February is Black History Month – a time that is often overlooked, both in the Muslim community and wider society. While there may be some token acknowledgement of Black History Month, the Muslim community must acknowledge the seriousness of what BHM should mean to us. Black history spans so much more than just regurgitated tidbits about Muhammad Ali Malcolm X,  and Bilal .

Black history is Muslim history; spanning Abyssinia in the time of an-Najaashi, to the blessed Companions of RasulAllah, to the Sokoto Khilaafah of Usman Dan Fodio, to the dazzling era of Mansa Musa, to the ongoing thriving Islamic scholarship of Gambia, Senegal, Niger, and other regions of the African continent.

Black History is Muslim history; in South America and North America – the stories of the rebellious enslaved Muslims of Brazil, of Omar Ibn Sa’id and Muhammad Kaba Saghanughu in North America who preserved their knowledge of the Qur’an and fiqh in manuscripts discovered decades later.

Black History is Muslim history; the oppression of Imam Jamil, the ongoing struggles of Black Muslims who face systemic discrimination in both the Muslim and non-Muslim world, the devastating loss of lives in the Bronx fire.

MuslimMatters reminds ourselves and the rest of the community that our knowledge of, and engagement with, the Black Muslim community is not something to be relegated to tokenism or talks about Bilal , but must be actively sought out all the time. The list of articles below is just the beginning of seeking knowledge and raising our awareness about the vastness and relevance of Black Muslim history -past and present- to the rest of the global Ummah.

Here is our Black History Month picks from the archives:

Islam

– 5 Amazing Lessons Muslims Should Learn From Muhammad Ali by Dr. Muhammad Wajid Akhtar

5 Amazing Lessons Muslims Should Learn From Muhammad Ali

– 7 Luminous Black Companions of the Prophet

7 Luminous Black Companions of the Prophet

– Exclusive: Stephen Jackson Discusses His Journey to Islam by Hamzah Raza

Exclusive: Stephen Jackson Discusses His Journey to Islam

– God’s Plan and Muhammad Ali by Imam Zaid Shakir

God’s Plan and Muhammad Ali – Imam Zaid Shakir

– Allah Commands Justice: Thoughts On I Can’t Breathe by Shaykh Furhan Zubairi

Allah Commands Justice: Thoughts On I Can’t Breathe

Society

– Podcast: Priorities And Protest | On Muslim Activism With Shaykhs Dawud Walid And Omar Suleiman

Podcast: Priorities and Protest | On Muslim Activism with Shaykhs Dawud Walid and Omar Suleiman

– On British Muslims & Racism: Do Black Lives Matter? by Shaykh Abu Aaliyah Surkheel

On British Muslims & Racism: Do Black Lives Matter?

– Reclaiming Malcolm X’s Legacy by Dr. Omar Suleiman

Reclaiming Malcolm X’s Legacy

– Your Black Muslim Friends Are Not Okay, America’s Knee Is On Their Neck by Nikia Bilal

Your Black Muslim Friends Are Not Okay, America’s Knee Is On Their Neck

– Our African American Siblings Are Speaking, Are We Listening? Here Are 15 Things African American Muslims Want You To Know by Wendy Diaz

Our African American Siblings Are Speaking, Are We Listening? Here Are 15 Things African American Muslims Want You To Know

Current Affairs

– Potential Retrial In Sight For Imam Jamil Al-Amin (H. Rap Brown) by Hamzah Raza

Potential Retrial In Sight For Imam Jamil Al-Amin (H. Rap Brown)

– Open Letter To Muslim Activists And Organizations In The US On Engagement With The Structures Of Policing by Dr. Asim Qureshi

Open Letter To Muslim Activists And Organisations In The US On Engagement With The Structures Of Policing

– Pelosi’s Treatment Of Ilhan Omar Exposes The Myth of Courage And Reach of AIPAC by Danette Zaghari-Mask

Pelosi’s Treatment Of Ilhan Omar Exposes The Myth of Courage And Reach of AIPAC

Culture

– Where I Stand With Beyoncé’s Formation by Khalil Ismail

Where I Stand with Beyoncé’s Formation | Khalil Ismail

– Top 10 Books On Black Muslim History by Dr. Muhammed Wajid Akhter

Top 10 Books On Black Muslim History

– Again, And Again, And Again, And Again by Tariq Toure

Again, And Again, And Again, And Again

– The Bilal Movie: Why It Still Reinforces The Slave-Narrative Of Black People

The Bilal Movie: Why It Still Reinforces The Slave-Narrative Of Black People

– Servants Of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved In The Americas | Book Review by Zainab bint Younus

Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas | Book Review

Life

– Racism Is A Disease Of The Heart And Other Epiphanies In A Journey Towards Anti-Racism by Hena Zuberi

Racism Is A Disease of the Heart And Other Epiphanies In A Journey Towards Anti-Racism

– Between A Rock And A Hard Place – Black and Muslim by Margari Hill

Between a Rock and a Hard Place- Black and Muslim

– Black Youth Matter: Stopping The Cycle Of Racial Inequality In Our Ranks by Wendy Diaz

Black Youth Matter: Stopping the Cycle of Racial Inequality in Our Ranks

– BlackMuslimBan | Take Down The Wall In Your Hearts By Umm Zakiyyah

BlackMuslimBan | Take Down the Wall in Your Hearts

– Taqwa Through Anti-Bias Education by Margari Hill

Taqwa Through Anti-Bias Education