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Because of Prevailing Issues in the Islamic Community At-Large, the Editorial Staff (ES) of Shahadah sees the need for these issues to be addressed through the U.S. National Amirate of Amir Abdallah Yasin, Amir of The International Amirate of Masjid Baytul-Khaliq, Inc. In each issue of Shahadah the ES intends to present a particular Prevailing Issue. Inshaa’Allah.
A Call For American
Muslims
Certainly, only Allah is The Owner and The Knower of the Unseen and the Future. Therefore, when man attempts to "forecast" he can only speak of "probabilities", which, because of his imperfections must themselves contain "uncertainties". From certain sources the point is being driven into the minds of many American-Muslims that we, Muslim-Americans, should plan or be prepared on making hijrah (migration) to another country! There are serious problems with that "forecast" because there are many Muslim-Americans, like myself, who see our Islamic destiny as being here, in America! Therefore, the Muslim-American Community is presented with a dialectic that is producing a dichotomy of thought, which in effect has said Community chasing two "rabbits": 1) plan & prepare to stay, 2) plan prepare to leave! It is a well-established fact that when one chases two rabbits he catches neither! The "forecast" for Muslim-Americans to make hijrah is detrimental to our National Interests, Security, and our Future. And what about the American Muslims of European ancestry? Should those departing African-Americans view these Americans with the racist view which has been cast upon them? And then there are the Muslims who have immigrated here and are now getting a small taste of what we have experienced all along!!! This "forecast" appears (unfortunately) to be emanating from a few African-American Muslim leaders, apparently speaking more like individual souls caught up in the "romanticism" rather than the reality. (Most are espousing hijrah to an African country and usually one generally recognized as "Black"!) Certainly they would not desert their own people to save themselves if and when (or before) a perceived "calamity" arises on these American shores; the shores of our homeland. Most certainly, every American Muslim of African ancestry would not find the means to immigrate even if he wanted. Most who would want to do so, could not! Should they then be left behind while their leader runs off to what he perceives is safety for he and his? Of course not. I believe these leaders are men of good intentions who desire safety for all of us. However, I am reminded of this short story: One day a man looked out his window and saw a cocoon on the window ledge. It had a tiny hole in it and the butterfly inside was struggling to get out of the hole. The man watched the butterfly struggle and after about three hours the butterfly had apparently ceased to struggle and the cocoon lay still! This kind-hearted man thought to help the butterfly and enlarged the hole so as to make it easier for the butterfly to emerge from its cocoon. The butterfly emerged and its wings were all crumpled and its body was swollen and distorted with fluid. This became the final state of the butterfly, for thereafter it never reached its maturity as God intended. The kind-hearted man, although having the best of intentions, did not understand that the struggle of the butterfly to emerge (unaided) would have caused the natural fluids in its body to flow into its wings, making them strong and fully formed. Thus it would have emerged from its cocoon having reached its full and beautiful development, continuing on to meet and fulfill its intended destiny! If a dire "calamity" arises for Muslim African-Americans on these American shores, they must count on Allah, He who has them here, to sort it out! I believe the African-American is here for a reason, which only history will reveal. Those leaders who are proposing hijrah need to cease and rethink their postulations. Clearly, we are speaking of African-American Muslims and not those Muslims who have immigrated to America because those Muslims can (and do) relate to their homeland. America is the homeland for Americans of African ancestry, not Africa!!! Additionally, many, if not most Americans who claim African descent also have large percentages of Native-American blood running through their veins. Our American roots run deeper than many realize! Also, Americans of African ancestry whose fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, et cetera, have lived suffered and died on these shores have established their and our birthright to this land just as surely and as concretely as any people can claim anywhere on this earth! And we should run from this God-given birthright and the grand legacy we, as a people have established??? Run to Where??? I have recently visited the South and had the occasion to visit the University of Tuskegee, Alabama. The legacies of Booker T. Washington and George W. Carver are positively ASTOUNDING. The legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen, known as the "Red-Tails", is Fantastic. In the vestibule of the Post Office of Tuskegee there is a framed Poster depicting approximately 100 U.S. stamps designed to acknowledge the simply amazing accomplishments of only some African-Americans. The truth is that African-Americans have made exceptional contributions to American society and to the world while carrying the weight of evil racism on their backs! Another great contribution is the advent of Islam among the African-American people. This is OUR history and for African-American Muslims to throw it behind their backs and not trust Allah to continue to enrich this magnificent people is an outrageous affront to the dignity and struggle of our American ancestors! We ARE Americans. We are Not Africans. African-Americans and Native-Americans are more American than any other people in this land! The Da`watul-Islam belongs to these people and that is our mandate! Let us look at some more realities pertaining to this matter: Make Hijrah To Where? What Nation Would Accept An En Masse African-American Muslim Migration? Now, if there are some African-American Muslims who think that they can just pickup and go en masse to another country, I ask: What have you done with/to the brains Allah gave you? There is not one country, Muslim or otherwise, who wants you or would accept you (en masse). There are none who want you today in singular unless you have wealth, fame or special skills sought after by that society! And if you go to any of these countries without the aforesaid dunya qualities, you will be treated as third class citizens in those countries and generally "looked down upon", even if you spoke their national languages; which most of you do not! Let us name several countries which are most often mentioned: Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan: Most of these and other such countries are in a continual state of war or political upheaval within their own borders; and we can count on their situations getting much worse (if they ever get better)! They are all suffering (by American standards) unimaginable poverty and sickness. Many African countries are in or on the brink of civil war and their respective national citizens are slaughtering each other in factional warfare. Many of the "black-skinned" Muslims of these lands refuse to acknowledge their CLEARLY African ancestry, particularly if they speak Arabic! (I could go on with many more relevant facts, but I am sure you get the point.) If the feeble conscience of the United Nations would have any effect at all, it would be forced by world opinion to voice opposition to any attempted slaughter/genocide of African-Americans by the U.S. government. Other sources of support are not outside the realm of possibility should African-Americans be forced to fight for their survival in their homeland. America is the homeland of African-AMERICANS and it is the nature of men to fight for their rights in their homeland. This talk of hijrah has absolutely no analogy with the Hijrah of Rasulullah (SAWS). He did not leave Arabia! He (SAWS) went to a place IN ARABIA where (by Allah's plan) he could "dig-in" and establish his Islamic Presence. That is our example. Not to run, because, there is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide! As a matter-of-fact: People the world over, and particularly from the Muslim countries mentioned, are scrambling to get to the Americas! And we've got who, that wants to go where? Such thinking is romantic folly, which will get people killed. Allah's Plan Must be "Allowed" to Unfold: Bukhari & Muslim exactly recorded the hadith wherein the Messenger of Allah is reported to have said: "Verily the creation of each one of you is brought together in his mother's belly for forty days in the form of a seed, then he is a clot of blood for a like period, then a morsel of flesh for a like period, then there is sent to him the angel who blows the breath of life into him and who is commanded about four matters: to write down his means of livelihood, his life span, his actions, and whether happy or unhappy. ………….." We must understand that this is not guesswork. No. It simply means that Allah knows us before we are brought into His creation. He knows what choices in life each individual will make. Man makes choices AND he can only be judged by the choices he makes. Otherwise, there would be no Reward nor Punishment! We must not fall into the falsities of the Orientalist who proclaims Islam as a "fatalistic faith". Therefore, what I mean is that all too often man (men & women) thinks he has complete charge over his affairs and instead of being patient (to work, while waiting without worrying) he jumps into situations destructive to his own well-being and which are Islamicly unproductive. He does not choose/take the right courses of action, which will assure him a destiny of goodness and fulfillment; which, had he been patient, Allah would possibly have given him! Yes, Allah gives man certain choices over his own destiny! For example: How many times have you learned that a young man or woman has tragically died or been killed? Then you hear someone matter-of-factly say: "Well, it was just his time." In many such instances this statement is incorrect! It was not his time. But, his (or her) course of action brought this calamity upon himself! Let me elucidate further, just in case there are some of you who do not
yet understand: Repeatedly, in The Qur`aan Allah warns us about our choices. For example:
"But if anyone opposes the Messenger after the guidance has become
clear to him and follows (i.e.: chooses) other than the path of the mu'minun,
We will hand him over to whatever he has turned to, and We will roast
him in Hell. What an evil destination! (4:115, TNQ) & "Do those
who take (i.e.: choose) the kafirun as protectors rather than the mu'minun,
hope to find power and strength with them? Power and strength belong entirely
to Allah." (4:139 TNQ) & "One group He guided; but another
group got the misguidance they deserved. They took (i.e.: chose) the devils
as friends instead of Allah and thought that they were guided." (7:30
TNQ) Man makes choices by which he shall be judged! As I stated in the previous Shahadah Chronicles, the United States of America was not founded as a "Christian country". Yes, it was predominantly a country of Protestants, but it was not founded as a Christian country! Many of the Founding Fathers of this country believed that its birth was an act of God or Providence! Let me now conclude this article with the following quotes and final statements: "……..The creation of a separate American nation occurred suddenly rather than gradually, in revolutionary rather than evolutionary fashion, the decisive events that shaped the political ideas and institutions of the emerging state all taking place with dynamic intensity during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. No one present at the start knew how it would turn out in the end. What in retrospect has the look of a foreordained unfolding of God's will was in reality an improvisational affair in which sheer chance, pure luck --- both good and bad --- and specific decisions made in the crucible of specific military and political crisis determined the outcome. At the dawn of a new century, indeed a new millennium, the United States is now the oldest enduring republic in world history, with a set of political institutions and traditions that have stood the test of time. The basic framework for all these institutions and traditions was built in a sudden spasm of enforced inspiration and makeshift construction during the final decades of the eighteenth century. If hindsight enhances our appreciation for the solidarity and stability of the republican legacy, it also blinds us to the truly stunning improbability of the achievement itself. All the major accomplishments were unprecedented. ……….. The very term "American Revolution" propagates a wholly fictional sense of national coherence not present at the moment and only discernible in latent form by historians engaged in after-the-fact appraisals of how it could possibly have turned out so well. …………In sum, the long term prospects for the newly independent American nation were extraordinarily hopeful, almost limitless. But the short term prospects were bleak in the extreme, because the very size and scale of the national enterprise, what in fact made the future so promising, overwhelmed the governing capacities of the only republican institutions sanctioned by the Revolution. John Adams, who gave the problem more concentration than anyone except James Madison, was periodically tempted to throw up his hands and declare the task impossible……….." Excerpts taken from the book "Founding Brothers (The Revolutionary Generation)" (pages 5-6 & 8), by Joseph J. Ellis, 2000. In Conclusion: Therefore, I conclude that African-Americans are the butterfly in the cocoon. Muslim African-Americans are the vortex of struggle to bringing into effect, by Allah's power, through ISLAM, true freedom for ALL Americans and the solid establishment of the Deen of Truth in America. The American Experiment is still developing. Islam is the logical conclusion. Nest Issue (Inshaa'Allah): AMIRATE-AMERICA, THE VEHICLE.
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