Is THEM Guilty of Shirk? - Dr. Wesley Muhammad

A number of comments are warranted here. First, it was not my ―contention that the prophet predicted
(in this hadith) a white takeover and corruption of Al-Islam.‖ The white takeover – yes. The white
corruption – no. While historically the white ‗corruption‘ did indeed follow the ‗white takeover‘, I was
careful to only claim for this hadith that the Prophet pointed out ―the Black Arab/White convert
dichotomy.‖ Secondly, the Black Sheep/White Sheep metaphor is undoubtedly a racial reference, Bro
Imam Salim‘s purely speculative theological interpretation notwithstanding. Now, I don‘t deny Imam
Salim or yourself the right to interpret this hadith how you will, nor do I suggest that your interpretations
must be wrong and mine must be right. Nor is Bro Mubaashir‘s suggestion of the relevance of the 7 th
century agrarian context of the metaphor denied here. I am, however, suggesting that the difference in
our methods of interpretation is also germane here. While Imam Salim chooses to interpret this
‗black/white sheep‘ metaphor in accord with certain theological/symbolist presuppositions that he holds,
I choose to interpret it in the light of the known history of the Umma, and therefore suggest that Prophet
Muhammad was being, well…prophetic.
It is an historical fact that the original Umma was mainly Arab, and that these Arabs were black. It is also
the case that whites, particularly Persians, Byzantines, and Turks, entered the religion in large numbers
beginning in the 8 th-9 th century, and these whites, after ‗converting‘ to Arabism (i.e. adopting the
language, dress, and religion of the black Arabs), indeed ‗squeezed out‘ the original black Arabs and
became the main shapers of Islamic intellectual, theological and political tradition. I document these facts
in my books, ‗Black Arabia and the African Origin of Islam‘ and ‗God‘s Black Prophets: Deconstructing
the Myth of the White Muhammad of Arabia and Jesus of Jerusalem.‘ It is also an historical fact that the
Islam of the black Arabs was very different from the Islam of the ‗new Arabs‘, the white converts to Islam
and Arabism. Lastly, it is also an historical fact that the incorporeal and invisible god of Bro Mubaashir
and the rest of the modern Muslim world was introduced into Islam NOT by the Holy Prophet
Muhammad or the Black Arabs of the original Umma, but by white, specifically Persian converts to the
religion. I document this in my book, ―Take Another Look‖.
That the ‗black sheep‘ metaphor used of the original Arab Ummah is a reference to the blackness of these
original Arabs is confirmed by numerous reports. A good indicator of this is the example of Muhammad
b. Abd Allah (d. 762), known also as al-Nafs al-Zakiyya (―The Pure Soul‖). He was a pure Qurayshi Arab
and pure descendent of the Prophet himself through the latter‘s daughter Fatimah, wife of Ali b. Abi
Talib. He boasted of being ―at the very center of the Banu Hashim‘s lines. My paternity is purest among
them, undiluted with non-Arab blood, and no concubines dispute over me.‖ What did this pure Arab
descendent of the Prophet look like? Al-Dhahabi describes him as ―black-skinned and huge‖ (Al-„Ibar,
4:198) and al-Tabari (Ta‟rikh 10:203) reports:
―Muhammad (Al-Nafs al-Zakiyya) was black, exceedingly black, jet black (adam shadid al-udma
adlam) and huge. He was nicknamed ‗Tar Face‘ (al-qari) because of his black complexion
(udmatihi), such that (the Abbasid caliph) Abu Ja‘far used to call him ‗Charcoal Face‘ (almuhammam).‖
Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya, a Qurayshi Arab whose pure lineage on both his father‘s and his
mother‘s side put him ―at the center‖ of the genealogical lines of the Banu Hashim, the Prophet‘s kinsfolk,
was so black he was called ‗Tar face‘ and ‗Charcoal face‘. He best represents those ‗black sheep‘ to whom
the message of Islam first came and who disappeared from view once non-Arab groups converted in large
numbers. Hear also the words of the ninth century poet Abu al-Hasan Ali b. al-Abbas b. Jurayj, also
known as Ibn al-Rumi (d. 896). Ibn al-Rumi was not an Arab. His mother was a Persian and his father
was Byzantine (some say half-Greek). Yet, in his poetry he presented himself as an advocate of the (now)
ill-treated black Arabs, in particular the black family of Prophet Muhammad. Ibn al-Rumi was a Shiite
60