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National Imams Meeting
Facts, Fictions, Context and Implications – Parts 1 - 5
By Mubaashir Uqdah
I am temporarily interrupting my current article, "On Imam Mohammed: Past, Present, and Future," to make comments regarding the recent National Imams Meeting that was held in Louisville Kentucky on April 10th and 11th. I was present at the meeting and for every activity that occurred during the rejuvenation (weekend). To say the least, I was very surprised by some people's reaction to the meeting and quite dismayed by some of the ugly characterization of the Imams' efforts to come together and discuss the state and future of our community.
I, perhaps, am partly responsible for generating much of this negative reaction, which is one of the reasons that I feel it important to discuss the significance and relevance of the meeting; to comment on some of the facts, to address some of the fictions, to provide some context to the purpose and necessity of the meeting, to analyze some of the issues and accusations making the discussion of topics such as leadership, national community structure, and organization, controversial and even haram in the minds of some, and to elaborate upon some of the implications for our community of both failing and succeeding to address and consider these issues and topics together as a community.
It appears that much of the negative reaction to the meeting was based upon an e-mail that I sent out to the New Jersey Muslim E-mail Network and to several Internet forums of which I am a member. Apparently, my choice of words gave the impression to some people that the Imams of the community met together in
The reason for my sending out a report was because my Imams from
In addition, the matters discussed by the Imams concerned our national community and the agreement was for the Imams to return to their local communities and take shura with them on the matters discussed. As coordinator of an e-mail network that reaches many individuals in
"Of critical importance for all of us that are in the community of Imam W. Deen Mohammed are two decisions that we will be called upon to make within the next 60-90 days.
Decision one is to choose a name for our association. Of the 120+ Imams in attendance, the majority agreed that we needed to identify a name for the community.
Decision two is to define the general structure by which our national community will organize itself. For example, do you believe we should have an autonomous structure where each masjid functions independently of all other masjids that are in association with IWDM and that any cooperation between masjids is strictly voluntary or do you believe that our community should be organized in a representative, hierarchical structure where local masjids are members of a state, with each masjid having representation on a state council and each state is a member of a regional council, which is made up of representatives of each state, and a national council, which is made up of representatives from each region? Of course, there are many variations of these two types of structures."
With these statements, I tried to convey that a national body of Imams of the community of Imam W. Deen Mohammed came together and discussed several issues that have been on our minds and hearts, and in our conversations, since the passing of our leader. I tried to convey that the agreements reached during the shura the Imams took with each other was to return to their respective communities and take shura with you, their respective communities, on these matters. I also tried to convey that the range of discussion was wide open to all viewpoints and opinions.
The Qur ' an, in Sura 42:38, advises us to be a people whose command, demand, or rule (am'ruhum) is to engage in mutual consultation, which is collecting the sweet honey of understanding (shuura) from an exchange of clear and distinct ideas, explanations, and proofs (baynahum). This verse tells us that we are to be a people who impose the rule or command upon ourselves to demand and insist that our way of doing things is to mutually engage one another in an exchange of ideas and explanations for the purpose of gathering or collecting the sweet honey of clarity, not for the purpose of causing dissension, dislike, or disdain of one another, but in order to feed the hive (whatever group is conducting shuura and the community) with the guidance it needs.
We can also understand this verse another way; that we are advised to be a people whose commands or rules are derived from engaging in a mutual exchange of ideas, explanations, and proofs. In other words, we engage in the mutual exchange of ideas via conversation, discussion and debate to extract the sweet honey of clarity so we may derive the best rules, commands, or decisions for conducting our affairs and guiding our actions. We don't engage am'ruhum shuura baynahum to simply have an exciting discussion. We are seeking clarity of what's good so that we can govern our affairs and establish rules and commands of action or inaction for ourselves, again not for the purpose of causing dissension, dislike, or disdain of one another, but in order to feed the hive with the guidance it needs.
When shuura is taken, whether by a group of Imams, a group of educators, or a group of businesspersons, they have the right to come discuss the content or the results of their shuura with whoever is appropriate. For example, if you and I and 5 other people took shuura on a business proposal that involved the participation of the entire community, we can bring our proposal to the entire community seeking their shuura and acceptance of the proposal. There is nothing haram about this and it is up to the community to accept, reject, or change our proposal. Similarly, if the Imams gather together regarding matters pertinent to the community, they can bring the issues to the community seeking their acceptance, rejection, or alteration of the ideas.
I am a witness and I testify that this meeting was conducted in accordance with the concept of mutual consultation and that the agreed upon decision or command was to return to the Masjids; to the people, and repeat this same practice of shuura in our locales, our states, and our regions. How can the Imams be faulted, much less condemned for engaging in mutual consultation with each other and making the correct decision to command themselves to engage in mutual consultation with us, the people, about matters that concern all of us, the people. Of the people, by the people, for the people, where have we heard that before?
Now, we can think, "How dare the Imams make a decision to meet and discuss the community's structure, have the audacity to contemplate talking about what the community should call itself, and on top of that, have the unmitigated gall to tell us they are going to come back to the Masjids and force us to talk about these issues? Do you see how these Imams are trying to dictate to the community? We should drive them all into the sea!"
Part 2
While these kinds of reactions may appear extreme to some people, the underlying basis for such reactions is understandable. A highly respected and knowledgeable Imam, Yahya Abdullah of
Imam Yahya's testimony is corroborated by the fact that since the Imam's resignation from the American Society of Muslims (ASM) in September 2003, Imam Mohammed had not changed the structure of our community, did not directly tell us how to organize this community, nor did he indicate that we should have a name by which to call ourselves.
Furthermore, a document with excerpts from a speech Imam Mohammed delivered, after his previous resignation from the American Muslim Mission (AMM) in April of 1985, has been circulated as additional confirmation that Imam Mohammed did not want the community to be structured and that he did not want us to have a name.
Below are some of the statements made by Imam Mohammed 24 years ago. In the circulated document, these statements were highlighted in bold by someone to emphasize their relevance in proving that Imam Mohammed was against community structure and a community name. The Imam says:
"If you will follow my advice you will put down the term American Muslim Mission. You will put it down; you will never pick up any term that locks you all together in one community."
"You will bring nothing under centralized things any more."
"I've always had a problem in my soul accepting that religion be organized or institutionalized to the extent that it becomes a cooperative, a corporate entity; a good situation to be exploited by the powerful."
"But if you get rid of that and have an open free Islamic society; and you come together as Imams, not belonging to American Muslim Mission, that was a step from another thing that even was more institutionalized – the old Temple or Nation of Islam. So I brought you a step away from that. Now I'm not telling you to drop that, but I'm advising you, that if you really want to be an Islamic community, you should drop these names that separate you and set you apart from other Islamic populations."
"But another great achievement was to remove the structures of slavery. To decentralize the interest of the community – the business interest of the community – to bring it into private hands. To remove the unit called FOI, the MGT. To bring a situation where every Imam has dignity. Every congregation has dignity. All of them on an equal footing. Free as they should be to invest in their own immediate region and build their community locally without having so much demanded on them from a central office."
Add to the above information, these additional facts: 1) that Imam Mohammed established national leadership entities (National Imam Council, National Monitoring Team, National Shura board) on at least three occasions and he abolished or withdrew support for each one of them, 2) Imam Mohammed stated publicly at his last and final resignation as head of our community that 80% of the Imams in our association did not support his leadership, 3) most Imams did not practice participatory Democracy (Amrahum Shura Baynahum) and thus, maintained to one degree or another the continuing idea that the Imam is the CEO and final power of the Masjid (or Minister who is at the top of the hierarchy, such as in the church or temples of the Nation of Islam) and he runs the Masjid as an executive, rather than as an influential, single member of the Muslim community; hence, we have the prevalent phrase, "the dictatorial Imam."
These factors are the essence of the general skepticism, cynicism, and criticism of the Imams coming together to discuss the state and future of the community of Imam W. Deen Mohammed.
When you consider the information presented above, you can understand why many people reacted with such alarm and resistance when they heard that a body of Imams met on a national level and that a part of their agenda was a discussion about the future of the community; including its structure and name and that they made the decision to come and engage the people in shuura about making a community decision on our community structure and choosing a name. In light of the information presented above, for them, it is anti-Imam Mohammed for anyone, especially the Imams, to even bring these topics up for discussion.
But, have we really stopped to carefully analyze what Imam Mohammed was trying to achieve with regard to community structure and name, what he was dissatisfied with, and connect the analysis to the actions he took? For instance, in one of the quotes cited above, Imam Mohammed said "If you will follow my advice you will put down the term American Muslim Mission. You will put it down; you will never pick up any term that locks you all together in one community." In one of the other quotes cited above he stated, "…if you really want to be an Islamic community, you should drop these names that separate you and set you apart from other Islamic populations." Yet, thereafter, he reconstituted us into a single community, distinct from other communities, and gave us the name Muslim American Society (MAS). We then changed our name to the ASM.
Why do we think Imam Mohammed disbanded the American Muslim Mission, told us to never call ourselves by a term or name that identifies us as a distinct community, but then organized and named us the MAS and ASM? Why did he give us so many names and then take them away? Why did he set up national Imam Councils, shuura councils, the monitoring team, the committee structure, and then take them away? What was he trying to achieve by setting these things up and what made him dissatisfied to the point of abolishing these things? Why did he lift up our talented 10th and then knock them back down?
Now, before you get out your nooses, daggers, paintbrushes, sniper rifles, and bows and arrows, let's be good students of Imam Mohammed and do some analytical and rational thinking. For 28 of Imam Mohammed's 33 years of teaching and guiding us, he has been leading us through a series of transformations; giving us this structure and taking it away, giving us this name and taking it away, all of these starts and stops until finally in September of 2003 he made his last and final transformation.
As good students of Imam Mohammed, we must ask ourselves why he resigned from the ASM. Did he indicate that he resigned because we have reached the promised land and we are performing everything exactly as he envisioned it, therefore, he was urging us to just keep doing what we are doing or did he indicate that we were burdening him down, not supporting his leadership, and that he was no longer going to carry that burden or be an excuse for us not carrying our own responsibilities forward?
As good students of the Imam, we must ask ourselves did he make this final decision to resign, because he felt everything was developing perfectly as planned and according to schedule and the final phase of the plan was his resignation and the dissolution of the ASM or did he resign because he felt we were sitting around waiting for him to produce a miracle and he wanted to force us to stand up and produce our own miracle using the guidance he has given?
I am reminded of the situation that so many parents are familiar with. We have grown children living at home and they are not following the guidance and advice that we gave them. They keep doing their own thing and making problems for themselves and then we are burdened and have to come behind them and clean up their mess. So, we scold them to try and shape them up or get it through their heads. We don't yell at them because we hate them, we yell at them because we love them and we yell loudest at those who have the most potential, because we don't excuse them as easily as we might excuse the other children. The more ability the child has, the more we expect of them.
One day we get fed up with that grown child and we realize that we have our own lives to live and we can't do it with those grown children sitting on our lap, burdening us down. We also realize that they have their own life to live and we are not going to be around forever to care for them. So, we tell them we aren't taking care of them anymore. We cut them loose. We help them get an apartment, give them a few dollars, some good advice about how to take care of themselves, and we encourage them to go out into the world, live up to their great potential, make us proud and go remake the world.
Then we go on living our lives, trying to fulfill our potential, carrying out our own mission, setting a good example for them, while still providing advice and some help to our grown children. But, we leave them out on their own, responsible for themselves, free to make their own decisions, make their own mistakes, and follow our good counsel. If we put them out of the house and they don't get themselves together, strive to understand and practice the wisdom we've laid out for them, and look out for their future, then they will face the judgment of their own actions.
The child can choose to be a drifter, moving about in the world according to his own whim or he can bring himself together, organize and chart his movement in the world according to a plan or strategy.
Part 3
As good students of Imam W. Deen Mohammed, we must ask ourselves why he resigned from the ASM in 2003. Did he indicate that he resigned because we had reached the promised land and were performing exactly as he envisioned, therefore, urging us to just keep doing what we are doing or did he indicate that we were burdening him down, not supporting his leadership, and that he was no longer going to carry that burden or be an excuse for us not carrying our own responsibilities forward?
As good students of the Imam, we must ask ourselves did he make the final decision to resign because he felt everything was developing perfectly as planned and according to schedule and the final phase of the plan was his resignation and the dissolution of the ASM or did he resign because he felt we were sitting around waiting for him to produce a miracle and he wanted to force us to stand up and produce our own miracle using the guidance he has given to us?
In a speech on New Year's Day, printed in one of the issues of Muslim Journal between 1-27-2006 and 3-31-2006, Imam Mohammed was speaking about the intellectual orientation of Abraham. He made the point that the intellectual disposition in Abraham is the disposition in our intellect that makes it possible for our intelligence and our mental curiosity to engage the real world, the material universe, and come to the understanding that everything G-d created embodies science and knowledge. He also said,
"So G-d made man a thinker, who thinks and reflects, thinks and looks at what made him think. G-d made the higher man an analytical thinker. That is the man who fathered education. That is the position of man that all of you have to come to before you graduate from college. You have to think analytically, not just thinking and seeing things on the surface. Even in grammar, you have sentence analogy. You analyze the sentence. Then you have to analyze pieces of literature. Everything becomes analytical. It takes us into actually analyzing matter, to understand the nature and composition of matter. The doctor analyzes the disease. This is the kind of thinking that G-d created the human brain to come to."
We see in the story (Sura 6:74-80) of Abraham's search for the true G-d that he dared to question and analyze the ways and practices of his people, he dared to question and analyze the nature of the creation, he dared to question and analyze his own beliefs and thinking, and in Sura 2:260, he dared to question Allah and requested an analysis from Allah of how HE resurrects the dead. Did we not see this same intellectual orientation and mental movement in Imam Mohammed as he dissected the great wisdom of Master Fard Muhammad and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad? Did we not witness his understanding the nature of their knowledge and the wisdom to systematically transform, evolve, and position it so that we could reach the destiny?
Abraham's questioning was not to be disrespectful or disloyal; he was seeking understanding and insight into the nature of G-d's creation and its relationship to his life and the life of his people. Thus, as Imam Mohammed said, Abraham's intellectual orientation represents the evolution of the human being into a scientific and ethical thinker.
Now, all of us who have been a part of this community for the past 30 years have been a part of our leader's effort to provide correct leadership, organization, and structure to his community. We have seen him structure and organize us, become dissatisfied with our performance, and then dismantle the structure. He then organized us again, watched us conduct our affairs, and say, "they still don't have it." So he became dissatisfied again, particularly with those in leading positions, and he disbanded the structure again. He did this at least four times throughout our sojourn with him.
The fact that he dismantled the community structure multiple times, then came back and reestablished it multiple times should make good students demand to know what was he trying to achieve by reorganizing us so many times. We should also demand to know why was he was so dissatisfied that he felt it necessary to disassemble the very structure he set up.
The most prevalent and popular theory amongst the community of Imam W. Deen Mohammed is the idea that he inherited a structured community and therefore gave us these organizational structures and dismantled them as a way of gradually preparing us to do away with them completely. In other words, he gave us these structures as crutches, because we were accustomed to a hierarchical structure in the Nation of Islam (NOI) and in the business models of corporate
The goal of this decentralization process was to free the individual from dependency upon a leader telling us what to do and to force us to take responsibility for leading ourselves. Another goal was to protect the Ummah from the potential tyranny of a small group of misguided or ill intentioned leaders from amongst ourselves or the schemes of powerful enemies that would want to exploit our Ummah or misdirect it from its true destiny.
The theory continues that once Imam Mohammed felt that we were strong enough and ready, he liberated us from having a community structure permanently and forever. We are now free men and women of the city, free to do our individual thing without obligation and accountability as members of a national community. We are local Masjids and leadership is local, we are to work with our Masjids and our neighborhoods to improve human life. There is no national community or national identity.
If we follow this theory over time, we eventually may have the same kind of relationship with each other that we have with Masjids from other communities or even with churches. We will be aware of their existence, we will wish them well, and we will cooperate with them, if we feel like it, maybe, maybe not. But we will not be working together in unison and in harmony to fulfill the destiny and purpose for which we received such lofty knowledge.
Don't you want to see that destiny fulfilled; that tree grow to its full potential or do you just want to be part of a Masjid community that practices the basics of the religion? Has the mission and vision changed from becoming a wise Ummah that skillfully works together to defeat the schemes of Satan and transforms the culture of America, stimulating a human renaissance that remakes the world to a mission and vision of having a nice Masjid and school, practicing the basics of our religion, and being a good neighbor and good person in the society? Which vision, which destiny, do you think Allah gave us this great knowledge to pursue?
Now, this has actually been the model that we have been practicing since Imam Mohammed resigned from the ASM in 2003. Do you think that because the Imam did not complain much since his resignation in 2003, that he was happy with the way things were? Do you think that because he didn't tell us what to do, he felt things were going just fine? Do you think that because he asked us to support his ministry, CPC, and the Mosque Cares, that this was the extent of what he wanted from us?
Let's think about some of the comments Imam Mohammed made one week after he resigned from the ASM. He gave an exclusive interview to the Muslim Journal, conducted by Nathaniel Omar on September 10, 2003. You can find this interview in the September 26, 2003 issue of the Muslim Journal.
Nathaniel Omar asked the Imam the following question, "Obviously, there are some Imams whose performance you are not pleased with. So what is your message or advice to those good Imams who do support you?"
Imam Mohammed told Nathaniel Omar that he wanted to answer this question by first expressing what he felt was the problem with the Imams who he believed were not fully supporting him. He described three problems.
One of the problems was that there were some Imams that did not fully embrace his direction. He used the example of those who did not support his direction of embracing all of humanity. He indicated that they did not want to support his interfaith efforts, his work with Focolare and others. He said they "are not interested in having believers grow to embrace the whole of mankind. They want to keep them separate, even from Christians; that is no good."
A second problem he described was that they were more interested in their jobs than they were interested in the believers. He said, "Now they value these government jobs more than they value their service to the believers. That shouldn't be." He spoke specifically about government jobs, but the same idea applies to all jobs. His message was that the Imams' love for the believers and desire to serve them should be more important than their jobs. He said too many Imams had government jobs as chaplains and made decent money, therefore, had more desire to protect their jobs than serve the best interests of their people.
He said, "Well, that is not enough for us. We have to have more than that. We have to have people who love G-d, leaders who love G-d and who love people. When I say "people," I mean all people. You have to love all human beings, especially those you claim to be the shepherd of. You are the shepherd of those people, you should love those you shepherd or are the leader for."
A third problem he identified was the inclination of some Imams to just want to have authority over others or to have the status of being somebody. He said it didn't matter to them what was best for the Ummah, they had their position and were going to hold on to it even if the community dwindled down to five people.
He said, "I used to see Blacks, veterans from the war or Blacks who had lost their senses and standing on the corner directing traffic with a lot of bottle tops on their jackets. They would be assuming some authority. I see some of our leaders, not crazy with mental problems, but having that same thing in their nature, that they would do anything just to have a badge and authority. Many among us, all they want to do is show off a badge and authority. They don't have to have 500 people or even 50 people. If they have five people sitting out there listening to them and looking at their badge of authority, that is all they want."
Imam Mohammed also makes the point that these Imams only want sheep around them that they can push obediently in one direction or another. He said they don't want men around them. He said, "They'll tell you, `This is shura. And shura means we decide everything for you.' That is not true shura. True shura is democratic and they don't want true shura."
As for those Imams that he believed supported him, he said, "Those Imams who are with me and really support me, if you are going to stay with the ASM, I will be happy to see that, for they should want the ASM to be better. To be better, they have to know this element among them, so that they can know how to not be defeated by that element among them. We don't want to go on any witch hunt. That would be disastrous for the whole ASM. `We are going to identify these people who are working against us!' No. Just be aware of that element and the good Imams should work for the good and with only those that they know are not of that element. They should leave that element to themselves. That would be my suggestion. It is not to divide the ASM leadership, so that they bring down or hurt the ASM as a body of people or organization. But work only with those of like mind, who they know are not of these people who care more about government jobs than they do about the believer, and who are not interested in having believers grow to embrace the whole of mankind."
Part 4
In an article titled, "The Idea of Freedom in Al-Islam," printed in the Muslim Journal between the dates of December 29, 2006 and January 26, 2007, Imam Mohammed makes several comments that give insight on individual freedom and its relationship to community development.
He begins this lecture by establishing that Al-Islam and Prophet Muhammad respect the human intellect, the brain. He then goes on to show that the freedom of the individual begins with the brain and that is why the Imam has always sought to protect the freedom of each individual in this community from intellectual subjugation by others. He knows that our salvation and the fulfillment of our mission is dependent upon the free functioning intellect of each member of the society.
He says, "Because of this very, very special endowment, G-d has endowed the man with this brain and intellect and freedom to think and then act upon his thoughts - to alter his creation and to alter his own life for the better, hopefully always. It is a precious gift, a precious freedom that we have. That is where freedom should really start, with the most useful part of human life. It is useful in terms of serving human betterment and also in terms of serving the betterment of the natural environment."
He continues in this lecture to show how the individual's superiority, the brain, is to serve the individual, but also serve the family and the community. So, our individual intellects are to serve concerns larger than our individual concerns.
Imam Mohammed comes to the concept of shura and says, "We have a concept we call shura, and that shura is a governing body. We are told in our Holy Book, the Qur ' an, that the believers, the Muslims, conduct our affairs by shura. This means having members in a body qualified upon their good character and knowledge and experience as Muslims, how to judge a matter, how to contribute to decision making on all levels of concern, from the smallest to the biggest. This is required of Muslims. If we address an issue in our life, we should address it with respect for one another, those who have knowledge, experience and good character and can make a contribution to a discussion and to coming to a decision. It is called Shura Baynahum."
In this quote, we see the idea that the individual brain or intellect must be put to use in a collective process to make decisions on all levels of concern, from the smallest to the biggest. The Imam says, "This is required of Muslims." He also says that if we are addressing an issue in our life, we should address it with respect for one another. I have referenced these comments on the relationship between freedom and shura, because they were made as late as 2006.
This community has issues that concern our community life and purpose; small issues and big ones, local issues and national ones. By what means and methods will we use our free and independent, autonomous intellects to engage in shura with each other to make decisions on our mutual issues and concerns? Is this not what we are trying to discern?
It is often important to keep historical context in mind when analyzing a current event. We must remember that for 33 years, especially the last five years since the dissolution of the ASM, Imam Mohammed was the vision that provided our community focus. Let's be clear for those who would seek to criticize us, Imam Mohammed was not our focus as basic practitioners of our religion. His death does not impact our love for Allah, Prophet Muhammad, or Al-Islam. However, it does impact how our community will choose to conduct its affairs, and this is what we are debating and discussing. As Imam Plemon El-Amin of
Imam Mohammed then qualified the scope of the individual freedom he was referring to. He said, "The idea of freedom that we have today, I would say, is a reaction to bad experiences or reaction to denials. `Oh, the
He then gave some examples of how people used freedom as a justification to do anything they wanted, even behave ignorantly. "No. That is not freedom. It is only freedom for the ignorant interest, not for the intelligent interest. Real freedom starts with the freedom for the intelligent interest — not for the ignorant interest."
So, we who are in association with Imam W. Deen Mohammed must use our individual freedom and brain in the process of amruhum shura baynahum to analyze and assess what is the intelligent interest or best course of action for our community. We cannot let our painful experiences in the past; skew our current responsibilities to each other, in the name of freedom.
So after the Imam's passing, people were talking. People wondered what is going to happen now. Since there was no plan, no process in place, no structure, some people wondered what's next and others had their opinions about what was next. Some people don't care what is next and there are those who hope that there is nothing next. Most people would agree that it is intelligent to be concerned about the future and to have some idea or plan for how to approach the future.
Let's ask ourselves a few questions. If we say that our community is autonomous, what does that mean to us? Is there only one definition of autonomy or is it whatever you decide it is or what I decide it is? What if our perceptions of autonomy differ? Should we take shura about it or are we disobeying Imam Mohammed, because we are supposed to be autonomous, but we are coming together to try and agree on something?
What is New Africa and if every Masjid is autonomous how do we bring it about? Does each Masjid come up with its own version of New Africa? If Masjids come together to agree on what New Africa is and try to implement that together are they still acting autonomously or are they disobeying Imam Mohammed and acting collectively? Do you think this might be something we need to discuss collectively or should it be "to you be your way and to me be mine?" What is the Islamic thing to do? Maybe there are several Islamic responses and we have to agree upon one, whether that is to do something, do nothing, or do many things.
If the Imams are the leaders of their Masjids and leadership is local, does this mean that it is improper for them to meet together to implement joint projects that go beyond their localities? Is this what autonomy means? Perhaps, they can meet together to plan joint efforts as long as their local communities approve of it, maybe that is what autonomy means. Which might it be? Maybe there is another interpretation or explanation or process that might better explain what Imam Mohammed means by autonomy. Should we get together to talk about it or is this forbidden?
If leadership is local, shouldn ' t CPC be local? Why should there be a national business effort when leadership is local? What about the
Autonomy can mean all of these things or it can mean something else. Autonomy can mean leave everything alone, whatever happens...happens. After all, Allah is in control. Autonomy could also mean something different. Do you know that to say that our community is autonomous means that we are saying that the structure of our community is autonomous? When did talking about community structure become haram? When did uttering the words structure become taboo? All of creation has structure!!! Shouldn ' t we understand our own structure?!!! You want to have no structure?!!! Even sperm has structure. The most complex structure that we know about is the human body and Allah made that.
Whatever structure we have or choose, we should know and understand everything about it. When someone comes to one of us and says, "I have 5 million dollars to help your community, who should I talk to?" We should know the answer to that question. Not just your answer, not just my answer. What is OUR answer! Or do you want to wait for someone with a different Islamic perception to give us the daleel on how an Islamic community should handle this question?
But, then what happens to our dignity? What happens to all we have been taught? What if that was your son or my daughter that asked that question and none of us could even tell them how to direct that person? Guess what? One of our young Imams asked that kind of question at the Imam ' s meeting. He said, I mean no disrespect to my older generation, but I am here to find out how to refer people of means to plug into our community. He said, "I don ' t know who to tell them to call." Another person said, "If Barack Obama wanted to invite a representative of our community to participate on a committee to advise him from the perspective of our leader ' s community, who would he send the invitation to?" What would be the name written on the program of the community or group he was representing?
What is the answer to this simple question? Your answer? My answer? No answer? Are we going to preach that we have the model community, but couldn ' t give the President a single answer to this question? What will we do, make up different answers based on how we feel like expressing it that day? You call it the Association of WD Mohammed, I call it the Community of WD Mohammed, somebody else says we don ' t have a name, just put "representing Muslims" on the program (oh, we represent ISNA, ICNA, CAIR, the NOI, and all Muslims now?), another person says write down Autonomous Muslims. My point is that there are real issues that must be discussed.
Imam Mohammed ' s teaching did not come to shut down our intelligence. It did not come to turn off our common sense. It did not come to separate us from each other. It did not come to make us afraid to talk to each other, to make us run from each other, afraid to take instruction from each other, make us hate and reject our Imams or each other, nor to reject supporting and cooperating with each other, except in that which is against the way of Allah.
But, but, but, what is extremely critical is that the body of Imams that are meeting in
If Imams have not truly taken shura with their local communities, then it is imperative that they do not attempt to make decisions based upon their own personal viewpoints.
Part 5
At the 2005 Ramadan session, Imam W. Deen Mohammed indicated that a few intelligent people can change the world. He said that in time, the intelligent ones will reach the strong ones and the strong ones will reach the many. He said, but they must have the interests and concerns of the whole people at heart. He indicated that if the interests of the masses were sincerely brought into view, the people would begin to enjoy their environment, they would enjoy their leaders and the leaders would enjoy their supporters. He said the rebels would stop rebelling and start enjoying and expressing themselves in the environment in a positive way.
In the February 29, 2000 interview with Imam Earl Abdul-Malik Mohammed, Imam W. Deen Mohammed went to great lengths to explain the role of a national shura body. He wanted us to understand that the role of a national shura body is not the role of an executive council, which makes policies and rules for the masses to follow. He envisioned this body as a facilitator of shura for the whole Ummah through the dissemination and communication of information directly related to the concerns and interests of the masses.
He said that he had recommended individuals to a shura body, because they were obviously resourceful people. But, he didn't put them on this shura body to use their expertise to act as a governing authority over the rest of the Ummah. He wanted them to receive information from throughout the community and become aware of the issues, concerns, and needs of the community as a whole. He wanted them to use their knowledge, expertise, talents, and experience to FACILITATE shura for the larger community, and provide information and guidance, recommendations, and even direct service to help facilitate the efforts of the people to advance their causes, find solutions to their problems, and stay in touch with the community's priorities and direction.
He gave some examples. He talked about the need for the Ummah, the Imams especially, to learn and improve their understanding of Qur'anic Arabic and the life of prophet Muhammad. When asked by the interviewer, "How do you hope that the representative body of the shura will serve this need," the Imam suggested that they could write articles in the Muslim Journal to address this concern. He also suggested that we find those with the stronger Islamic knowledge and help them conduct workshops and conferences to help upgrade the knowledge of the Imams and the Ummah.
Imam Mohammed also showed how what he called, "the representative body," was to facilitate shura when it came to events put on by members of the community. He indicated that members of the national shura body were not responsible or in control over national events such as a Muslim convention, unless they happened to be a part of the committee as an individual.
He said, "They wouldn't have any authority just because they are on the body. That would be separate from that body. But as the representative body of shura they should as individuals offer their service. But as a body they should just be aware of what is going on and when they think their input could be good or is needed, they can offer it."
The Imam also said, "They are a body serving to keep the community aware of what's going on in the broad community that can help us a lot or hurt us a lot and knowing when it should be made a national concern. And they should never assume that they are an executive body to execute judgments or orders, or that they are a body to control or order the community. They are not. They should not think of themselves to be responsible for something like the national convention. They are not. Every time we have a national convention, it depends upon where we will have it to determine who will be the host people.
From these comments by Imam Mohammed, we see that if there was a national shura body it should not have authority or control over the community. Its purpose and function is to watch out for the things that can harm us nationally and inform us of the things that would be good for us nationally. They should be servants and facilitators of the ummah's efforts, not its bosses or managers.
In a 1997 interview with Imam Ansari of
Imam Mohammed continued in this interview, saying, "The national shura is supposed to be fed by local shuras. And it can only act upon what it gets from the whole community. If it acts upon anything else, it's not a functional shura. It has to act upon what it gets from the whole community. And that's what I tell the shura, I say, "How can we act as a shura and we don't know what the people want? We don't know what their complaints are. We don't know what their concerns are. We don't know what they want for this community? So how can we serve? We can't serve!"
In this, Imam Mohammed is telling us that every community in our association should have a local shura and those local shuras should communicate their concerns, their ideas, their issues and information to the national shura. Not so the national shura can take charge and solve the problems and dictate to the Ummah what they should do, but so they can be aware and informed about what's going on in the community and what the people are thinking, want, and need. They can then help to keep the whole community informed about what the individual parts are reporting. They can use their expertise to speak to the issues and concerns. They can use their connections to network people and resources together to assist collective progress. But these people have no authority or power other than the influence of their character, intelligence, experience, and expertise.
Well who are these people? Who are the resourceful people that would make up a national shura body? Should they be Imams? Are the Imams who are meeting in
Here are some comments from Imam Mohammed (2000 interview with Imam Earl Abdul-Malik) regarding the composition of a national shura body. "I don't see as many as 50 being too large a number to be seen as this representative body to facilitate shura for the whole community. I could easily see 10 to 15 females, and not to mention the males. I could see at least that number of males and more." He said, "It's very important that we don't forget the youth. The youth need to be encouraged to come into manhood and womanhood and into responsibility for society, beginning with this society, the MAS, the Muslim American Society."
The Imam also said, "I tried to name persons that would reflect the anatomy, for want of a better description, of the body of our community as a working body. There are some that are like the heart. Some are like the brain in the community. Some are like the feet and legs. Some are like the hands, the right hand. Some are like the eyes. Some are like the tongue. Some are like bones. Some are like flesh."
He continued, "It's very important to have a body like this registering the important needs of the community, to assist in family life, social work and family counseling. We need legal advice for how to handle issues like properties for the local gathering, ownership, trusts, etc. We need lawyers. We need psychiatrist to advise us how to deal with certain persons we have to work with. We have to work with them because they have so much good ability but we have to take all of this other stuff. So how should we deal with them? We need accountants, people that know about business management."
Here we have the Imam describing what became known as the Monitoring team as the shura body; a team composed of resourceful people from the many walks of life (including Imams) that were needed to grow a functioning community. So, the national shura body is not an Imam body, but it is a body made of a mixture of talented people with the best interest of the Ummah at heart and mind.
Well, how do we select this body? Imam Mohammed said, "We shouldn't seek these kinds of persons based on what we heard their knowledge is or what their formal training is. We should seek them based upon what we know their proven ability is."
He said, "We shouldn't just appoint these people. At the convention or somewhere, a big gathering, we should do a sample and see if there is strong support to give these persons this particular importance, because it is important. They are going to be subject to listen to what is coming from the whole community, all of those different areas. So they have a great importance. And those people who have been given this importance, we should know that the support for them is very strong in the national membership."
The Imam said of this body, "This body should be looking to guarantee the community, the largest congregation and the smallest congregation, their interest. They should say we have your interest and you can depend on us serving you by responding to you as we should, and by making known to you things that we think can benefit you. Even serving you to help you bring your best people forward or get help from the nearest center or mosque with persons to answer your need. So that's what we mean by facilitating. A body to facilitate shura from the smallest issue up to the biggest issue."
This discussion has been about national structure and the role of national leadership. As Imam Mohammed describes it, our local freedom and autonomy is protected, while we have national representation and structure that keeps us connected and united with each other—all without the woes of forming a corporate structure.
The Imam made it clear that most local issues should be handled locally and that the national body is to concern itself with bigger issues. Specific personal and local issues should be resolved by the local community, using the Qur'an and life example of Muhammad. The national shura should deal with issues that are critical to or affect the entire Ummah.
Some have criticized the Imams for meeting to discuss the state of the community and how it should move forward. Others have criticized them for taking so long after the Imam's death to do something. Still others have criticized them for meeting amongst themselves and not inviting everybody to come to
For certain, the passing of Imam Mohammed marks the completion of a great chapter in the young life of this remarkable community, but our story is not complete and another chapter has already begun. This chapter will be relatively short, for it is a chapter of transition. It is where we find our footing, where we position ourselves to do the things that we should have done while Imam Mohammed was physically with us, where we refocus our vision and mission and purpose.
One or two meetings will not write this chapter. This chapter of transition must be written together, by all of us who are interested. But, we must make sure that the pen of our actions is busy writing and that the words of our contribution to the story are ones we will be proud of. I pray that the Imams in
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