Earl Abdulmalik Mohammed Speaks

QUESTION: Brother Imam Abdulmalik, I want you to know that I count myself as one among your group of support. I have read some comments made about you on social media that are just plain libelous and disturbing. I am also someone that has know of you for a very long time and that observed you closely over the years. I paid even closer attention to Imam W. Deen Mohammed's treatment of you, too.

I guess I was a person interested in any hint Imam Mohammed might give about what he wanted after he was physically gone from us. I studied his words and I watched his actions. Just based on that evidence alone, I am fully satisfied that he identified you as having a special importance and wanted those of us who were listening carefully to know it. An honest and rational person can see it clearly.

If you are inclined can you comment on how you deal with the negativity and vitriol directed at you? I think I understand what it is that some people, and it seems what many leaders are doing by proxy through others, but I would like to hear from you on this.

IMAM EARL ABDULMALIK MOHAMMED: Praise be to Allah. I am very happy to know of your support. I am aware generally of what you are referring to. Those who work closely with me know that I am not moved by the negativity directed toward me in and of itself. I interpret it in the context of Allah's Test on the community and on me, personally. He says in His Book that no one will be left to the statement "We believe..." and not be tested.

The Qur'an is quite clear that the tests come as a way to characterize and determine the quality of Faith in the heart, and the understanding in the heart and mind of those that claim Faith -whether it is a true and clear understanding. It is a way to also discern who is not truthful about their commitment. In one place the Qur'an teaching exposes the hypocritical people through the test of conflict. I don't think we can see this time we are in presently, except as a period of discernment and conflict.

The discernment is a kind of soul-searching, if we can use this term. I am not completely comfortable using it. It is common language and not necessarily Islamic language. Islamic teaching does not ask us to search the soul. G'd asks us to purify ourselves and to seek repentance, and that He does not place upon us any unjust burdens or hardships. Allah is the Merciful One, and His Mercy is Foremost, and it Benefits and Saves us. 

So, we are discerning what is our true condition. And I have been one who has pointed to our true condition. I have not created the conflict. The conflict was already present. I have only identified it for what it is, how it has burdened and oppressed us, and what is responsible for it. The conflict was present toward Imam W. Deen Mohammed and the Life he represented. He identified it for all of the years of his leadership as the force that opposed him and to which the righteous struggle should be directed.

In 2003 he isolated it and separated himself from it. When he passed away, may Allah Grant him the Mercy, it overtook his People, and by and large we have existed under its oppressive tentacles since then. And I would like to say it existed in its power over us until a consciousness of duty rose in me that I could not turn away from. I think this consciousness of duty rose in many others too simultaneously. I think Imam W. Deen Mohammed trained me for the time, and gave me language and understanding to fight it and defeat it in these moments, and Allah has Protected me for the Purpose. 

So, the negativity is in this context. It is in the context of this process. And so I understand it as the test that must be passed and overcome in the process of our community's reawakening to its Purpose as Imam W. Deen Mohammed defined it and explained it. 

I, and you, and others who are together in this, we are not destroyers. We are builders of our Life. I refuse to respond in kind to the attacks on me. The reason is that such tactics and retaliations are not cognizable in Islam. It does not mean that we do not strategize and fight. Any who have watched over the last few years knows that I am a pretty decent Islamic strategist and tactician. However, the destroyers and the destructive spirit are not our teachers, not in history, and not now.

The Honorable Elijah Mohammed was no destroyer. He was a builder. Imam W. Deen Mohammed was not a destroyer. He was a builder. What would I look like saying that I am in that tradition, and I am speaking words of destruction? No, I am speaking words of Faith, backed up by firm principle in the Holy Qur'an teaching and Prophet Muhammed's teaching.

The oppressors will slander me, but I will not slander them. I will only speak the truth about what they have done, how they have done it, why they have done it, and I publicly inform them that I do not accept it or them in the name of and with the support of Islamic principle, integrity, and decency with Allah as Witness to my acts and theirs. This is the only way we can qualify for Allah's Mercy. We MUST have this disposition to earn Allah's Mercy. And He is the Forgiving, the Merciful Redeemer. 

This is the test, and following the high moral principle that shows itself in a pure and honest, public Islamic intent is the only passing grade. It is the only pathway to Success. It will pass the test of history and our future because generations looking back at us in this time will register our conflict, and how we prevailed. In spite of the troubled moment we kept to the Islamic life and objectives.

So, I see the negativity in this context, and so as the first in the line of the successive leaders to our special leaders, it will not be said that those following in Imam W. Deen Mohammed's tradition took any course except the one of builders of our Islamic life of Faith and Community.