Martyrs in Islam: American Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement in America: An Islamic Perspective on Martyrdom

By A.H. Kafel

Jan. 15, 2024

It is certain that for each human being granted an opportunity of worldly life, he will also meet his death. Man can meet his end by a number of outcomes, so many that to enumerate them would be a task not worth our time (we might, to mention a few general categories, refer to old age, accidents, natural disasters/illness, unjust acts, and a noble fifth, the topic of this talk). And yet, of the various preappointed ends that are prepared for each of His creation, there is one that has been worth mentioning from time immemorial and will merit mention till the Day of Judgement and beyond – martyrdom. 

To be martyred, to become a ‘shahid’, is to die for a cause in the way of God, knowing in full the risk to himself but having full faith in both the value of upholding justice and righteous acts and God’s promise of the Hereafter. This particular talk does not concern the many martyrs who have been unjustly killed and continue to be martyred at the time of this talk, while in the defense of their homes, families and lands, although we praise and honor their acts and status as martyrs in the way of God. And we hope by this discussion, that both our fellow Muslims, but more importantly our fellow human beings, especially (as per the topic) our American ones, will see that a life of martyrdom for a good, godly cause is an honorable, selfless act, beneficent to humanity, and is afforded all the virtues of the Quran and islam, even if that act is not directly attached to capital ‘I’, institutionalized, Islam.

Therefore, the purpose of this discussion is to urge you to consider that the masses of righteous and striving individuals who were undoubtedly martyred in the struggle for freedom and civil rights in the United States of America (often termed in the academia the Abolition movement and Civil Rights movement) were martyred in the way of God.  Our assertion is that there is no righteous and godly act and certainly no martyrdom that occurs without God (since martyrdom would equal death, and thus, a human’s appointed time). There need not be a consideration of mere names or titles. Indeed, all good in religion is God’s religion, all praise belongs to Allah. God, Allah, is the overseer of all such matters, inside or outside of the human institutionalized and structured religion of ‘Islam’. It is not by coincidence that a cause as righteous and significant as the centuries of struggle against the severe oppression of black people in America garnered as many martyrs as it did. So too is the adverse  and honorable history of the oppressed people of the world, today and throughout humanity’s past.

The Quran is filled with mentions  of the rewards and meaning behind martyrdom and its connection to God. It also has stories of martyrs throughout time, including, of prophets of God but also ordinary people, across all levels of faith and religiosity. One cannot help but be moved by the deep emotion these verses invoke but also inspired by the certain feeling of a heavenly light, nur of the Hereafter. It is no coincidence, just as when you find martyrs of the American civil rights and freedom struggle, you find similar emotion and godly light in their stories. 

One of the most inspirational such parables of martyrdom in the Quran is the story of the man in Surah Ya Seen. It tells us that God sent three messengers to the people of this community. In other words, there had been more than enough signs sent to this community to desist from their bad deeds. Despite the clearness of the message and the plethora of signs provided to them, they chose to stone the messengers to death. What is remarkable is that the martyrdom of these unnamed messengers did affect others to hasten to the cause of God. The Quran narrates that a man from a nearby place, just a simple man, “rajul”, comes running and says to the people “follow the messengers”. It is clear that what they bring you is righteous and true. He turns to himself, “if I don’t follow what I know in myself to be true then what claim do I have before God?”. After he makes his plea to the people of the community he likely killed. Because the Quran says, “thereafter, it was said to him ‘enter Paradise’”. Remarkably, and I think this highlights the selfless nature of a martyr, he is still concerned about his people, replying “if only my people would have known how my Lord has forgiven me and placed me among the honored ones!”The story of William Lewis Moore, a man gunned down while delivering a godly message, contains similarities to that of the man who ran to his people urging them towards Allah.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s database of Civil Rights Martyrs, William Lewis Moore “was known for standing up for his beliefs, even when he stood alone, as he usually did”.  He was adamant that he would oppose segregation, as such he took a stand against injustice, facing prison for his courage. As the Quran hints, it is a fearful task to stand up against others who are doing wrong. Most of the time, it is easier to put one’s head down and ignore the suffering of a fellow man. It would have been easier for this man, a white man and mail carrier with nothing much to lose if he had just ignored the oppression of those not like him. But there is something that drives man to do things that defy the worldview of cynical materialists and social darwinists and points to the existence of something greater than any one individual. God truly is greater than anything which can be compared to Him!

William Lewis Moore felt compelled that he would deliver a letter to the Governor of Mississippi, a skill natural to his trade as a postal carrier, urging his fellow people to tolerate one another and the Governor to support integration. And does the Quran not say, “we created you in groups so that you may get to know one another and become more conscious of Allah”.

Further, just as the Quran recounted that the man was running to his people to urge them towards good, Moore too decided he would walk his message from Alabama to Jackson, Mississippi. Unjustly, like the man from the Quran, he was killed for his deeds, shot while resting on the side of the road by .22 caliber rifle fire. I wonder what his reaction was when he was told to enter Paradise?

It would be worth studying the many martyrs of God across various contexts outside of the traditional Islamic topics given much (rightly so) consideration. People like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Medgar Evers similarly gave their lives, knowingly crusading in the face of danger against injustice and oppression, should be examined and honored with the status of martyrs of Allah as well as the countless men, women, children, from all ethnicities, life paths and birthrights  that have given their lives for a cause in the way of God and the betterment of humanity. In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Dr. King makes clear his godly imperative, “Just as the eighth-century prophets left their little villages and carried their ‘thus saith the Lord’ far beyond the boundaries of their hometowns… I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular hometown.”  “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly”. Dr. King’s message is inseparable from the one his fellow martyr Dr. Ali Shariati implied when he spoke the eternal phrase, “everyday is ashura, every land is Karbala” and invoked the eternal sacrifice of our Imam (عليه سلام). Dr. King and Dr. Shariati understood the essence of the Quran’s pronouncement that one life, to kill or save it, is to kill or save all of humanity. To stand for the rights of all oppressed and marginalized peoples is to stand for the rights of all of humanity. If everyday is ashura, it is lucky that we are blessed with those who unquestioningly put themselves last when in service of a cause in the way of God. 

In closing, when one’s belief in God and comprehension of tauhid (the oneness and unity of God) goes deeper than the surface, one becomes immersed in signs around them, and they, with ease, find Allah’s divine will and mercy behind every godly act. Those like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the other martyrs of that movement had been undoubtedly immersed in godliness by some experience of the divine. In his last speech before a public audience, Dr. King, like martyrs and godly individuals before and after him, makes clear that he does not fear death since he has felt the presence of the Lord and with him is God’s cause. He proclaimed, less than a day before being martyred, “I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord”. When Dr. King was told to enter the Paradise, with no fear or worries upon him, I wonder what was his reply? There is no question, the blood of the martyrs for the cause of freedom and the defeat of injustice in America is the blood of martyrs in islam. Surely, all martyrs in the way of their Lord will have their share of the light and the reward of Allah, that is His promise.

See attached PDF for footnotes/references. Thanks for reading.

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A podcast for Islamic discourse by non-scholars for non-scholars looking for an earnest and rational discussion of faith

Search for ‘Islam Reexamined” wherever you get your podcast. (Confirmed on Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Spotify; still pending with Apple Podcasts).

Shaykh Arif Abdul Hussain founder and great thinker of Al-Mahdi Hawza

The Shaykh is the founder of al-Mahdi Hawza in Birmingham, UK whose stated goal is “bridging the gap between traditional Islamic seminaries and modern academia”. He is one of the great inspirations for this Journal whose goal is similarly to see a broader Islamic discourse among everyday practitioners of faith.

He himself is a prolific writer, speaker and one of the greatest Islamic thinkers of our time. I implore you to check out some of his speeches and publications.

http://www.shaykharif.com/_blog?categoryId=41051

Link to Shaykh Arif’s website

https://www.facebook.com/Almahdi.institute?mibextid=LQQJ4d

Link to Al-Mahdi Hawza Facebook page.

1.4 Islam and Mental Health: the hidden Quranic miracle of inner voice

By Ali Kafel

A Troublesome Presupposition

Often, in traditional Islamic scholarship, mental health is an area that receives little to no attention. Scholars, such as the widely followed Sayed Ammar Nakshawani, in addressing this area of great consequence to lives of all human beings, have made such general claims so as to suggest that if one merely has Islam, or the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) or his ahl al bayt (peace be upon them) in their lives, then the struggles of depression, anxiety, stress and the like are struggles that those individuals would need not grapple with too intimately.

The ordinary Muslim, however, knows this line of reasoning to be flawed. God is clear in his book of Wisdom that humans will be tested. 

وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمْ بِشَيْءٍ مِنَ الْخَوْفِ وَالْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍ مِنَ الْأَمْوَالِ وَالْأَنْفُسِ وَالثَّمَرَاتِ ۗ وَبَشِّرِ الصَّابِرِينَ

  We will surely test you with a measure of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth, lives, and fruits; and give good news to the patient | 2 : 155

If then, we are to be tested, including those who display great sabr, that is, patient endurance accompanied by a purposeful remembrance of God and one of the essential elements of being in a state of Islam, then of course even Muslims, and the best of Muslims at that, will face these harrowing aspects of life that bring stress, anxiety, and other mental discomforts. 

To merely write off this piece of the human condition in order to present a neat, almost sanitized version of Islam feels insincere. Our religion, I would argue, is not a medicine to be taken by means of prescription, alleviating or preventing symptoms of bad with age-old remedies. No, Islam is much more than that. It’s a way of life all-encompassing, universal, and as if unknowable yet fully comprehensible akin to God himself. This way of life is a mercy from Allah and its purpose is to guide the human as they strive to achieve perfect submission to Him in this worldly life. Mental health is undoubtedly a part of that jihad of the self.

Yet time and again, this area is ignored in the study of Islam. But God is all-knowing and the most Merciful and Beneficent to his creation. And in the Quran, God has again blessed humanity with advice in every area for every time period in only one hundred and fourteen verses. Those who have been made aware of the utter miracle of the Quran wouldn’t be surprised to discover that there are layers and layers of hidden gifts and meaning in virtually every ayah. If we cast aside the troubled presupposition that mental health struggles are the product of irreligious existences and rather accept that the ongoing struggle of mental health is part of God’s test, then one of the most seemingly obvious (but to this author only recently realized) gifts is the gift of the Quran’s impact on the human phenomenon of inner voice. The concurrence of Quranic revelations and modern neuroscience and psychology are remarkable and undoubtedly no mistake. This is the focus of the remainder of this article.

Inner Voice and the Quran

When people reflect on their past, present and future, they report that these internal reflections often have a verbal element to them. It is not that people talk to themselves in a way that might make you think they are in a state of delirium. Rather, the brain is a magnificent operator that is constantly firing neurons. To make sense of these rapid and unending signals, the brain uses the language it is familiar with to present a kind of internal verbal stream. Even those who communicate with sign language have often reported thinking in a form of signs as well. Even as you are reading this article, you are probably “listening” to some internal voice or dialogue that makes sense of the text on the page.

Inner voice has been proven to be truly remarkable. It can lead to people excelling in all areas of life. It can provide confidence, guidance, reassurance, and careful reason in times of need. But it can also break a person. World-class athletes have experienced mental breaks that cause them to be unable to perform at the levels that once brought them athletic prominence and glory. Absent a physical injury or any other physical manifestations, these individuals and others in stressful positions like them such as high-level executives, police officers, and soldiers have all experienced epic downfalls for similar reasons. They succumb to a negative stream of inner talk that then leads to crises of confidence, of ability, and of mental health.

When one begins to learn basic Arabic, the rules of tajweed, and to begin reading the Quran regularly, they will notice a subtle yet life-altering difference in their daily routines. The simple, yet elevated prose of God, packed with meaning and wisdom in nearly every syllable, yet to be understood even by centuries of effort, makes its way incessantly into their verbal streams. One’s inner voice, without the slightest effort or intention, becomes inundated with the literal words of their Creator. Likely, you have come across verses such as:

“ إِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا | Surely with hardship comes ease. | 96 : 6”

الَّذِينَ إِذَا أَصَابَتْهُمْ مُصِيبَةٌ قَالُوا إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ | —Those who, when an affliction visits them, say, ‘Indeed we belong to Allah and to Him do we indeed return.  | 2 : 156

These verses and many others like them have provided Muslims in the time of the prophet as well as today an immeasurable amount of comfort and reassurance. What remains to be studied in depth is how these and other verses might affect the human brain when recalled. Anecdotal evidence would suggest that the Quran could prove incredibly useful for alleviating the negative cognitive processes such as excessive rumination, worrying, anxious thoughts, and the many mental and physical stressors that then result. The Quran naturally, while populating one’s inner voice, makes people engage in many of the strategies that modern psychology recommends for replacing negative verbal streams with more positive and thus beneficial ones. It promotes thinking from an outside or shifted perspective, forces people to consider the “big” picture of life and the afterlife, and allows people to distance themselves from the hardships and afflictions of their circumstances in beautiful remembrance of God. All of these natural results of reading, reciting or reflecting on the Quran correspond with modern and scientifically proven practices for reducing negative thoughts. The benefits of reducing negative mental processes have been well documented by the scientific community, and similarly some of the obvious benefits of the Quran have been well enumerated and expounded on. It is beyond due, that Muslims make an effort to connect the two ideas for a wider community.

Without a doubt, there are more concurrences between the discoveries of cognitive therapists/psychologists and Quranic advice and practical implementations, as well as more work that needs to be done by scientists to empirically study the effects of the Quran on mental health and inner voice than this author has the knowledge, experience or wherewithal to discover. This will not happen however, until by and large, the Muslim community rejects arguments that marginalize or ignore mental health, and instead unlock the knowledge and tools that have already been revealed to humankind. It is up to Muslims to bring this line of discovering and reasoning to each other and to all of mankind. The process for doing this could start with you. In fact, there is no reason why it shouldn’t. 

لَا حَوْلَ وَلَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِٱللَّٰهِ ٱلْعَلِيِّ ٱلْعَظِيمِ

From Earth to the Cosmos: Navigating the Frontiers of Science While Exploring the Universality of Islam

Reposted from blogger Radical Centrist https://suleimanshub.wordpress.com

Remarkable! The meteoric rise of human civilisation in a few short decades is truly awe-inspiring. Consider the brief 66-year span from the inception…

From Earth to the Cosmos: Navigating the Frontiers of Science While Exploring the Universality of Islam

1.3 Islam for the Individual: finding God within

By A. Kafel

To suggest any person can definitively understand God’s intent more than any other human being has the potential or ability to do so is both rhetorically and in praxis a subjugation of God’s divine wisdom and authority. To make this assertion by either means is in contradiction to God’s description of the human’s relationship to Him. It is to suggest that the human intellect could reach the levels of the divine, and maybe more troubling, that God would grant such wisdom to any one individual over another. To accept that a human being (excluding the prophets) could occupy such a position in religion, sometimes by consideration of their supposed godliness or religiosity, as well as their time spent studying and under whom they’ve studied, has been too widely accepted across the Islamic world. Worse, there are those who use this foregone conclusion, solidified over centuries, as a tool to replace their will with the will of God, wielding what was once a tool to build towards progress into a weapon of oppression.

Granted, most (certainly not all) Islamic scholars acknowledge their humanness and limitations in the face of God. But this dire condition cannot be ascribed to any one individual. As previously stated, this is a process that has been underway for centuries. Likely, this process had its beginning immediately after the death of the Holy prophet of Islam (may peace be upon him and his family).

To think that God positioned any one human to have better access to him, when he has revealed, to all of mankind, his signs, which exist in every piece of the universe and also resides within every human being. Even without the Quran, a blessing indeed bestowed upon Arabs and then Muslims of every time-period and location, one can still find God. By and large, Muslims must discard the notion that they must follow a particular individual or set of individuals to know God more fully. The fact is that this approach holds a vital fallacy and thus might cloud one’s search for Truth.

God makes clear that through careful reflection over his signs, the greatest but not entirety of which is his holy Quran, all humans can reach him. He has granted humans a path to him, an access that is so merciful that he remains closer to each person than their own jugular vein. Why then do we as Muslims still look incessantly to places beyond His signs? Instead they look to supreme scholars, hadiths, communal cultural practices and tradition. That’s not to say there isn’t a place for these things, surely each of these items could offer much benefit to the seeker of God. However, it must be remember that each of these offer only pieces of perspective, each the product of imperfect human creation. The crux of one’s religious development and journey towards God should be comprised mainly of the observation of and reflection over the signs He blesses us with.

When individuals are encouraged to adhere to the status quo and the interpretation of Islam and the Quran that their forefathers and their forefathers before them have also adhered to is antithetical to Islam. How many prophets and their righteous followers have been remembered by God in his Quran for their bravery and foresight in disavowing the questionable ways of their forefathers? God did not create a religion that is exclusive to a set few who are fortunate enough to have the right linguistic and cultural background to understand the narrowly defined Islam of modern practice. He is Al Rahman Al Raheem and all of his creation can find Him but that begins by looking in the right places, within and beyond.

I wish to see a wave of independent Islamic thinkers. Fearless producers of real world practices and solutions deduced by way of an inner voice and outer dialogue free from the chains of tradition and the prescription of scholars of the old way but rather informed by God’s Quran and his other signs.

1.2 Could the entanglement of government and religion be a threat to Islam?

By Ali Hussein Kafel

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) achieved much in his life time. He expanded religious freedoms, including improvements to the rights of women, order, justice, peace, and unity to the Arabian peninsula. Those who have studied his life on this earth, Muslim or not, know that he was nothing short of a blessing to mankind.

Alongside being a leader in religion and morality, the Prophet was also a business leader and a head of government. But it is worth considering that the Prophet (pbuhf) was infallible. He could effortlessly apply God’s will as it was revealed in the Quran to all parts of life. From God’s will comes justice, equity, charity, and many gifts he has bestowed on humankind in this life.

But as we have seen with Christians, Jews, and yes, Muslims, Shi’i and Sunni alike, the rest of us are far from infallible. Leaders across the globe exploit these religions in their roles as political leaders many times in an effort to abrogate God’s will as sent down by his messengers. Even the followers of the Ahl al Bayt are not immune to the corruption of religion by leaders who claim guidance by Allah and the Imams as they sometimes dishonor the Holy Prophet, and his progeny. The human weakness towards, greed, hatred, power and a tendency towards realpolitik means aside from the infallible, no one who seeks to bring humanity closer to Allah should ever assume a role as head of government. Especially not as an autocrat or a tyrant.

To take an example from history, we saw that those who took the sole mantle of political and religious leader after the Holy Prophet began to warp the perfected religion which God had delivered to humanity for a final time. Imam Hassan knew this to be true. He abdicated his rightful claim to head of the community. He never once gave up his role as head of the religious and spiritual Islamic community. Imam Hussein too did not seek political power although he could easily have taken it. Both knew that it was for the good of Islam that the affairs and needs of the ummah be kept separate from affairs of any regime. When did Imam Hussein challenge the political authority and apply Islam to government? When Yazid, the tyrannical king, began to attack the people and prevent them from Islam.

The cultural practices that had been explicably forbidden or disavowed by the Quran and God’s prophet began to piece by piece return to the broader society and pervert the religion. Certain Muslims, especially under the direction of tyrants and autocrats who felt (or today, feel) they were God’s newly appointed messengers or gods themselves, forbade what was allowed and allowed what was forbidden.

I would argue today, that a government that has entangled itself with any religion, but specifically Islam, is a threat to His religion. In fact, it is the countries that allow religious freedom and forbid religious persecution and discrimination that allow for humans to exude the values of Islam and live their lives in submission to Allah. A religious leader cannot serve Allah and humanity when engaged in the pragmatic arena of g believe me? Think of any country and name one leader who hasn’t lead their country to or have themselves committed a heinous act that would displease Allah according to the Quran or the teachings of the Prophet and the Ahl al Bayt. If you find it, share it in the comments or with an article in response. But until then, let us cherish, protect and fight for the separation between government and religion so that true Islam may spread to every corner of this earth.

1.1: The United States of America is an Islamic Country: through the lens of Imam Husayn (ع)

by Ali Hussein Kafel

I have often heard Muslims, and of course non-Muslims, in America, share the viewpoint that the United States is a Christian nation, founded on Christian values and that as a Muslim, one must accept this settled debate and submit that the country they call home belongs ultimately not to them. They say freedom of religion, of speech, of the press, and the opposition to tyrants and oppressors, are values belonging to the United States, delivered by Christian ideals. Although, in fact, these are values are more closely aligned with the teachings of Islam.

There are many in this great nation who yearn to make concrete the idea that it is indeed a Christian nation. In the life and martyrdom of Imam Husayn (as), one is offered the perfect example, a crystal lens, through which to view the essence of Islam, particularly Islam in a land governed by non-believers. When one compares the essence of Islam, its core values, to the core values that many would agree these United States of America are founded and built upon, you will find they are nearly indiscerable from one another.

Before rejecting the notion that an admittedly non-Muslim country could be built on Islamic values (the United States’ Constitution prohibits the country from adopting a religion and demands the seperation of religion and government), consider the incredible and in-fact unfathomable power of Allah (swt). While the founders of this nation were intent on preventing the enjoinment of religion and government, one must not overlook that where humans plan, taking every precaution, employing extreme trepidation in their thinking, Allah (swt) too plans and He is the best of planners. It is then not a stretch to assert that Allah (swt) spreads His divine gifts throughout the dunya, in all lands whether they be Muslim, Christian, Jewish, polytheist, atheist, etc. Whether intentional, unaware, or vehemently opposed to Islam in the formation of a government, His creation’s natural state is submission to Him and indeed Allah (swt) has always prevailed over Iblis. These gifts of divinity include those such as justice, charity, tolerance and freedom from oppression, values inseparable from the core of America’s foundation, values directly from The Truth, Al-Haq (swt).

Most Muslim’s would agree that to have a country consider itself an Islamic nation is entirely acceptable and to be applauded. Most important however, is that a country should be ruled in a manner that is consistent with the word of Allah, and the teaching of the Prophet of Islam (pbuhf), and the ahlul bayt (as). Imam Hassan, and Husayn (as) are the ultimate examples to Muslims on how to approach a world filled with the likes of those such as Muawiyah and Yazid. To focus not on the material, the Islam only in name, the ruler only by title, but to ensure that the essence of Islam, the word of Allah (swt) and the sunna of Ahlul bayt (as) will always prevail on this earth until the Day of Judgement. 

Freedom of Religion:

This freedom is enshrined in the first amendment of the United States Constitution, part of the ten amendments known as the Bill of Rights which grant Americans certain liberties. This amendment strictly prohibits the government from enforcing any religion or absence of religion on any person in the United States among other things. The Quran, the literal word of Allah (swt), also strictly prohibits the imposition of Islam on any individual. In the Quran (2:256) He declares, “there is no compulsion in religion, the right direction is clearly distinguished from the wrong ”. Additionally, the entirety of Surah al-Kafiroon (109) clearly instructs believers, regarding those who do not believe in Allah or his prophets to allow them to have their way and to remain faithful to the way of the believer. This is a point around which there is no debate.

The Prophet Muhammad (pbuhf) and his progeny (as) fiercely defended religious freedom and enjoined that there be no compulsion in religion. Paradoxically, those who have claimed to rule in the name of Islam, Yazid an abominable example from the time of the Imam, with many modern examples to choose from, have acted in a way so as to directly disobey this clear and simple order from God. Therefore I submit that the United States, a country which too fiercely defends religious freedom (at the very least by mandate of core values and founding documents) is more clearly an Islamic country than some that currently tout the title and banner of Islam in administration of their countries’ oppressive governments.

Freedom of speech and the press, and freedom from oppression:

Most Muslims know that Imam Husayn (as) became a martyr of Allah not for the Shia of Ali and the Ahlul bayt, but rather for all of humanity. An immoral, unjust and ungodly tyrant named Yazid, whose horrific acts would even overshadow his tyrannical father’s, ascended the throne and was demanded that all prominent Muslims, including companions of the Prophet and the Ahlul bayt, swear an oath essentially installing himself as a deity on earth as Firaoun once did in the time of the prophet Musa (as). There existed no freedom of speech under Yazid. When Ibn Rabia al Aswad suggested to Yazid that he could swear a similar oath to Yazid as the one that had been sworn to prior leaders, one which still attributed all loyalty to Allah (swt) and the sunnah of the Prophet but gave respect to the leader, Yazid had him savagely killed along with anyone who dared speak about or report on these instances of his savagery. When Imam Husayn (as) heard of the extent of Yazid’s vile oppression of the ummah his grandfather the Prophet created, he knew that such tyranny demanded a response. The legacy of Imam Husayn and his followers’ opposition to tyranny and oppression has inspired countless revolts against oppressors and liberations of the oppressed. 

There is a similar detestation of tyrants in the United States that stretches back to its founding. The framers of the Constitution saw tyrannical leaders who usurp power and use that power for personal and material gain, at the expense of the people, as an atrocious evil. This is a view shared by Islam. Thomas Jefferson, a “founding father” of the United States and an author of many of its founding documents, was known to use a seal which featured a motto also attributed to Benjamin Franklin. This seal read, “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God” and it was even suggested as an official seal for the United States. This view on tyranny was shared by many of the framers and as such, the country was built to be a beacon of Justice and a fortification against tyranny.

Unlike many modern countries that claim to be Islamic, the United States’ dedication to freedoms that act as bulwarks against oppression and its governance and political system that was built to prevent the occurence of tyrants who are undoubtedly enemies of the will of Allah (swt) make a strong case for the U.S. as a nation of Islamic values.

Conclusion:

Imam Husayn (as) made unmistakably clear the line that must be drawn and the obligation that must be met by those who call themselves Muslims. In the days before his martyrdom at Karbala, he (as) delivered a sermon at Baiza in which he declared, “O’ People, The Prophet of Islam has said that if a believer sees a tyrannical ruler transgressing against Allah and his Messenger and oppressing people, but does nothing by word or action to change the situation, then it will be just for God to place him where he deservingly belongs”. The title of “Islamic” upon a country or nation does not guarantee the presence of Islam. The lack of the title does not deny the presence of Islam. God’s gifts transcend and overpower the awful human capability for evil and His justice and mercy can be found throughout the earth. The obligation is not that one should ensure a that a nation accept the title of Islam, that a ruler profess to be Muslim and recite blindly the shahaddah, rather the obligation is to ensure that Allah’s word may prosper in any land for all who wish to accept it. This is the true measure of the Islam in any country, its submission to Allah, by its adherence to the His word, intentional or not. 

In short, it is incumbent upon any Muslim to seek out the Islamic values, the values of submission to Allah, that are undoubtedly present in every corner of this dunya. A Muslim in America or anywhere else in the world will find Islam if he/she looks closely. When a Muslim identifies those things God has bestowed on all parts this earth, it is then their duty by “word or action” to protect and amplify those aspects of Allah and His word wherever they are, whenever the occasion calls for it. Where Imam Husayn  gave his head in the way of Allah, so as not to raise his hand in submission to a tyrant, American Shi’is too must never back down when, as Imam Husayn instructed, “by word or by action”, the issues of tyranny and oppression are at stake. 

By God’s will, in accordance with Islam, American Muslims can voice dissent, vote for leaders who exude Islam (not the mere title but essence), and have their impact felt. They should use these gifts to enjoin what is right and forbid what is evil, in any way they can. Again, one must never forget that where humans can be lead astray, and aren’t they ever, in this worldly life even, Islam is all around us, and we are its upholders.