Dan’s Course on Islam

23.3

Important Dates of Islam

in American History
1717: Slaves arrive who speak Arabic, eat no pork, and

believe in Allah and Muhammad.

1790: Moors live in South Carolina in the 1790’s.

1850: Muslims introduce camels in the Southwest in 1850’s.

Hajji Ali remains and becomes a prospector in

California.

1875: Muslim immigrants from Syria and Lebanon.

1887: Muhammad Alexander Russel Webb becomes first known

American convert to Islam. Encounters Islam in the

Philippines where he is counsel.

1919: Muslims immigrate to Michigan seeking work in

automobile industry. Dearborn develops into “a Muslim

town.”

1921: Ahmadiyya movement founded.

1925: Moorish Science Temple of America begun with

Noble Drew Ali (Timothy Drew).

1933: W.D. Fard’s Temple of Islam in Detroit.

1935: Nation of Islam established with Elijah Muhammad

headquartered in Chicago.

1958: Khalifa Hamas Abdul breaks with Nation of Islam and

establishes Hanafi Center.

1963: The Muslim Student Association begins.

1964: Clarence 13 X expelled from Nation of Islam and forms

5% Nation of Islam. Malcolm X and Wallace D. Muhammad

expelled from Nation of Islam. Louis Farrakhan

replaces Malcolm X as national spokesman. Malcolm X

establishes Muslim Mosque, Inc.

1965: Malcolm X assassinated.

1969: Wallace D. Muhammad reinstated in Nation of Islam.

1970: Ansaru Allah is founded by İsa Muhammad. Nubian

Islamic Hebrews established by Muhammad Ahmed

Abdullah.

1972: The Islamic Party of North America organized.

1974: The Muslim World League granted nongovernmental status

at United Nations.

1975: Elijah Muhammad dies. Wallace D. Muhammad assumes

leadership of Nation of Islam upon father’s death.

Wallace changes his name to Warith (Inheritor).

Bilalian Community replaces name of Nation of Islam

under Warith Muhammad.

1976: Silas Muhammad breaks with Warith D. Muhammad and

begins the Lost – Found Nation of Islam.

1977: World Community of Islam in the West replaces name of

Bililian Community under Warith Muhammad. Louis

Farrakhan breaks with Warith D. Muhammad. Farrakhan

re-establishes the Original Nation of Islam founded by

Elijah Muhammad.

1978: John Muhammad breaks with Warith D. Muhammad. Forms

Nation of Islam under John Muhammad. Caliph Emanuel

Muhammad breaks with Warith D. Muhammad. Forms Nation

of Islam under his name.

1979: Rashad Khalifa becomes the leader of United Submitters

International.

1980: American Muslim Mission replaces name of World

Community of Islam. Warith D. Muhammad leads it in

direction of orthodox Islam.

1982: Islamic Socity of Noth America forms.

1983: Islamic College founded in Chicago.

1985: American Muslim Mission folds. Wallace moves to

California. States his followers to be integrated into

orthodox Islam and to be known only as Muslims.

1990: American Muslim Council founded. Warith D. Muhammad

recognized by leading Muslim nations as titular head

of Muslims in America and becomes trustee of funding.

1992: Warith D. Muhammad invited to give invocation of floor

of United States Senate.
Dr. George Braswell, What You Need to Know About Islam & Muslims, pp. 175-176.

Dr. George Braswell, Islam and America, pp. 91-94.

24.*

Important People*

(dictionary*, names*, person*,

important*, persons*, places*, things*)
24.1

A List of important people in Islam
Abulcasis: a Spanish born physician of the 10th Cent. who developed surgical proceedures.
Abdu’llah: Muhammad’s father, literal meaning = “servant of Allah who died on a trading trip just prior to Muhammd’s birth.
Abdullah bin Jahsh: the Muslim warrior who carried out the first Muslim raid (at Nakhla) on Muhammad’s orders.
Abdu’l-Muttalib: Muhammad’s grandfather and a leading citizen of Mecca. He named Muhammad. He was the custodian of the Kaba.
Abdullah bin Salam: a Jewish rabbi who became an early convert to Islam.
Abdullah bin Ubayy: a leader of the “Hypocrites,” insincere Muslims who opposed Muhammad.
Abu ‘Afak: A poet who mocked Muhammad in his verses and was assassinated on Muhammad’s orders.
Abu Bakr: (As Siddiq) A wealthy and respected merchant of Mecca who was Muhammad’s close friend and the first man to accept Islam outside of the prophet’s family. According to Sunni Muslims he was the first Muslim caliph. He gave his daughter Ayisha in marrige to Muhammad after Khadija’s death and he was in charge of Muhammad’s books.
Abu Ishaq: (11th Cent.) an Arab jurist and poet who said concerning the Jews: “Put them back where they belong and reduce them to the lowest of the low... Turn your eyes to other (Muslim) countries and you will find the Jews are outcast dogs... Do not consider it a breach of faith to kill them... They have violated our covenant with them so how can you be held guilty against the viloators?” Joseph Ibn Nagrella and an estimated 5,000 Jews of Grenada, Spain were subsequently slaughtered on December 30th, 1066.
Abu Jahl: A leader of the pagan Quraysh who opposed Muhammad.
Abu Lahab: Muhammad’s uncle, who opposed him and was cursed in the Qur’an (111:1-5).
Abu Sufyan: The Quraish leader of Mecca and bitter enemy of Muhammad, but who realized the futility of opposing his army of 10,000 men, and went out to meet Muhammad in order to become a Muslim. His action signified the surrender of the entire Quraish tribe and ultimately, the submission of Mecca in 630.
Abu Talib: Muhammad’s uncle who looked after Muhammad as an orphan. He recommended that Muhammad work for Khadijah.
Aga Khan: Present day leader of the Seveners, a subgroup of Shi’ites.
Ahmad Deedat: (1918 - ?) a South African Muslim apologist engaged for over 30 years with Christians. His approach has much in common with that of Ibn Hazm. His style tends to be aggressive and polemical, and he gives the impression of wanting to discredit the Christian faith and make Christian belief appear ridiculous.
Ahmed ibn Hanbal (780-855) the great Islamic jurist from Baghdad and founder of the Hanbali school o thought.
Aisha: (Ayisha) Muhammad’s youngest and favorite wife; he married her when she was six and consumated the marriage when she was nine. (Bukahri 7.62.64)
Al-‘Aqaba: A city where the early Muslims pledged loyalty to Muhammad.
Ali: (Ali ibn Aby Talib) Muhammad’s cousin, adopted son, and eventual suon-in-law of Muhammad was the the 2nd convert to Islam whom Shi’ite Muslims regard as his rightful successor; he reigned briefly as the 4th caliph, after Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman. He is counted as the first imam of the Shia tradition. He was the son of Muhammad’s uncle, Abu Talib, who had raised the Prophet. He married Muhammad’s daughter Fatima (604-632), who bore him two sons.
Ali Dashti: Dashti died in 1984 after spending three years in Khomeini’s prisions, where he was tortured dispite his age of eithty-three. He told a friend before he died: “Had the Shaw allowed books like this to be published and read by the people, we would never have had an Islamic revolution.”
İbn Warraq, Why I Am Not A Muslim, p. 5.
Amina: The mother of Muhammad.
Asma bint Marwan: A poetess who mocked Muhammad in her verses and was assassinated on Muhammad’s orders.
Ayatollah Khomeini: (1900-1989) Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, was a classical educated scholar who was an Iranian cleric and ruler, the spiritual and political inspiration for the radical Islamic movement throughout the Arab world. He promoted jihad against putatively Muslim rulers who failed to live up to or apply the laws of Islam. He was exile from Iran between 1964-1979 and received a rapturous welcome when he returend to Tehran in 1979. He issued a fatwa against Salman Rushdie in 1988 calling for his death for having written The Satanic Verses.
Badr: An Arabian town about 80 miles from Medina where the Muslims won their first great military victory, against the Quraysh im 624.
Bahira: (Buhaira) a Syrian Christian monk who, according to Islamic tradition, recognized the boy Muhammad as a prophet when he looked at his back and saw the seal of prophethood between his shoulders. He warned Muhammad’s uncle to “guard him (Muhammad) carefully against the Jews, for by Allah! if they see him, and know about him, they will do him evil.”
al-Baidhawi: (d. 1268) a well known commentator on the Qur’an.
Bukhari: Muhammad İbn Ismail al Bukhari, known as Sahih Bukhari, was the imam who compiled the most respected and authorative collection of the hadith. He collected over 300,000 ahadith, but only chose to publish about 2,000 separate hadith as authentic. Repetetions bring the number of ahadith in his collection to about 7,300. (Robert Spencer, The Truth About Muhammad, p. 25)
Buraq: The winged horse with a human head that is supposed to have carried Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem and thence to Paradise on his Night Journey.
Cassius Clay: (Muhammad Ali) the world champion heavyweight boxer converted to a form of Islam called “Nation of Islam” in 1960 and adopted a set of intensly anti-American attitudes. He refused to be drafted by the U.S. military, which led to the forfeiture of his heavyweight title.
Chosroes: The Persian emperor in Muhammad’s day, whom Muhammad called to Islam.
Darazi: (996-1021) Darazi and Hamza ibn Ali ibn Ahmad was the leader of the mystical Druze sect of Islam.
Edward Said: a prominent Arab-Amercian, and professor of English Literature at Columbia University, has been one of the most articulate spokespeople for the Palestinians.
Elijah Muhammad: (1897-1975) or Elijah Pool also known as Elijah Karriem, was the founding leader of the Nation of Islam (NoI) in the USA in 1934. He was succeeded by his son Wallace Fard (Wali Farad Muhammad) in 1975. “You are not American citizens.” he told his NoI followers and he disallowed NoI members from taking Social Security numbers. He went to jail rather than enlist to fight in WW II. His first known illegitimate child was born in Jan. 1960, the first of 13 unrecognized children whom he fathered in a 7 year period, 1960-67, by seven different mistresses, including four children by one woman. The FBI found that he had up to five affairs going on at a single time and that he threatened violence against women who told of his paternity. To his wife’s special shame, one of his relationships was not only incestuous but he took the girl’s virginity. Newly affluent, Muhammad also lavished luxuries on himself and the “royal family”, as it came to be known. He traveled in a Lockheed Jet Star Executive jet, wore a jewel-studded fez said to be worth $150,000, and let his family take hold of the NoI reigns of power and bled the organiization for all it was worth. He claimed that he was the “Messenger of Truth”.
Erbakan: (Necmettin) Right wing leader of Turkey who was an engineering Professor.
Farag Foda: an Egyptian Muslim intellectual who defended the Copts and strongly criticized some Muslim religious authorities. He was assassinated in June 1992 after a fatwa was declared on him. In giving testimony in an Egyptian court of law, the late Sheikh Muhammad el-Ghazali implicitly justified his assassination on the grounds of apostasy; he stated that anyone opposing the Sharia was an apostate and thus deserved death.
Fat’hi ash-Shiqaqi: a well esucated Palestinian Islamist living in Damascus who headed Islamic Jihad, a terrorist organization that has murdered dozens of Israelis. He was assassinated in Malta in 1995. According to his brother, “He loved everything American from cowboy movies to hamburgers.” and said “I want to live in America forever.”
Fatima: Muhammad’s daughter and only surviving child through his first wife, Khadija.
Gabriel: The angel who is supposed to have delivered Allah’s revelations to Muhammad.
George Sale: produced the first accurate translation of the Qur’an in English in 1734.
Ghatafan: The pagan Arabian tribe that, along with the Quraysh, laid siege to Medina in the Battle of the Trench.
al-Ghazali: (d. 1111) One of the greatest Muslim phiolsophers who said: “It is inconceivable that Allah should love mankind, because where there is love there must be a lover, a sense of incompleteness, a realization that the beloved is needed for complete realization of self... This is impossible with Allah, since Allah is perfectly complete.” He is one of the most widely accepted authorities about Islam, who wrote about the true Muslim as being one who “imitates the Messenger of Allah in his goings out and his comings in, his movement and his times of rest, the manner of his eating, his deportment, his sleep and his speech.”
Goldziher, Ignaz: (1850-1921) an expert on the Hadith.
Hafsa: One of Muhammad’s wives.
Harith: A well-known Arab chieftain who went to Constanti,nople for an audience with the Emperor to request a Monophysite bishop for his people.
Hasan al-Banna (1906-1979) of Egypt was a graduate of AlAzhar Univeristy in Cairo and established the Ikhwan al-Muslimun (The Muslim Brotherhood) which calls for the restoration of shari’a law, sometimes by peaceful means and sometimes through revolution and violence.
Henry Martyn: (1781-1812) educated at Cambridge, at 24 he went to India as a chaplain for the East India Company. He translated the N.T. into Urdu, and worked on the Arabic N.T. The only convert was Sheikh Salih (later known as Abudl Masih, “Servant of Christ”). He died in Turkey.
Heraclius: The Byzantine emperor in Muhammad’s day, whom Muhammad called to Islam.
Hunayn ibn İshaq: a physician who translated Galen’s works from Greek into Arabic. He devloped the earliest known textbook on opthamology.
İblis: the name for Satan in the Qur’an.
İbn Abbas: a cousin of Muhammad who was the first great exegete of the Qur’an who said, “The Apes are Jews, the people of the Sabbath, while the swine are the Christians, the infidels of the communion of Jesus.” Nonie Darwish, Now They Call Me Infidel, p. 204.
İbn Hanbel: (780-855)
İbn Hazm: (994-1064) He represents probably the most violent and systematic attempt to discredit Christianity in the whole history of Christan-Muslim confrontation. He has been recognized as the undisputed Master in the field of anti-Christian polemics.
İbn Hisham: (d. 840) a biographer of Muhammad who wrote three volumes called Life of the Prophet (sixty-seven years after the death of Ibn Ishaq).
İbn İshaq, (707-773) Muhammad İbn İshaq ibn Yasar, Muhammad’s first biographer who wrote Life of the Apostle of God (Sirat Rasul Allah) in 755, a reverentail biography of Muhammad in Arabic. A principal authority on the Seerah (Poetic biography) and Maghazi (battles) literature.
İbn Khaldun: was the first Muslim historian and scholar to examine society scientifically. His book “Muqaddima” gives a comprehensive history of the Arabs.
İbn Maymun: (Maimonides) a Spanish born physician who was a Jew who served as the court physician to Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt and Syrica in the 12th Cent. He wrote on medicine, theology, philosophy and astronomy. He wrote “Guide for the Perplexed” which harmonized religious thought with Aristotles scientific teachings.
İbn Nucair Namin Abdi: founder of the Alevi’s (Alawites).
İbn Rushd: (Averroes) a physican-philosopher who wrote on medicine, philosophy, law and astronomy.
İbn Sa’d: (d. 845) An early compiler of biographical traditions about Muhammmad.
İbn Sina: (980-1037) Known as Avicenna, he was called the “Prince of Philosophers.” He wrote 170 books on philosophy, medicine, mathematics and astronomy as well as poetry and reliigous works. He had memorized the entire Qur’an at 10 and at 18 was the personal physician to the Sultan of Bukhara, in Turkestan.
İbn Taymiya: (1268-1328) held that born Muslims who fail to live up to the requirements of their faith are themsleves to be considered unbelievers, and so legitimate targets of jihad.
İsma’il Al-Faruqi: a Palestinian immigrant who taught for many years at Temple University and founded the International Institute of Islamic thought. He was the first theorist of a United States made Muslim. He stated: “Nothing could be greater, than this youthful, vigorous, and rich continent (of North America) turning away from its past evil and marching forward under the banner of Allahu Akbar (God is Great).”
Jamal al-Din al Afghani: (1839-1897) was concerned with the social and political issues facing Muslims and he became the leader of the Pan-Islam movement which called for the creation of an Islamic world state.
Jamil Al-Amin: (H. Rap Brown) a radical American Muslim who declared: “When we begin to look critically at the Constitution of the United States... we see that in its main essence it is diametrically opposed to what Allah has commanded.” He was the founder of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1963 and became chairman in 1967.
John of Damascus: (675-753) born 43 years after the death of Muhammad he knew Arabic and Greek and was one of the first serious originators of Muslim-Christian dialogue.
Ka’b bin Al-Ashraf: A Jewish poet who mocked Muhammad in his verses and was assassinated on Muhammad’s orders.
Ka’bah: (Ka’ba) A shrine and place of pilgrimage in Mecca that Muhammad emptied of its idols and transformed into a site for Islamic pilgrimage.
Karl Gottlieb Pfander: (1803-1865) went to Persia as a missionary ar 22. After 12 years moved to India. At 55 he moved to Constantinople. He wrote Balance of Truth in German and Armenian in 1829 when he was 26. It was translated into Urdu, Turkish, Arabic & English and has been used widely as a basic textbook of Christian apologetics with Muslims.
Kereem Abdul-Jabbar: the well-known basketball player is a moderate Muslim who has a positive view of the United States and a constructive attitude toward its problems.
Khadijah: Khadijah bint Khuwaylid, Muhammad’s first wife and first convert. A merchant woman of dignity and wealth. She was 40 and Muhammad 25 when they married. She had two children by her first husband Abu Halah, Hind and Harith, who died after a few years of marriage. She remarried a second time to a man named Atique and had another child, also named Hind. She was left with a buisness and her servant Maisarah. Khadijah and Muhammad were the parents of four young girls named Zainab, Ruqaya, Umm Kulthum and Fatima (c. 604-632). Fatimah was the sole survivor of Muhammad. Khadijah died at 65 after being married to Muhammad for 25 years.
Khalid bin al-Walid: A renown Muslim warrior.
Khaybar: An Oasis near Medina which Muhammad attacked, exiling the Jews who inhabited it.
Khwarizimi: Islam’s most outstanding mathematician of the 9th Cent. He developed algebra from “al-jabr” meaning “the bringing together of separate parts.”
Kinana ibn Rabi: A Jewish leader at Khaybar who was tortured and killed on Muhammad’s orders for refusing to disclose the location of treasure.
al-Kindi: (c. 820) an unknown author wrote letters of correspondence between al-Hasimi (the Muslim) and al-Kindi (the Christian) and is described as “one of the most important writings in the history of Muslim-Christian dialogue.
Kuba: the chief god of the Ka’bah, along with three sister goddesses Al-Lat, Al-Manat, and al-Uzza.
Al-Lat: One of the goddesses worshipped by the pagan Quraysh along with Kuba, al-Manat, and al-Uzza.
Louis Farrakhan: A leader of The Nation of Islam in the 1980’s who threatened to “lead an army of black men and women to Washington D.C., and we will sit down with the President, whoever he may be, and will negotiate for a separate stare or territory of our own.” His weekly newspaper, Final Call, characterizes life in the United States as living in “the Belly of the Beast.” In Feb of 1996 he said, “God will destroy America the hands of Muslims.” He called Judiasm a “gutter religion” and said Adolf Hitler was a “very great man.”
al-Mahdi: (775-786) The Abbasid caliph who destroyed churches and gave 5,000 Christians in Syria the choice of death or convert to Islam.
Malcolm X: (1925-1965) (Malcolm Little: El-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz) was a loyal lieutenant to Elijah Muhammad until he recognized the impurities which Elijah taught of Islam and Elijah’s own lifestyle. He set out form his own form of an Islamic community and was murdered in 1965 by followers of the Nation of Islam. He said “The American passport signifies the exact opposite of what Islam stands for.” His career lasted not much over 15 years.
Malik İbn Anas: (715-801) a compiler of hadith who called İbn İshaq “an antichrist” because he had reported traditions upon the authority of the Jews.
al-Manat: One of the goddesses worshipped by the pagan Quraysh along with Kuba, al-Lat, and al-Uzza.
Ma’mun: A caliph who ruled from 813 – 833 in the city of Baghdad. He had an observatory built in 830 in Baghdad in association with the House of Wisdom.
Mansur: a Caliph who founded Baghdad.
Marsaya: a slave boy given to Muhammad by Khadija who saw two angels shielding Muhammad.
Mary the Copt: Muhammad’s concubine and mother of his son İbrahim, who died in infancy.
Maslama: Muhammad bin Maslama was an early Muslim who carried out several assassinations on Muhammad’s orders.
Mawdudi: (1903-1979) (Mawlana Abul A’la Mawdudi) a prominent Pakistani Muslim scholar who laid the foundation for the political, economic, social, and religious system of all Islamic countries that impose Islamic law. Concerning non-Muslims he states that, “the acceptance of the “jizya” establishes the sancity of their lives and property, and thereafter neither the Islamic state nor the Muslim public has any right to violate their property, honor, or liberty. He was a journalist and self-taught Islamic scholar who founded the organization Jama’at-i-Islami (Community of Islam) in 1941. His main aim became “the thorough Islamization of the government of Pakistan and its purging from all Western moral, spiritual and political values and practices.
Mike Tyson: for all his troubles with the law (raping a woman, biting a rival boxer’s ear), has found in Islam a soothing and civilizing influence. “Islam”, he says, is “going to make me a better person.”
Mu’awiya: (d. 680) Became the 5th Caliph in 661 until his last descendent in Damascus was overthrown in 750, the 14 caliphs in his line were succeeded in office by their sons or some other member of the Umayyad clan. Mu’awiya was the first of the Umayyad caliphs.
Muhammad ‘Abduh: (1849-1905) an Egyptian theologian who taught at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, and was critical of the rigidity and conservatism of many orthodox theologians whose minds seemed closed to everything in the modern world. He stood for a liber and open kind of Islam, arguing that faith and reason were compatible, and that there need be no contradiction beteen faith and modern knowledge.