah has been its fol-lower since. He is 27-years-old and thefather of five children, and drives a cabfor a living. "Driving a cab has helpedto spread the message. Many of ourbrothers drive cabs and that has been away of reaching the people."

Asked why he became a Muslim,Abdullah replied that he had seen a cor-relation between people's suffering andtheir beliefs, traditions and lifestyles. Sohe began to investigate the different be-liefs and lifestyles. "When I investigatedIslam, I saw that the Islamic ideology hadevery solution-both personal and col-lective-to meet the needs of the suf-fering masses throughout the world."

He claims that Islam is only in its be-ginning stages in the West. "Our objec-tive is to make Islam a household word.Our primary objective is the establish-ment of Islam in its entirety." He seesinterests in Islam growing because "peo-ple are searching for comprehensivetruth because there are too many halftruths." The only figure he would give.on the membership of his organizationis, "we are in thousands."

It is noon on a chilly November Fridayand Abdullah has invited me to the Fridaynoon prayer which all adult male Mus- 3

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Members of Islamic Party

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM WELLS

lims are obligated to attend. About 60 13

men and some of their male childrentake their seats on a bare carpeted floorbehind the imam who leads the prayer.The women - about a dozen of them-all covered from head to toe except forthe slit near the eyes through which theysee, sit at the back of the mosque withtheir female children.

Dr. Rauf had explained earlier thatMuslim women sit away from their menin prayer so that all can concentrate onthe prayer. The women sit behind themen so that while going through themotions of kneeling and prostrating inprayer, they will not capture the attentionof the men.

I saw this as a relegation of women toa subservient role and recalled that inlegal situations, Islamic law demandsthat the parties involved have either twomale witnesses or one male and twowomen. Dr. Rauf told me unconvincinglythat this doesn't imply that two womenequal one man. He quoted unnamed psy-chologists as having said women'smemories cannot be trusted becausechemical hormonic changes take placein their bodies every month. "Thereforeit happens occasionally that women arenot in full control of their mental faculty.And in order to protect the rights of peo-ple, the Ouran says 'Let there be twowomen so that if one forgets, the otherwill remind her.' "

After the prayer, Tahirah, Abdullah'swife (though Islamic law allows womento retain their maiden name after mar-riage, all the ones I talked to took theirhusband's names), explained why shewas wearing solid black clothing with allher body, except her eyes, covered."Islam says only the husband shouldreap the beauty of a woman. So I covermy body and my face since the face isthe most beautiful part of the body."

Her mode of dressing keeps down im-morality and jealousy, she added, andthen pointed out how their men wear adark green uniform so that they can be 4

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14 recognized as members of the IslamicParty.

When I told this friendly and graciouswoman that I wasn't a Muslim, sheseemed amazed: "You couldn't possiblybe contented without doing your duty tothe creator?

'''We Muslims feel at peace," she con-tinued. "We feel a contentment. As soonas I accepted Islam I felt no need to beintoxicated or high. We feel overjoyedfor worshipping our creator."

She said the Muslim woman has anenviable position. Islam liberated her and"the law of Allah says that the man takescare of the woman. I get love and securityfrom my husband."

She then took my hand and led meinto a private room where she removedher outer garment revealing a beautifulblack "Pakistani pants"-pants whosecuffs are held by elastic-a black see-through blouse and an embroidered tunicover it. She had made her point: theMuslim woman, according to her groupat least, is supposed to be attractive toher husband at home. She wears theouter garment over everything when outin public.

Many orthodox Muslims who are well-versed in the Ouran believe the methodused by the Islamic Party in adhering tothe Muslim faith is extreme and border-ing on the fanatical. They say that Mus-lims are expected to acquire suchsophistication and discipline that itshouldn't be a continuing battle to func-tion in the midst of regularly clothedwomen who are not one's wives. Theymaintain that the Ouran does not requirewomen to cover their face with a pieceof cloth or veil. A Persian custom, saidDr. Suleyman Nyang, former director ofthe Department of African Studies atHoward, which Prophet Muhammad, afeminist in his day, opposed vigorously.

Dr. Rauf, like Dr. Nyang, belongs to theschool which believes that wearing cum-bersome clothing is not a requisite forholiness or righteousness. "Wearing aveil over the face among Muslim womenis a local custom," he said. "The veil

..-;t

Minister Khalil Abdel Alim

used to be a status symbol in some soci-eties. Ladies of high classes, when theywent out in public covered their faceswith a veil. Then the custom spread insome localities as a result of this."

Yet a segment of the orthodox Muslimsdo not see anything wrong with thefanaticism of any group of AmericanMuslims. They think it is needed at thebeginning of any social movement. Afterall, many considered the Nation of Islamfanatical at the beginning.

Scholar Eric Hoffer considers fanaticscrucial to every mass movement. "Amovement is pioneered by men of words,materialized by fanatics and consoli-dated by men of action," he says in hisbook, The True Believer. He states fur-ther: "When the moment is ripe, only thefanatic can hatch a genuine mass move-ment. Without him the disaffection en-gendered by militant men of wordsremains undirected and can vent itselfonly in pointless and easily suppresseddisorders. Without him the initiated re-forms, even when drastic, leave the oldway of life unchanged, and any changein government usually amounts to nomore than a transfer of power from oneset of men of action to another. Withouthim there can perhaps be no newbeginning."

In Muhammad's Temple of Islam Num-ber 4 in northwest WaShington, I wassearched by a diminutive woman whoincorrectly but pleasantly called me"Geneva" while she turned my largehandbag upside down. I had come tointerview the minister, and for a whileafter the search I seemed forgotten in acorner where young students milledaround me before settling into theirclasses. A bell rang for prayers and, asif from nowhere, a stout man appearedto my left and without uttering any wordsbeckoned on me to follow him. A youngthin woman to my right told me not tomove: "Stand where you are until theprayers are over," she said. I followedthe silent man. At the entrance of a shed-like structure, he held the door in onehand and nodded for me to enter. Hating

to change the format, I nodded my thankyou to him.

I took a chair opposite Minister KhalilAbdel Alim whose duties include teach-ing the message of Allah, supervising thetemple and school, counseling the mem-bers on family and financial matters, andofficiating at marriage rites.

Minister Alim explained the reason forthe latest name change of members ofthe Nation. According to Chief MinisterWallace D. Muhammad, all Black Ameri-cans and Blacks in Western Europe arenow to be known as Bilalians. This ismeant to finally bring an end to the con-fusion over what Blacks in this countrywill be called. Minister Alim explained theproblem the new name came to rectify:"To call us American is not correct. Tocall us Black is not adequate. Negro isnot accepted by most Blacks since it wasgiven to us as slaves. We are not a col-ored people. Colored means someonehas colored you."

Lonnie Kashif, Washington BureauChief of the Bilalian News, the Nation'sweekly newspaper with a circulation of900,000, had earlier explained why thename Bilal was chosen. Bilal, an Africanslave from Ethiopia, was one of the firstfollowers of Prophet Muhammad, he hadsaid. The first muezzin (one who callsthe faithful to prayer) and a minister ofIslam, Bilal was known as Master-a veryhigh Islamic title.

According to Kashif, "This connectionmakes Bilal the best type of imagery forBlack Americans. Our identity with Bilalconnects us with the African continentas well as our spiritual inheritance. Bycalling ourselves Bilalians we carry hisname on through history. His deeds willbe remembered."

Since Islam does not encourage thedistinction among the faithful being basedon race or color, strict adherents to thefaith already have something to grumbleabout.

Whereas Muslim Nations in Africa andthe East strive to blend the state's re-ligion into its political machinery, theNation shuns organized politics. The 5

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reason given is that it doesn't believethat the political system of this countrywill deal with the problems facing Blacks-problems caused by the white socialsystem.

"Bilalians have to develop their ownsystems and try to solve their own prob-lems. But we are very political in that wework daily dealing with the problems ofthe community," said Minister Alim.

Members of the Nation refuse to go towar for the United States, and many havegone to jail for that decision. AgainMinister Alim explained the principlebehind that decision: "We are opposedto fighting a war against a people whoare not our enemy. We had nothing togai n from fig hti ng the Vietnamese."

Increasingly, Islam in the U.S. is be-ginning to appeal not only to the poorand wretched ex-cons that made up theearly converts of the Nation, but collegestudents and some professionals as well.At Howard University, for example, theeditor of the student newspaper, TheHilltop, is a Muslim. Editor Hodari Alimaintains that his being a Muslim influ-ences the paper only to the extent that"I have to make judgments based on myexperience and belief." There now ap-pears an occasional column on Islam inThe Hilltop. Ali said that is only becausea lot of people asked for it.

Asked why college students are flock-ing to Islam, Kashif, a Muslim for 20years, explained that students are lookingfor order, direction and some sense ofpurpose and balance in their lives. Dur-ing the past decade, he pointed out,there has been a general malaise andlack of meaning of life throughout thecountry. And when the students chooseto belong to the Nation, it satisfies theirphysical needs, emotional cravings andtheir thirst for knowledge, he said.

Minister Alim believes college stu-dents, like anyone else, have a good dealto gain from the Nation. "The Nationgives an identity to the individual. Itcreates a sense of family and providesjobs." This is in addition to the fact thatit offers them an alternative culture from

the culture that is blamed for most oftheir problems.

Yet Minister Alim insists on beingcautious about what looks like a massconversion of students. "Students arevery fickle," he said. "They will get ex-cited about something temporarily. Manyof them don't belong to any particularMuslim group because they shy awayfrom responsibility." Although Islam in-sists that every Muslim be part of a Mus-lim community, many of the convertedstudents interviewed did not read that tomean they must join anyone sect orgroup. Rather, they believed that theymeet that requirement by having someMuslim friends.

In general, students, when they speak,sound sincere but because of the incon-venience of trying to meet Islamic de-mands in a predominantly Christiansociety lapse in their duties to Allah.None of those interviewed prayed fivetimes a day as required. Many made dowith praying silently as they went abouttheir secular concerns. And the workarrangements in the U.S. do little to help.

"The holy day of Islam is Friday.Sometimes when I want to go to theIslamic Center on Friday, I can't go be-cause it's a school day," said Ali whobecame a Muslim and husband to Mayi-muna Tafuta, in Washington's Malcolm XPark on May 24, 1975, the African Libera-tion Day. Both took their religious andmarriage vows at the same time.

The couple follows a Muslim lifestyle:doesn't drink alcohol, smoke tobacco,eat pork or dance. Islam prohibits theeating of pork among its adherents be-cause the pig is considered filthy. It pro-hibits intoxicants and Western-styledances because they overly stimulate thesenses and under their influences one islikely to sin or disobey the laws of Islam.

Muslims noticeably have a strong senseof identity, regardless of their sect. Menand women don't have their roles mixedup. Ibrahim Mahdi, a Washington plantssalesman and the father of five children,echoed many Muslim men when he said:

"It is not good enough to be a manand a father of children. The responsi-bilities that go along with being a manand father, the moral obligation thatIslam teaches must be assumed by theMuslim man."

The Muslim woman indisputably rec-ognizes her husband as the head of thehousehold. All the married Muslimwomen who agreed to be interviewedfirst got permission from their husbands.Women's liberation has no foothold here.

In trying to locate the types of menand women who are attracted to Islam,one couple-Sulaiman and Zehraa'a UIMahdi - came closest to being com-posites.

Dressed in a long stri pped cottonhooded dress, Zehraa'a, a publishedpoet and secretary at Howard, sported anose ring and occasionally covered herhead with the hood-a move which im-mediately transformed her into the pic-ture of Lynette ("Squeaky") Frommeevery time. She didn't have much to fussabout in the living room of the one-bed-room apartment she occupies with herhusband because the major piece of fur-niture in the room was a large black andwhite Persian rug. The only pretense ata chair was a single-bed size mattress inone corner covered with a black andwhite checkered print. After dutifullywaiving the opportunity to speak first toher husband, Zehraa'a eventually spokeabout the forces that led her into beinga Muslim.

The out-of-wedlock child of a whitewoman and a Black father, Zehraa'a whohas never known her real parents, wasadopted by a fairly well-to-do Black cou-ple in Lynchburg, Va. As a child she wentwith her parents to the Catholic Churchwhere they were the only Black family.Zehraa'a noticed very early that the sameChristian spirit that was extended toother whites was never extended to herfamily.

She also noticed a hypocrisy amongmembers of the church. "They would situp there for one hour and preach onething, then do another the next. You greet

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16 them after church and they act as if youhave a disease."

Frustrated, she started going to theBaptist church which was all Black. Thatwasn't satisfying either because the Bap-tists too, like the Catholics, would preachone thing and do another. And she,meanwhile, was dedicated to pursuingthe truth.

That's when she ran away from homeat the age of 15 and came to live inWashington, where she lied about herage, landed jobs and started going tothe Holiness church.

That offered no relief so she went tothe Buddhist church where she stayed fortwo years. She was intellectually stimu-lated there by the Law of Karma andother properties of Buddha. "Then theyinsisted there wasn't any God but cer-tain forces. That's when I became frus-trated because I had always believedthere was a God. What kept ringing inmy ears as I shook all the time was thefirst commandment: 'I am the Lord thyGod, thou shalt not place false Godsbefore rne.:"

When the Buddhists prayed to a cer-tain white paper, Zehraa'a said shefeared she would lose her mind. "All mylife I had related to an unseen God and Icouldn't go back on that. I preferred to re-late to a God that was unseen," she said.

She started doing research on Islamand spoke to members of the Nation."But at that time-1971-some of thepeople in the Nation of Islam were say-ing that Black people are God and cre-ated the world," she recalled. She foundthe Nation's Minister Lonnie Shabazz tobe "materialistic, chauvinistic andarrogant."

She wouldn't give up though, becauseIslam is a religion that accepts all peo-ple uncondiitonally. This was importantsince she felt impure. "The Catholic re-ligion places a lot of emphasis on mate-rial virginity. It's the whole idea of theVirgin Mary and the nuns being marriedto God. And I had gotten raped so didn'tfeel pure enough to become a nun even

though as a little girl I used to wear atowel on my head and my mother's apronas a long skirt. I just knew then that I hada spiritual calling."

On this leg of her spiritual journey,Zehraa'a's home-life kept getting pro-gressively worse. She just couldn't keepfrom running away from home. Her par-ents gave her the option of either goinginto a psychiatric hospital or into a de-tention home. She chose a hospital. Shehad already had bouts with what doctorscalled nervous breakdown but she calls"an interlude, a time out to deal with thebattles going on inside me."

She saw about a dozen psychiatrists-both as an in-patient and an out-patient.Her health problems ended when shemet her husband and became a Muslim.

She has found contentment with Islamfor the nearly two years she has been amember of the faith. And she feels purein the sense that counts. She likes thefact that in Islam, you relate directlywith God with no go-betweens. "In Islamyou confess to God directly. Becauseyou know that God sees you and is theonly one to forgive you, you are harderon yourself."

She also likes the internalization ofideals that go on in the Islamic faith, thefact that ideals become a way of life withMuslims. Another Muslim had said it bet-ter. According to Ibrahim Mahdi, theprocess of praying five times a day andmeditating enables Muslims to examinetheir actions constantly and weigh themagainst the law of God as given in the

. Quran. By praying often, he said, "westay in constant rememberance of God.After a while we begin to internalize theprayers, their meanings and achieve anupliftment."

Zehraa'a's husband, Sulaiman, a stu-dent at the Howard School of Commu-nications, writes the column for TheHilltop on Islam. The story of his conver-sion is similar to his wife's.

Born in a Christian family where hisfather lived apart from his mother, Sulai-man was so enthusiastic about religion

that he wanted to become a preacherwhen he grew up. But he was distractedfor a while by the gangs he joined whichresulted in his being incarcerated in ju-venile homes for criminal activities at thetender age of 10 or 11. "My friends andI were into house-breaking," he saidmatter of factly. On one occasion he wasincarcerated for beating up a whiteteacher.

While in detention, he resorted toprayers as a plea for help from God. Atthe age of 16 or 17, his career in crimehad ended but he was considered a"hard core social adjustment" student.He said at 17, he, along with StokelyCarmichael and others, formed the groupknown as the Zul us. He described it as a"revolutionary cadre, involved in mili-tancy, training and indoctrinated with thepolitical philosophy of nationalism, liber-ation and revolution."

They studied great African civilizationson their own. The special school he wentto under the Washington School of Psy-chiatry paid him money to go to and stayin. He did, and used some of the moneyhe earned to help his mother, especiallyafter his brother died from drug overdose.

He did other things for money. In juniorhigh school, he was a bootlegger. Theother students were his customers. "Wealways stayed drunk," he recalledsoberly.

There was no thought of God then.While doing a part-time job in the of-

fice of the late Senator Robert Kennedysigning the out-going mail with a ma-chine bearing the senator's signature, hebecame class conscious. Invited as atoken Black to the senator's parties, hesaid he used to sit in one corner and sipa little drink all night while taking in theplush details of the house.

While bouncing about in the ghettoesof northwest Washington, Sulaiman meta Black Panther-dialectical materialistcalled Musa, and Kwesi whom he saidused to be Carmichael's bodyguard.Musa believed there was no God and

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Zehraa'a UI Mahdi and Sulaiman

Kwesi was moving toward Islam and wasvery desirous of marrying many wives.

They moved in together and for a whileSulaiman started to think about God, ob-viously influenced by Kwesi. He read upon Islam and saw similarities betweenMalcolm X and himself. He was elated."Malcolm X is the greatest Black man Ihave ever looked up to," he said.

His face-a face that has definitely notseen many smiles-broke into one as hespoke of another hero of his, AhmadEvans, who is now in prison in Clevelandfor killing a policeman. Sulaiman recalledthe trial with pride. The judge asked himif there was anything he would like tosay before sentencing and he (disap-pointed for not killing more), said, "Yes.I am sorry my gun jammed."

At this point, Sulaiman observed quitecorrectly that he is not a pacifist. "I ammore inclined to the principle of war. Iwas convinced that there is a God and Ineeded a revolutionary religion." Islamwas it.

Why not Christianity? "Christianity istoo 'pie in the sky' I couldn't wait to getto heaven to wear gold slippers when Ineeded shoes here on earth. Islam dealswith both physical and spiritual balance.We believe this world is a prerequisitefor the next. So we should have a certaindegree of paradise in it. With Christianityyou do nothing. God will do it all. WithIslam you must do something foryourself."

He has been a Muslim for six years,and nota member of the Nation. He giveshis reason for not joining the Nation: "Iam looking for the total degree of knowl-edge that can be attained in Islam in-stead of a particular degree that can beoffered by a particular school of Islam. Idon't want to confine myself to any par-ticular school."

Like a true Muslim, Sulaiman obeysthe laws of Islam. Though everyoneseems to agree that Muslims are not sup-posed to dance, Sulaiman and his wifebeg to be different. Zehraa'a explainedwhy and in the process made a very im-

portant point: "We are allowed to main-tain our culture as long as it is not againstthe principles of the religion."

Her husband too made a noteworthystatement: "Islam originated from Africa,not Arabia 1400 years ago." And he isbacked by scholars like John HenrikClarke and Yosef ben-Jochannan.

This is how Sulaiman argued his case.Prophet Muhammad was the last Prophetand messenger of God, therefore hetechnically completed Islam as a religion.He couldn't be the last Prophet and theoriginator of the religion. Rather, "thefirst Prophet of Islam is considered to bethe first man whom many call Adam."

The Bible says that Adam was createdat the junction of the White and Blue Nile.Sulaiman called attention to the fact thatthis is in today's Sudan, south of Egypt.The people inhabiting this area, theNubians, moved north to today's Egyptand built the pyramids. "That," he said,"is where life started." Some of theseNubians or Blacks moved even furthernorth into Arabia and Europe where, inhis words, "we got a snow job."

Thus Sulaiman UI Mahdi has given usserious food for thought. He, like manyothers, hoped to use Islam as a vehiclefor overcoming the "two-ness-an Amer-ican, a Negro" which DuBois spokeabout and to seek the "recourse to theAfrican heritage" which Samuel Allen im-plied in his statement. Now, if what UIMahdi said is true, the Muslims have abigger bonus than they had bargainedfor. One step further and one can say,God, if he or she must have a color, isprobably Black. Eureka! It is the stuff ofwhich dreams are made. It is the stuffby which the once wretched of the earthcan redeem their battered psyches. Per-haps religion is still the opiate of thepeople. Perhaps, it has never ceasedbeing that. D

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New Directions, Vol. 3 [], Iss. 1, Art. 5

http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol3/iss1/5