Black History Month: The Black Prophets

Color doesn’t matter. To Allaah, God. But it does to a lot of people. This article seeks to counter racism and prejudice against dark skin by showing that according to Christian, Jewish and Islamic sources, some of the greatest men and women in history were black.

 

Color doesn’t matter.

“And among His Signs is the Creation of the Heavens and the Earth, and the Variation of your Languages and your Colors. Verily in that are Signs for those who know.” (Qur-aan 30.22)

Prophet Muhammad (sAaws) said, “Verily Allah does not look to your bodies nor to your faces but He looks to your hearts,” and he pointed towards the heart with his fingers. (Sahih Muslim Book 032, Hadith Number 6220.)

Skin color does NOT matter.

To Allaah (God).

But to most people most of the time it does. We’re obsessed with it. Racism against Blacks of African descent is only one example. Racism against dark skin exists in every culture. It also exists within races, as light-skinned members are automatically considered better-looking and more desirable for marriage. Arabs, South Asians, and African-Americans are all guilty of this. There’s the concept of mejor la raza prevalent in Latin America. (Seen Sammy Sosa lately?) “Fairness” creams, with their commercials of happier, more successful newly-lightened people are the rage in Asia. African diasporans the world over spend billions straightening and lightening their hair (the point sometimes is to make it look naturally straight, as if to say “I’m not Black enough to have to straighten my hair.”)

Black people all over the world, from the Americas to Cambodia have been infected with feelings of inferiority and self-hatred, and relatively lighter-skinned peoples are equally convinced of their superiority and inherent beauty and goodness. These are not only popular sentiments, but academia itself has been compromised. History has been covered up and re-written for various reasons, to justify slavery, genocide and colonization, and after that to maintain the status quo.

But what if everyone knew that some of the most influential people in history were black? That the prophets respected by people of all races the world over, were in fact, African in appearance? No need to re-read; you got it right the first time: Abraham, Joseph, Moses, the Hebrews, Jesus, and even Paul, were all black. Christian, Jewish and Islamic sources, along with voluminous historical research, all corroborate these claims. It is little taught, but well-known: the prophets were black.

Islamic Sources

The Qur-aan does not generally describe appearances in detail, because there is a greater focus on the “moral” of the story than its details. However, in the Hadeeth literature (authenticated sayings and actions of Prophet Muhammad recorded by his companions), there are some descriptions of various prophets.

Moses was of brown complexion, straight hair and tall stature as if he was from the people of Az-Zutt.” (Bukhaari Volume 4, Book 55, Number 648)

The Prophet (Muhammad) said “The prophet Moses was brown, a tall person as if from the people of the tribe of Shanu’a. Jesus was a curly-haired man of moderate height…” (Bukhaari Volume 4, Book 55, Number 608)

Prophet Muhammad: “While sleeping near the Ka’ba last night, I saw in my dream a man of brown color the best one can see amongst brown color and his hair was long that it fell between his shoulders. His hair was lank and water was dribbling from his head and he was placing his hands on the shoulders of two men while circumambulating the Kaba. I asked, ‘Who is this?’ They replied, ‘This is Jesus, son of Mary.’” (Bukhaari Volume 4, Book 55, Number 649)

Judeo-Christian Sources

The Old and New Testament(1), in concert with sound historical research, make it explicit that Abraham, and the Israelites who were his descendants all the way to Mary and Jesus, were black in appearance. Paul, while not a prophet, had an unparalleled influence on Christianity. He was black, too.

The following two articles are too long to paste here. But they contain a detailed analysis of the Old and New Testament scriptures (no reference to which version), along with photographs, paintings, statues and reliefs and references to published research.  Click the title to read.

The Physical Appearance of Ancient Israel, part I:

Ham; Cush, Mizraim, Phut, & Canaan; Joseph, the Hebrews, and the Egyptians; Moses, the Hebrews and the Egyptians; Paul of Tarsus; Mary & Jesus

The Physical Appearance of Ancient Israel, part II:

The Ethiopian Hebrew baptized by Philip; The Hebrews in Antioch: Simeon that was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, etc.; Paul of Tarsus; Abraham, Nimrod, son of Cush, the Chaldeans (ancient Iraq)

Conclusion

The list of great black ancient figures and civilizations is not limited to prophets and saints, nor even to Africa. In fact, many original or at least pre-historical civilizations were what you would call black, according to the way they chose to depict themselves, as well as published historical research.

But the point here is not to establish one race as superior to another. There is no “pure race”. There are no “chosen people”:
“O people! We Created you from a Male and a Female, and Made you into Nations and Tribes, that you may know each other. Verily, the most honorable of you before Allaah are the most pious of you. (Qur-aan 49.13)

Allah’s Apostle was asked, “Who is the most honorable amongst the people?” He replied, “The most Allah fearing.” (Bukhari Volume 4, Book 55, Number 597)

So these facts are here because truth is an amaana, a trust that must be discharged. Black History is world history. It is my history, your history, everyone’s history. Go to your children’s schools and start demanding this. Sit down with your children and teach this. Stop hiding your hair texture- Black men and women- and invest in a new, real self-esteem. Tear the idols of black hatred down from your minds. Petition black artists to stop Europeanizing their appearances. Protest films with inaccurate depictions of great civilizations of old. Make films of your own.

Celebrate Black History all year, not just the shortest month of the Gregorian calendar…
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

(1) The body of narrations originating from Judeo-Christian traditions, rather than from revealed books such as the Scrolls of Ibraaheem (Abraham), the Taura (Torah), Zabuur (Psalms) and Injeel (Gospel) are known as the Israa-eeliyaat in Islamic theology. They are mostly non-biblical explanatory stories and traditions (in Hebrew: midrashim) giving extra information or interpretation about events or individuals recorded in the Hebrew scriptures.

Muslims classify such narrations in three categories:
1) Those considered to be true because the Qur-aan or narrations of Muhammad confirm them.
2) Those considered to be false, because the Qur-aan or narrations of Muhammad reject them.
3) Those not known to be either true or false.

So the Islamic position on Judeo-Christian narrations and what is left of the revealed books could be summed up with the following narrations of Prophet Muhammad:

Narrated ‘Abdullah bin ‘Amr: The Prophet said, “Convey (my teachings) to the people even if it were a single sentence, and tell others the stories of People of Israel (which have been taught to you), for it is not sinful to do so. And whoever tells a lie on me intentionally, will surely take his place in the (Hell) Fire.” (Sahih Bukhari. Hadith 3202)

Narrated Abu Huraira: The people of the Scripture (Jews) used to recite the Torah in Hebrew and they used to explain it in Arabic to the Muslims. On that Allah’s Messenger said, “Do not believe the people of the Scripture or disbelieve them, but say: “We believe in Allah and what is revealed to us.” (Qur-aan 2.136) (Sahih Bukhari, Hadith 4125)

Black History Month: Africa’s Golden Age

African societies were neither backward nor primitive, as Western versions of history usually claim. This article quotes African, European and Arabian sources to show a civilization whose architecture, education, industry, justice, morality and trade were the equal or superior to its contemporaries. Europe, for its part, could only surpass it in terms of gunfire.

Dawn of a New Era
The impact of Islam on African society is summed up by Trimingham. Islam for the ordinary adherent is not an intellectual exercise. It is absorbed and maintains its hold because it is a system of life(1). Islam brings a fixed system of belief and action, not variable according to family of locality. Pilgrimage to Makkah has played an important role in giving African Muslims a conception of Islam as a world religion and the consciousness of possessing a common religious inheritance. Travelling the whole way through Muslim lands gave the impression that Islam was the religion of Africa(2).

wikipedia.org: hausa people

In practical Islam moral conduct is following what God allows and refraining from what He forbids. Theoretical and practical morality for the Muslim means the study and practice of the way of life (sunna) of the Prophet, the exemplar who followed the right path; but since all this has been codified it is simply a matter of following the law. The social ethics of Islam are directed to maintain the harmony and solidarity of the community, the consensus (ijma’) of the community being the criterion (3). The duties incumbent upon the community are summarised in the maxim ‘to command right and forbid wrong’; right and wrong are defined by the law (4). Social harmony involves the stressing of positive virtues such as benevolence, humility truthfulness, condemnation of envy, and care of orphans (4).

Although the communal aspect of moral conduct has been stressed, it should be mentioned that personal responsibility is a keynote of the Qur’an (5) and its outreach in institutions; the five pillars, for example are duties incumbent upon the individual. Observance of Islam means avoiding the tabooed such as: intoxicants, eating pig and carrion; contact with dogs; whistling; mutilations, incising and tattooing.(6).

Observing such precepts of Islam brought considerable changes to African society, which have been observed at all times by travellers and writers on Africa.
Shortly after the adoption of Islam, Kanem rose to be a state of considerable importance and extended its sway over the tribes of the Eastern Sudan to the borders of Egypt and Nubia; the first Muslim king of Kanem is said to have reigned either towards the close of the 11th or the first half of the 12th century (8).
Ibn Battuta gives a good description of the people of Mali under Islam:
‘The Black people possess some admirable qualities. they are seldom unjust, and have greater abhorrence of injustice than any other people. their sultan shows no mercy to anyone who is guilty of the least act of it. There is complete security in their country. Neither traveller nor inhabitant in it has anything to fear from robbers or men of violence.

facebook.com: african muslim

They are careful to observe the hours of prayer, and assiduous in attending them in congregations, and in bringing up their children to them. On Fridays, if a man does not go early to the mosque, he cannot find a corner to pray in, on account of the crowd. It is a custom of theirs to send each man his boy [to the mosque] with his prayer-mat; the boy spreads it out for his master in a place befitting him [and remains on it] until he comes to the mosque. Their prayer-mats are made of the leaves of a tree resembling a date-palm, but without fruit (9).
Another of their good qualities is their habit of wearing clean white garments on Fridays. Even if a man has nothing but an old worn shirt, he washes it and cleans it, and wears it to the Friday service. yet another is their zeal for learning the Qur’an by heart (10).’

The positive impact Islam had on African society was observed by later Western writers and travellers. Smith notes how:
‘We hear of whole tribes laying aside their devil worship, or immemorial fetish, and springing at a bound, as it were, from the very lowest to one of the highest forms of religious belief. Christian travellers, with every wish to think otherwise, have remarked that the Black person who accepts Islam acquires at once a sense of the dignity of human nature not commonly found even among those who have been brought to accept Christianity (11).’
Smith adds:
‘Nor as to the effects of Islam when first embraced by a Black tribe, can there, when viewed as a whole, be any reasonable doubt. Polytheism disappears almost instantaneously; sorcery, with it attendant evils, gradually dies away; human sacrifice becomes a thing of the past. The general moral elevations is most marked; the natives begin for the first time in their history to dress, and that neatly. Squalid filth is replaced by some approach to personal cleanliness; hospitality becomes a religious duty; drunkenness, instead of the rule becomes a comparatively rare exception. Though polygamy is allowed by the Koran, it is not common in practice…; chastity is looked upon as one of the highest, and becomes, in fact, on of the commoner virtues. It is idleness henceforth that degrades, and industry that elevates, instead of the reverse. Offences are henceforth measured by a written code instead of the arbitrary caprice of a chieftain-a step, as every one will admit, of vast importance in the progress of a tribe (12).’

The Islamic impact is also on the economic and cultural levels. Muslims proved to be excellent traders and came to dominate the commercial world, helping to foster progress in sciences, philosophy and technology wherever they settled. Merchants from Arabia and the Gulf opened up the eastern coasts of Africa, from the Horn to Madagascar, to international trade (13). The rich trading settlements of Sofala, Kilwa and Mogadishu became Africa’s outlets to the Indian Ocean. Along the coast, from the Horn to Madagascar, the original Muslim civilisation developed around the Muslim trading settlements: the Swahili civilisation (14).
Browne, and Englishman, who undertook extensive travels in Central African in the years 1799 and 1806 (15), remarks that, among the idolaters of Sheibon and other places, the only persons he saw wearing decent clothes, or indeed clothing at all, were Muslims; that it was to the introduction of Islam a century and a half before his time that Darfur owed its settled government and the cultivation of its soil; and that the people of Bergoo were remarkable for their zealous attachment to their religion, and read the Qur’an daily. In this summary we hear of the use of decent clothing, and the arts of reading and agriculture, attributed to Islam (16).

Mungo Park, educated as he was for the Scotch Church, and cruelly persecuted as he was throughout his travels by the ‘Moorish banditi’, Smith notes would not be likely to be a friend of Islam, and many of his remarks show a strong bias against it: his testimony, therefore is all the more valuable. His travels lay almost exclusively among Muslims or semi-Muslim tribes, and he found that the Black people were everywhere summoned to prayer by blasts blown through elephants’ tusks. On reahing the Niger, the main object of his wanderings, he found, to his surprise, that Sego, the capital of Bamharra, was a walled town, containing some 30,000 inhabitants, that the houses were square and very often white-washed, and that there were Muslim mosques in every quarter. ‘The view of this extensive city,’ he writes, ‘the numerous canoes upon the river, the crowded population, and the cultivated state of the surrounding country, formed altogether a prospect of civilisation and magnificence which I little expected to find in the bosom of Africa’ (17).
His impression of the women was most favourable. ‘I do not recollect,’ he says, ‘a single instance of hard-heartedness towards me among the women. In all my wandering and wretchedness I found them uniformly kind and compassionate.’ One of the first lessons in which the Mandingo women instructed their children was the practice of truth. (18)

everyculture.com: mauritania

Mungo Park adds: ‘the beverages of the pagan Negroes are beer and mead, of which they frequently drink to excess. The Muslims amongst them drink nothing but water’ (19).
As to education, Mungo Park found schools and active teachers everywhere (20). In Africa, we are assured, at all hands, that the Muslim population has an almost passionate desire for education. Wherever Muslims are numerous, they establish schools themselves; and there are not a few who travel extraordinary distances to secure the best possible education (21).

newshopper.sulekha.com

The Reverend Edward Blyden, a native Black African and Christian missionary, counters those who attack Islam, and says:
‘If those Christians who are so unmeasured in their denunciations of ‘Mohammedanism’ could travel, as I have travelled, through those countries in the interior of West Africa, and witness, as I have witnessed, the vast contrast between the pagan and ‘Mohammedan’ communities- the habitual listlessness of the one, and the activity and growth, physical and mental, of the other; the capricious and unsettled administration of law, or rather the absence of law, in the one, and the tendency to order and regularity in the other; the increasing prevalence of ardent spririts in the one, and the rigid sobriety and conservative abstemiousness of the other- they would cease to regard the ‘Mussulman’ system as an unmitigated evil in the interior of Africa’ (22).

Western Efforts to Block the Progress of African Civilization
The Western slave trade, which reached its peak in the 18th century, shattered not just Muslim communities, but the whole of African society and economy, and permanently. Garaudy and Howitt explain how this disastrous impact in great detail (23). It is not that African society, as generally held in Western writing, was initially backward, thus clearing the conscience of the slave traders from their responsibility in its backwardness, but rather, as a whole, Black Africa, in the 15th century, before slave trading, Garaudy explains was not inferior to Europe (24). Coming from Goa or Egypt, Islam penetrated as far as Chad, and met in Nigeria and old black civilisation, which was remarkable for its art, possibly tributary to Mediterranean classical influences, which it soon adopted (25). The African states of Ghana, Mali and songhay shared in the great age of Islamic civilisation from the 9th to 16th centuries (26). On his return from his pilgrimage to Makkah in 1324, Mansa Musa brought back with him the Muslim poet and architect Es Saheli, who built the famous mosques and learning academies of Timbuktu and Gao (27). Timbuktu ranked with Alexandria, Fez, Seville, Cordova and Constantinople as a great centre of learning (28). Blyden speaks of the story of the Hejazi jurist who sought employment in Timbuktu, but who, finding too many scholars went on to Fez where he found employment more easily. He quotes with relish many honourable appearances of a black skin in Islamic literature, as an encouragement to African learning (29).

Timbuktu University- founded in the 11th century and perhaps the oldest university in the world (wikipedia.org: islam in africa

Economically, the textiles of Congo and Guinea were as high quality as those of Europe; Nigerian decorated hides and leather were appreciated in Europe, getting to it via North Africa; and metal works, of copper in particular, of Katanga and Zambia, and iron works of Sierra Leone, were much superior to those they were made to import by force later from Europe (30). The Empire of Ghana was a thriving commercial centre, and its large capital, Kumbi Saleh, was an important centre of trade and scholarship, where Islamic theology and history were studied (31). In Zimbabwe, Rhodes mercenaries and traffickers found huge constructions, and mines well exploited. Bronze metal in Benin was better quality than the Portuguese. European superiority was only in terms of gun fire (32).
It was Western Christendom, and above all the slave trade it inflicted on Africa, which destroyed these progresses of the African continent, and made the prosperity of the slave-trading nations (33). In 1540, only 400 Africans were deported, a figure which rose to nearly 300,000 every year in the 18th century (34). Due to losses during capture, transportation, deaths at the plantations, etc., 100 million Africans perished as a result of the slave trade (65).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This article was an excerpt of al-Djazairi, S.E., A Short History of Islam, The Institute of Islamic History, Manchester: 2006
(1) J.S. Trimingham: the Influence of Islam; op cit; p. 53
(2) Ibid; pp. 62-3
(3) Ibid; p. 67
(4) Ibid; p. 68
(5) Ibid; pp. 68-9
(6) on the day of Judgement each person will be held responsible for his deeds. ‘The fate of every man have We bound upon his neck…, neither shall any laden soul be charged with the burden of another’; sura xvii.13, 15, vi 34 [Qur-aan 17.13, 15; 6.34]
(7) J.S. Trimingham: The Influence of Islam; op cit; p. 57
(8) C. H. Becker: Geschichte des ostlichen Sudan; Der Islam; vol 1; Strassburg; 1910; pp. 162-3
(9) Ibn Battuta: Voyages d’Ibn Battuta, Arabic text accompanied by Fr tr by C. Defremery and B.R. Sanguinetti, preface and notes by Vincent Monteil, I-IV, Paris, 1968, repring of the 1854 ed; vol 4; pp. 421-2
(10) Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa; tr and selected by H.A.R. Gibb; George Routledge and Sons Ltd; London, 1929; pp. 329-31
(11) R.B. Smith: Mohammed; op cit; p.38
(12) Ibid; pp. 42-3
(13) D.T. Niane: General History of Africa; op cit; p.2
(14) Ibid; p. 3
(15) See Pinkerton: Voyages; vol xv and xvi
(16) In R.B. Smith; Mohammed; op cit; p. 44
(17) Mungo Park’s Traves; Cap I. Nd fin; in R.B. Smith: Mohammed; op cit; p. 45
(18) In R.B. Smith; Mohammed; op cit; p. 46
(19) Mungo Park; Cap VII; in R.B. Smith: Mohammed; op cit; p. 46
(20) In R.B. Smith: Mohammed; p. 47
(21) Ibid; p. 41
(22) Ibid; pp. 50-1
(23) R. Garaudy: Comment l’Homme; op cit. W Howitt: Colonisation an dChristianity. op cit.
(24) R Garaudy; Comment l’Homme; op cit; p. 271
(25) E Perroy: Le Moyen Age, Presses Universitaires de France, 1956; p. 525
(26) D. M. Traboulay: Columbus and Las Casas; University Press of America, New York, London, 1994. p. 69
(27) Ibid; p. 70
(28) G.O. Cox: African Empires and Civilisations; New York; 1974; p. 161
(39) Blyden in N. Daniel: Islam, Europe and Empire; Edinburgh University Press; 1966; p. 314
(30) R. Garaudy: Comment l’Homme; op. cit; p. 271
(31) D.M. Traboulay: Columbus and Las Casas; op cit; p. 69
(32) R. Garaud: Comment l’Homme; op cit; p. 271
(33) E. Williams: Capitalism and Slavery; North Carolina; 1944. Catherine C. Vidrotitch: Villes Africaines; op cit; at p. 1390. M. Craton: Sinews of Empire: A short history of British slavery; Garden City; NY; Doubleday; 1974
(34) R. Garaudy; Comment l’Homme; op cit; p. 275
(35) Ibid.