Islamic History: My Passion
“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without its roots.”
Marcus Garvey
My upbringing
As a youngster going to school in Barbados, I always had a yearning to know more about Islam and alhumdulillah (All praises and thanks due to Allah) for being able to directly access a wealth of Islamic knowledge in the shape of my father, an Islamic scholar and graduate of the first Islamic seminary in the UK: Darul Uloom Bury.
Whilst at school, history was one of my favourite subjects and growing up in Barbados meant that our focus was Caribbean history and particularly the Transatlantic Slave Trade. There were occasions where we stepped outside this topic like touching on the people living in the Caribbean prior to the slave trade (the Amerindians) as well as very briefly looking at some West African history (the vast majority of those made slaves in the Transatlantic Slave Trade were from this region).
When we touched on West Africa, there was a very (and I mean very) brief mentioning of Islam in West Africa and till this day I recall the exact classroom I was in, the day itself and the three empires mentioned: The Ghana, Mali and Songhai Empires.
From this, I even personally thought that even though touching on the slave trade was important, we should have looked at Africa and particularly West Africa a little more because of the fact that (1) The vast majority of black Caribbean people are the descendants of those made slaves from West Africa, and (2) the impact of slavery on the(se) descendants of West Africans is unlike any other. Their entire languages, cultures, religions and lineages were destroyed without any trace whatsoever.
Islamic history as an idea
This left a mark on me and this was the first real moment that Islamic history as an idea stood out to me because even though I had studied the Seerah of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ at a brief level (both alone and with my father), anything past our beloved Prophet’s ﷺ time I knew nothing about, and even being of Indian Gujarati descent I knew next to nothing about Islam in India/the Indian subcontinent.
P.S. Here’s a “fun fact”, I only very recently learnt that the great Mughal sultan Aurangzeb Alamgir was born in the same state of Gujarat that my grandparents on both sides come from. This fact in of itself was mind blowing but what was of more a note was how I had to learn this on my own and how many others like myself probably have no idea of this.
The reasons for this are obviously multi-faceted and is a separate blog post in of itself.
Regardless, I think this really says something Subhan’Allah (All glory be to Allah); that a Muslim kid born in West Yorkshire, UK and of Indian Gujarati descent was given his “first moment” of wider Islamic history by learning about Islam in Africa on a sunny day in a classroom in the Caribbean island of Barbados.
Later on, this idea of Islamic history developed into a passion and this was furthered directly as a result of coming across the social media pages run by historian and author Firas Alkhateeb: Lost Islamic History.
Firas Alkhateeb - Author & Historian
This page shaped me a lot, increased my zeal for and knowledge of Islamic history and thereby led to me buying my first book on Islamic history: The first edition of Firas Alkhateeb’s book: “Lost Islamic History: Reclaiming Muslim Civilisation From The Past.”
If you'd like to know a bit more about me and why I blog, click here.
Lack of knowledge of Islamic history
The ignorance that surrounds our beautiful Deen of Islam is immense and intense and this is furthered by the actions of those who claim to represent our Deen in its most orthodox form.
Hence as a result it is imperative that Muslims are aware of their history; both that of their ancestors as well as wider Islamic history.
The problems that arise from the lack of knowledge of Islam and Muslim history are even more compounded when Muslims themselves are ignorant because this not only leads to the development of inferiority complexes amongst Muslims but even for some to leave the Deen altogether.
The more knowledge of Islamic history, of which is such an extremely diverse variety of ethnicities and racial backgrounds of those who have contributed to the Deen, would also effectively and significantly assist in tackling racism and anti-blackness within our Muslim communities.
Knowledge of Islamic history hence has to be disseminated, especially by the learned in our communities, not only to the Muslim communities around the world but towards non Muslims as well so as to tackle misinformation about Islam and Islamic history and invite them to our beautiful way of life.
May Allah accept all of our little efforts. Aameen.
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