Page 6 The Islamic Bulletin Issue 12 Page 7 The Islamic Bulletin Issue 12 But nearly 90% of converts to Islam in the United States are African-American men, a statistic that doesn’t surprise Amiri al-Hadid, a local sociologist who is himself a Muslim convert. “The church teaches you to be passive, but that’s not how you survive in America.’ said al-Hadid, 48, a former Baptist who teaches at Tennessee State University and helped organize a new mosque in Nashville. “Islam teaches self-defense. It teaches knowledge and discipline, and the African-American male needs discipline. But there isn’t an ambience of guilt. In church, there is sadness, a sense of guilt, the need to repent, an emotional environment. But men are just not going to cry in public. Islam appeals to your reasoning. It encourages a rational relation with God, not emotions.” Nevertheless, al-Hadid, who was known as Andrew Jackson before changing his name this year, said Islam and Christianity should be driven into competition for the black community, but should collaborate to promote common values. Some local Christian ministers find the issue of male conversion to Islam too sensitive to talk about, but others confirm the trend. “The reason we’re losing a lot of our kids to Islam is they don’t perceive Christianity as active enough,” said the Rev. Avery Blakeney, pastor of Messiah Baptist Church. Blakeney has lately recruited inner-city, Africa-American teen- age boys to plant trees and beautify the yard around J.C. Napier Homes--the king od activism youngsters need to learn Christian values of self-esteem and altruism and to give them reason to embrace church rather than the mosque, he said.” Army’s First Muslim Chaplain Sees a Historic Role (Special to The NY Times) Buffalo, N.Y., December 24, 1993 He was born a Baptist, but as a young man he embraced Islam and took the name Abdul- Rasheed Muhammad. Now, he has also taken the rank of Army captain, becoming the first Muslim chaplain in the armed forces and a symbol of growing religious diversity. Since his swearing-in on Dec. 3 at a ceremony at the Pentagon attended by family, friends and reporters, Captain Muhammad has been back home in Buffalo, finishing his work as a prison chaplain and preparing to report for duty on Jan. 10 at the Army Chaplains School in Fort Mommouth, N.J. Sitting in the office of the mosque where he is an assistant imam, he said his appointment was a step toward acceptance of Islam as one of the nation’s major religions. “Muslims can now feel themselves becoming a little more mainstream,” he said. Captain Muhammad is the first of the 3,150 active-duty chaplains in the armed forces who is neither Christian nor Jewish. A spokesman for the Defense Department, Lieut. Col. Doug Hart, said there were 2,500 people in the armed forces who identified themselves as Muslim, with 1,330 in the Army. Recruits are not required to report their religions, Colonel Hart said, and the total could be higher. A group called the Muslim Military Members estimates the total is closer to 10,000. The research director of the American Muslim Council in Washington, Mustafa Malik, said there were more than five million Muslims nationwide, most of them immigrants. An estimated 42 percent of the Muslims are black Americans. They make up a majority of Americans converting to Islam and a majority of Muslims in the armed forces, Mr. Malik said, though neither he nor the Defense Department had precise figures. Captain Muhammad, 41, was born Myron Maxwell, the 10th of 11 children in a family living in the Commodore Perry housing project here. Though his family was Baptist, he was never baptized, he said, because his parents wanted to leave the choice to him. He did attend church as a youngster, but he remembers that it put him to sleep. By his teen-age years, he said, he was wondering why the worshipers were black, “but the symbols were not African- American.” “I wasn’t comfortable with it,” he added. “It didn’t sit right with my nature.” He began listening to recordings of speeches by Malcolm X and, in 1973, as an anthropology major at the State University at Brockport, he took a course in comparative religion. He found that “Islam was the right way for me personally.” In 1974 he joined the Lost-Found Nation of Islam, a Black Muslim group that espoused racial separatism and Black Nationalism. He said he did not fully subscribe to the philosophy, but was attracted by the emphasis on personal responsibility and self-help. “In the projects where I grew up,” Captain Muhammad said, “the women were exploited. In the Nation of Islam the men were always polite. They were always clean cut. I felt the Nation of Islam had more to offer than the church.” After 1975 the Black Muslim movement changed course. Mr. Muhammad went with the large segment that abandoned Black Nationalism and adopted a more traditional practice of Islam under the leadership of Imam W. Deen Mohammed. “We’ve come from the extreme of being anti- government to having a representative in the military,” said Fajri Ansari, imam of Masjid Nu’Man, the mosque where Captain Muhammad is an assistant imam. Captain Muhammad has been an imam, an official qualified to advise other Muslims and to lead them in religious rites, since 1978. He also holds master’s degrees in social work and guidance counseling and has worked since March 1992 as a chaplain at two prisons in Albion. He sees his new position as historic but not revolutionary. “My goal is not to change the Army,” said Captain Muhammad, who was in the Army as a sergeant. “It is to educate the Army.” There are potential conflicts between Islamic practice and military routine. Muslims are expected to pray five times a day and meet for congregational prayer at midday on Fridays. In the month of Ramadan they observe a daytime fast, and Islamic women are supposed to wear a scarf that covers the head but leaves the face exposed. Captain Muhammad has already made one concession. Before his swearing-in and before anyone told him to, he shaved off his beard to comply with Army regulations. Though beards are not a religious requirement they are symbols of piety among Muslim men, he said, adding, “It was a struggle for me to cut it off.” Gunnery Sgt. Archie Barnes of the Marines, executive director of the Muslim Military Members group, said in general the military had been extremely flexible. Some commanders have tried to limit physical exertion for Muslims during Ramadan, he said. Nevertheless, Sergeant Barnes said, Islamic chaplains are needed because enlisted personnel are often uncomfortable asking superiors to meet their religious needs. “If you understand anything about the military structure,” he said, “it doesn’t come across well.” Mr. Alamoudi, from the American Muslim Council, called Imam Muhammad “a pioneer” and hoped that “others will follow in his footsteps.” Fasting for Health Care The benefits of fasting transcend guiding the faster from idle talk and indecent acts. It is sentinel against disease; provide the faster follows the strict dietary rule: eat during fast-breaking and avoiding over-eating. Allah (SWT) states: “Eat and drink, but waste not by excess, for Allah loves not wasters.” (Al-Quran 7:31) A great deal of ailments originate from stomach indigestion. This is why the Messenger of Allah (SAW) says: “The son of Adam will never fill a container with something worse and evil than his stomach. It will suffice him some morsels (food) that will keep him on his feet, otherwise, he should divide his stomach into three parts: one third for his food, the other for his drink and the other third for his breath.” (Ibn Hibban) This hadith indicates that the stomach is the origin of harmful bacteria. Even in the age of sophisticated machines, you can hardly find a machine so fragile but yet so remarkably durable and efficient like the stomach. This is the machine that receives food particles, processes and refines them, and distributes the products to different parts of the body. This is a lifelong operation. For the non-faster, the stomach will have no chance for rest. When the stomach is empty, as a result of fasting, it gets well- desired rest, to renew and rejuvenate its energy. With the fasting, the stomach is forced to go through a discharge whereby harmful residues are eliminated through perspiration as the body searches for food during fast. During fast, the system of secretion is organized, and this in turn benefits the blood pressure, inhibiting hardening of the arteries. The heart and kidney functions are enhanced as the work load tapers off. The fast helps to correct the problem of obesity and diabetes. Doctors over the years have used fasting as a prescription for certain ailments. There was a discussion between Ali Bin Husain binWaquid (raa) and a Christian physician to the Khalifah, Haroon Ar- Rasheed, about Islam’s outlook on the science of medicine and health care. The physician said to Ibn Waquid: “There is not in your Book, Al-Quran, anything about medicine. For if Al-Quran is a book of science, what about this science? Aren’t there two kinds of sciences: the science of the body and the science of the soul?’ Ibn Waquid responded: ‘Allah, the Most High has combined both sciences in half of a verse, when He states: “...Eat and drink but waste not by excess, for Allah loves not the wasters.” (Al-Quran 7:31) The physician said: ‘Why, then, has nothing been mentioned about medicine from the mouth of your Messenger?’ Ibn Waquid replied: ‘Our Messenger (SAW), has combined the sciences about medicine in a few words when he says: “The stomach is the house for disease and prevention is the essence of medicine.”’ The Christian physician then said: ‘Then your book, Al-Quran, and your Prophet Muhammad left nothing about medicine for Jalienas (a famous physician of the ancients).’” (Arkanul Arbaah) An American physician published a report on fasting and its benefits saying: “It is mandatory on every person who is sick to restrain from food certain days in a year whether he be wealthy or poor because if bacteria can find food in abundance in the body, it will grow and multiply. But with fasting it becomes weak.” He then praised Islam. It should be considered as the wisest religion, for as it mandated fasting it has mandated health care. He continued: “Indeed, Muhammad, who brought this religion, was the best physician who succeeded in his teachings, for he called for prevention before ailment, that is apparent in fasting and the nightly prayer (Taraweh) that Muslims observe after fast-breaking every day of Ramadan, for these physical acts contain high benefits in digesting food.” coconut cooKies (Yields 28) Ingredients: - 1 1/8 cup sugar - 2 eggs - 1 teaspoon cardamon powder - a pinch of nutmeg powder - 2 3/4 cups dried coconut flakes Preparation: Beat the eggs lightly. Add the sugar and mix well. Add the coconut flakes, nutmeg powder, cardamon powder, and mix them all well. Take a small portion from the mixture and form it into a ball shape. Now flatten this ball shape and place on a buttered baking tray. Continue the same with the remaining mixture. Remember to leave space between the cookies. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake them for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool and ENJOY!! Islamic Dietary Laws
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