\n\u201cAll\u0101h deputed us to bring out whomsoever He wishes from the worship of other slaves to the worship of All\u0101h, from the narrowness of the world to its vastness, and from the tyranny of other ways of life to the justice of Isl\u0101m. Thus, He sent us with His d\u012bn<\/i> to His creation so that we would call them to Him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
From the lands of the Persians and Romans, from France to China, from India to Italy, from Spain to Sumatra, spiritual and worldly benefit gushed forth as the radiance of Isl\u0101m and the Muslims spread into the world. Deeply concerned with the worship of All\u0101h, they built mas\u0101jid<\/i> that were hubs in which worship took place alongside spiritual reformation and teaching.<\/p>\n
Many of these old mas\u0101jid<\/i>, despite being far from the Kac<\/sup>bah, have been found to point towards the qiblah<\/i>, something which is due, in part, to the Muslim\u2019s development of Trigonometry, all of which was done in order to ensure they were praying in the correct direction no matter where they might find themselves.\u00a0From their ranks emerged people of piety like \u1e24asan al-Ba\u1e63r\u012b, people of justice like Shuray\u1e25 al-Q\u0101dh\u012b, and brilliant minds like Ab\u016b \u1e24an\u012bfah (May All\u0101h have mercy on them all).<\/p>\n
Gh\u0101na<\/b><\/p>\n
This same dispersal of benefit occurred when merchants and traveling scholars crossed the Sahara into West Africa, spreading Isl\u0101m as they dispersed into Senegal and other areas of sub-Saharan Africa. During the course of their business transactions they impressed the inhabitants of West Africa by their manners and trustworthiness due to which many entered Islam. Furthermore, amongst those merchants were Muslims who were also learned, and when these individuals settled somewhere they would establish halaqah<\/em> where they would teach Qur\u2019\u0101n, etc. and invite people to Isl\u0101m; because of this Isl\u0101m spread out from trading centers and cities into the more distant areas of West Africa.<\/p>\n
These merchants intermarried with the local women, brought more c<\/sup><\/i>ulam\u0101<\/i> to teach, especially as the number of Muslims increased, and sponsored the best students amongst the locals to go study in the famous schools of North Africa and Egypt so that they would return to be the leaders in their land.<\/p>\n
Amongst the areas\u00a0and states\u00a0which the merchants spread into was the kingdom of Ghana which Ibn Khald\u016bn says was the greatest kingdom they came across. The capital of this kingdom consisted of two cities [i.e. al-Gh\u0101bah and K\u016bmb\u012b \u1e62\u0101li\u1e25] situated on the banks of a river. At its height, the Muslim section of this twin city would house imams, mu\u2019adhdhin<\/em>, as well as jurists and scholars. Within its walls sat twelve mas\u0101jid<\/em>, one of which was used for jumc<\/sup>ah<\/em>. Around the Muslim section were sweet wells which they drank from and used to water their crops. Houses made of bricks and the wood of the acacia tree occupied the six miles of intervening space between the two cities.<\/p>\n
The non-Muslim section also possessed a masjid that was situated not too far from the king\u2019s court of justice. Even though the king was a non-Muslim, his interpreters, the official in charge of his treasury, and majority of his ministers were Muslim. Along with this, the king had exempted the Muslims from the customary greeting of kneeling before him and throwing dirt on their heads as his other subjects did. Unfortunately, when the \u1e62\u016b\u1e63\u016b invaded a weakened Ghana in\u00a01240 C.E. (circa 637\/638 A.H.), the Muslims of that kingdom were forced to flee.<\/p>\n
M\u0101l\u012b<\/b><\/p>\n
The Susu under the leadership of Sumanguru (Soumangourou), would\u00a0 in turn be defeated by the founder of the Empire of Mali, M\u0101r\u012b J\u0101\u1e6dah (the Lion King; Soun Diata K\u00e9ita). Though, Ibn Khald\u016bn does not mention whether Soun Diata K\u00e9ita was Muslim, he does state that the succeeding king, Mans\u0101 W\u0101l\u012b performed \u1e24ajj. The author of Mas\u0101lik al-Ab\u015f\u0101r F\u012b Mam\u0101l\u012bk al-Am\u015f\u0101<\/em>r described this new empire as the mightiest of the black Muslims dominions, the most vast in terms of land, the largest in terms of military, the wealthiest, the most beautiful, the most dominant over the enemy, and the most capable of distributing copious favors. At the height of its power, under the rule of Mans\u0101 M\u016bs\u0101, may All\u0101h have mercy on him, this new dynasty would become so massive as to rival the kingdom of Ghana. Within the shadow of Mal\u012b\u2019s just authority, which stretched to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, sat cities like Jenne, Gao, Niani, and Timbuktu.<\/p>\n
Mans\u0101 M\u016bs\u0101’s patronage of the c<\/sup><\/i>ulam\u0101<\/i> encouraged the growth of indigenous Muslim scholarship. The wealth of Islamic knowledge in M\u0101l\u012b can be highlighted by the following anecdote. On Mans\u0101 M\u016bs\u0101\u2019s return from \u1e24ajj, there was an Arab scholar who accompanied him back to his empire and settled in Timbuktu, a place described in Tar\u012bkh al-S\u016bd\u0101n<\/i> as \u201cthe lodging place of the c<\/sup><\/i>ulam\u0101<\/i> and worshippers, the abode of the righteous and the ascetics\u201d. This scholar found that the indigenous legal experts knew more than him, so he left for Fez, devoted himself to the study of law, and only then returned to settle once again in Timbuktu.<\/p>\n
During that same pilgrimage to Makkah in the year 724 A.H. [circa 1324 C.E.], while in Egypt, Mans\u0101 M\u016bs\u0101 was asked how he acquired his empire. In reply, he mentioned that his predecessor did not believe the ba\u1e25r al-mu\u1e25\u012b\u1e6d<\/i> (Atlantic Ocean) was uncrossable and had dispatched four hundred ships of men and supplies with an order not to return until they reached the other side. After a long time had passed, one ship returned, having been separated from the rest, whereupon Mans\u0101 M\u016bs\u0101\u2019s predecessor prepared two thousands ships and set out himself to cross the Atlantic Ocean. That Muslims had crossed the Atlantic long before Columbus, is also supported by the 1559 C.E. map of \u1e24\u0101j\u012b A\u1e25mad which details \u201csurprisingly modern\u201d shapes of North and South America.<\/p>\n
America<\/b><\/p>\n
Yesterday they were kings in their dwellings
\nAnd today they are slaves in the land of disbelief
\n<\/i>-S\u0101li\u1e25 Bin Shar\u012bf Ar-Rand\u012b Al-Andal\u016bs\u012b<\/p>\nDespite assurances given to the Muslims who stayed behind after the fall of Andal\u016bs that they would be able to retain their faith, serious attempts were made to suppress Isl\u0101m in Spain, one edict going so far as to make it an offense to wear clothes cleaner than one\u2019s normal clothes on Friday, face the east and say \u2018bismill\u0101h<\/i>\u2019, tie the leg of any livestock before slaughtering it, or abstain from eating things that weren\u2019t slaughtered Islamically, amongst a number of other practices that were considered to be habits of Muslims.\u00a0In the face of this and other horrific acts of oppression, the Muslims tried to pass the d\u012bn<\/i> on to their children in secret, and some even managed to reach America as soldiers, explorers, and laborers, where they began to openly practice their Isl\u0101m and spread it amongst the Native Americans. The Grand Inquisitor of Spain is reported to have \u201ccomplained that Isl\u0101m was being practiced openly in the Americas, especially by Moriscos [i.e. Andalusian Muslims forced to accept Catholicism, and the descendants of such Muslims].\u201d This movement of Muslims into the Americas continued with the trans-Atlantic slave trade which forcefully brought a conservative estimate of somewhere between 3-6 million Muslims to the Americas, and just like the preceding groups, these Muslims, some of whom where huff\u0101dh<\/i> and c<\/sup><\/i>ulam\u0101<\/i>, continued to practice, and attempted to pass on, Isl\u0101m.<\/p>\n
Physical Revolt<\/i><\/p>\n
In 1835 C.E., during one of the most visible Muslim uprisings, hundreds of enslaved Africans dressed in white with turbans on their heads revolted and took over the streets of Bahia, Brazil. When they were finally defeated and an investigation was launched, it was discovered that they had created mas\u0101jid<\/em> and schools, and were secretly teaching Isl\u0101m, Arabic, and the Qur\u2019\u0101n to their youth and others. Pierre Verger considered\u00a0this and other revolts to be \u201cthe direct repercussion of the warring events in Africa\u201d, and claimed that Shaykh Uthman Dan Fodio\u2019s reformist movement \u201ccontinued in Bahia in the form of slave revolts\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
In response to the barbarity perpetuated by the Atlantic slave trade in the power vacuum left by the fall of Songhay, the c<\/sup><\/i>ulam\u0101<\/i>\u00a0 became involved in combating the scourge of kings who were engaged in the slave trade. Roughly seventy-six years before the Emancipation Proclamation, two Tukulor c<\/sup><\/i>ulam\u0101<\/i>, Sulaymaan Baal and Abdul-Q\u0101dir Kan, may All\u0101h have mercy on them, established an independent state in West Africa where the transportation of slaves was forbidden and slavery abolished.<\/p>\n
One of the root causes of Shaykh Uthm\u0101n\u2019s reform movements, and possibly that of al-\u1e24ajj c<\/sup>Umar Taal, was the trading of slaves. Shaykh Uthman Dan Fodio\u2019s Wath\u012bqah<\/i> lists a number of items which he claims were unlawful by consensus. One of those items was: \u201cTo enslave free men among Muslims, whether they reside in the domain of Islam or in the domain of war.\u201d The Shaykh\u2019s poem, Tabban<\/i> Hakika,<\/i> which his daughter, Shaykha Nana Asma\u2019u, may All\u0101h have mercy on her and her father, translated to Hausa, also admonishes, \u201c\u2026do not enslave free men\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Spiritual Revolt<\/i><\/p>\n
A Qur\u2019\u0101n teacher from Guinea, Lamine Kebe, was kidnapped while traveling to purchase paper for his school where he taught between fifty-five to fifty-seven students.\u00a0During interviews with an American of European descent, Lamine listed thirty books studied in the schools back home which covered topics such as\u00a0Arabic grammar, fiqh<\/i>, had\u012bth, <\/i>and aqidah<\/i>.\u00a0 After three decades\u00a0of slavery, he managed to return to West Africa in 1835.<\/p>\n
Bil\u0101l\u012b Muhammad, originally from Futa Jallon, was the leader of a community of Muslims on Georgia\u2019s Sapello Island that included his wife, Fatima (Phoebe), and seven daughters. He is described as regularly wearing a fez and long coat; possessed a Qur\u2019\u0101n, dhikr<\/i> beads, and a prayer mat, and wrote a 13 page manuscript in Arabic that reproduced parts of Ibn Ab\u012b\u00a0\u1e92ayd al-Qayraw\u0101n\u012b\u2019s treatise on M\u0101lik\u012b fiqh<\/i>: al-Ris\u0101lah<\/i>. During the War of 1812, Thomas Saplding, the owner of the plantation, gave Muhammad eighty muskets to defend the island from the British, while he hid somewhere else. It is reported that at this time, Bilali Muhammad had told his master that he would, \u201canswer for every Negro of the true faith,” but not for the Christian slaves.<\/p>\n
Im\u0101m Yunus (John) Mohammed Bath who was described as always appearing \u201cin public in the dress of a Moslem priest\u201d was the leader of the Free Mandingo of Trinidad, a group of Muslims who had bought their freedom and established schools in Port of Spain.\u00a0This group\u2019s numbers were bolstered around 1815 by members of an island near Sapelo where\u00a0another Muslim named Salih Bil\u0101l\u012b resided.\u00a0May All\u0101h have mercy on them and the countless others who held onto Isl\u0101m despite the obstacles. May He keep their descendants firm in His d\u012bn<\/i>, and return those who have been\u00a0led astray.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.fiqhulislam.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Evening-Sentinel-Santa-Cruz-California-June-3-1902.jpg\")
<\/a>