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Why I pray for Black Liberation.

Why I pray for Black Liberation.

Last updated on: March 2, 2017 at 8:27 am by Hakeem Muhammad

Why I pray for Black Liberation. 2017-03-02T08:27:13-05:00 Hakeem Muhammad

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Can prayer have the ability to impact the material world? Can someone sincerely calling out to their lord be a catalyst for social change? We’ve heard the cliché: religion and its various rituals is a mere opiate of the masses. It serves as a means to placate the masses as they are being tyrannized.

A real life implication is the saying the quote“When Missionaries came to Africa they had the bible and Africans had the land. They said ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.” Some may take this to mean that prayer and colonialism are intertwined. Some may see prayer as empty words and empty gestures.

These questions should be relevant to Muslims. After all, Muslims are obligated to pray five times a day. I believe salah, as prescribed by the religion of Islam, is both revolutionary and liberatory. The Prophetic traditions attest to the fact that dua, a sincere supplication’s to one’s lord is the most powerful weapon in the hands of the oppressed. What is it that makes dua such a powerful weapon?

Even as we sought to escape from slavery, we as black people sought to maintain our obligatory prayers known as salah. Detailing his escape from slavery, Omar Ibn Said states, “I fled from the hand of Johnson and after a month came to a place called Fayd-il. There I saw some great houses. On the new moon I went into a church to pray.” Maintaining his salah was on the mind of Omar Ibn Said despite the fact that he was a fugitive slave who could be captured at any times.

Our enslaved Black Muslim forefathers prayed every step forward in their struggle for liberation. In the historic Islamic slave revolts of Brazils, historian João José Reis writes that “The police found Muslim amulets and papers with prayers and passages from the Koran on the bodies of fallen rebels.” During the court prosecution stated that slave rebel,”Dandara organized twice daily prayer sessions.” Witnesses were brought by the prosecution attesting to the fact that Dandara was seen with large prayer beads. One document recovered from the slave rebellion even reads,”Peace and blessings of Allah be upon our master the Prophet. O Allah! “ In the midst of a slave rebellion, black Muslims were sending prayers upon our beloved.

Secular historians conclude that that these slave revolts were unsuccessful. After all the slave rebels would be hanged, some would be deported, and others were imprisoned. However, this metric for evaluation is incapable of measuring the success of the sincere dua that they made, duas which transcend their lifetime, and duas which meant their revolt against oppression never in fact ended. The spirit of these revolutionaries would continue to emerge among oppressed black people yearning for freedom from the yoke of white supremacy centuries after their actions.

Centuries later, in the trial of black political prisoner Assata Shakur, she states that, “People from all over the Black community dropped by. The Muslim sisters and brothers brought their pray rugs and broke out into prayer in the hallway of the courthouse.” Assata Shakur was subjected to an all a white jury with prosecutors using a plethora of fabricated evidence to convict her. In the midst of it all, Muslims showed up in the courtroom and began to pray. What was the significance of this act? Why pray in the courtroom?

In the beginning of every Salah, Muslims perform a recitation Al-Fatihah which affirms God’s status as the master of the Day of Judgment. While the worldly judge could issue a verdict in the courtroom trial, ultimately it is God who is the master of the Day of Judgment. God is the true judge to whom we are all accountable. Allah’s justice is more than what a judicial system soaked in institutional racism could ever deliver. The prayer in Assata’s trial is a reminder of this reality.

Assata Shakur states that,”the Muslim influence over our struggle has been very strong.”

The Muslim influence over the black struggle is shown by Omar Ibn Said who escaped from slavery and turned to prayer.

The Muslim influence over the black struggle is shown by Dandara who organized prayers prior to leading a slave rebellion.

The Muslim influence over the black struggle is shown by Malcolm X who after experiencing a tough day in prison stated that, “all the rest of that night, I prayed to Allah. “

Black people have been subjected to widespread transgenerational socio-economic hierarchies, police shootings, and a wide variety of oppression. We were stolen from our homelands in Africa and brought to America against our will if as black people, we look at our conditions in this world purely logically or rationally, it may appear as though there is no way out of the oppression that we have been facing for the past five centuries.

However, when we pray and enter a world of faith, we seek to connect with God who is beyond and in control of this world. Prayer is powerful. The commandment for the five obligatory prayers came when the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, ascended to the heavens beyond this would. I believe in a God is who far greater than white supremacy and a God who sent Prophet Muhammad(Peace Be Upon him) whose Sunnah I believe will enable me to combat it.

When I pray, I seek to advance the struggle of my people. I pray for the eradication of white supremacy which I see as a form of modern day shirk. I affirm the status of Allah(SWT) as the being which deserves to be unconditionally obeyed and worshiped. I seek to submit to Allah, I do not submit to white supremacy. I pray to Allah for the courage, the conviction, and endurance to stand up for justice. I believe with all of my heart that dua is the most powerful weapon of the oppressed. I will wield it as a weapon.

As I was listening to the National Muslim Call To Action for Black Lives, I was very moved by the words of my brother Carlos Muhammad who stated,”We cannot have a mosque in a Black community and just go in to worship.” The Mosque must always be connected to the streets and the Mosque in the black community must be at the center of improving the lives of black people.

In a lecture from Imam Siraj Wahaj, he stated as a young Muslim he would zealously go throughout even the toughest neighborhood in New York in order to sell Muhammad Speaks newspaper(the NOI newspaper founded by Malcolm X). In one incident, Imam Siraj Wahaj states that he was in a very tough neighborhood oelling Muhammad Speaks newspapers. Suddenly, he saw two individuals who looked like they were going to rob him.

One of the brothers pulled out a gun on Imam Siraj Wahaj but then put it right back. The man told him him couldn’t rob a Muslim and instead he gave him money to purchase a Muhammad Speaks newspaper. This story demonstrates the immense respect and love that many of the individuals in America’s most marginalized neighborhoods had for Muslims. That respect was garnered from the role of the Mosque in uplifting black life. As an oppressed people, we must make dua for the total liberation of black people and then we must get up and work for our duas. If we do this, our prayers will never be empty gestures. They will be liberatory.

As-Salaam Alakium.

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