Sufi Al-Hajj Wali Akram: 20th Century Black American Muslim Pioneer
By Rasul Miller
March18,
2020
Black
American Muslims engage virtually every kind of Islam: Sunni, Shia,
traditional, reformist, orthodox, heterodox, and whatever else one might
imagine. Therefore, it is not surprising that many Black American Muslims have
embraced Sufism.
They can be
observed marching in the parade with Senegalese members of the Mouride order on
Amadou Bamba day in Harlem. In Chicago, Black American members of the Haqqani
Naqshbandi order can be seen wearing bright red turbans at the suggestion of
their Turkish Cypriot spiritual guide, Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani, who commented
on the beautiful, “fiery” nature of Black spirituality1. nd, distinguished
Muslim scholars like Ustadha Ieasha Prime and Imam Amin Muhammad connect
spiritual seekers in the United States to the rich tradition of the Ba ‘Alawi
order in Yemen, who helped spread Islam across the Indian Ocean.
There is
also considerable evidence of Sufi practice among enslaved African Muslims in
the Americas because Sufism was, and continues to be, a hallmark of the Muslim
societies from which many were taken captive during the Transatlantic slave
trade.
Mother Khadijah & Shaykh
Daoud. From the digital archive of the estate of Imam Mohamed Kabbaj.
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Although
Sufism re-emerges in Black American Muslim communities during the early 20th
century, in a number of contemporary Black Muslim communities, Sufis are viewed
with suspicion. Part of the reason for this is the rise, during the 1990s, of a
generation of Black American Muslims exposed to the Salafi movement through
travel and increased access to English translations of religious literature
exported from the Gulf Arab States. In particular, many young, Black American
Muslim men who studied at the Islamic University of Medina in Saudi Arabia
began teaching and prostelitising in major cities on the East Coast with
considerable success. As a result of this rising Salafi influence, many became
leery of Sufism and questioned its compatibility with orthodox Islam. This
added to an earlier attitude of suspicion against Sufism and foreign Sufi
Shaykhs that emerged among some Black American Muslims in the aftermath of the
tumultuous fracture of the Darul Islam Movement (the Dar). Despite these
dynamics, Sufism continues to be an integral part of orthodox Muslim religious
life for those Black American Muslims who embrace it, and a testament to their
desire for spiritual fulfilment and transformation. What follows is a brief
overview of Black American Muslim engagement with Sufism during the 20th
century.
Sufism among 20th Century Muslim Pioneers
Two of the
most prominent pioneers of orthodox Islam in 20th century America were Shaykh
Daoud Ahmed Faisal and Al-Hajj Wali Akram. I refer to these men as “orthodox”
pioneers to align with the everyday language of many Black American Muslims
during the early 20th century. At the time, Black American Muslims
distinguished “orthodox” groups of Muslims from those that they considered
heterodox, such as the Nation of Islam and the Moorish Science Temple, and were
less likely to distinguish between “Sunni” and “Shi’a” Muslims.
Shaykh
Daoud was born on the Caribbean island of Grenada in 1891. At the age of 21, he
relocated to New York City to study music. In 1924, he married a Bermudan
vocalist who later adopted the name Khadijah. By 1928, Shaykh Daoud had
accepted Islam and opened the Islamic Propogation Society, one of the city’s
first organizations founded for the purpose of promoting Islam. Together,
Shaykh Daoud and Mother Khadijah founded a mosque called the Islamic Mission of
America in Brooklyn in 1939. Shaykh Daoud joined the Shadhili order, possibly
as early as the beginning of the same decade, and was likely introduced to it by
Ethiopian and Somalian Muslims in Harlem in the 1930s.2 He deepened his
connections to it through Yemeni Muslim merchant seamen who attended his
Brooklyn mosque in the 1940s.
The many
Arab, South Asian and East African merchant seaman who encountered the mosque
spread word about Shaykh Daoud’s and Mother Khadijah’s efforts through a global
network of Muslim seafaring workers, prompting others to visit his mosque when
their ships docked at the nearby Brooklyn Bridge piers. Shaykh Daoud went on to
become a muqaddam (an official representative) of the Shadhili order. According
to one close friend and aide, Shaykh Daoud received a written authorization
from the renowned Moroccan Sufi Shaykh Ahmed al ‘Alawi, which Shaykh Daoud used
to carry with him inside his kufi.
Another
giant of early 20th century orthodox Islam, Imam Al-Hajj Wali Akram, who
founded the First Cleveland Mosque in 1937, introduced members of his
congregation to the Chishti order during the 1950s. According to members of his
family, Imam Akram embraced the order while traveling throughout the Arab
World, South Asia and Eastern Europe after completing his celebrated pilgrimage
to Mecca in 1957. Unlike Shaykh Daoud, whose Sufi affiliation was unknown to
most members of his congregation, Al-Hajj Wali Akram held gatherings for the
observance of the Chishti dhikr (devotional remembrance) in his mosque. This
likely marks the first public Sufi gathering convened by Black American Muslims
in a mosque during the 20th century.
Wali Akram at home in Cleveland,
Ohio. 1990. copyright Jolie Stahl
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The 1970s
and Onward
During the
1970s in New York City, three Black Muslim Sufi communities emerged that went
on to amass a national following: the Tijaniyyah, Qadiriyyah and Burhaniyyah.
These three groups provided many Black American Muslims with their first
exposure to a traditional Sufi order. The first of these was the Tijani order.
Many of the first Black American Tijanis came from the Mosque of Islamic
Brotherhood (MIB) in Harlem and the Islamic Cultural Center of New York
(ICC-NY) in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Two of the earliest members were Imam
Sayed Abdus-Salaam, co-founder and assistant Imam of MIB, and Hajjah Kareemah
Abdul-Kareem, an attendee of ICC-NY who became prominent in the city’s Muslim
community due to her philanthropy.3 They were introduced to the Tijani order by
a young Senegalese religious scholar named Shaykh Hassan Cisse, who first
visited the United States in 1975. Shaykh Hassan’s exceptional Islamic
scholarship, fluency in English and pan-African political sensibility made him
especially attractive to Black American orthodox Muslims interested in the
legacy of Islam in West Africa.
In the
subsequent decades, Shaykh Hassan emerged as the world’s preeminent
representative of the Tijani order. But during the 1970s and early 1980s, while
in the early stages of his career, he spent significant time with Black
American adherents in New York City, Detroit and Chicago. He appointed dozens
of Black Americans in various cities as Muqaddams of the Tijani order. As a
result, the order took root in urban centres throughout the country, spreading
to cities like Atlanta, Washington D.C., Cleveland and Denver, thus creating a
distinctly Black American Sufi congregation. The Tijani order furthered its
reach with the founding of the African American Islamic Institute in 1984, a
Qur’an school in Senegal that hundreds of Black American Muslim children have
attended.
Jama’at of the Shehu. Eid al
Fitr. 2019 copyright Luqmon Abdus-Salaam
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In the
latter part of the 1970s, some of the leaders of the Dar were introduced to the
Qadiri order by Shaykh Mubarak Ali Gilani from Pakistan.4 The Dar was founded
by Muslims who previously attended Shaykh Daoud’s and Mother Khadijah’s
ethnically diverse mosque in Brooklyn and had learned about the history of
Islam in South Asia from people like Hafiz Mahbub, a Pakistani Qur’an teacher
who served that community. In addition, Imam Yahya Abdul-Kareem, the Imam of
Ya-Sin Mosque in Brooklyn (the Dar’s headquarters) exhibited an interest in
Qadiri texts as early as the 1960s. He and other members of the congregation
became formal adherents of the Qadiri order upon encountering Shaykh Gilani,
who visited the United States in 1978. Shaykh Gilani’s knowledge of African
Diasporic history and his criticism of Western imperial domination of
majority-Muslim countries contributed to his appeal among members of the Dar —
a community characterized by its zeal for Islam and its rejection of Western,
secular, white supremicist cultural norms.
However,
some members were distrustful of Shaykh Gilani and opposed the idea that their
predominantly Black and Latino Muslim congregation should defer to a foreign
religious leader. Subsequently, during the early 1980s, the Dar effectively
split into two communities. The contingent that embraced Shaykh Gilani’s
leadership and his approach to Sufism formed the Jama’at al-Fuqrah (currently
known as The Muslims of America, Inc.), which established rural Muslim
settlements around the United States. that are still active today.
The third
community to emerge during this period was the Burhani order. In 1973, a Black
American Muslim named Shaykh Abdullah Awadallah travelled to Sudan. One of his
traveling companions was the infamous Malachi York, then known as Imam Isa.
Upon their return, York established his Ansar Allah community, a heterodox
Islamic congregation that incorporated aspects of the Sudanese Sufi tradition
along with an eclectic mix of beliefs and practices.5 Shaykh Awadallah, on the
other hand, maintained a commitment to Sunni Islam and cultivated a
relationship with Shaykh Muhammad Osman Abdel Burhani, a well-known spiritual
guide he met in Sudan who then designated Shaykh Awadallah as his American Muqaddam
during the late 1970s. Shaykh Awadallah set up a Zawiya (a community worship
space) in the Bronx that held dhikr regularly.
6th Annual Shaykh Hassan
Cisse Commemoration Courtesy of Nasrul Ilm America.
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From the
1980s onward, increasing numbers of Black American Muslims throughout the
United States became interested in other Sufi orders on the African continent.
For instance, during the 1990s, many Black American Muslims learned about the
famed precolonial Nigerian scholar, political leader, and Sufi guide, Shehu
Usman Dan Fodio. They ultimately formed the Jama’at of the Shehu, and embraced
the leadership of his descendants and spiritual heirs in Sudan. This increased
awareness of the legacy of the Shehu was due, in large part, to the efforts of
an African American Muslim named Shaykh Muhammad Shareef bin Farid, founder of
the Sankore Institute of Islamic-African Studies. A prolific translator, he
made scores of works authored by the Shehu and other scholars associated with
him available to the public in English.
Of course,
Black American Muslims can be found in many more Sufi orders than these. They
continue to forge substantive transnational relationships by participating in
global Sufi networks, while simultaneously using the lessons of the Sufi
tradition to address their local communities’ needs. Today, Black American
Muslims explore the wisdom of famous Sufi sages mentioned on the pages of
history who hail from every corner of the globe. Yet, it remains important to
tell the local histories of our Black American Muslim foremothers and
forefathers who engaged Sufism because they can grant us access to a unique
kind of wisdom — one that can help us navigate the ideological differences that
divide Muslim communities in the United States, and around the world, and how
to harness Islam’s transformative potential in our own context.
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Rasul Miller is a historian of Black Muslim
communities in the Atlantic World. He received his PhD in History and Africana
Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. His research interests include
Muslim movements in 20th century America and their relationship to Black
Internationalism and West African intellectual history. He currently serves as
a Postdoctoral Associate in the study of the Racialization of Islam at Yale
University’s Centre for the Study of
Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration.
Original Headline: The Black American Sufi: A
History
Source: The Sapelo Square
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-personalities/sufi-al-hajj-wali-akram/d/123600