Earl Abdulmalik Mohammed Speaks

IMAM DHUHAN ABDULLAH: As-Salaam Alaikum Imam Abdulmalik Mohammed. Could you please share your position on having the whole community come under one centralized, national organizational structure?

IMAM EARL ABDULMALIK MOHAMMED: The international, inter-ethnic, inter-racial, global and universal Islamic community is considered 'one' community in our teachings of Islam. The term is 'ummah' that describes the nature of this community. The word 'ummah' says a lot about the origin of leadership and membership and duty in the Islamic community. 

Allah says in the Qur'an: "This, your 'ummah' (community) is one, and I am your Lord. Therefore worship only Me." In this sense we do not think of the ummah as centralized. We think of it as a community focusing its unity upon the principles, objectives, and actions of worship of the Lord-Creator. The Western mind would like to label al-Islam a 'theocracy'. This is the Western mind's language holding their meanings. It has some very fine meanings, but it also has some subtle, sinister suggestions. One of the suggestions is that of oppression and authoritarianism. Authoritarianism is inherent to the notion of power-centralization. 

Another influence from the West: "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Islam does not support this notion in any manner of community organization, or even in the proper Islamic idea for the organizing of nations. Islam cherishes worship of G'd upon the principle of unity, not centralization. Allah has no need to centralize His Power and Authority over His Creation. Everything that exists is predicated upon His Oneness and all of creation responds to that reality by its very nature. By virtue of His Oneness, an inherent central focus is built into the creation. 

The people of faith answer the caller to prayer five times a day when he says "Come to Prayer..." by saying "There is no Might nor Power except Allah." In other words, Allah is All-Powerful. He is al-Qawiyy (The Powerful). He is al-Aziz (The Mighty). He is al-Jabbar (The Strong). None can compete with Him, except in a delusion of falsehoods. Islamic leadership is by moral reach and influence, and not from artificial organs or illusions of centralized power. 

The people of Faith are satisfied with obeying Allah's Will. We are satisfied with worshipping Allah as our Lord and Creator. We are satisfied with His Command and Power over everything He has Created. We are satisfied to obey His Authority and the just authority of His Messenger, Muhammed, the prayers and the peace be on him. Why? Because He says: "... He wants for us no difficulty in worship, but only purity." And He says "... He causes his servants no oppression or injustice." And He says "... you will find in the Messenger (Muhammed) an excellent standard of conduct. 

Any power of authority any one believer has, or thinks he has, he humbly and happily submits to G'd's Authority and Command, and the leadership of His Messenger. This is the eternal formula for the de-centralization of power to its proper origin and uses.

Imam W. Deen Mohammed demonstrated the effectiveness and reach of true Islamic moral leadership authority in his strategic de-centralization of the Nation of Islam structure. He skillfully and decisively broke up power bases and replaced them, not with new-style power brokers loyal to him, but by the authority of Islamic moral influence. He had no apparatus of coercion, or threatening taunts, or material pressure to bear on enemies. His appeal was to the moral nature of the people to stand upon their own dignity and upon faith in G'd and Muslim identity, and to support that leadership and community aspirations which their nature pointed them to. 

Since his death, may Allah Grant him the Mercy, many of these cities have moved to cancel the influence of that Islamic moral authority, and to restore a centralized, national mutual-admiration society of tyrannical local leaders who do everything in their abusive authority to crush independent thinking and productivity. That is precisely why you are asking this question, and precisely why this group I am describing want me silenced. 

They make the suggestion that by me saying that I am Imam W. Deen Mohammed's successor, that I am after some power position over some nationally regimented Muslim body. I have no interest in that whatsoever. Not only is it un-Islamic, but it is also disloyal to my leader and teacher. I was prepared for the job precisely because Imam Mohammed knew that I did not have it in me to be a tyrant -it is not a part of my nature. 

Even when I was the Imam of a masjid, the responsibilities for leadership were shared among many capable persons. I refused then to dominate or regiment anyone. I was leader by the support of the people, and the people knew that my primary interest was to acquaint them with Imam W. Deen Mohammed's teaching. Actually, that is the sole reason they brought me to that city to be the Imam in the first place. And when some in the national leadership complained about me replacing the former Imam in that city (because he was their friend), Imam Mohammed told them "Leave Abdulmalik alone. I want him there."

One of the main reasons Imam W. Deen Mohammed chose me and prepared me was because I was a natural product of his mind. My mind was never under the local leaders. They could not touch me and they had no role in shaping me. I know that some of them have made claims to my mind, but they know they are misrepresenting the truth. If Allah wills it, their day is coming to be exposed for their lies. 

One of them boasted to the Imam once in my presence. He said, "You know brother Imam, Abdulmalik lived in my city before he came to Chicago to be with you." The Imam looked at this person with a fierceness in his face, and said, "No, sir. He was with me long before he knew how to even pronounce the name of your city." 

The truth is that I was never under the local authorities. In fact, from the beginning Imam Mohammed cautioned me, "Do not ever put yourself under these Imams and their authority. You are from me" -meaning I was a direct product of his thinking. These are his exact words, and I obeyed him. Anyone that knows me up close and personal knows that I have no spirit of disobedience in me, period. 

Imam W. Deen Mohammed's leadership was established upon Islamic moral teaching which includes the planning of Islamic life in community and answering the needs of Islamic life in community. This, of course, requires cooperation and organization. There is the very serious need for organized efforts and many leaders to initiate, organize, and serve the good, and to consult and cooperate with each other upon that good. 

So, in Imam W. Deen Mohammed's thinking and teaching, the community is not built or established by the authority or power of the organization itself. It is built by the awakening of the individual to his duty to himself and others as shown to him by his Lord-Creator, and then sensitized to serve the important community need at hand. The individual is first shown this in his pure human nature, and then it is shown by way of Divine Revelation or Divine Instruction. 

Again, as an 'ummah,' our unity is focused upon the objectives of worship of our Lord-Creator who Provides for man in his nature and in his community needs and hopes. Prophet Muhammed had this concern about centralization and national organization too. He was not satisfied with the 'qibla' of national identity at Jerusalem. And Allah Said to him: "... and now we turn you to a qibla pleasing to you." And Allah Commands us to "... wherever you stand, turn in the direction of (the Sacred Mosque)."

One lesson in this is that it is not the nation or the organization that stands the people up, or the individual up. It is what is inherent in the individual that stands the people, the organization, and the nation up. 

There is no legitimate Islamic authority, including faithful, learned Muslim leaders and recognized scholars, anywhere in this world, in any Western or Muslim-majority nation, that will disagree with anything I have said here. Our religion, the Holy Qur'an and the Sunnah of Muhammed the Prophet, are verification of the accuracy and truth of these words.