Bismi Allahi Al Rahmani Al Raheemi
ASA WR WB to believing Muslim friends
Before reading this please know that we owe it to ourselves to do things from an Islamic perspective and in being dutiful to Islam. While Allah does bless us for being dutiful to kith and kin.
It can be like a savings or investment. We should not put all of our eggs in one basket when either being dutiful to kith and kin, or when be dutiful to Islam. You do not want either relations to fade away like dust. And you have to have one side that is there for you when on the other side things are not going so well.
I don't always come from my perspective. I tend to come from reflecting on what Allah has said.
White men and women have an overall mission of getting jobs for their people. Job creation for men and women who want to own a home and build a family. So they have a cry out as if for a barn raising or house raising (back in the days of settlers) and every able man in the town shows up to raise the walls of the new building. Jobs like carpenters, plumbers, electricians, mechanics, engineers, doctors, etc. and other related employment around the basis of building and maintaining communities, homes, lives, etc.
Every community has that mentality. Asian. Latino. We need that mentality in the Afro Am community as well. We do have institutions of higher education. We do have a support Black Businesses mentality. Buy Black. But, we will also boycott one another. Ostracize. Alienate. Isolate one another in the midst of a push for greater unity. Somewhat based on perceived failed pledges of allegiance (almost kind of Greek Letter College Fraternity like). The mission tends to have a migration to a kind of exclusivity of "You need a come to Jesus. We need more Jesus. We are Christians." The Christians under the Black Unity kind of muster together to themselves almost instinctively. But, just a minute ago we were all unifying under Blackness, now there are pockets of exclusivity based on worship of Jesus? A kind of we getting ours, so go and get yours. They not always seeing Islamic people-mechanics in the neighborhoods. But, we can also become exclusive, to one another, in the Islamic community, as well.
Back to job creation and supporting one another...even if it means a lifting of a finger to RT or Repost something someone is selling for a dollar or five dollars. We all need to improve our crafts and maybe get that used car to get a part time job delivery submarine sandwiches, while we improve upon our arts of music, painting, illustrating so that quality control is improved on end products of art. It does have a lot to do with the things that we do in between crisis' and in crisis prevention. It is not all about the life of this world, however, Allah (swt) sent Nabi Salih, Nabi Shuaybi, Nabi Sulaimon, Nabi Ibrahim, Nabi Isa and a few other Prophets that were productivity oriented in portions of their messages so that the concept of Ascetism would not take full root in the community. Ascetism is defined in this graphic. So it is not all about the life of this world however it is not about Ascetism and we must maintain our lives, homes, communities, give in charity, make healthy foods available...medicines...etc. Maintenance of our lives on Earth as we strive for the life of the Hereafter through choices, worship, charity, etc we are doing while on Earth. Those are the steps towards Jannah...the steps in stacking Good Deeds, while on Earth, upon the Scales for Allah to Judge.
Finally the late Hafizul Quran Abdullah Yusuf Ali teaches us (I reference it in this blog post) that driving out desperation from the community is to drive out Shaitan (Aoudhubillahi).
Blog post - The Interests of a Few Sacred Prophets in the Poor. This was written when the Republican Party was in more control in Washington and making tremendous slashes to the entitlements of the poor, elderly, sick, disabled in our country. It felt like the poor was needing to be the discarded of our society in their eyes. So I reflected on their worth with Allah, and what many see as valuable opportunity to please Allah (swt). Please check out blog post in link below.
