Centering Black Narrative: Black Muslim Nobles Among the Early Pious Muslims

In-store location: Shelf 4.17

By Ahmad Mubarak and Dawud Walid, Itrah Press, paperback, 118 pages

Blackness is a term which has been understood differently based upon time and geography. The authors of this book explore how the term was understood by Arabs during the era surrounding the first three generations of Muslims and how such context can better inform understanding who from among them would today be considered Black Muslims in the West.

This is very important in light of the effects of colonialism and scientific racism theories such as eugenics etc., have forced the idea of species level taxonomies which are in reality social constructs upon the psyche of laymen across the globe.

By examining texts of antiquity and centering them in the modern discourse, it is hoped that the nuance and breadth of the human experience can be appreciated. Moving beyond providing generic descriptive terminology, they elucidate in detail particulars based upon semantics of the Arabic language. Authors then give biographical information on a series of early Muslims from African and Arab lineage who would be considered Black in the post modern era.

About the author:

Dawud Walid is currently the Executive Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI), member of the Michigan Muslim Community Council (MMCC) Imams Committee and a Senior Fellow at Auburn Seminary based in New York. He has studied under qualified scholars the disciplines of Arabic grammar and morphology, foundations of Islamic jurisprudence and sciences of the exegesis of the Qur’an. He previously served as an imam at Masjid Wali Muhammad in Detroit and the Bosnian American Islamic Center in Hamtramck, Michigan. He is also the author of the books Blackness and Islam, and Towards Sacred Activism.