Muslim Slaves & The History of America | Shaykh Dr. Yasir Qadhi | EPIC Masjid

Muslim Slaves and The History of America

It is February, and in our country, in this country, February is African American History Month. And one of the things that we always mention is the fact that we have been here for many centuries, many hundreds of years. So many of our African brethren slaves that were forcibly brought here, they were Muslims. And today I wanted to showcase more specifics, not just theoretical, not just abstract, but to give you some actual examples. Footage that we have, not footage, not video footage, but we have pictures, we have documents, we have Qurans written from the Muslims that came here centuries ago. So I wanted to help us understand.

Right now there's a vicious Islamophobic campaign against us, even today in Congress, our masjid was mentioned by name, and these lies are spread. These people have no right to be here, foreigners, this and that. Muslims have been in this country before there was this country. Before the United States of America declared its independence, there were Muslims praying and fasting here. And it is imperative that all of us are aware of this history, because it deals with us, and it deals with our presence in this land.

The Reality of American Slavery

So much can be said, but very briefly إن شاء الله تعالى, I wanted to just mention some key stories that would be an introduction to this regard, and obviously realize that the slave trade, the slave trade as it existed in America in the 16th, 17th, 18th century, it was unparalleled in human history in its depravity. This was chattel slavery. I don't want to make technical, slavery is of different types, and it is not even fair to use the same word as was used to what happened over here, as what happened in other lands, in Muslim land centuries ago. It's a totally different concept. We shouldn't even use the same term. What happened here is the most inhumane manifestation of this reality in all of human history.

Hundreds of thousands of people were captured, free people. There were parties sent out in Africa, in other places, and literally hunting expeditions. Now pause your footnote. The West likes to say Muslims were involved. The response is, it is true. Sometimes Muslims were also involved, but Christians, everybody was involved. In other words, you have mafia that is of all faiths and traditions. Muslims didn't have any extra stay in this regard. There were evil people of all backgrounds, some of whom were Muslims as well. It is true. And that is not something they should have done. But to say that it was any extra, no. Everybody was involved.

And it is true that some people in this region, they were Muslims, and they felt that they can take people and sell them into slavery. Our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم explicitly cursed such a person. And he said, whoever does this will have no protection on the day of judgment. Explicitly cursed the one who takes somebody, pretends, deceives him, captures him, and then sends him into slavery. Allah's لعنة is on such a person. So this is not at all a part of our sharia.

Muslim Slaves in America: The Numbers

Nonetheless, because the slaves came from so many places in Africa, so where the Muslims were a majority, Muslims were also captured. Muslims were also captured. And it is estimated that roughly 400,000 slaves were captured and sold in America from around 1700 to around 1860, 1850, when the last slave ship came. So because obviously, so when the slaves came, so obviously they had children. Those children became into five million, right? So the descendants of the slaves, they are in the millions. How many people were actually brought in as slaves? Around 400,000. Around 400,000 human beings were captured and maliciously taken into slavery in Africa and then transported.

This is an actual diagram from 1730 something. This is an actual diagram that one of the people in the ship drew. This is how the slaves were transported. Some of the most inhumane conditions. Can you imagine one month like this, أعوذ بالله. One month tied in chains, أعوذ بالله. And you are just like the ships that have the cargo. Humans are the cargo. So to maximize efficiency, you have layers. You have three, four layers of people lying, أستغفر الله, in their own filth, in their own نجس, just being fed some water, a little bit of food, just enough so that they survive the trip.

And in the process, it is estimated up to 10 to 15% died. Imagine this condition for one month. Imagine if you fall sick, dysentery, bacteria, diarrhea, anything of this was gonna happen. So many people died in that process, right? And now imagine you are taken as a free human being. Overnight, you're in the ship. Within one month, you're in a land you didn't even know existed. Nobody speaks your language. Nobody knows your culture. This was the reality of, and I want you to really think about this, you know, inhumane institution.

And of this 400,000, estimates are that roughly 120,000 were Muslims. That is a staggering amount. 120,000 Muslims over the course of obviously 350 years. And realize these weren't in one place. No, you would have one Muslim slave, one plantation. Maybe the next Muslim slave would be many, many cities away. Most of these slaves that would have come here wouldn't even have known that there's another Muslim slave anywhere else. They would not even have known of this.

The Challenge of Preserving Islam

And that is why the Muslim slaves that came, the Muslims that were captured against their will, they were unable to preserve their Islam for many generations. But as you know, the legacy of that faith remains such that in the early part of the 1900s, movements came of a pseudo-Islamic nature. The Moorish Science Temple, the Lost Foundation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad. That type of rhetoric, why was it so popular? One of the reasons when you have 20%, 15 to 20% of the slaves, their heritage is different. They know something is different.

So around 120,000 Muslims were brought to this land. And these were from the tribes of the Fulani, the Mandinka, the Wolof, the Hausa, the Yoruba, and other tribes that are still around to this day. That's another problem. And that is a Fulani Muslim, if he were to meet maybe a Muslim from Hausa, they don't speak even the same language. Because the one is from Senegal, the other is from Niger. They're literally countries apart. In our times, it's completely separate countries. So even if they're both Muslim, it's like saying, oh, people in Asia, they're all the same. It doesn't matter. You know, two different cultures and languages. So it was a very, very big tragedy in all levels, and especially for obviously our Muslim brethren that came here.

The Advantage of Literacy

And of course, one of the main things we need to understand is that just like in India, just like in many other places, Muslims were literate, and the non-Muslims generally were not literate. They couldn't read and write. That wasn't a part of their culture and civilization. And so when you have the average slave coming that is not Muslim, the demonization that the people of this land had, that these people are not regular human beings. These people are subhuman. These people are beneath, if you like, the degree of humanity. So the notion came that we are superior. And by the way, this is still the notion amongst the racists. That's exactly what they say, right? We are superior. But back then, this was the norm. It was not politically incorrect. It was considered to be a fact. It was still considered to be a fact.

And one of the ways they proved this was they said, these people are not educated. They don't know how to read and write. They don't know basic mathematics. What are you going to do when a Muslim comes along and he knows maths better than you? He knows reading and writing in a language you haven't even heard of. Clearly demonstrating a level of intelligence even you do not have. This was one of the realities that allowed Muslim slaves sometimes a little bit of perks as we're going to see.

The Story of Ayub ibn Sulaiman

Okay, so today I wanted to share with you three particular stories of actual people and actual remnants and actual images. The first of them is our earliest Muslim slave that we're aware of that came to these lands. In fact, he came here before America was the United States of America. You need to know this name because he fasted Ramadan. He prayed salah on this land before this land was called the US of A. And his name is Ayub ibn Sulaiman. Ayub ibn Sulaiman. And Ayub ibn Sulaiman was the son of a Fulani chief. He was a very wealthy merchant. He was highly educated. And he actually was sent by his father to engage in buying and selling close to the shore. So he took a party to go and buy and sell trade and goods and then go back inland.

But quite literally, as they say in the cartoons, nets are thrown on the people and they're dragged and chained. Literally, this is what happened where you had Europeans go and quite literally throw nets and guns and whatnot and just tie them up and bring them in. Now, it is interesting, Ayub ibn Sulaiman, he was so close to being saved from coming to America. How so? Because he began negotiating with the British captain and saying, I am the son of a chief. I will give you much money. Just give me a few days to send the letter to my father. He will ransom me more than what you will get anywhere else. And look at my clothes, everything. He attempted his best and the captain was half open to the idea. But then he was worried, what if the father does what? Sends troops, exactly. What if the father does something else? I'm scared. So he was thinking back and forth. A few days went by when nothing happened. خلاص, the captain chickened out and خلاص, he took the whole party, including Ayub ibn Sulaiman.

And Ayub ibn Sulaiman actually was fully established. He was already married. He had four children. He had two wives as is the norm for his people back there. So he was in his early 30s. Captured in 1730. Again, this is before America declared independence by an entire generation. Right, 1776, 1730. So remember, now we're talking about a British colony. America is a British colony. And this helped him do what no other slave could do because it's not yet the US of A. And the culture is still slightly different. And it is still aristocratic British.

So in 1730, he was brought to this land and sold in Maryland to a Mr. Tolstoy. And he worked as a tobacco picker, a picker of the fields of tobacco. But he was a very stubborn slave. He was not going to do this easily. And he fled multiple times until his owner basically saw in him talent to read and write, to do other chores. And so he got upgraded to cattle herder, i.e. you're in charge of the cattle. And this fit in well with what he used to do. He knew how to take care of animals because that's his upbringing. And so it was a little bit of a ease for him that he got that upgrade.

And one of the things that is noted in the journals is that he would constantly take breaks and be seen in the fields bowing and prostrating. This is one of the first eyewitness accounts of salah in America. I'm not saying the first, maybe there were other people before him. But this is something that is observed. 1730, that is not 100, not 200, almost 300 years ago. 300 years ago, he was observed and complaints were made that he's not doing his job. And when the master then whipped him, in his anger, he fled, he ran away. Like he has that pride that I'm not gonna, I don't care what happens. And he was captured, he was thrown in jail.

And it just so happened Allah's قدر and I have no doubt, I have no doubt that du'a is the weapon of the believer. You can imagine how much du'a he would have been making in a strange land. You can imagine, he couldn't speak English. Nobody speaks his language. This is 1730. You can imagine the different world that it was there. He does not speak English. And in 1730, the same year, it's been 9, 10 months again of this torture he's living in. He then is thrown in jail and a passing intellectual British judge by the name of Thomas Blewett hears of this bizarre slave who seems to have an insolence and pride and a different demeanor.

The Story of Ayub ibn Sulaiman

They mentioned that he didn't act like the others because he's Muslim and he's coming from an upper class background. He's talking in a way and they can't understand his language. So this judge hears of this and for whatever reason, he's like, let me visit this guy. He visits our Ayub ibn Sulaiman and subhanAllah, one of the most beautiful stories. There's no language between the two of them. So what does Ayub ibn Sulaiman keep on saying? He says, الله محمد الله محمد الله محمد - Allah, Muhammad, Allah, Muhammad, Allah, Muhammad. That's all he can say. And Blewett understands that this is a Muhammadan. Of course, he's an upper class. He knows he's educated, right? So he understands this is not like the other slaves.

So he says to him, tries to get a language and he brings multiple slaves who spoke English to see if one of them could speak his language. Nobody could understand his language until finally a slave came from I think the Wolof tribe that our guy Ayub knew a little bit of Wolof as well, because as you know, everybody outside of America grows up multilingual, right? It's only us Americans, right? The average European speaks like five languages, right? You know, growing up in Lahore and Karachi, you speak three and a half languages. I mean, that's the way everybody speaks multiple languages. It's really just our country. So he spoke Wolof a little bit. So that slave could also speak that language. Then he explained his story. My father is the chieftain and I am a Muslim. And if you send me back, you will get your ransom. And I'm, you know, all of this. And he demonstrated his akhlaq, his demeanor, his intelligence.

And so our guy, the judge, Thomas Blewett, he decided to purchase him himself and take him back to England as an exhibit, as a demonstration. Right. So Blewett sends him back to the UK, sends him to the UK, right, sends him to England. And remember, America is a colony right now. It's not an independent country. So he wants to demonstrate that, oh, you know, there are intelligent slaves. There are slaves that can read and write. There are slaves that are able to speak languages, whatever. And so he sends him to England. And of course, he doesn't speak English yet. And so he starts to try to learn English. And he spends around a year, a year and a half in the UK. And in that time frame, it's not the UK, it's Britain right then. In that time frame, UK will come afterwards. I shouldn't call it the UK in 1730.

Religious Debates in Britain

In that time frame, a number of priests try to convert him to Christianity. So and there are chronicles when they try to tell him that, you know, Jesus is the son of God, this and that. Right. He refutes them that, you know, God cannot have a son. He recites Surah Ikhlas to them. So you have the first Christian Muslim debate taking place in 1730 by our guy over here. And he even met King George II as a novelty. He was brought to the royal court and he was showcased to King George II and the Queen as well. So subhanAllah, from being a slave within a few months, he is now treated like a VIP. Without a doubt, the power of dua. Without a doubt, this is the effects of dua.

And one of the royal earls of Britain, he said that I want you to stand in pose. I'm going to bring a painter to paint you. So he said, OK, but on one condition that I must wear my clothes. I don't want to be painted, you know, wearing your clothes. So they said, can't you just, you know, describe your clothes to the painter and he can draw it? The painter said, no, no. If he wants to do that, I need to see him wearing his actual clothes. I cannot imagine what your clothes are. Ayub ibn Sulaiman said, listen to this. If you cannot paint me wearing clothes that you haven't seen me wear, how come your churches are full of paintings of God that nobody has ever seen? This is our guy, Ayub ibn Sulaiman, right? You can't even paint me without the clothes and you have pictures of God and Jesus and nobody's ever seen them. How can you do that? Then you shouldn't be doing that. Right. So subhanAllah.

So he managed to somehow acquire the clothes and he insisted to get a copy of the Quran and he wore the Quran around his neck. And this is Exhibit A. This is exactly the image that was painted of our guy, Ayub ibn Sulaiman. That's the actual image. It's displayed in the British Museum. And because he spoke Arabic, he was actually hired by the British Museum to work a little bit on Islamic manuscripts, catalog them, whatnot, until eventually, you know, he managed to obtain what needed to be obtained and make his way back to the Gambia and be reunited with his family.

Unfortunately, his father had died in grief. Another sad story. One of his wives thought that he was gone forever. So she ended up marrying somebody else, right? So unfortunately, his family situation was not the same, but he did get back to the Gambia. And Alhamdulillah, within a few years, he resumed his life over there. Isn't that amazing? Like what an amazing story and what saved him? الله محمد الله محمد - Allah, Muhammad, Allah, Muhammad.

When I read the story for the first time, I couldn't help but imagine Bilal radiyallahu anhu. أَحَدٌ أَحَدٌ أَحَدٌ أَحَدٌ - Ahad, ahad, ahad, ahad, right? And Allah azza wa jal saved him. So this is one story of one such person.

The Muslim Plantation on Sapelo Island

Another story that I find very interesting. And by the way, there are many dozens of stories. I chose what I think are the three most useful and interesting. But with respect to all the others, I can only choose so much time is limited. And there's actually many PhDs done, many dissertations, many journal articles about specific people. And so if you want to, you can spend months reading about these types of things. There's a nice PhD done in the 80s, African Muslims in Antebellum America by Alan D. Austin. It is a nice thick book. It is the source book. It is considered to be one of the encyclopedic references, 400 pages. You can purchase that and see that as well.

So the second story I want you all to be aware of is very interesting. And that is the Muslim plantation outside of Georgia. So Atlanta, Georgia, you know, all Georgia, right? Georgia is, of course, a coastline. And there is an island called the Sapelo or the Sapelo Islands, the Sapelo Islands. And this island is you need to cross it. Well, now there is a small bridge, but before there was a ferry. It's not it's literally just a stone's throw away, but it's not connected to the mainland. So it is an island off the coast of Georgia.

And in the 1790s, a very wealthy man, Thomas Spalding, who eventually becomes a U.S. senator is very rich and he becomes a senator from Georgia. He decides to purchase Sapelo Island and make it into a plantation for cotton and for tobacco. So he's going to convert the whole island into a plantation. He's a rich man. This is his investment. That's what he does. He buys the island. And by the way, the island remained amongst his descendants for many generations, and then it was sold to somebody else. And now it is owned by the U.S. federal what is called the forest, the forestry department, whatever, because it is unique heritage, unique animals, unique botany. It's a different land and unique peoples. The peoples there are the descendants of the people I'm going to be talking about. They have a different language that is a Muslim language that has come down from West Africa. So it's really interesting. It's a unique culture there.

Thomas Spalding's Strategy

So what happened was our guy, Thomas Spalding, decided he's going to convert this into a plantation. And he was a very intelligent man. And he realized one group of slaves. Didn't get drunk. Didn't give as much problems. And actually, if they were given certain privileges, they did their job nicely. And these were the Muslim slaves. So he made it a point to try to find Muslim slaves. So that there's no drinking, there's no womanizing, there's like some type of akhlaq. And because he seems to be and it's weird to say this, but may Allah forgive me. I'm not trying to be maybe an open minded slave owner. It is that is that a problem to say? I mean, but you know, you get my point here. I mean, weird as it is, but he seems to be somebody who understood that these are human beings. And if I treat them nicely, they'll treat me nicely. He was that type of person.

And so when he got all of these Muslims, we don't know how many, but it seems to be between 50 to 80 Muslims. Now, this appears to be the highest concentration of Muslim slaves anywhere in America pre-modernity. And because it's slightly disconnected from the mainland and the owner is more open minded, we see one of the most fascinating developments of Islamic history in America. And that is the establishment of the first bona fide Muslim community.

Bilali Muhammad and Islamic Practices

Thomas Spalding wrote a diary. And in his diary, he records first discovering that one of the slaves was Mohammedan. Why? Because he would see him go to a tree and bow down, you know, and he would not drink alcohol and other things were there. And so he discovers this and then more and more. Then he makes it a point to try to get Muslim slaves. And one particular slave, whom he called Abu Allah, but his name is Bilali or Abdullah, or we don't we actually don't know his name. Bilali Mohammed is what we're assuming his name is. He actually made him effectively a manager. He would travel, he would go, and Bilali would be the manager.

And on that slave between 50 to 100 slaves or Muslims on that plantation, because so many Muslims were there, they began praying jama'a. They began fasting Ramadan and our guy Spalding records that they had a festival one day and they were giving some sweets made of barley and honey. This is a West African sweet that is used for Eid al-Fitr. And he records, he's seeing it from his house and he's seeing that something's happening. These guys are rejoicing. Eid al-Fitr is taking place and they're celebrating Eid al-Fitr. But we don't have records from them about the day to day. We have records from the master a little bit here and there.

The War of 1812

And in 1812, there was a war between Britain and America, every high school student know this is the War of 1812. And unbelievably, Thomas Spalding arms all of his slaves with weapons. And he says to them, we're going to fight. And Bilali Muhammad says to him, I will vouch every one of my men of the Muslims. We will not abandon our posts. We will fight loyally. Then he said, and this is recorded by Spalding. As for those dogs, he called them this of the pagans. That's what Bilali said. I cannot be responsible if they run away. You find here a fierce like my people. We will not abandon the post when the British come. We will fight and defend. But these people, I cannot vouch for them. The ones that worship other gods. And he called them a derogatory thing that I cannot. You cannot hold me liable if they run away. So Spalding records this in his diary that, you know, the Muslims promised to guard their posts here. And that's exactly what happened here.

The First Semi-Official Musalla

And therefore, one can state with somewhat definitive truth that in 1810, the first semi-official Musalla is established. Why do I say semi-official? Because they didn't build a masjid. It's an area in the field. They don't have an EPIC complex. It's just they're praying there. That's what they pray. That's what we do. Eid al-Fitr, that's what not. So we have maybe even Khutbah again. We're not we don't know the details from their side.

And the descendants of these people, the descendants up until the early part of the 20th century had a distinct language and culture and ethnicity and religious identity that was separate from mainland America. Harvard sent an ethnographic surveyor in the 1940s to Sapelo Islands. Unfortunately, it was 1940, so he didn't have video, but he has audio and he has photographs. Harvard sent an ethnographic person all across the country, different people.

The Descendants of Bilali Muhammad

One person was sent to Sapelo Islands to record the memories of the great grandchildren of Bilali Muhammad, the great grandchildren of Bilali Muhammad. And obviously they're in the hundreds now because it's been three generations. The memories that are written in 1940, you have an 85 year old man saying, I remember aunt, I forgot the name, Aunt Jemima, whatever it might be. She would say something really funny, like something like that. I said, well, I love it a lot. And she would always cover her hair. And she would bow down facing east, you know, three times a day or whatever it was in the 1940s. People have memories of their grandparents who are the descendants of Bilali. Preserving aspects of Islam, isn't that phenomenal? But obviously, eventually, when Islam cannot be preserved, when there's not going to be direct contact and whatnot. But what is preserved? Phenomenal. Do you know what is preserved? The Bilali manuscripts.

The First Fiqh Manual in America

Our guy, Bilali Muhammad, wrote what can be considered to be the first fiqh manual ever written in America. From memory. And the manual is there. This is the actual copy of it, and it is taken from Maliki textbooks. Now, obviously, when he was brought as a slave, they didn't give him time to pack his bags. He was captured walking on the shores. Next thing you know, he's in America. He has no Qur'an. He has no books. He has nothing. So from memory, he has to write down whatever he can to preserve his Islam amongst his people. And he kept this copy until he died in around 1845. So this is before the Civil War, guys. This is before the Civil War. This is before slavery is abolished. And he is teaching Islam. He's teaching Mutun. What? Matin his own. But, and there's many papers, many journal articles written about this.

Number of points here. Firstly, obviously, I mean, how can you blame him? There's some grammatical mistakes. There's he's writing this from memory. You know, he's like, there's some issues, what not. But there's a lot of overlap with a Maliki textbook called the Matin of Ibn Abi Zayd Al-Qayrawani, which is a famous Maliki Matin of Fiqh. There's a lot of overlap in the phrases. So he's trying to preserve the basics of Fiqh. Some basic Quran and teach it to his students. Sorry, his descendants and his students after him.

And here is another example from that manuscript. Look at how he has باب. You see باب. You see that باب in the middle. Now there's a spelling error. It's supposed to be بابٌ في الوضوء. But again, we don't blame him. How old was he when he was captured? We don't know. Maybe 17, 18. How old is he when he's writing? Maybe 40, 50. We don't know. Can you imagine for 20, 30 years you don't have a copy of the Quran? Can you imagine for 20, 30 years nobody speaking your language? Can you imagine? So obviously, there's not going to be, you know, we don't blame him at all.

So it's supposed to be بابٌ في الوضوء. And if you go over it, I tried to spend some time deciphering what he wrote here. Obviously, it's not easy and I'm not certain I have everything. But basically he has that. You begin by saying Bismillah. If you go to the fourth line, it says Bismillah, the fifth line. Bismillah. One, two, three. At the end of the fourth line, you say Bism. At the beginning of the fifth, you say Bismillah. And then he says, يغسل يديه washing his hands from the right and then the left. So he literally is teaching how to do Wudu' to his children in Arabic. And this book is still preserved in the state library and multiple, you know, articles have, you know, translated portions. And as far as I'm aware, nobody has translated the full thing cover to cover. But multiple articles have done this here. And again, there's some mistakes in Picky Hurdle Ideas, which we don't at all fault him for. I mean, subhanAllah, you try writing a book of fiqh from memory after 30 years of slavery. I mean, it's like no big deal if it's a things here or there. But this is literally بابٌ في الوضوء literally the chapter on Wudu'. This is written in Georgia. In 1810, 1820, like 200 years ago, this is written. We have this to this day.

The Scholar Slave: Umar Ibn Sa'id

And the final story that we're going to do is the most well documented story of a Muslim slave and an entire PBS documentary and drama has been done. And that is somebody that I call Sheikh. But obviously he is known as Umar Ibn Sa'id and he's called, I call him Sheikh because he actually went through clerical training. He studied Islamic texts and law, memorized the Quran. He was from the tribe of Senegal from the Fula tribe of Senegal. And in his youth, clearly he was trained as a scholar captured in 1807. Again, more than 200 years ago.

And today somebody in Congress said Islam has no place in America. No, you have no place in America. Muslims have been here before there was an America. And we need to say this loudly and clearly. Anybody who says otherwise doesn't know their own history. 1807. Here is a scholar captured against his will and went through many cruel slave owners until his last owner, Mr. James Owen. And Owen recognizes that Umar Ibn Sa'id is an intelligent man who can read and write, who can do mathematics. So he puts him in charge of, you know, accounting, gives him some perks and privileges. And he realizes that Umar Ibn Sa'id is a religious person. Once again, he notices he's praying and he's fasting. He was given alcohol. He refused to take alcohol. All the other slaves would love to drink because it numbs them. He would refuse to drink.

By the way, can you imagine being the lone Muslim, right? Praying in a land that you don't even know there's another Muslim. You know, because, you know, he was not in Sapelo Islands. He's far away. He has no contact with any other Muslim. As far as we know, he never met any other Muslim in his lifetime. And you know what his request was? When Mr. Owen said to him, what do you want? You know what he said? I want a copy of the Qur'an. SubhanAllah. SubhanAllah. What? Iman. What do you want? I want a copy of the Qur'an. That was his request. So Mr. Owens found some translation and, you know, gave it to him. He taught him English and he taught him, you know, how to read and write. And so English, obviously, he knew how to read and write. And so he got a copy of the Qur'an in English.

Seventy Years as a Scholar-Slave

Many, so Omar Ibn Said lived a very long life. Maybe he died around 95 years old. So 70 years, he's a slave in America. Seventy years. He came as a young man. And constantly preachers wanted to convert him. It is said that's what they say, that eventually he converted. Modern historians who read about him are fairly certain that he just said to them that he converted. But every indication is that he didn't actually convert. And to be honest, a Muslim will never accept that Allah has a son. It's just not going to happen. But for whatever purpose, he basically said, now, how do we know this? I'll explain to you how we know this.

Omar Ibn Said is the most well-documented slave because he wrote more than almost 20. Books and treatises with his own hand, this is his handwriting. Read it. The life of Omar Ibn Said called Moro. I am called Moro. The life of Omar Ibn Said, a Fulani slave in Fayyazville, North Carolina, owned by Governor Owen or Master Owen. Can you read that up there? That is his handwriting. That's literally his handwriting. The life of Omar Ibn Said called Moro, a Fulani slave in Fayyazville. In Fayyazville, North Carolina. Then he says written by himself in the year 1831. It's not on there. It's 1831 is on top. Can you see that up there? A bit small, I guess. OK, well, it's on there. You can I can send this. I can send this some PDF afterwards and later on in life.

His master offered him to go back to his land after 70 years of being in America, 60, 70 years, and he actually refused and he said, I am now married. All of my kids are here. None of my family, I don't know if they're even alive, whatnot. I don't want to go at this age. So he actually then remained here and did not go back to his land.

The Proof of His Faith

Now, how do we know he was still a Muslim? One of the missionaries said to him, I want you to translate the Lord's Prayer in Arabic for me. So he said, sure, sure, sure, I'll do that. And he wrote in Arabic, handed it back to him. And that missionary for the rest of his life would say, I have the Lord's Prayer in Arabic. Turns out it's Surah Fatiha. Surah Fatiha written in Arabic. OK, and in one of his treatises, his autobiographies, he has a phrase that seems to make an excuse to later people like us. And he says, I asked the reader to forgive any mistakes that they think they might have found because I have been away from my people for a long time and I haven't written Arabic for many decades. He literally this is so he's writing in Arabic. And again, for a Fulani to be able to write fluent Arabic. This is not your regular Fulani. This is a person trained to be a scholar.

So his treatises were written in fluent English and in fluent Arabic. And we have those treatises to this day. And the most important one, this one here, the life of Omar Ibn Said, and he describes his autobiography, a Muslim slave writing in 1831. He lived until 1860 something. But in 1831, he's writing his autobiography, talking about how he got here, talking about the cruelty of his earlier masters, thanking his last master, Mr. Owen, for allowing him to be a Muslim, giving him a copy of the Quran, allowing him to be whatnot.

The Final Testimony

And one of the most important things and this is the final slide. So that's the final slide here. One of the most important things he concludes his autobiography with this Arabic. And I hope you can see it. Can you see it? OK, I'm going to read it. Follow me.

You guys following? He wrote this in North Carolina two hundred years ago. He wrote from memory what he could of the Quran. And people thought he was a Christian. Do you see why we now understand you had to get by? May Allah forgive him. It's a different world. All the pressure. We cannot understand it, but he's writing. This in his autobiography, and there's no indication that he actually converted and it's just like he told the preachers or whatever, and there is statements, I believe in Jesus. Yeah, I can say that. I believe in Jesus, too.

So in all likelihood, he's just telling them what needs to be said to get him off his back. And, you know, he lived and died, inshallah, upon Islam and Tawheed. And this original this is the actual copy here. It is it is preserved in the Library of Congress. It is preserved in the Library of Congress, written from his memory as a Fulani slave in North Carolina.

The Legacy of Islamic America

We can go on and on and on. But to summarize, my dear brothers and sisters, Islam has been in this country before this country became an independent country and Muslims have practiced, prayed, written copies of the Quran, written manuals of fiqh, taught manuals of fiqh, had Salat al-Jumu'ah, had Eid al-Fitr, celebrated Eid al-Fitr on this land centuries before. And we have been a part of this land since the beginning.

And it was only because of the brutality of slavery that the descendants of these people were not able to maintain their Islamic identity, but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allowed a resurgence in their descendants via these movements that came. And now America is unique in the whole Western world that 20 to 30 percent of the Muslims are actually converts from the descendants of these very slaves. That is something unique. No other Western country has it.

80 percent or 70 percent are people like us. And 20, 30 percent are converts of our African-American brethren who are basically the descendants of these very people. SubhanAllah, how Allah preserved the deen in some level. May Allah grant us the عزة (izzah) and allow us to have the same faith and iman as these slaves had. May Allah put barakah in our du'as as he made barakah in the du'as of Ayub Ibn Suleiman. May Allah always protect Islam and the Ummah and allow us to be of service to the Ummah. وجزاكم الله خيرا (Wa jazakumullahu khairan). السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته (As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu).