A House Built on Strength

This is written in tribute to my teacher, Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, one of the greatest peacemakers, leaders, and unsung heroes the world has ever known, whose voice I first heard in the womb of my mother as she sat in the audience while my father, then a part of the Fruit of Islam (FOI), the Nation of Islam's (NOI) paramilitary unit, stood on honor guard in 1975 as Imam Mohammed was raised up high on the shoulders of several FOI. This celebratory moment marked the commencement of Imam Mohammed's leadership over the Nation of Islam upon the death of his father, Elijah Muhammad, a man whom Rev. Jesse Jackson once called the "father of black self consciousness" for his transforming black separatist movement that saved the lives of thousands of African Americans through mental, physical, spiritual, and economic rebirth.

On that historic day, Imam Mohammed faced the threatening winds of emotion that swirled around the inevitable changes to his father's "nation" and bravely commenced transitioning the community toward a mission to uplift all of humanity with the dignity, understanding, and universality of traditional Islam. He told the audience confidently, "This is a house built on strength, divine strength.let your winds of emotion come against this house, it stands forever!"

I was born one month after that defining moment, and it was Imam Mohammed's teachings that incubated the desire within me to become a scholar of religion and champion of peace. I recall fondly how my siblings and I would listen to the imam's radio broadcasts or attend his Friday sermons in Chicago. I remember we had great fun with a statement in one particular sermon when the imam shouted, with force and severity, "How you gonna try to hypnotize my child with a pair of Mickey Mouse socks!" Long after that day, we repeated those words over and over, imitating the imam's voice with great delight.

These are the little things that shape a child, make her strong, remind her not to worship images, to be a leader, not a follower, to not give in to subliminal seduction, and to understand the importance of recycling the dollar within a community that had been "downtrodden through the muck and the mire" of America's racism.

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