Centering Black Narrative: Black Muslim Nobles Among the Early Pious Muslims

Great work on early believers in Islam who were of Black or Brown heritage.

Let's face it, Bilal ibn Rabah (ra) the great companion of the Prophet Muhammad (saws) has been "tokenized" in modern Islamic discourse. The current modern "Black" narrative in Islam fashions Bilal as the only "Black" amongst the earliest Muslims...Centering Black Narrative dramatically corrects this erroneous narrative, for example on p37 Imam Ali bin Abi Talib (ra) is shown to have been described as "extremely dark (adam shahid al-udmah)" complexion, which other works have shown was the exact same complexion description of Bilal ibn Rabah (ra)Given the current political climate (February 2017) in this era of the Trump anti-Muslim banning agenda and with tensions between Arabized Levantine Arab business owners and inner-city African-American communities, this is a timely book which delves into the question of the intersectionality of "Muslim", "Blackness" and "Arabness" amongst the earliest Muslims including within Ahl al-Bayt (the family of the Prophet Muhammad)Authors Ahmad Mubarak and Dawud Walid are to be commended on a well researched and thoroughly referenced work, which is at once beneficial to the scholar yet readable and accessible to laity and the general public. Ustadh Abdullah bin Hamid Ali's foreword lays the foundation and sets the scholarly yet unapologetic tone right from the onset...While I wouldn't characterize it as an omission which hinders the book, yet the inclusion of the actual Arabic excerpts from the classic works would've made the work even more compelling.

This is a unique little book. Especially useful for framing race and color in Islam in historical perspective is the introduction by Dr. Abdullah Hamid Ali. There is also very useful content in the rest of the book, however the main body of the text is marred by grammatical and spelling errors, as well as non-standard citational practice. These should have been fixed in editorial production. I hope they come out with a second edition fixing these errors, as there is a need for more of this kind of work.

I am so proud of these brothers taking out the time to publish this book! Four books out now Al-Sawad Al-A'dham by Yusuf Yasin in English Glory of the Blacks Over the Whites by al Jahiz in English ,The Unknown Arabs by Tariq Berry ( Plenty proofs and references) And now Centering Black Narrative: Black Muslim Nobles co-authored by Ahmad Mubarak and Dawud Walid! The Cover-up is Over plenty proof the original Arabs were Black and Brown skin with Kinky and curly hair!The Euro-Arab(Musta-Arabs) intentional mis-translations about how the Shahabaah original appearance was and how they look including the Shahabaat( Female companions) are completely exposed !Al-Hamdulillahi!Shukran from Muhammadu Rashidu Aliyu

I am a Muslim and I am African American so I was interested in ready this book for obvious reasons.The book started out as what I though was enlightening and very informative. I say started out because at one point I was dissuaded from the book because of one source of reference. While I wasn't familiar with many of the references in the book, one name came to my attention. The name of Ayatullah Mirza Mahdi Pooya who was a well known "Twelver" Shia scholar. These are the people who hate and curse the Sahabbah (May Allah be pleased with them) among many other deviant practices. It's one thing if you are just a follower who may not know any better, but it's quite another when you are a scholar and you teach Muslims this deviance. When i saw his name as a reference, I immediately stopped reading the book as I am in no need of any narrations that come from the People of Innovation and in addition any narration that Rafidi scholar narrates.I am a proud Black man, but I am a Muslim first (Islam is uppermost). I follow the teachings of the Qur'an and the Sunnah of The Prophet (Sal Allahu Alayhi wa salaam) and the understanding of first three generations. So if you want to read this book because you want to seek honor as a Black Muslim, be my guest, but if you want to protect your religion, I would warn you stay away from it. I will burn my copy, Insha Allah.

The book arrived before I thought it would and was in the condition stated. Thanks!

Would recommend to anyone looking for Islamic history, Black history, etc.

I've recommended reading this book to many of companions because it has filled in some of the blanks for me and I'm sure it should for others. We plan to do a group review soon.

Excellent and in depth approach to the subject.

thank you