The Need for American Muslim Imams and Scholars

The Need for American Muslim Imams and Scholars

Opening and Introduction

Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, alhamdulillah, wassalatu wassalamu ala rasulillah. Assalamu alaikum everybody. Thank you for the warm embrace and welcome.

As you know, it's been an interesting weekend. Alhamdulillah. Allah in the Quran talks about the importance of leadership.

The Concept of Leadership in Islam

And He says,

"And make us leaders for the righteous" (Quran 25:74). It's one of the prayers that we make in the 25th chapter of the Quran that we ask for leadership. We ask to be an imam.

And the imam, we say is (الَّذِي يُقْتَدَى بِهِ - the person that you can follow. I'll give you an example of this in a good way. When I converted to Islam, our converts in the audience, we welcome you by the way.

Personal Experience: Learning to Pray

You and your families, hopefully you brought them here. But I remember I didn't know how to pray. Praying is an arduous task.

As a convert, you know, the first year of Islam is really watching everyone in the mosque. So I tell people, and it's somewhat humorous, that for the first year, basically I prayed like this. You pray by watching the people.

You learn wudu. Really, I tell people and they ask me like, what's the best book to read on wudu? I say, you know, go to the masjid and watch people make wudu. Be careful though, but you know, watch them make wudu.

So the point is that the person, whoever I was watching, was my imam (يُقْتَدَى بِهِ - I've taken that person as someone who I can follow. So the imam is someone who has enough acumen, intellectually, spiritually and emotionally, that we can follow that person.

The Role of the Local Imam

The topic that I've been given is to talk about, in light of the great work that's happening in Boston with this Islamic seminary project, are some of the thoughts you should think about if you're hiring an imam. If you're looking for an imam in your community. I worked as an imam for about 15 years.

And being an imam is like being a running back in the NFL, right? 15 years is like the max before your legs go out. But here are some things I want you to think about when looking after or looking for to hire imams. I encourage you to write them down.

But the local imam or the home-grown imam, if you will, is really central to the growth of our community in this country. And that's because prophethood has always really rested on two things. One is divinity, right? The divine set of teachings which prophets brought.

Divine Teachings and Social Awareness

Allah says,

"Say I am only a man like you, to whom has been revealed that your god is one God" (Quran 18:110). In this verse, in the 18th chapter, the Prophet Muhammad says, Say, I am a man like you, and it is revealed to me that there's no god except Allah. That last part (يُوحَى إِلَيَّ - it's been revealed to me that there's no god but Allah, is that first criterion. That prophethood rests on a set of divine fundamentals: not associating partners with Allah, not lying, care for the poor, looking after the oppressed, and so on and so forth.

The other important quality that prophethood rested upon is being socially aware and socially articulate. And that's why the same verse, it says (قُلْ إِنَّمَا أَنَا بَشَرٌ مِّثْلُكُمْ - "Say I am only a man like you." I'm a person, I'm a human being, just like you. So I want you to remember this, because divinity without sociology is a set of teachings without really a body.

And sociology or social practices or culture without divinity falls into heathenism, nihilism. So again, the prophethood really rests on these two important ideas. The fundamental religious tenets that are non- negotiables, coupled with a cultural and social awareness and language that makes those things relevant to people.

Cultural Literacy in the Quran

This is in the Quran itself. If you look towards the last third of the Quran, you're going to see the marriage of these two things. Religious teachings, cultural awareness.

Cultural awareness, religious teachings. Although religious teachings are never sacrificed for cultural awareness, we should be aware of that. But one of the habits of early Arab poets was very similar to someone like Biggie Smalls, or your favorite rapper, Dave East.

Who, instead of mentioning their neighborhood, they'll mention certain monuments, right? Or certain streets that tell you where they're from. That's what rappers do a lot. Early Arab poets before the time of Muhammad, they would do this.

They'll mention like a cliff, or a rock, or a plain, or a river. Something that's known to the people as if to say, this is my hood. I'm holding it down, Chicago strong.

Or whatever. For example, Imru' al-Qays. And we cannot quote a lot of Imru' al-Qays here because he was so explicit.

But he says, for example, in this Arab poem (قِفَا نَبْكِ مِن ذِكْرَى حَبِيبٍ وَمَنْزِلِ بِسِقْطِ اللَّوَى بَيْنَ الدَّخُولِ فَحَوْمَلِ - This old poet, he mentions his girlfriend, how he misses her, girlfriend. He wasn't Muslim, don't get it twisted. And then he says, you know, and she used to live between حَوْمَل which is like a small set of cliffs in his hood.

(بِسِقْطِ اللَّوَى was a place that was also known to be a sign of her neighborhood. So this is something the Arabs would do before the time of the Prophet. They would talk about people, but they'll mention the monuments, structures, buildings, you know, the trails of the camels that would tell you about that person.

We find the same thing in the Quran (وَالتِّينِ وَالزَّيْتُونِ وَطُورِ سِينِينَ وَهَذَا الْبَلَدِ الْأَمِينِ - "By the fig and the olive, and Mount Sinai, and this secure city" (Quran 95:1-3). This is talking about prophets, as mentioned by Imam At- Tabari.

But it doesn't say, you know, Moses and Jesus and Muhammad. It says (وَالتِّينِ وَالزَّيْتُونِ وَطُورِ سِينِينَ وَهَذَا الْبَلَدِ الْأَمِينِ - It mentions things known to the areas of those prophets. And that's why they immediately understood what was happening. The Prophet was equipped with incredible cultural literacy.

The Prophet's Cultural Knowledge

Allah says to him (اقْرَأْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ - "Read in the name of your Lord who created" (Quran 96:1). Allah has taught him, given him religious knowledge. But at the same time, Sayyiduna Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه accompanied Sayyiduna Muhammad. Because the scholars said, no one was more knowledgeable of the lineages and cultural happenings and historical events of the Arabs than Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه

And that's why in Mecca, if you read the seerah, it's very powerful. The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم when he would go to Uqaz, Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه was with him. And Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه would say to him, you're gonna meet this tribe, Bani Tamim.

Okay, when you meet them, hypothetically, right, their grandfather got ran over by a camel. So whatever you do, don't talk about camels. He's the press secretary of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم

Countless number of occasions in Uqaz he tells the Prophet, these people were at war with these people. These people, they had this famous ancestor who did this. They had this who did this.

They had this who did this. So when the Prophet would sit with them, he brings together a set of non-negotiable religious principles and adorns that with cultural literacy. So when he speaks to people, and some of them used to say, like, wow, how does he know this about us? How does he know this about our tribe? How is he able to be aware and honor us in this way? This is something that we find continually in the Quran.

Commanding What is Known and Culturally Acceptable

Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَىٰ says (وَأْمُرْ بِالْعُرْفِ - "And enjoin what is right" (Quran 7:199). Allah says in the end of the seventh chapter of the Quran, call to what's known and accepted culturally. The Prophet told the people of

Mecca, and this is at the height of their war with him in Sahih Bukhari, he says, if the people of Mecca invite me to do (مَعْرُوف, الْمَعْرُوفِ - something well known, to be good, I will work with them. So he marries religious principles and foundations with cultural awareness and respect for culture.

That's why our scholars say about the Quran that there are many verses and many statements of Sayyidina Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلمwhich can only be interpreted by custom. That's why Imam As-Suyuti, the great Egyptian scholar who died in 911 Hijri, in his beautiful poem that he wrote, he was so awesome, he wrote a poem about الْفِقْهِ. أصُولِ It's a book about جَمْعِ الْجَوَامِع of Imam As-Suyuti.

(كَوَاكِ أَسَاطِعِ فِي كِتَابٍ جَمْعِ الْجَوَامِعِ - And in there he mentions there are five major principles of Islam. One of those interpretive principles, one of them is custom decides things at times.

When Custom Interprets Islamic Texts

When does custom decide things? When cultural awareness is a must when we're dealing with verses and texts which are not clearly defined. Like the Prophet said (خَمْسُ صَلَوَاتِ - five prayers, clearly defined. But Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى says, وَعَاشِرُوهُنَّ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ - "And live with them in kindness" (Quran 4:19). Live with your spouse (مَعْرُوف - it's not defined. غَيْرِ مُفَسَّر، مُجْمَلَة - It's left open.

So Imam Al-Jassas, the great Hanafi scholar says that sometimes the culture of people is allowed to shade and interpret what's known as (مَعْرُوف. If you listen carefully to what I'm saying, you're going to understand how we say that Islam is good for every culture, every people, every place, and every time. Because that one verse, where Allah says, live nicely with your spouses, could be reinterpreted and interpreted by different cultures, different places, and different people until the end of time.

That's how Islam is deemed, which will always, inshallah, last and be relevant. I'll give you an example. If you're Egyptian, right? I love my Egyptian people.

Cultural Examples of Ma'ruf

God bless you and free your country. If you're Egyptian, and you're a brother, you know, you went to Khan al- Khalili or something, which is a famous market, or you went to Darb al-Ahmar in Cairo, you went to Ost al- Balad, maybe you went to Montaza or Sidi Bishr, if you live in Alexandria. And you know, you said, you know what, I want to live with my wife nicely, I need to buy something for her.

So you bought like a bamboni. I hope you wouldn't buy a bamboni for your wife, which is a piece of candy. You bought kunafa, you bought maybe some basbousa, you got some basbousa.

Those of you who are listening right now, when you say, I have no idea what he's talking about, this is my point. I'm using Egyptian culture to explain a verse, which is acceptable, which you would never be able to understand. It's like me saying, in our language here, you know, right, so you went and bought her a flurry, man.

Got her like a flurry with some M&Ms, you hooked it up, and got a little whey protein in it to make her not feel guilty, right? Egyptians would be like, (الكلام ده مش معقول - right? Point is, I'm trying to show you how one verse, one verse can have multiple applications and interpretations that all rest upon cultural literacy and awareness of the verse. So what did I just model for you? I modeled for you those two principles that I talked about. Prophets bring religious teachings, and in some instances, in some instances, cultural awareness is a must to interpret those practices.

The Flexibility of Islamic Law

I mean, can you imagine if the verse hypothetically said, you know, Can you imagine if the verse said, you know, if you love her, buy her chocolate. Like imagine if it wasn't left open, if the verse was defined, and you and I had to buy our wives chocolate, and then you go to England, right, because England has real chocolate, and you went to England, and you bought some of the M&Ms without the artificial flavors, those things are amazing. Or whatever, you bought some Cadbury, whatever, you bring it to your wife, you know, Allah has ordered me to give you chocolate, eat this chocolate, girl.

And then your wife eats it, and she turns red, and all that contour disappears, and the IG eyebrows implode, and then she says to you, I'm allergic to chocolate. So Allah left it open, so that there will be different cultures who will interpret and implement till the end of time. Now a large number of verses and texts are like this in the Quran, as well as statements of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

This was so important that the first PhD in Al-Azhar done in 1922 by Ibn Abidin al-Shami, a great Hanafi Imam, a great Hanafi scholar was on (الْإِسْلَام وَالْعُرْفِ وَالْعَادَاتِ - Islam, Custom and Traditions. The first doctoral thesis ever done in the University of Al-Azhar was on Islam and culture. The marriage of the heavens and the earth.

The Need for Local Leadership

Now that takes us to the need for local leadership and local Imams. Imam Al-Qarafi says something very powerful in his book الإحكام He says that those religious texts who demand culture as an interpretive mechanism.

If you live in a country and you do not understand the cultural mechanism needed, not for the country, because we have to be careful about a false American universal, or the West. You know, the West is like saying the Muslim world, you know. Not all Muslims are the same.

The West is not the same. Inglewood is not the same as the suburbs. The suburbs are not the same as Inglewood.

There's different cultural articulations even within our communities. And I want us to be very, very, very careful about the terms immigrant and indigenous Muslim. Because that term is problematic if used in a way that reinforces nativism.

Brotherhood and Sisterhood in Islam

The Quality of Our Youth

The terminology that we should use for each other, even when we're critical is (كُونُوا عِبَادَ اللهِ إِخْوَانًا - kūnū ‘ibāda Allāhi ‘ikhwānan) - "Be servants of Allah and brothers" (Sahih Muslim 2563). My brother, my Syrian brother, my Palestinian sister, my Oklahoman brother. Right, we have to reinforce the notions of our brotherhood and our sisterhood when we talk. And as Imam Ibn Qayyim said, we should avoid terminology that contributes to the weakening and divisiveness amongst the Muslims.

But the first PhD was done on Islam and culture. We're in America, our children, my children, your beautiful children, and let me just say, you know, the Snapchat thing, I'm very thankful to the young people, like, you guys really took this and metaphorically blew it up, mashallah. And people ask me all the time, how many questions do you get a day on Snapchat? At least 500.

Mashallah. Then they'll say to me, are most of them bad? They send you like bad pictures and stuff? It's like, uh, what's wrong with you, man? But let me just say that 98% of the questions I get from your children and I get from young American Muslim youth, are incredibly amazing. Incredibly powerful.

Invigorating. Hopeful. Inspiring.

Our young people are good people. Fundamentally good people. But as they grow up, they understand as Mahdi Bray, and may Allah bless Imam Mahdi Bray, who used to be with MAS, started the Freedom Foundation, was afflicted with some health difficulties, and from his Twitter page, continues to struggle.

As Mahdi Bray said, our children know that Usher doesn't work in the theater. Lady Gaga is not a baby toy. 50 cents isn't change.

And bling bling isn't silverware. They have a different language. So they're Muslim, they have the fundamental principles of Islam, but their cultural understandings are somewhat different than those who came before them.

Whether they came from overseas, or people like me. My daughter says things to me all the time, I'm like, what? What does that mean? In fact, sometimes she'll use terminology that we used to use in the 90s for something good, now it means something bad. So Imam al-Qarafi, a great scholar, he says, for a scholar to live amongst the people, and to not understand that community, not the whole country, the community in which he or she resides, whether it's in Hamtramck, or whether it's in Brooklyn, DC, Texas, wherever, to not have the cultural aptitude demands that that person not answer questions related to those things.

In fact, al-Qarafi, he says, for you to answer those questions would be criminal. Now that takes us to five things I want you to think about as I finish, if you're looking for an imam.

Five Qualities to Look for in an Imam

First Quality: Knowledge and Education

Number one is, unfortunately, because of the age that we're in, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, charismatic leadership tends to draw more attention than actual educational accomplishments.

The first thing that an imam should have is knowledge of the fundamentals of religion. That means they should graduate from a university, right? That means that they have perhaps studied in a Dar al-Uloom, studied with scholars, right? They have engaged themselves in professional education. This is very important.

Second Quality: Community Selection

The second thing that you have to think about when you want to hire an imam is not that your board meets like in a secret room that looks like, you know, a stage from the Sopranos or Boardwalk Empire. But, and I love what ISBCC recently did, where I served before in Boston, that you bring for a selection of imams, the community sits with these imams, the youth, the young, the old, the immigrants, the black community, Latino community, convert community, non-Muslim leadership. They all engage this imam.

And then, and I love what Boston did as a model, it was beautiful under MAS there. The community selects the imam. So the youth are like, we like this imam.

The sisters are like, this imam is good. Because each and every one of you will be able to ask that imam, what's your philosophy about young people? What's your philosophy about women? What's your philosophy about black America? What's your philosophy about social justice issues? What's your philosophy about BDS? What's your philosophy about this, about that? Political participation, activism, knowledge, scholarship. You're able to ask the questions that are important to you.

And you collectively as a community choose your imam. Now those of you who are on boards, listen to me carefully. This is a great opportunity for you because usually what happens when you hire an imam is people get angry.

There'll always be, you know, a small group of people in the community who come and say, we don't like this imam. Now you've covered your back, you can say, you hired him. We didn't hire him.

Third Quality: Emotional and Psychological Well-being

The third thing that we need to think about when hiring imams is to really ensure that the imam not only has religious education and cultural aptitude, but also emotional education. You know, being an imam is about really taking a lot of shots to the jaw, right? Being an imam is about really putting yourself out there every day because leadership comes with a price. So there are three things I want you to think under this bracket.

Number one is that does the imam him or herself have insurance and access to emotional care providers and psychological care providers? I'll be honest, in Boston, when the Boston bombing happened, I had to go to a therapist. Doesn't mean I'm crazy, but when Fox News, when Megyn Kelly is calling you cute, you better run, right? When the Islamophobes are coming after you, subhanallah, like a Trump supporter at a barbecue, you better run. When the Muslims who haven't really understood what you've said or taken the time to listen to what you've said are attacking you, you find yourself sheltered in.

So there was a Muslim brother who's a therapist, I was like, yo, I just need to sit on your couch, man. And it was incredibly helpful. Our community has this stigma about mental health.

Mental health is like physical health. If every one of us goes to eat at Giordano's tonight, we're going to be out of shape. If everyone else allows negativity to come into our souls, into our minds, that may harm our mental health and our equilibrium.

Financial Stability and Protection for Imams

So the third is, does the imam have enough salary? Imams should be comfortable. Secondly, does he or she have insurance? Because Obamacare, we may be praying janazah on that soon, unfortunately. And thirdly, this is something I have never seen in any community.

The Christians have a book, you should write this down, called Clergy Killers. I have never seen religious leadership attacked and brutalized by its local congregation like imams. There's always those three or four guys, man, you go to the masjid and they always, they just come at you and they create rumors and they attack you to your face and they brutalize you publicly in front of everyone.

Are there policies, administrative policies that secure the role of the imam? And there's one more point to this section on the imam having that emotional care and stability. Because Imam Shafi'i said (إِنْ كُنْتُ مَشْئُولًا بِالْبَصَلَةِ لَا أُفَكِّرُ فِي الْمَسْأَلَةِ - ‘in kuntu mash’ūlan bil-baṣalati lā ‘ufakkiru fī al-mas’alati) - Imam Shafi'i said, if I'm busy thinking about onions, I can't answer questions. If I'm not stable, I can't perform.

(عِصْمَة - ‘iṣmah) - The protection of God to the prophets from mistakes, minor or major. It's really about facilitating their role professionally. Protecting them from mistakes is a means to ensure that they're successful.

Our imams should be protected, not above reproach and not above accountability. Because all of us are accountable. That's what makes our community beautiful.

But protected and sustained from people who are disingenuous.

Fourth Quality: Accountability

The last point that I'll make and I alluded to it just a second ago. Well, there's two, is accountability.

I see two extremes often in Muslim non-profits. The imam is basically being body slammed by everybody. Or the imam is like a superhero above accountability.

The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - ṣallá Allāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said that the hearts of my ummah will always be satisfied with three things. One of the three things he said, accountability (Musnad Ahmad 11437).

And our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - ṣallá Allāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said that (النصيحة - an-naṣīḥah) is for the common people and the leadership of the people (Sahih Muslim 55).

Sincere advice. Sayyiduna Abu Bakr was not above public reproach. When he first started his job as a khalifa, he said, what? If I make a mistake, call me out with class and dignity.

There has to be accountability and there should be structures for accountability. So I suggest the following.

Number one is, that the imam has a town hall at least quarterly every year with the community.

Fifth Quality: Reciprocal Education

Number three, that imams think about the idea of reciprocal education. So when I was in Boston, we devised a system called the learning mosque, the learning imam, where we would ask sisters, like, what type of khutbas would you like to hear? What topics would you like to hear as young people? As elders, what topics would you like the imam to hit on? So people became part of the process, the narrative of the imam, just not the imam himself.

Summary and Conclusion

I've been asked to stop, but let me just quickly review what I talked about.

Number one, we said that prophethood rests on the knowledge of divine non-negotiables coupled with cultural awareness. Allah says, (يَمْشُونَ فِي الْأَسْوَاقِ - yamshūna fī al-’aswāqi) - "They walk in the markets" (Quran 25:20). The prophets walked in the markets. And then we talked about the importance of local leadership.

In order to do that, we have to provide salaries that will make being an imam a healthy career option for our best and brightest. But local leadership, meaning as our young people have cultural awareness and religious awareness, our religious leadership needs to meet that religious awareness and that cultural awareness. But also, an imam has to be familiar with Pakistan, Iran, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Africa.

I tell people all the time, being an imam is like working in the State Department. You have to be aware of people's cultural narratives. The narrative of black Americans in this country has still not been fully appreciated by the Muslim community.

Awareness of white privilege, male privilege, those are very important things to own and struggle with. Then I said there are really five things we should think about when hiring an imam, that they are the recipients of

professional education. Number two, that the imam himself or herself is chosen by the community, not just three or four people.

The imam should not be part of a proxy war. The third thing I said is the opportunity for the imam to maintain his or her physical and emotional well-being. One time Sayyidina Umar, he saw a fat man, he said, مَا هُدًا ? He said, (هَذِهِ رَحْمَةٌ مِنَ اللَّهِ - hādhihi raḥmatun mina Allāhi). He said, what's that? He pointed at his stomach and the guy said, a mercy. Umar said, that's a curse.

Final Points on Imam Well-being and Accountability

So physical health and emotional health for the imam through insurance, giving him days off and surrounding him with administrative policies that protect him from unwanted abuse. The third thing that I talked about is the need, definitely, to facilitate protecting the imam from the clergy killers, and the last thing that I talked about, very importantly, was that the imams themselves, have to be accountable. With leadership comes accountability.

Some of the Sunni Muslim community, I'm talking because I'm Sunni, we somehow think that the greater spirituality someone has, the less accountability they have. But I remind you, in Surah Al-Ahzab, the prophet's wives are threatened with a greater punishment because they have a greater responsibility than other women because of their closeness to the prophet (Quran 33:30). The same thing should be for our community.

(بَارَكَ اللَّهُ فِيكُمْ وَجَزَاكُمُ اللَّهُ خَيْرًا وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ - bāraka Allāhu fīkum wa jazākumu Allāhu khayran wa as-salāmu ‘alaykum)