[Jorcelirl]

With Allah's Name the Benificent, the Merciful All Praise is due to Allah the Most High the Creator of Everything, the Master of the Day of Judgement . We send salutations of peace and blessings upon our Master Muhammad Sallahu Alahyi wa Salaam

Alhamduillah from the very outset I will say that this is not at all a scholarly critique of the community nor do I wish to inflict any type of harm on anyone including myself by writing this. Alhamduillah anyone who is familiar with the growth and development of Islam in America amongst the indigeneous people knows that Imam WD Mohammed(May Allah have Mercy on him) in many ways stood at the forefront of that growth and development. I myself personally benefitted greatly from the work of the Imam as it was many of his students and followers helped me make my transition into Islam. Very frequently wherever I go I tell people that some of the best Muslims I know are students of Imam WD Mohammed(May Allah have Mercy on him). Being in the community of Imam WD Mohammed was really something special in some ways as I learned how to be a Muslim without throwing away my identity as a African American. It is because of those few short years that I am able to stand proud say that I am a Muslim whose is a benefactor of the work of Drew Ali, Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammad, Al Haijj Malik Shabazz, Imam WD Mohammed, Dr. Martin Luther King, Imam Jamil Al-Amin, Shaykh Muhammad Shareef and countless others whom I do not have the space to mention.



Being a benefactor of their work means simply that they have paved the way for young men like me to continue to carry the torch of Islam in America . Typically when people remind us that we have benefitted from the work of some people they usually say this with the motive that we should confine ourselves to thier ideas. In these days has all of a sudden it has become disrespect to be honest and frank about the errors of our elders, my question to those folks is should we be "respectful" and continue to propagate lies that will only continue to set us back in the dunya as well as in the hereafter? With this in mind I ask that you read what what you will see next with the understanding that I am writing this not with the intention of attempting to tear anything down rather the intention is to continue to build upon the structure that we have for the sake of Allah. Realize that we must build on this structure with the bricks of truth and integrity.



I am just a simple convert that came from the gutters of Philadelphia I do not claim to have all the answers nor do I feel superior to anyone. I have no parents that were in the NOI, no glory stories about how I attended Sister Clara Muhammad School, I am just the quiet guy in the masjid.As I said earlier my introduction to Islam came through the community of Imam WD Mohammed. It has been quite a journey which has sometimes been empowering and other times I have been left dazed, confused about issues for weeks at a time.I am just going to submit the following based on my observations and also what has been the observation of many others from the community as well as from outside the community. I hope that this can open up the doors of dialogue that so badly needs to be opened .



This writing does not reflect everyone in the community, but it is a reflection of a good amount of people that represent the community. From what I have seen the followers of Imam WD Mohammed (May Allah have mercy on him) cannot help but attach some type divinity to him in some or from he has to be the madhi, mujedidid etc. why can't he just be a great Muslim leader who did a lot of good?why do we make him more than what he ever said he was? I see his students represent him in ways all of us clearly know he would not approve of, as he was a man of great humilty. The Imams in the community are even more sickening as the reality is Imam Mohammed was primarily self taught(nothing wrong with it neccesarily) so he made mistakes!To be honest I feel like whatever mistakes he made he had a right to make them as he was a leader of a community doing a job that 99.9 percent of us could not do. Quite frankly his mistakes are better than our corrections however we have an obligation as Muslims to leave his mistakes as we are obligated to obey Allah and his Messenger, there is not obdience to the creation that results in disobdience to Allah. There were serious mistakes made that many of these Imams knew of when he was living but were too afraid to question him and they still know of these errors now they privately acknowledge these errors while in public propagating lies in order to keep their huge following who are very well known for being generous with their sadaqa.



If you are more loyal to your teacher's logic than to the truth that they had claimed to have stood for then know that you have "killed" him. Most of the time when some of these disgusting beliefs are challenged people cry "oh African American Muslims can't accept their own" which could not be further from the truth. I personally have a sincere love and respect for Imam Mohammed(R.A) but I just refuse accept things that are not from Islam. When will the Imams stop propagating wicked beliefs like:

-There were messengers after the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Salam

-Non Muslims are not disbelievers many of the "good" ones will go to paradise.

- Isa (Alayhi Salam) will not return in the physical form.

- denying ahadith that are muttawatir because they don't conform with their "logic".

- Having no concern or precedent for any scholarly consensus whatsoever.

- Imam Mohammed has a school of jurisprudence similar to the 4 Imams.

- Making whatever they want permissible all in the name of culture.

- Likening the the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Salam to a mail man completely ignoring his Sunnah.

- Denying the Physical existence of all Prophets(Alayim Salam) other that the Prophet Muhammad(Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Salam).

- Claiming that the Prophets were communities.

- Denying Prophetic miracles claiming them to figurative



This is not an attempt to speak bad about anyone or even discredit anybody I am just tired of the deviance that even I too was once misled by.A common reaction when people from this community are confronted about these beliefs is that they either accuse you of "self-hate" or they begin to play word games with the Qur'an. The game basically goes like this they will point to different ayahs that are not necessarily explicit in their meaning alone which need to be read with other ayahs and ahadith in order to be put in its proper context. The disregard the science of hadith so if you present a hadith that does not fit their arguement they will reject it no matter what. This is a very old trick that is typically done by folks who have not studied Islam from from its proper sources. Also keep in mind that the omission of a particular word alone cannot be used as a proof for or against something because they will resort to this also to support their shady beliefs. I sincerely believe that if the "students" of Imam Mohammed were serious about preserving his work then they would collaborate with scholars from Ahlus Sunnah (We have plenty of Black American ones if that makes people more comfortable) and begin to have some serious open dialogue on these issues if you really have a pure understanding that will change the world then share it with everyone.



There are many people in this community even to this day I still love and respect, but I absoluetly cannot support falsehood.No one could ever deny the enormous amount of work Imam Mohammed has done, but it's just a big dishonor to your teacher when you are afraid to admit that he made mistakes. For instance there are many Muslims still to this day that love Ibn Taymiyyah (May Allah have Mercy on Him) there are people who hold his work in high regard, but he received some of the harshest criticism for some of the errors he may have made from his own students!



It is also common for many students of Imam WD Mohammed like to compare themselves to the 4 Sunni school of Jurisprudence when this is mentioned I see a huge contradiction. How many books of fiqh did Imam Mohammed(May Allah have Mercy on him) ever put out? the books and instructions he did give in terms of fiqh how different was it from what was already established? Also did the students of the 4 Imams simply regurgitate what their teachers taught? very often they would come to different conlcusion then their teachers came to.



I feel at this time it is very neccessary to write this as our future depends on the correct implementation of Islam. We do not have to throw the baby out with the bathwater in terms of our historical growth and development, but if we are wrong about the things we say and believe we must correct this no matter what great leader it may have came from. I wanted these observations to be open so by chance that if I am incorrect about anything I can be corrected and I feel no shame in admitting I am wrong if I am. May Allah recity the affairs of the community and guides us all



Your Brother In Faith, Tariq A. James

[Aleenkagirlla]

I dislike having to write this to someone who has written such a kind and touching post asking that errors within a group be corrected, but this group, if it really holds these beliefs, is not a group of Muslims.

-There were messengers after the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Salam

This is disbelief by consensus.

-Non Muslims are not disbelievers many of the "good" ones will go to paradise.

So is this, unless what is meant is a very roundabout thing that I can't possibly infer from this statement.

- Imam Mohammed has a school of jurisprudence similar to the 4 Imams.

Quite bizarre...

- Making whatever they want permissible all in the name of culture.

If this includes things that are haram by consensus or clear nusus, then this is also kufr.

- Claiming that the Prophets were communities.

Extremely bizarre.

- Denying Prophetic miracles claiming them to figurative

Bwuh?

Your Brother In Faith, Tariq A. James

If you've accurately rendered the beliefs of some of these people, then it is not permissible for you or for anyone to give them Salaams, or pray behind them... I'm sorry to say this, but it is worse than simple deviance.

[Liaptoono]

I am familar with this community and they have a strange history anyway...it sounds like you have been studying and have figure some things out.May Allah continue to guide you to a better community.I think you know it's time to move on.It's not about color...it's about the truth. And there are African american communities that follow Quran and Sunnah here in the U.S. so you don't have to stay with one that don'tfollow it.
Check out this one http://www.nuruzzamaaninstitute.org/. They follow the scholar Uthman Dan Fodio[RA]Although it's mainly African Americans and Africans its open to all.

[Itrtuawh]

after the movie about Malcolm X many mainstream muslims became aware of the nation of islam (NOI) and have seen been in doubt that the NOI have never been a part of islam. today we hear that NOI are coming closer to mainstream islam but in my opinion that is not good enough. they need to leave NOI altogether as it was not modeled on just an islamic group but as a religion in itself. when i was in america i met many black people that were with NOI as that was the only islam they knew about, but after being introduced to real islam many left. this is what the members of NOI need to do. rather than trying to reform NOI, they should abandon NOI altogether. may Allah guide us all.

[251EPyso]

[251EPyso]

after the movie about Malcolm X many mainstream muslims became aware of the nation of islam (NOI) and have seen been in doubt that the NOI have never been a part of islam. today we hear that NOI are coming closer to mainstream islam but in my opinion that is not good enough. they need to leave NOI altogether as it was not modeled on just an islamic group but as a religion in itself. when i was in america i met many black people that were with NOI as that was the only islam they knew about, but after being introduced to real islam many left. this is what the members of NOI need to do. rather than trying to reform NOI, they should abandon NOI altogether. may Allah guide us all.

Don't they know that Malcom X himself later became a Sunni Muslim?

[Itrtuawh]

Don't they know that Malcom X himself later became a Sunni Muslim?

my only experience is when i was in jamaat in america about 15 years ago. things might be different then

what i noticed was that the NOI 'ministers' have a very strong hold over the community and also a lot of the people were very 'jahil'. there is a lot of poverty there and that might be a reason that the NOI have such a strong hold on the black communities. maybe through dawah and charitable efforts things might change but we are too busy fighting against each other when we should be working together. if tabligh jamaat were to work alongside a charity then inshallah big changes could be made.

[Itrtuawh]

we met one black brother who was living on the streets with his son who looked about 6 or 7 years old. he came back to the masjid with us and sat for the bayan. but the poor guys mind was not on the bayan but the food that he could smell that the khidmat saathis were making. him and his son probably hadnt eaten for days. after the bayan he ate with us and the poor guy was eating with a pained look on his face as if he could not believe that food was put before him and that it would be taken away from him at any moment.


another brother we met was walking around the streets in the freezing cold with just a shirt on. he could not believe it when one of the sathis offered his jacket to him to wear. he stayed with us for a bit and then disapeared with the jacket. i was very young and hot headed then and was raging when i found out the sathis jacket got stolen, but then the sathi explained how for that guy the jacket could mean warmth or dying of cold in some alley. that he was forced to steal the jacket due to circumstance and would probably not have stolen it if his circumstances were different.

how do you expect people that live hand to mouth like that in a country where they have no where to turn to help to worry about their tarbiyyah and taleem? they are too busy thinking where their next meal is going to come from or where to find a safe alley way to hide for the night.

[SingleMan]

Very heart warming post by brother miraj09.
Kindly accept my appreciation of your effort and courage to prepare this post.
And I am with you in this brother.
I also see the wisdom in what sister nur11 has said. You can avail that.
But that will miss some of the concerns. I perceive that you would like to steer your community close to the right path. And why shouldn't you?
But please understand brother that this type of task is a life long one.
Of course sometimes Allah(SWT) changes the things by a quantum, drastically, within a short span.
Decision of Imam WD Muhammed to bring NOI close to the normative Islam was indeed one such thing.
From your post we understand that some more work is left unfinished.
It will indeed be honourable to take it up.
I am getting a feeling that you have reached your conclusions on your own and I agree with most of them.
Even then it will be a good idea to get them, afresh from an authentic source.
My suggestion is that you should spend some time with some Shaikh, just like brother Hamzah Yusuf, to charge your batteries and to develop your spirituality in such a way that you are at peace with yourself.
Insha Allah this will lead to waning away of any doubts and also prepare you to the life long commitment - a commitment that seems nearly imperative to me, as of now.

So thanks once again for the perspective. To educate myself about NOI I had gone through the Alex Hailey biography of Malik Shahbaz. And only through SF I came to know that Imam WD Muhammed had already taken the most critical step of bringing African American NOI community close to Islam. And your post is a refreshing update on the current state of things.

May Allah(SWT) guide us all closer to the straight path.

PS: OP used here with thanks.

[251EPyso]

we met one black brother who was living on the streets with his son who looked about 6 or 7 years old. he came back to the masjid with us and sat for the bayan. but the poor guys mind was not on the bayan but the food that he could smell that the khidmat saathis were making. him and his son probably hadnt eaten for days. after the bayan he ate with us and the poor guy was eating with a pained look on his face as if he could not believe that food was put before him and that it would be taken away from him at any moment.


another brother we met was walking around the streets in the freezing cold with just a shirt on. he could not believe it when one of the sathis offered his jacket to him to wear. he stayed with us for a bit and then disapeared with the jacket. i was very young and hot headed then and was raging when i found out the sathis jacket got stolen, but then the sathi explained how for that guy the jacket could mean warmth or dying of cold in some alley. that he was forced to steal the jacket due to circumstance and would probably not have stolen it if his circumstances were different.

how do you expect people that live hand to mouth like that in a country where they have no where to turn to help to worry about their tarbiyyah and taleem? they are too busy thinking where their next meal is going to come from or where to find a safe alley way to hide for the night.

Sad bro, truly sad, something needs to be done. But don't for a moment think, tj does no charity. It just has different manifestations..

[Itrtuawh]

Sad bro, truly sad, something needs to be done. But don't for a moment think, tj does no charity. It just has different manifestations..

not sure what you mean by tj has different manifestations of charity bro.

anyway i dont say that TJ should do charity. the purpose of TJ as an organisation is preaching and learning amongst the muslims and there is nothing wrong with sticking to that.

in a nutshell im saying that TJ or other dawah groups should work alongside a charity when doing tabligh amongst the dire poor. if the poor get help and stability from a charity then they would be able to concentrate better on their tarbiyyah and not be constantly worrying about the things that we take for granted.

[SingleMan]

Sad bro, truly sad, something needs to be done. But don't for a moment think, tj does no charity. It just has different manifestations..

I say we need to work on creating more Islamic institutions to take care of the needs and contingencies arising in this Ummah spread all over the globe.
Wassalam

[Jorcelirl]

I dislike having to write this to someone who has written such a kind and touching post asking that errors within a group be corrected, but this group, if it really holds these beliefs, is not a group of Muslims.



This is disbelief by consensus.



So is this, unless what is meant is a very roundabout thing that I can't possibly infer from this statement.



These two fold into each other but I am not certain of the Hukm in this case. The first two are very clear cut.



Denying ijmaa' as a concept is massively problematic.



Quite bizarre...



If this includes things that are haram by consensus or clear nusus, then this is also kufr.



The former is Qur'anism and that is kufr, and the latter is extreme kufr...



Extremely bizarre.



Bwuh?



If you've accurately rendered the beliefs of some of these people, then it is not permissible for you or for anyone to give them Salaams, or pray behind them... I'm sorry to say this, but it is worse than simple deviance.

I don't know if I would go that far as this is the job of the rightly guided Ulema and this entails a lengthy process that would have to be undertaken. Yes I listed that some people propogate such beliefs at the same time this is not what everyone in the community believes and there appears to be some disagreement as to whether some of these things had came from Imam Mohammed in the way that they are presented

[Jorcelirl]

I am familar with this community and they have a strange history anyway...it sounds like you have been studying and have figure some things out.May Allah continue to guide you to a better community.I think you know it's time to move on.It's not about color...it's about the truth. And there are African american communities that follow Quran and Sunnah here in the U.S. so you don't have to stay with one that don'tfollow it.
Check out this one http://www.nuruzzamaaninstitute.org/. They follow the scholar Uthman Dan Fodio[RA]Although it's mainly African Americans and Africans its open to all.

Masha'Allah Sister I am already apart of that Jamaat although i am the only Hanafi lol. I backed away from Imam Mohammed's community circa 2009 shortly after having given bayah to Shaykh Mushtaq Ahmad(DB) in 2008

[Jorcelirl]

after the movie about Malcolm X many mainstream muslims became aware of the nation of islam (NOI) and have seen been in doubt that the NOI have never been a part of islam. today we hear that NOI are coming closer to mainstream islam but in my opinion that is not good enough. they need to leave NOI altogether as it was not modeled on just an islamic group but as a religion in itself. when i was in america i met many black people that were with NOI as that was the only islam they knew about, but after being introduced to real islam many left. this is what the members of NOI need to do. rather than trying to reform NOI, they should abandon NOI altogether. may Allah guide us all.

Imam Mohammed's community is much different than the Nation of Islam he was a good man who was very sincere although he was not traditionally trained . He brought many much closer to proper Islam if not for his work you not get people like Imam Siraj Wahhaj, and many other African American students of knowledge whose parents came from his community. People didn't move away from the NOI because of the Malcolm X movie they moved from the NOI teachings because of the work of Imam WD Mohammed I must admit though within Imam Mohammed's community there remains a lot of work to do still. The present day NOI does not have many members and Farrakhan enjoys much more personal popularity than the actual movement does

[Jorcelirl]

Don't they know that Malcom X himself later became a Sunni Muslim?

If you check the history Malcom X's transition to Sunni Islam was partly due to Imam WD Mohammed aka Wallace Muhammad he had rejected the NOI theology for many years even before Malcolm

[Jorcelirl]

Very heart warming post by brother miraj09.
Kindly accept my appreciation of your effort and courage to prepare this post.
And I am with you in this brother.
I also see the wisdom in what sister nur11 has said. You can avail that.
But that will miss some of the concerns. I perceive that you would like to steer your community close to the right path. And why shouldn't you?
But please understand brother that this type of task is a life long one.
Of course sometimes Allah(SWT) changes the things by a quantum, drastically, within a short span.
Decision of Imam WD Muhammed to bring NOI close to the normative Islam was indeed one such thing.
From your post we understand that some more work is left unfinished.
It will indeed be honourable to take it up.
I am getting a feeling that you have reached your conclusions on your own and I agree with most of them.
Even then it will be a good idea to get them, afresh from an authentic source.
My suggestion is that you should spend some time with some Shaikh, just like brother Hamzah Yusuf, to charge your batteries and to develop your spirituality in such a way that you are at peace with yourself.
Insha Allah this will lead to waning away of any doubts and also prepare you to the life long commitment - a commitment that seems nearly imperative to me, as of now.

So thanks once again for the perspective. To educate myself about NOI I had gone through the Alex Hailey biography of Malik Shahbaz. And only through SF I came to know that Imam WD Muhammed had already taken the most critical step of bringing African American NOI community close to Islam. And your post is a refreshing update on the current state of things.

May Allah(SWT) guide us all closer to the straight path.

PS: OP used here with thanks.

Masha'Allah thank you for your kind words, I have been learning from traditional Ulema since 2008 however I still interact with members from the community of Imam WD Mohammed very often

[Jorcelirl]

Bismillah
This reminds me of how in bengle islam took root. It took hundreds of years before orthodoxy took hold thanks to chrisitis and naqsbandi movement.
Animist relegion was not replaced overnight, it shared commonality ( mosque of this time are found to have curving of various animist gods on masjed wall as part of decoration). then both islam and animist relegion stayed seperate, Islam grew and animist gradually dissappeared.
the evoloutionary growth of Islam in USA is very similar. Just like the sufi daiyees of the past, you have to be involved fully in presenting haq with wisdom and do dua. Shaikh Uthmand Dan Fadio (RH) is classed as mujaddid by many scholars just as shah Walli Allah. it may be people are getting the wrong end of the stick.
Allahualam

I could not agree with you more my brother the community in the U.S. is still growing and evolving

[Liaptoono]

Masha'Allah Sister I am already apart of that Jamaat although i am the only Hanafi lol. I backed away from Imam Mohammed's community circa 2009 shortly after having given bayah to Shaykh Mushtaq Ahmad(DB) in 2008

Who is Shaykh Mushtaq Ahmad?? And is the nuruzzamaaninstitute only in Pennsylvania.Do they have jamaats in other parts of the united states.JazakAllah khair for your response.

[Jorcelirl]

Who is Shaykh Mushtaq Ahmad?? And is the nuruzzamaaninstitute only in Pennsylvania.Do they have jamaats in other parts of the united states.JazakAllah khair for your response.

My apologies for my super delayed response but Shaykh Mushtaq (DB), is based in the Northern Virginia area and is a Khalifah of Shaykh Zulfiqar Ahmad(DB) of the Naqshbandi Mujadiddi tariqah. As far as the jamaat is concerned please contact us through our website Insha'Allah