Yes, I Am Your Brother

Except for the Prophet Muhammad (PHUH), few prophets had the whole spectrum of their lives explained with the level of that Joseph’s (PBUH) story was told in both the Bible and the Qur’an. On a basic level it is simply the story of a young boy, who because of the jealousy of his brothers, is sold into slavery, but because of his faith and righteousness rises into power in a foreign land. But we should also see the story in a social context, as a story of any enslaved people and in the interactions of any individual psyche. In both contexts, no people fit the profile of the rejected, enslaved, restricted, and confined as clearly as African Americans. Our enslavement involved our European, Christian, and Muslim brothers (historians now acknowledged that a significant number of these slaves were Muslim) and now we find ourselves in this industrial giant America (a modern Egypt). The subsequent discrimination and Jim Crow laws represented continued confinement and restricted opportunity, so for most of our time in this country, we have been servants in the house of the master. Almighty G-d, Allah says in the Qur'an: 28:5 “And We wished to be gracious to those who were being depressed in the land, to make them leaders (in Faith) and make them heirs.” It is because of this oppression and darkness of ignorance that we have been favored with the bright light of truth from G-d that can light the whole world. The language of popular culture and protest has long described life here in America as “the belly of the beast,” Egypt and modern “Babylon,” while a succession of leaders issued a clarion call for us to free ourselves. Marcus Garvey was known as the black Moses, appealing to a great number of blacks in America. Malcolm X also called Elijah Muhammad our black Moses and called the United States and the white man in America the pharaoh. W. D. Fard, who fashioned the theology and the strategy known as the Nation of Islam, and gave it to Elijah Muhammad, though not African American himself, identified blacks as the lost tribe of Shabazz (Sheba). Fard borrowed philosophies and strategies from many of the African American patriots before him, and humbly acknowledged: “I can stand on the top of the earth and proclaim that the most beautiful nation is here in the wilderness of North America.” Building upon Fard's plan, Elijah Muhammad popularized Islamic terminology and inspired a whole nation of black people with exhortations of self- help and racial superiority. Imam Mohammed (RAA) advanced the languages of Islam and common humanity while creating an environment that ultimately lead to the election of the first African American president, Barack Hussein Obama. Among all of these leaders, there was recognition of a stronger and more intractable bondage, indeed a self- imposed confinement, beyond the chains of chattel slavery. Cultural icon Bob Marley echoed this theme in the language of his music and lifestyle. In Redemption Song, he sang: “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our mind.”