Souls

A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society

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East of the Sun (West of the Moon): Islam, the

Ahmadis,and African America

Moustafa Bayoumi

To cite this article: Moustafa Bayoumi (2001) East of the Sun (West of the Moon): Islam, the
Ahmadis,and African America, Souls, 3:3, 39-49, DOI: 10.1080/10999949.2001.12098167

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Published online: 17 Nov 2020.

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This article attempt.•' 10 intervene in the stall-

dard narrative ofAfrican-American Islam, From Moorish Scie nce to Garveyisrn, from
whe re idea s of sepa ra tion and exclusion Elijah's hon or to Malcolm 's rage, Islam is
reign. Far less inscribed, how ev er, is a his - understood as a tool of po lit ics, pliant to
tory of African-Ame rican Islam that views complaint and mad e to speak a language of
thefaith as a religion of universal belong- plain truth aga inst the tricknol ogy of white
in.~, hut one tha ) a rri ves at it thnnrgh a pa r-
folk. T he soul almo st disappea rs. repl aced
ticula r aestheti cs of living. Music is an im-
wi th an iconogr aph y of mi litarized Isl am ,
portant part "I this story and of this articl e.
boots and bow ties battlin g white supremacy,
and when it was originally delivered the ar -
ticle began with Yusef Lateef's "Meditation"
dividing One Nation Under God with the Na-
(Prestige, 1957) and concluded with John tion of Islam.
Coltrane '.I' "Acknowledgment " (Impulse. The fate of Malcolm concl udes this narra-
1964). tive by nece ssity. Epiphanies of a universal
spirit clash wi th narro w-min ded
paroc hialisms in a death match of blood and
Sepia Tones assass inatio n. Malcolm is lionized, and his-
So mew here betwee n livin g in a racialized tory, tragically, marches OIl. But did this bat-
state and stating the life of a race lies the tle between the particul ar and the univer sal,
story of Africa n-A me rican Islam . Found in between Islam as a uniq ue expression of
narratives of strugg le and spirit; of ed ification Af rica n-A me rica n pol itical as pira tio ns for
and prop agat ion ; of incarceration, incarna- separation and Islam as a universal relig ion of
tion, and ideo logy ; and of blacks, Asia ns, and belon ging, first find its articulation with Mal-
Middle Easterne rs, this is a tale seldom told co hn 's rupture wi th Elija h Mu ham ma d, or
and even less often heard. W hen it does get has the customary story we have up until now
some play, the way is in a single key. Separa- been unable to co mprehend the com plexity of
tion is so unded brassily as the do minant Islam in the Afr ican-American experience? Is
chord, modu lating being minor into a major the divide between the universal and the par-
ideology. The disso nances of dissiden ce. ticular so easi ly drawn as a pictur e in black

Souls • Summer 2001 39

 Islam, the Ahmadis, and African America

Moustafa Bayoumi. PhotobyJohn Smock

and white, or are there sepia tones of black, Af rica wra ppe d thei r faith tigh tly aro und
brown, and beige th at ca ll out to be seen? them as invisibl e armor agai nst da ily degra-
T his is an exa mination of the browns and dation. But the practice does not seem to con-
beiges, a look at the various notes and tones tinue. Religious revivalists in the early part of
of the Muslim experience . the twentieth ce nt ury, mostl y in the North ,
I wo uld like to sta rt with thr ee tabl eau s, where large num bers o f new migrants sought
one involv ing an As ia n immigra nt. anoth er the strengt h of a community, foun d popula-
lookin g at Broth er Malcolm , and the th ird a tions willing to listen and eager to believe, In
study in soun d. All three are signifying the 1913 , Timo thy Drew do nned a fez and
idea of Islam in the United States, finding a cla imed Moroccan heritage for his people in
context in which to belon g along with a place the Moo rish Science Temple. For all its imag-
to disagree and providing me a text with inative recon stru ction, the Moor ish Sc ience
whieh to continue . Templ e has little under the surface to con nect
it to worldwi de Islam , But its spirit of dis-
placin g the term "Negro" from blac ks; o f
The Mufti
think ing of darker- skinned peoples as Asiat-
Islam in Africa n Ameriea has a history as ics and Moroccans; of allying Drew Ali with
long as memory, when Musli m slaves fro m "Jes us, Moh amm ed , Buddha, and Co nfu-

40 Souls • Summer 2001

Islam, the Ahmadis, and African America

cius " is part of the product ive ten sion be- " the Mahdi of Islam . . . the Prom ised Mes-
tween separatism and universali sm that will siah of Christianity and Islam , and an avatar
follow all African-Ameri can Islam through- of Kri shna for the Hindu s," a cla im th at
out the rest of the century. But it would be in would ultimately oust him and his movement
the next decade , with the growth of the Ah- from the main stream Muslim establi shm ent.
madi yya community, that the Asian connec- We should note how Ahmad's ideas are an at-
tion forges ahead . tempt to co nfront communal feelin gs in the
On e night in Janu ary 1920 , a ge ntle and Indi a of his day and how this relati onship be-
bespect acled Muslim by the nam e of Mufti tween faith and nation wou ld reson ate in the
Muh ammad Sad iq left Lond on for New York American Ahmadiyy a movement.
to becom e one of the first " Pio nee rs in the We can note , then, the link s betw een the
spiritual Colonization of the Western world." put ative universali sm of co lonia lis m. whic h
Th is phrase. conveyed by the then-leade r of sa w the spread of Western values as a mission
the Ahmadi yya movement in Indi a, Mirza manifest in direct and ind irect colonial rule
Mahmud Ahmad , to the Muft i's work , inter- (la mission civilisatrice) , and the missionar y
estingly linked Ahmadiyya missionary ac tiv- activities of the Ahmadi s. Ahmadi missioniz-
ity with British rule and with its ow n mis- ing, parti cu larly in its pione ering New World
sionary activi ty. a long wi th the pion eer aspect s, thus borrows heavily from the script
myth olog y of the new world . T he Ahmadi s of Europea n expansion and acc epts moder-
had objec ted to the mann er in which British nit y' s common pla ce divi sion be tween the
missionaries were defamin g Islam by revilin g spi ritual and secular. wo rld s (" the spiritual
the Prophet Muham mad, and set out nOI ju st colonization" ) in whic h the Eas t is spiritual
to co rrect this error but also to illustra te how and the West mat erial. A significant differ -
Jesus was a prophet of Islam . They had ob- ence, however, div ides the meth odologies of
served how missionaries in the East had suc- Western expansionism and Ahmadi mission-
ceeded in misrepresentin g Islam and fell that ary activity, for the Ahmadis were addressi ng
a proact ive age nda of mi ssi on izin g was the rest of the world as a colonized peopl e,
need ed to counterac t this dam age. Recent and the religi ous foundatio n of the ir work is
Hindu-onl y movem ent s in India also fueled thus by defin ition a minor ity 'religion, unen-
the drive to survive in a world of plu ral faiths. cumbe red by state app aratu ses or ideology.
"Reason itself revolts against this exclusive- Its universalism percolates from below rath er
ness," wrote the Ahmad i founder G hulam tha n being dusted from above, thus achieving
Ahmed.' a kind of di ssident politica l flavor se pa rate.
The Ahmadiyya community began in late- from the tastes of domin ant rule.
ninet eenth-century Indi a with the figur e of In 1920, the movem ent, fresh from its mis-
Mirz a Ghul am Ahm ad , a charisma tic re- sionary successes aro und the wo rld (includ-
former who believed he had received divin e ing England and West Africa) and full of the
revelations, starting in IH76. requir ing him to optimism that the new wor ld is supposed to
promote the unity of all religions as manifest ho ld , sent its first missionary to the Uni ted
through Islam. whose chief objec t is " to es- States. Mufti Muhamm ad Sadiq boarded his
tablish the unity and majesty of God on earth. ship in Londo n and, each day, entertained his
to extirpate idol atry and to we ld all nation s fellow passengers with his erudition. "S ay, if
into one by co llecting all of them around one you love Allah, foll ow me; then will Alla h
faith .'" It is a particular un iver sali sm . In love you," he is report ed to have intoned. Be-
seeking this unit y, Ahm ad would ca ll himsel f fore the end of the trip, Sadiq is said to have

Souls • Summer 2001 41

 Islam, the Ahmadis, and African America

"converted four Chinese men, one American, all y baffl ed and lost in its own prejudices
one Syrian, and one Yugoslavian to Islam," when considering the mo vement. One ac-
The U.S. authorities were hardly as san- count tells us, "All the audi ence has adopt ed
guine with Sadiq 's sagacity. They seized him Ara bic names . ... There is the very dark Mr.
before he could leave the ship, accusing him Augu stus, who used to belon g to St. Marks
of coming to the United States to practice church in thi s cit y [Chi cago], but who no w
polyg amy; and placed him in a Philadelphia sing s a prett y Arabic pra yer and acts rather
detention hou se. So began a dark hour for the sphinx-like. Half a dozen Garvey cohorts are
gentle Sadiq. Seven weeks later, he was re- counted, one in hi s resplendent uniform .
leased , but not before making nineteen other There is one pretty yellow girl and another
conve rts in jail , from Jamaica, British not so pretty ,"
Gu yana, the Azores, Poland, Rus sia, Ger- The fact is that the Ahmadiyya movement
many, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, and France. attracted wom en and men . It formed a com-
What Sadiq found when he reached the munity made up of black, brown, and white
welcoming shores of the United States was a peopl e in a scattering of cities acro ss the east-
history of institutional raci sm and Asian ex- ern half of the United State s (and St. Louis).
clu sion laws for which he was unprepared . But "it mo stly attracted Afri can Am eri cans,
White nation alism would already be working who were also given early leadership roles. '
again st the Mufti's mes sage . Later he would Partic ipating in Islam vitally meant discover-
wr ite that if Je sus " had fancied to come to ing the histo ry of black contributions to Is-
America" and applied for admission to the lam , a topic generating some interest broadly
United States under the imm igration laws , he in the black pre ss at the time . In the se years,
would "not be allo wed to ent er this country articles appea red in The Crisis ( 19 13) , the
becau se" Messenger (192 7), and Opportunity (1930)
about Isl am, notably abo ut Bilal, the
(1) He comes from a land which is out of the Abys sinian slav e freed by Prophet Muham-
permitted zone. (2) He has no money with mad and Islam's first mue zzin, illustrating Is-
him. (3) He is not decently dressed. (4) His lam 's historic connection with Afr ica." It is
hands have holes in the palms. (5) He re- important to underline that Islam in the Ah-
mains bare-footed, which is a disorderly act. madiyya community was not considered a re-
(6) He is against fighting for the country. (7) ligion just for blacks but a religion in which
He believes in making wine when he thinks blacks had an alternative univer sal history to
necessary. (8) He has no credential to show which to pledge allegiauce. Chri stianity and
that he is an authorized preacher. (9) He be- narrow nationalisms allowed no such thin g,
lieves in practicing the Law of Moses as The Mos/ern Sunrise, the Ahmadi journal,
[polygamy].''' argued . In 1923, it printed a half-page exhor-
tation on "the real solution of the Negro
Originally conceiving of his work as broad- Question," calling on African Americans to
based, ecumenical, multiracial mis sionary ac- see that
tivity, Sadiq soon realized that whites were
bitter and fearful of his message and African Christian profiteers brought you out of your
Americans interested and open to it. Earl y re- native lands of Africa and in Christianizing
ports indicate that several Garveyites at- you made you forget the religion and lan-
tended his lectures and were among his first guage of your forefathers-which were Is-
converts , and the white pre ss seemed gener- lam and Arabic. Youhave experiencedChris-

42 Souls • Summer 2001

Islam, the Ahmadis, and African America

tianity for so many years and it has proved [ 0 black pride unt il his fa teful Hajj in 19 64
be no gnod. It is a failure. Christianity cannot tamed his messa ge, as he discovered the true
bring real brotherhood to the nations. So, un iversal spirit o f Isl am. Co nventional as th is
now leave it alone. And join Islam, the real story is, with its Au gust inian turn s of the will ,
faith of Universal Brotherhood." it fails when confronted with history. Th e rise
and developm en t of Malcolm 's message is a
Universa l br oth erhood , of co ur se, so und s sto ry of the co ntlict be twee n th e pa rt ic ul ar
similar to Un ive rsa l Ne gro , as in th e Im- unive rsalism of Ahma di-t ype Islam an d the
provem ent Orga niza tion, and links should be mo re nar ro w confi nes o f Nati o n o f Isl am
made be twee n the phi losophy o f G arv eyis m c re ed ." Wh en we un de rstand thi s, we ca n
a nd o f the A hmad is, but a gain not s im ply v iew the intell e c tu al de ve lop men t of Mal-
through the lens o f separatism but th rou gh a co lm as a way of think ing thro ugh the role of
rec on figured un iver sal ism . Co ns ide ri ng th e faith in determ ining co nsc ious nes s, and Ihat
rac ial and religiou s divi sion s in the world, the that ac tivity itse lf for Ma lcol m wa s hardl y a
Ahma dis reint erpreted the Islam ic co ncep t o f sett led issue.
tawheed , the oneness of God, as uni fyi ng the Co nside r, for exa mple, the fact that early in
wo rld , people, and faith around Islam (as his life and while co nside ring the value of Is-
Gh ula m Ahmad wanted for Indi a ). In the lam while in prison , Malc olm was visited by
A mer ica n con te xt, th en , Ahmadi th ou ght an Ahmadi , Adbul Ham eed , who was on his
open ed a c ritical space for race in the realm outre ac h to local pop ulation s. Abd ul Ha meed
of the sac red. In this wa y, African Ame rica ns eve n sent Malcolm a book of A rabic Mu slim
could met ap horically travcl beyo nd the co n- praye rs. whic h Malc o lm mem or ized phonc ti-
fines of nat ion al ide ntities . Th ey co uld be- ca lly." Th is co ntac t may help to ex plain why,
co me "Asiatics" and rem a in blac k, co uld be afte r being released fro m C harles tow n prison
prou d o f the ir A frican her it age and feel a on parole , Malc olm too ide ntifies hi mself a t
sense of belonging to and part ic ipation w ith least once as an "Asiatic," whic h I have been
Asia . Bei ng plural in th is scheme meant not arguing is nOIfalse co nscio usnes s of African-
having to fee l the psychic tear of doubl e co n- Am e rican history o r se lf-ha tred, but a stra te-
scio usness , but a way of living who lly in the gic be lief in the partic ular un iver sal of Islam.
holy. T his ec ume n ica lism cou ld be very pow- T he incide nt was as fo llows.
erful, bot h s piritua lly and pol iticall y. Be ing In 195 3, Ma lco lm , who was now a full y
open ed -pa lmed ab o ut life whe n the sec ular fle dge d Mu sli m and me mb er o f Elijah
wor ld is cl enc hi ng fists a t you m eant th at Muhammad 's flock , was pulled asid e one day
your plu ral ist unity viewed the divi si on s o f at h is work at the Gar Wood fac to ry in
the world as conte mp tibly paro ch ial. Wayn e, Mich igan, by the FBi. He had failed
By 1940, the m ovem ent could c la im to registe r for the Korean War dra ft, the agent
aro und 10,000 co nverts. Its impa ct would be needl ed h im , and wa s the reb y je opard iz ing
w ider s till, and in hi s e a rly years it wo n ld hi s parole. Malcolm heeded the wa rni ng and
reach the ears of Malcolm X. register ed , but how he register ed is no tewo r-
thy. Und er th e section on c itiz enship, which
read , " I a m a c itize n o f . . . ," Malcolm in-
Brother Malcolm
sc ribed "Asi a." In his for m on bein g a consc i-
Malc olm X , the eloq uent minis ter o f in fo r- entious objector, he s tated his belie f that "Al-
mation for Elijah Muhammad , is co mmo n ly lah is G od , not of o ne part icul ar pe opl e or
see n as spea k ing the fire of sep ara tism and race, but o f All the Worlds, thu s form ing A ll

Souls • Summer 2001 43

 Islam, the Ahmadis, andAfricanAmerica

Malcolm X. Court esy ofSchomburg Archives

Peop les into O ne Uni ve rsal Brotherhood ." the Go d o r Isla m and . like the Ahma dis,
A sked 10 idc ntify his re ligious g uide . Mal- stre sse s the uni ve rsal c haracte r of Go d. We
co lm wrote "A llah the Divine Supreme Be- co uld pe rhaps cy nica lly sec thi s move as a
ing. who resid es at the Hol y City of Mecca. I11C,III S to defeat the dr aft by identifyi ng with
in Ara bia .'": a mar c ort hodo x religio n than the Nation . but
Un like ortho dox Nation of Islam creed. to do so is 10 miss the mann er in which Mal-
which wo uld co nnec t Allah with W. D. Fard cohn wou ld later repeated ly seek to integ rate
and sp ecify the reli gi ou s guide as Elijah the Nation into the fold of worldw ide Islam,
Muham mad , Malco lm identiti es Alla h wi th In 196 0 . afte r the scho lar C. Eric Lincoln

44 Souls • Summer 2001

Islam, the Ahmadis, and African America

coined the term " Black Muslims" for Na tion jor fig ure s of mid- cent ury j azz wer e them -
followers, Malcolm objected vehementl y. "I selves directly influenced by the Ahmadiyya
tried for at least two years to kill off that movement, and the yearning for a univer sal
' Black Muslims,'" he said. "Every newspaper and spiritual sound was in large part a result
and magazin e wr iter and micr oph one I got of Ahmadiyya labor.
close to [I would say] ' No! We are black peo-
ple here in Ameri ca. Our religion is Islam . ALove Supreme
We are properl y called "M uslims !'" But that
'Black Muslim s' name never got dislodged.'? ' In 1953, Ebony magazine felt the rise of Is-
Th is tension between the Ahma di vision of lam among the ja zz musicians of the er a was
a particular universal vision of Islam and the sufficiently important to publi sh its article on
Nation 's notion of an Islam for black people " Mosle m Musicians." "Ancient Religion At-
underscores the co nflic t be tween two very tracts Mode rns " spoke its headli ne , and it
different roles for reli gion in the politi cal ce ntered on the imp ort ance of jazz among
sphere. Admitted ly, the Ahmadi spirit is less musicians. The drummer Art Blakey, we are
co nfro ntationa l, less public , less typi cal of told , " started lookin g for a new phil osoph y
the strugg le we have come to recogni ze as after havin g been beaten almost to death in a
identity politics, and yet it is still revolution- police station in Albany, Ga., becau se he had
ary in its own way by providing a radical on- not addressed a white policem an as 's ir' .?"
tology of self To reorient one 's body toward Talib Dawood, a former jazz player, and Ah-
the Orient means a refusal to engage with the madi, introdu ced Blakey to Islam . Blak ey's
first principles of white America's definitions house was a known center for Islamic learn-
of blackness, but instead to cut to the heart of ing, and in an impo rta nt engageme nt at
an old America n prin cipl e, the free dom of Sm all 's Paradise in Harl em , he organized an
worship. Yet unlike the prim ary demand all-Mus lim seventee n-me mbe r band , the
placed on American religion, that religion be Messen gers. Lat er, the band 's pers onnel
relegated solely to the private sphere , Islam ic would change, as would the name (to the Ja zz
faith is see n as enveloping and thereby sur- Messengers), but the Islamic influence in jazz
passing national belonging. would continue."
Reverberating through the African-Ameri- Other importa nt figures of the period also
can community, this noti on that a reconfi g- converted to Islam. Yusef Lateef, Sahib Shi-
ured universal faith can free your mind and hab, Ahm ed Jamal, and McCoy Tyner would
body gained gro und. Althoug h the Nation all convert, and Dizzy Gille spie, Mile s Davis,
used the media (and the media used the Na- and John Co ltrane would all be signific antly
tion) to promote its belief, this other vision of influenced by its spirit. It is with John
Islam was quietly see ping into the pores of Co ltrane that I want to conclude this article,
African-A merica n co mmunities aro und the since his influence has been so rem arkabl e in
United States, giving them a spiritual place to the jazz sound and because his debt to other
repudiate the nation of America-replacing it Eas tern philosoph ies is relati vely we ll
not with the Nation of Islam but with a new known. But his relat ionship to Islam has not,
univer sali sm . Ge nea logically, this idea to my knowledge, been sufficiently acknow l-
should be see n as descending from the Ah- edged, despite the fact that it can be heard in
madiyya movem ent, and musicall y it had a his most famous work.
soundtrack that large segments of the Ameri- To have a soundtrack to a movement does
can puhlic were listening to. Many of the rna- not mean to play an anthem . I am interested

Souls • Summer 2001 45

 Islam, the Ahmadis, and African America

pl ays mus ic with a

Spanish conte nt.' :" In
an unreleased sessio n
from his Village Van -
guar d rec ordi ngs, .
Coltrane is also play-
ing with Ahmed Ab -
dul Mal ik, a Su-
dane se bass and 'oud
pl ayer who was part
of Monk 's band , a
regular pa rtner to
Randy Westo n, and
an innovator in incor-
pora ting Midd le East-
ern modal orga niza -
tion in ja zz
im pr o vi s ati on .
Co ltra ne 's s idem an
regularl y included
Muslim mu sici an s
fro m Phil adel ph ia.
and he himsel f, mar-
ried to Naim a (a
Mu sli m), and , after
1957, incre asingly in-
terested in all thin g s
spiritual, regul arl y
John Coltrane. Photo bv Chuck Stewart engaged his friend the
pi an o pl ayer Hassan
in listeni ng for the ways in which the yearn- Abdullah in discussions about Islam .
ing for a new kind of co mm unit y, one based Space prevents me from etching in detail
on a new universalism that has a base in Is- the milieu in which Co ltrane repeatedly en-
lam and ca n he heard in the ways in which co unte red and co ns ide red Isl am . Instead I
the music is push ing itself. Co ltrane's search want to move toward a conclus ion in a mu si-
for a tone that co uld extend the saxophone is cal note by considering the ec umenic al so und
well kno wn, as is the critics ' initi al bew ilder- of Islam Found in Colt rane' s most co mmer-
ment at his pitch. He him self talked abo ut his cially succes sfu l recordin g, A Love Supreme.
desire to incorpora te the fullnes s of exp res- S ign ifica nt ly, Co ltra ne was often portrayed
sion in his music. "I wan t to cover as many by the medi a of hi s day as blo wing the
forms of music that I ca n put into a jazz con- sounds of black rage . T he Angry Young Tenor
text and play on my instrume nts," he wro te in was the musical equivalent of the angry Mal-
his noteb ook s. " I like Eastern music ; Yusef co lm X. But Co ltra ne never saw his mu sic
Lateef has been using this in his playing for thi s way. Responding to his critics, he said,
some time . And Orne tle Co leman some times "If [my mu sic] is interpreted as angry, it is

46 Souls • Summer 2001

Islam, the Ahmadis, and African America

taken wrong. Th e only one I' m angry at is simple, four-note structure, this piece is an at-
myself when I don't make what I'm trying to tempt to unify and capture the rapture of the
play.?" Later he would be quoted as saying divin e. Listen how, two-thirds of the way
this about the philosophy of his music: through, Coltrane meander s around the sim-
ple theme in every key, as if to sugge st the
I think the main thing a musician would like manner in whic h God 's greatness tru ly is
to do is to give a picture to the listener of the found everywhe re, and then the ways in
man y wonde rful thing s he knows of a nd which the band begins to sing the phrase "A
senses in the universe. That 's what music is Love Supreme," like a roving band of Sufi
to me- it's j ust another way of saying this is mendic ants singi ng their dhikr . The word s
a big , beaut iful universe we live in, tha t' s co uld change. As the Love is ext olled , the
been given to us, and here 's an e xample of phrase begins to include the sounds of "Allah
ju st how magn ifi ce nt and en compassing it Supreme," another Arabic expression, Allahu
is.w Akbar. Coltrane makes the connectio n from A
Love Supreme to Allah Supreme for his en-
If there is a tendency to view this wisdom tire listenin g audience, forever deliv erin g a
as apolitical, liberal claptrap, it is I think mis- sound of Islam to the world of American mu-
placed. Searching for the universal in a minor sic.
key is not about esc ape and colonizing the To appreciate the depth of mutua l involve-
spiritual experiences of the dark world to re- ment between blacks and Asian s means ac-
juvenat e an exhausted Westem sensibility, in knowledging not j ust how histories of faith
the mode of Richard Burton through George exist to be excavated , which illustr ates a level
Harrison. Coltrane's universal is a search for of s hared struggle toward an acceptable on-
a big philosophy of sound that repudiates the tology for living in the raciali zed United
thin, reedy existence of American racial poli- Stales, but it also means investing the sacred
tics, and it does so, often, by an invocation of with the possibilities for radical thought , even
Istam. if its effects are less visible to us than the
" During the year of 1957, I experience d, legacy of political activism through ideolo -
by the grace of God , a spir itual awake ning gies. of separatism.. Ahmadi Islam was the
which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more space where this place was opened up for
productive life." So wrote Coltran e in the fa- many African Americans. II defines a certain
mous liner notes for A Love Supreme . The aesthetics of living, where the text to life is in
notes continue in this tenor, and anyone with a language white America cannot read and
an ear attuned to Islamic language will hear the sounds of existence flutter beyond white
its echoes. "NO MATTER WHAT : . . IT IS America' s ears. This isn' t about being Omn i-
WITH GOD . HE IS GR ACIO US AND American, to use a phrase associated with Al-
MERCIFUL. HIS ' WAY IS IN LOVE , bert Murray, but it is about assimilating into
THROUGH WHICH WE ALL ARE. IT IS the omnipresence of a just universal order. It
TRULY-A LOVE SUPREME ." Al-rahman, 'is where blacks become Asians and Asian s
al-raheem , the Gracious, the Merciful. T he black, under color of divine law.
two qualities that follow God everywhere in
the Muslim tradition are invoked by Coltran e, Notes
who end s his text with "ALL PR AISE TO 1 would like to ex tend my than ks to Vijay
GOD ." A l-hamd' ulillah . Consider the first Prashad and Sudhir Venkatesh for their warm
track , "Acknowledge me nt," Built around a invitat ion 10 p resent this articl e to the

Souls • Summer 2001 47

 Islam, the Ahmadis, and African America

"Blacks and Asians " confe rence at Columbia ganda: The Hand of Islam stretches Out to Af ramerica ,"
University. This article was suppo rted (in The M essenger (May 1927), pp . 14 1, 160. Hoffert writes.
"A woman convert who had belonged to various
part) by a grant from The City University of
churches spo ke of her previous life like that of a dog or
New York PSC-CUNY Research Award Pro- cat before its eyes are opened; they are going to have
gram. tlteir share of good things and stand on their ow n feet.
I. C. Eric Lincoln, The Bla ck Muslims of America. S he spoke o f the universalit y or Isl am . its way of life.
.Ird ed. (Grand Rapids, Mic h.: Ecrdmanns. 1994), p. 49 . one God , one aim. one destiny" (I' . 141 ). Blanch e Wat-
2. The Moslem Sunrise (J uly 192 1l, p. 3. so n, "T he First Mue zzin ." Oppo rtu nity (Se ptember
3 . Quoted in Yvonn e Haddad and Jane Smith, Mission 1930), p, 275. In November 19 13, The Cr isis magazine
to America : Five Islamic Sect arian Co mmunities in pu bli shed the story. "T he Muslim Priest and the Hea-
North America (Gainsvillc : University Press of Florida, then : All Af rican Parable ." in the introduc tio n to the
1993), p. 55. story, A . O . S taf ford writes. "The late Dr. Ed wa rd W.
4. Hazr at Mirza Gh ulam Ahm ad , Message of Peace Blyden , the eminent Negro scholar [and a key figure in
( 1908; Columbus , Obio : Abmadi yya Anjum an Isha'at Is- African-American Islamic h istory], states that the Azan
lam Laho re, Inc., 1993), p. 23. o r 'c all to prayer,' which to this day summons throughou t
5. Q uo ted in Rich ard Brent Turn er , Islam in the the Eas tern world millions of Mohammedans to their de-
African Amer ica n Experience (Bloomington: Indiana vo tions . was first uttered by a Ncgro-s-B ilal by namc-
University Ples s, 1997), p. 112. whom Mohammed . in o bedience to a dream. appo inted
6. Ibid .. p. lIS . See Sher Ali . "Ame ric a's lnrol er- the first muezzin or crier" (p. 345) . This is the same year
ance," Review of Reli gio ns , Vol. 19 (April-May (920), p. that Timothy Drew reinvents himself as Noble Drew Ali.
158. leader of the Moorish Science Temple.
7. "if Jesus Comes to Am erica," The Moslem Sunrise 1I . "True Sa lvat ion of the American Negroes: Th e
(Apri l t 922 ), pp . 85- 56. Real Solution to the Negro Q uestion: ' The Moslem Sun-
8. Roger Didier. «T hose Who 're Missionarie s to rise (April-July 1923). p. 184.
Christians: Pro phet Sadiq Brings Allah 's Message into 12. It should be stressed that the d ichotom y I am es-
Chicago and Make s Pro sely tes," re p rinte d in The tahli shin g here. betwe en the part icularism of the Natio n
Mas/em S unrise (October 1922), p. 139. and the ec ume nica lism o f the Ahmadi s, is o bvio us ly
9. Aminah McC loud report s that eve ntually dissen- more complic ated in many circumstance s, and that the
sio n arose amo ng Ahm adis over the fact that more Na tio n has at its heart the abi lity to sec itsel f as a un i-
African Americans were not appointed to leadership po- versal theol ogy in cert ain respects, just as Ahmadi creed
sitions and thai the Indian customs of the missionaries can be (and is often , by the mainstream Mu slim com -
and the immigrant Muslims eventually cl ashed wi th the munit y) understood as a more narrow end particul ar vi-
African -American desires to appl y the faith to do mestic s ion, especia lly since the Ahrnad is themse lves arc mar-
situations. See Am inah McCl oud, African America n Is- g inalize d by the mainstream Muslim e stabli shment. The
lam (New York : Routl edge, 1995), p. 2 1. In the ea rly Nation also often employed Sunni Muslims as advi sors
years, however , th e co mmunity was ce rtainly highl y and teach e rs. suc h as Ab dul Basit Naee ru. editor of a
multiracial in many ways, including its lead er ship roles. co up le sma ll publi cati on s (Mos lem Wor ld & the USA
The Mosl em Sunri se contains many such photographs and The Afr ican-Asian World ) and au tho r of the intro-
and exa mples , incl ud ing highli ght in g the ro le of on e duction to Elij ah Muh amm ad 's Th e Sup reme Wisdom ,
early " zealous worke r for Islam. app oint ed a Sheikh to vol, 2 (Atlanta : Messen ger Elijah Muh amm ad Propaga-
work among his people in the district of St. Louis and tion Socie ty. n.d .). p. 3. T hese advisors and, later , Elija h
vic inity" n amed S he ikh Ahm ad Din (former ly Mr. P. Muh am mad him self recogni zed the radi cal dif feren ces
Nathaniel Jonson ). See, for exam ple,.The Moslem Sun- between Natio n of Islam c reed and main stream Sunni
rise(J uly 1922). p. 119. beliefs ye t j ustified the Nation 's theology as bein g the
10.1. A. Roger s, " Bilal Ibn Rahab -Warri or Priest," best way to bring Af rican America ns to Islam. At the
The Messenger, Vol. 9 (July 1927). pp . 213- 2 14. Rogers ve ry end of his life. it appear s that eve n Elija h Muham-
stales: "Whe n the Christian Negro poin ts wi th pride to mad believed in ma inst ream (slam . Similar ly, Louis Far-
St. Augustin e, the Num idian Neg ro, and tell s what he d id rakh an, now facin g his mortali ty as he battles cancer,
to advance Chris tian ity, the Mohammedan one can point has made significant gestures to ward reforming the Na-
to Hilal, and tell what he did for C hristianity' s greatest ri- tion of Islam creed toward an acce ptable fo rm of main-
val. The Mohammedan Negro is, however, hardl y likely stream Islam .
to do as Islam not only in theory, but in actu ality. knows 13. Louis DeCaro, O n the Side of My Peop le: A Reli -
no color line. This probably accounts for its succes s in gious Life of Malcolm X (New York : New York Univer -
Africa " (p. 2 14). Al so sec A. T. Hoffert , " Moslem Propa- sity Press, 1996). p. 136.

48 Souls • Summer 2001

Islam, the Ahmadis, and Afri~alt America

14. Ibid., pp. 97-98. 17 . Ch arley G erard , Jazz in Black and White : Race,
15. Malco lm X (as told to Alex Haley), The Autobiog- Culture, and Identity in the Jazz Commu nity (Wes tport,
Co nn.: Praeg er, 1998), p. 75 .
raphy of Malcolm X ( 1964; New York: Ba llantine, (984),
18. C. O. Simpkins, Col trane: A Biography (Ba lt i-
p.247. mor e: Black Classic Pre ss, 1975 ), p. 118.
16. "Moslem Musicians Take Finn Stand Again st 19 . Ibid ., p. 84.
Racism," Ebony (A pril 1953), p. Ill. 20 . Ibid .. p. 151.

Souls • Summer 2001 49