Reflection on Juz’ 20 by Ahmad Adisa

Surah Luqman (31): 13-15. Arabic calligraphy in the Maghribi script. Created and contributed by Ahmad Adisa.

In Allah’s name, the Gracious, the Merciful.

Praise be to Allah, Lord of all creation, and prayers and peace be upon Muhammad, our prophet, our guide and the proof of Allah, Ta’ala to all of creation. 

As salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu,

          This piece of calligraphy is taken from Surah Luqman (31): 13 – 15. Its translation in the ‘Clear Qur’an’ reads: “And ‘remember’ when Luqman said to his son, while advising him, “O my dear son! Never associate ‘anything’ with God ‘in worship’, for associating ‘others with Him’ is truly the worst of all wrongs.” 14. And We have commanded people to ‘honour’ their parents. Their mothers bore them through hardship upon hardship, and their weaning takes two years. So be grateful to Me and your parents. To Me is the final return. 15. But if they pressure you to associate with Me what you have no knowledge of, do not obey them. Still keep their company in this world courteously, and follow the way of those who turn to Me ‘in devotion’. Then to Me you will ‘all’ return, and then I will inform you of what you used to do.”

          I chose this passage for numerous reasons. The first being that Luqman was an African and so prominent a figure that his story is Qur’anic. Meaning Allah Ta’ala saw it fit for us to gain from this man’s life, faith and wisdom. We could say that such a matter is not really significant and that the race of a person or the color of their skin should not add to nor subtract from the message. While I do not disagree with that, we know that the world we live in is constantly affected by such indicators. As well, there is much significance in such a fact when seen through the eyes of a Muslim in America of African descent. 

          When studying the books of fiqh from Northern Africa I always found myself wondering whether I could be related to any of these authors. My blood runs virtually through the whole of North-Western Africa, so the possibilities are endless. When reading the various reports about Luqman they seem to place him in modern day Ethiopia; however, that doesn’t take away from my point. 

          As African-Americans we are faced with this reality about our unknown past, our ancestors, our forefathers, our lineage. Many of us, these days, have taken to DNA research to find out (to the best of our ability) the answer to the question: Where do we come from? Growing up that was often lumped into one answer: Africa. I still hear that from time-to-time and it disappoints me to no end that people refuse to differentiate a continent from a country. 

          The issue of Luqman is that his significance is multifaceted in that he was a stultifying character in history, of Ethiopian descent, and was a righteous servant of Allah Ta’ala. There were undoubtedly others but none with a chapter of the Qur’an named after them quoting their actual words. Oftentimes we don’t see our faith in its totality. We don’t see that Islam opened doors for a myriad things: women’s rights, human rights, animal rights, etc. The thing I’m speaking of right now is that of being able to be recognized for our differences and not discounted because of them. As well, we cannot overlook the basic fact that people view themselves based on the worldview much more often than we think. If that worldview is negative, and a person has heard nothing but this about themselves then how do they find options for better thinking? Pointing out the potential that exists in others is fundamental to raising a person from a lowly state to one of just being human enough to see their own significance. Luqman is a name I hear often among African-American Muslims, along with Bilal. These great people themselves become identifiers. For us, specifically of African descent in America they link us not only to our faith, but our past, our ancestors, our lineage, our lost families. 

          Secondly, the reason I chose this passage was because it discussed two subjects that relate directly to what I just wrote about: faith and lineage. These two things come hand-in-hand in the Qur’an. Numerous times we find the combination: “Worship Allah, do not associate any partners with Him, and show ihsan to the parents.” (4:36) While we may be first generation Muslims in our families, we still have a duty to our parents and those duties are obligatory. Luqman passed this knowledge down to his son and we read it in Allah’s Book to us, his spiritual progeny. That is why I emphasized, in the Arabic, “O my dear son.” Individually we need to learn the rights of parents and it is sorely needed for that aspect of manners to be passed down to the next generations of Muslims behind us. “O my dear son” is thus us in that context and Allah Ta’ala allowed Luqman to reach back to all of his children and all of mankind with words that will always link us to our loved ones, known and unknown. 

Wa salaam,

Ahmad Adisa

P.S. 

For reference sake. I embellished the surrounding of the text with variations taken from African Mushafs and a little of my own alterations. The script is Maghribi, which is used widely in North Africa. The colors are taken from the various nations of Africa. It seems that the majority was red, black, green, blue and yellow.

Below are the typed pages of Ahmad Adisa’s reflection submitted to Sapelo Square.

Learn more about Ahmad Adisa by watching the short documentary below produced by the Medill Justice Project.

Ahmad Adisa is a Muslim. He is currently imprisoned, sentenced on an offense for which he has always maintained his innocence. He is also a committed student with Tayba Foundation, an organization that provides Islamic knowledge to incarcerated Muslims. You can learn more about Brother Adisa by viewing the video above or by clicking the link here.