The Source of Tingz | July Newsletter
This Month’s Highlights:
Ayat Reflection & Hadith Tingz
Sister Tingz
Female Figure Tingz
Islamic Vocab
Previous Halaqah Wrap Up
Ayat Reflection | Al-Hujurat (49:13)
وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ أَنْ خَلَقَ لَكُم مِّنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ أَزْوَاجًا لِّتَسْكُنُوا إِلَيْهَا وَجَعَلَ بَيْنَكُم مَّوَدَّةً وَرَحْمَةً ۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِّقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ
“O humanity! Indeed, We created you from a male and female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you may ˹get to˺ know one another. Surely the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous among you. Allah is truly All-Knowing, All-Aware.”
We’ve heard this ayat time and time again, but we live in a world that forgets it. Our ummah should be the last of those to forget the importance of the differences amongst us and to take our differences as a means that strengthens us. Allah swt has already made it clear that that He has created us from a single person, `Adam, and from Adam He created his mate, Hawwa’. From their offspring He made nations, comprised of tribes, which include subtribes of all sizes. Therefore, all people are the descendants of `Adam and Hawwa’ and share this honor equally. The only difference between them is in the religion that revolves around their obedience to Allah swt and their following of His Messenger.
Hadith Tingz
قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم “ إِنَّ اللَّهَ تَعَالَى خَلَقَ آدَمَ مِنْ قَبْضَةٍ قَبَضَهَا مِنْ جَمِيعِ الأَرْضِ فَجَاءَ بَنُو آدَمَ عَلَى قَدْرِ الأَرْضِ فَجَاءَ مِنْهُمُ الأَحْمَرُ وَالأَبْيَضُ وَالأَسْوَدُ وَبَيْنَ ذَلِكَ وَالسَّهْلُ وَالْحَزْنُ وَالْخَبِيثُ وَالطَّيِّبُ ”
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: “Indeed Allah Most High created Adam from a handful that He took from all of the earth. So the children of Adam come in according with the earth, some of them come red, and white and black, and between that, and the thin, the thick, the filthy, and the clean.”
(Tirmidhi-2955)
Sister Tingz | “Azeeza O.”
From Nigeria, born in America, and life-long PG County Resident. Azeeza is married with 5 children and has been a nurse for 16 years focused on Psychiatry. She has a history of working on a number of psychiatric institutions and units within the Washington, DC Metro area. She is also trained in research, medical surgery, and outpatient surgery. Her biggest accomplishment is balancing family and work life. Her greatest achievement and blessing all in one! Her goal is continue evolving in the way Allah swt wants her tom, but overcoming obstacles that may be in her way (especially with reading and memorizing the Quran). In addition, she is aspiring to combine technology and mental health to help woman for the next chapter in their lives insha’Allah. Azeeza lives by the wonderful feeling of just letting go and letting Allah swt do the rest!
Female Tingz | “Nanny of the Maroons”
Nanny of the Maroons was a fearless leader, military tactician and strategist of the Jamaican Maroons. According to oral tradition, her real name was Sarah. Nanny was a highly-skilled which allowed her to lead the freedom of more than 1,000 enslaved people, later helping them to resettle within the Maroon community. Additionally, she led a group of previously enslaved Africans called the Windward Maroons. Enslaved Africans fled the plantations where they were held to seek refuge in the mountains of Jamaica, and formed new communities there.
With Nanny as the leader, the Windward Maroons engaged in a guerilla war against the British, known as the First Maroon War and it lasted for many years. Nanny’s adeptness in military tactics meant that the Maroons were unable to be defeated. Their win led to the signing of a treaty in 1740, which granted The Windward Maroons 500 acres of land, and guaranteed freedom.
Source: Jamaican Information Service
Halaqah Wrap-Up | “Islam and Ancient Africa”
Presented by Ustadha Sara A.
1314 manuscript illustration by Rashid ad-Din depicting the Negus of medieval Abyssinia declining a Meccan delegation's request to surrender the early Muslims.
Islam in the horn of Africa has been dealt a disservice due to centuries old prejudices. Well meaning scholars and historians whom we rely on to transmit knowledge can blindly continue to animate those prejudices if they are not mindful of them. Without mindfulness some have erred by writing African people into substandard roles in history and writing prejudices into identity. This has been scarcely corrected. For example many references to Africans at the time of the Prophet (pbuh) and during the rise of Islam describe people of African descent as servants, slaves, captives etc. without amplifying that Africans of nobility, free from bondage were also present and contributing to the preservation and later global expansion of Islam. Repetitively, narratives which position people of African descent at the lower rungs of society, fabricate a race and class-based lowly identity. As a result, prejudices are continued and internalized by many Muslims and Muslimahs of African descent. They start to believe themselves and other African Muslims as inadequate in relation and proximity to geographically Arabic Muslims and feel inferior in history and culture. This is the danger of not knowing one’s history.
Our ancestors and the many other nations who were forced into captivity should not be defined or generalized by a temporary circumstance. With awareness of our history we will know the truth from the false. We will know and celebrate the narratives of our Ancestors who nurtured the growth of Islam, and who by example, protected the Sahaba from capture and persecution by the Qurayish. Africa has long been a safe haven for our religion, home to the first and oldest masjid, Al Najashi Masjid which sits in modern day Ethiopia, and home to the first university in the world, Sankore University for Islamic Scholars in Timbuktu, Mali. From Quranic prophets such as Luqman, Bilal, Adam, and Isa to the black hued companions and relatives of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), we have been among the faithful from the very start.
An interrogation of the past will lead us to understanding our position today. Once we gain this understanding each has an obligation to implement knowledgeable change, rectifying our histories by embodying truth and eliminating the misinterpretations of the past.
Here are some takeaways from our Halaqah on Islam in Ancient Africa:
Three historic mosques set the scene for the first Muhajirun; Sahaba Mosque in Eritrea, Al-Najashi Mosque in Ethiopia, and the Mosque of the Two Qiblas in Somalia
Bilal is of noble lineage in Abyssinia/Ethiopia. Though it’s true he was temporarily enslaved, his significance is grand. He served as Minister of finance in Medina, Governor of Bayt al Maal, and was credited by the Prophet (pbuh) for having been so pious in his deen that his footsteps were found in Jannah before his own. Bilal was one acknowledged out of many and carved a path and place for himself and his descendants in Islamic history. He must be viewed without the blurred view of foreign prejudices. He is our relative and our ancestor.
In addition to East Africa, Islam rapidly took root in West African as evidenced in the ancient empires of Ghana, Takrur, Mali, Songhai, Massina, and others. It was inspired through trade, politics, and peaceful relations as Muslims have lived in harmony alongside various faiths for centuries.
Our history is a colorful one, and we invite you to read and research further with this curated reading list.
Beyond Bilal by Mustafa Briggs
Servants of Allah by Sylviane Diouf
Illuminating the Blackness by Habeeb Akande
Sahel: Art & Empires by Alisa LaGamma
The Manuscripts of Timbuktu by Jean-Michel Dijan
The Historiography of Islam in Ethiopia by Ahmed Hussain
Arabic Index Tingz
حلقة Halaqah: Circle/Circling
حديث Hadith: A report or account of an event
آية Ayat: Verse
الحُجُرات Al Hujurat : The Chambers
