Muhammed al-Ahari
Encyclopedia
Muhammed Abdullah al-Ahari (born January 6, 1965 as Ray Allen Rudder) an American
essayist, scholar and writer on the topics of American Islam
, Black Nationalist groups, heterodox Islamic groups and modern occultism. Muhammed al-Ahari was born in York near Rock Hill, South Carolina
. His forefathers were settlers from Northern Europe (Scots-Irish
& Dutch
) and from the Cherokee
and Lumbee
. He was raised as a Southern Baptist, but later accepted Islam after exploring Buddhism
and the Church of Christ
. He formally converted to the faith in 1982 at a Columbia, South Carolina
mosque frequented by African-Americans and Arab
Wahhabis and legally changed his name to Muhammed Abdullah al-Ahari. The last name being after a Sufi Shaykh from the Iranian town Ahar
in Iranian Azerbaijan.
For the next three years Muhammed al-Ahari traveled the country in search of the many folkways of American Islamic expression. He had on numerous occasions attended the Nation of Islam
under Minister Louis Farrakhan
in Chicago, meetings of Father Hurley's Universal Spiritual Assembly http://fatherhurley.com/index.htm, been associated with several branches of the Moorish Science Temple (including the El-Rukn's), Harlem
's Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood, Masjid Ezaldeen in West Valley
in New York, copied the Bilali Muhammad manuscript by hand and published a translation through Magribine Press (see Bilali Document
), and has also attended meetings of the Nubian Islamic Hebrews under the teachings of Dwight York
. Muhammed al-Ahari has uncovered materials on Islam and Islamic Black Power Black Nationalism
in America that few have ever before him touched.
Al-Ahari received his other appellation the well-known Moorish American title "El" when he proclaimed his nationality as Moorish American at Moorish Science Temple #1 Brother Prophet John Givens El branch at 3810 S. Wabash at the hands of Sheik Willie Bey and Sheik Yusuf Ali El on October 15, 1985. He also became a shaykh of the Noble Order of Moorish Sufis (a branch of the Chishti Sufis), National Secretary of the Moorish League, and rear-admiral of the Service Agency of the Noble Order—the Moorish Salvation Navy (a parody of the Salvation Army), and Governor of Moorish Science Temple #3 of the Noble Order of Moorish Sufis. He later developed ties with Peter Lamborn Wilson
who named him an ordained minister in the Antinomian Moorish Orthodox Church of America
(without him ever becoming a member of the MOC!), and with the Harlem-based Nation of Gods and Earths (aka the Five Percenter Nation).
Muhammad al-Ahari is a widely published writer. He has published more than sixty articles in Muslim American magazines and journals including the Message, Islamic Horizons, Indian Times, Minaret, al-Basheer, New Era, Svijest, Muslim Prison Brotherhood Newsletter, al-Taliban, The Light, Moorish Science Monitor, and Amexem Times and Seasons. Al-Ahari's more scholarly writings can be found in Islam Outside the Arab World, by David Westerlund; Ingvar Svanberg Publisher: New York : St. Martin's Press, 1999. ISBN 0-312-22691-8 OCLC: 41355839 where he has a chapter on Islam in Latin America
; a Symposium paper on the life and teaching of Imam Kamil Avdich in the book Život i djelo Ćamila Avdića; 100 Seeds of Beirut—The Neglected Poetic Utterances of Warren Tartaglia (Walid al-Taha)
, and a paper in the Symposium papers from the Alevi-Bektashi Conference in Isparta, Turkey. During September 2005 he attended the First Alevi
-Bektashi
Conference in Isparta
,Turkey where he presented a paper on links between Freemasonry and the Bektashi community. The proceedings have been published as a scholarly volume and are available in pdf form at the following link.http://ilahiyat.sdu.edu.tr/sempozyumlar/alevilikbektasilik/SEMPK-2.pdf
Al-Ahari has published more than twenty books on Islam and Muslim history through his Chicago-based Magribine Press and has had his works translated into Arabic, Bosnian
, Albanian
, and Turkish
. His original work includes a study of Bosnian American and other Ottoman Diaspora newspapers, a study of Freemasonry and Islam, and a forthcoming history of Islam in America.
Muhammad al-Ahari has studied Sufism
under the guidance of Nimatullahi
, Naqshbandi
, Owaisi, Qadiri, Tidjani
and Bektashi
masters. He has done extensive spiritual outreach among the Bosnian
community causing many to return to their Islamic heritage. As part of the outreach he has actively fought against drug abuse
, gang
involvement, unqualified community religious leadership, and out-of-wedlock sexual activity that have begun to affect younger members of the community. Muhammed wrote ten of the articles in the Hundred Years of Bosnians in America coffee-table book and is a member of both the Islamic Cultural Center in Northbrook
, Illinois and the Bosnian American Cultural Association.
He has studied extensively the life and works of the founder of the Islamic Cultural Center of Greater Chicago
, Imam Kamil Avdich. al-Ahari has collected thirty-seven of Avdić's English language articles under the title A Heritage of East and West at Lulu.com. al-Ahari is currently working on a multi-volume series on the history of the Bosnian-American community.
Muhammed al-Ahari took a Masters in English literature
from Northeastern Illinois University
in 1996, and has studied Islam at Chicago's near-defunct American Islamic College for over three years where he took coursework in Sirah, Hadith, Islamic History, Arabic, and Fiqh. He is currently in the last year of a Doctorate in Education Leadership at the University of Phoenix. His planned dissertation topic is on the curriculum methods of Imam Kamil Avdih. These are compared with the methods with his contemporaries such as Baba Rexheb
, Sufi Sam (Samuel L. Lewis
), and other communities in the United States. It will cover Avdić's sources, influences, and teachers.
Muhammed al-Ahari has been working as a teacher in the Chicago public school system since 1995. In 1994, he married a Muslim woman from the Bosnian region of Bihac
and currently lives in the city of Chicago.
Muhammed al-Ahari (1993). Bilali Muhammad: Muslim Juriprudist in Antebellum Georgia, translated by Muhammad Abdullah al-Ahari, Magribine Press. ISBN 0-415-91270-9. This was reprinted by Magribine Press by January 2010 and an expanded illustrated edition with Arabic text will be published in 2011. https://www.createspace.com/3431038
Muhammed al-Ahari (1992). African Muslim in Antebellum America and Their Education Theories. Magribine Press.
Muhammed al-Ahari (2006). Five Classic Muslim Slave Narratives. Magribine Press, Chicago.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
essayist, scholar and writer on the topics of American Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, Black Nationalist groups, heterodox Islamic groups and modern occultism. Muhammed al-Ahari was born in York near Rock Hill, South Carolina
Rock Hill, South Carolina
Rock Hill is the largest city in York County, South Carolina and the fourth-largest city in the state. It is also the third-largest city of the Charlotte metropolitan area, behind Charlotte and Concord, North Carolina. The population was 71,459 as of . Rock Hill has undergone rapid growth between...
. His forefathers were settlers from Northern Europe (Scots-Irish
Scots-Irish American
Scotch-Irish Americans are an estimated 250,000 Presbyterian and other Protestant dissenters from the Irish province of Ulster who immigrated to North America primarily during the colonial era and their descendants. Some scholars also include the 150,000 Ulster Protestants who immigrated to...
& Dutch
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
) and from the Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
and Lumbee
Lumbee
The Lumbee belong to a state recognized Native American tribe in North Carolina. The Lumbee are concentrated in Robeson County and named for the primary waterway traversing the county...
. He was raised as a Southern Baptist, but later accepted Islam after exploring Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
and the Church of Christ
Church of Christ
Churches of Christ are autonomous Christian congregations associated with one another through common beliefs and practices. They seek to base doctrine and practice on the Bible alone, and seek to be New Testament congregations as originally established by the authority of Christ. Historically,...
. He formally converted to the faith in 1982 at a Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...
mosque frequented by African-Americans and Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
Wahhabis and legally changed his name to Muhammed Abdullah al-Ahari. The last name being after a Sufi Shaykh from the Iranian town Ahar
Ahar
Ahar is a city in and the capital of Ahar County, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 85,782, in 20,844 families.Ahar is known on the market place for its Ahar rugs...
in Iranian Azerbaijan.
For the next three years Muhammed al-Ahari traveled the country in search of the many folkways of American Islamic expression. He had on numerous occasions attended the Nation of Islam
Nation of Islam
The Nation of Islam is a mainly African-American new religious movement founded in Detroit, Michigan by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad in July 1930 to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of African-Americans in the United States of America. The movement teaches black pride and...
under Minister Louis Farrakhan
Louis Farrakhan
Louis Farrakhan Muhammad, Sr. is the leader of the African-American religious movement the Nation of Islam . He served as the minister of major mosques in Boston and Harlem, and was appointed by the longtime NOI leader, Elijah Muhammad, before his death in 1975, as the National Representative of...
in Chicago, meetings of Father Hurley's Universal Spiritual Assembly http://fatherhurley.com/index.htm, been associated with several branches of the Moorish Science Temple (including the El-Rukn's), Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
's Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood, Masjid Ezaldeen in West Valley
West Valley
The West Valley refers to a portion of the Santa Clara Valley in Santa Clara County. It may more accurately be defined as the southwest portion of the valley, and includes the cities of Campbell, Cupertino, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno and Saratoga, as well as the southwestern portion of San Jose,...
in New York, copied the Bilali Muhammad manuscript by hand and published a translation through Magribine Press (see Bilali Document
Bilali Document
The Bilali Muhammad Document is a handwritten, Arabic manuscript on West African Islamic law. It was written by Bilali Mohammet in the nineteenth century. The document is currently housed in the library at the University of Georgia.-History:...
), and has also attended meetings of the Nubian Islamic Hebrews under the teachings of Dwight York
Dwight York
Dwight York , also known as Malachi Z. York, Issa Al Haadi Al Mahdi, et alii, is an American black supremacist and leader of the Georgia-based "Nuwaubian" movement, currently imprisoned on a 135 year sentence for child molestation.York's "ministry" began in the late 1960s, from 1967 preaching to...
. Muhammed al-Ahari has uncovered materials on Islam and Islamic Black Power Black Nationalism
Black nationalism
Black nationalism advocates a racial definition of indigenous national identity, as opposed to multiculturalism. There are different indigenous nationalist philosophies but the principles of all African nationalist ideologies are unity, and self-determination or independence from European society...
in America that few have ever before him touched.
Al-Ahari received his other appellation the well-known Moorish American title "El" when he proclaimed his nationality as Moorish American at Moorish Science Temple #1 Brother Prophet John Givens El branch at 3810 S. Wabash at the hands of Sheik Willie Bey and Sheik Yusuf Ali El on October 15, 1985. He also became a shaykh of the Noble Order of Moorish Sufis (a branch of the Chishti Sufis), National Secretary of the Moorish League, and rear-admiral of the Service Agency of the Noble Order—the Moorish Salvation Navy (a parody of the Salvation Army), and Governor of Moorish Science Temple #3 of the Noble Order of Moorish Sufis. He later developed ties with Peter Lamborn Wilson
Peter Lamborn Wilson
Peter Lamborn Wilson , is an American political writer, essayist, and poet, known for first proposing the concept of the Temporary Autonomous Zone , based, in part, on a historical review of pirate utopias...
who named him an ordained minister in the Antinomian Moorish Orthodox Church of America
Moorish Orthodox Church of America
The Moorish Orthodox Church of America is a syncretic religious body espousing an ostensibly Eastern Christian liturgical and devotional tradition laid over a theology consisting of teachings gleaned from Ismaili Islam, Sufism , Tantra and Vedanta teachings...
(without him ever becoming a member of the MOC!), and with the Harlem-based Nation of Gods and Earths (aka the Five Percenter Nation).
Muhammad al-Ahari is a widely published writer. He has published more than sixty articles in Muslim American magazines and journals including the Message, Islamic Horizons, Indian Times, Minaret, al-Basheer, New Era, Svijest, Muslim Prison Brotherhood Newsletter, al-Taliban, The Light, Moorish Science Monitor, and Amexem Times and Seasons. Al-Ahari's more scholarly writings can be found in Islam Outside the Arab World, by David Westerlund; Ingvar Svanberg Publisher: New York : St. Martin's Press, 1999. ISBN 0-312-22691-8 OCLC: 41355839 where he has a chapter on Islam in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
; a Symposium paper on the life and teaching of Imam Kamil Avdich in the book Život i djelo Ćamila Avdića; 100 Seeds of Beirut—The Neglected Poetic Utterances of Warren Tartaglia (Walid al-Taha)
Warren Tartaglia (Walid al-Taha)
Warren Tartaglia was a Jazz musician, poet and one of the six founders of the Moorish Orthodox Church of America....
, and a paper in the Symposium papers from the Alevi-Bektashi Conference in Isparta, Turkey. During September 2005 he attended the First Alevi
Alevi
The Alevi are a religious and cultural community, primarily in Turkey, constituting probably more than 15 million people....
-Bektashi
Bektashi
Bektashi Order or Bektashism is an Islamic Sufi order founded in the 13th century by the Persian saint Haji Bektash Veli. In addition to the spiritual teachings of Haji Bektash Veli the order was significantly influenced during its formative period by both the Hurufis as well as the...
Conference in Isparta
Isparta
Isparta is a city in western Turkey and the provincial capital of the Isparta Province. The city's population is 222,556 and elevation from sea level is 1035 m. Another name of the city is "City of Roses"....
,Turkey where he presented a paper on links between Freemasonry and the Bektashi community. The proceedings have been published as a scholarly volume and are available in pdf form at the following link.http://ilahiyat.sdu.edu.tr/sempozyumlar/alevilikbektasilik/SEMPK-2.pdf
Al-Ahari has published more than twenty books on Islam and Muslim history through his Chicago-based Magribine Press and has had his works translated into Arabic, Bosnian
Bosnian language
Bosnian is a South Slavic language, spoken by Bosniaks. As a standardized form of the Shtokavian dialect, it is one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina....
, Albanian
Albanian language
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...
, and Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
. His original work includes a study of Bosnian American and other Ottoman Diaspora newspapers, a study of Freemasonry and Islam, and a forthcoming history of Islam in America.
Muhammad al-Ahari has studied Sufism
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
under the guidance of Nimatullahi
Nimatullahi
The Ni'matullāhī or Ne'matollāhī is a Sufi order originating in Iran. According to Moojan Momen, the number of Ni'matullāhī in Iran in 1980 was estimated to be between 50,000 and 350,000. Following the emigration of Dr...
, Naqshbandi
Naqshbandi
Naqshbandi is one of the major Sufi spiritual orders of Sufi Islam. It is considered to be a "Potent" order.The Naqshbandi order is over 1,300 years old, and is active today...
, Owaisi, Qadiri, Tidjani
Tidjani
Tidjani is a given name or surname and may refer to:* Sidi Ahmad al-Tijani , founder of the Tijānī Sūfī order* Ismaël Tidjani Serpos, Beninese member of the Pan-African Parliament...
and Bektashi
Bektashi
Bektashi Order or Bektashism is an Islamic Sufi order founded in the 13th century by the Persian saint Haji Bektash Veli. In addition to the spiritual teachings of Haji Bektash Veli the order was significantly influenced during its formative period by both the Hurufis as well as the...
masters. He has done extensive spiritual outreach among the Bosnian
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
community causing many to return to their Islamic heritage. As part of the outreach he has actively fought against drug abuse
Drug abuse
Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, refers to a maladaptive pattern of use of a substance that is not considered dependent. The term "drug abuse" does not exclude dependency, but is otherwise used in a similar manner in nonmedical contexts...
, gang
Gang
A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen...
involvement, unqualified community religious leadership, and out-of-wedlock sexual activity that have begun to affect younger members of the community. Muhammed wrote ten of the articles in the Hundred Years of Bosnians in America coffee-table book and is a member of both the Islamic Cultural Center in Northbrook
Northbrook
Northbrook may refer to:Places named:*Northbrook, Illinois, USA*Northbrook Island, a Russian island*Northbrook , a railway station in Illinois, USA*Northbrook, Ohio, USA*Northbrook, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom*Northbrook, Ontario, Canada...
, Illinois and the Bosnian American Cultural Association.
He has studied extensively the life and works of the founder of the Islamic Cultural Center of Greater Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Imam Kamil Avdich. al-Ahari has collected thirty-seven of Avdić's English language articles under the title A Heritage of East and West at Lulu.com. al-Ahari is currently working on a multi-volume series on the history of the Bosnian-American community.
Muhammed al-Ahari took a Masters in English literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
from Northeastern Illinois University
Northeastern Illinois University
Northeastern Illinois University is a public state university located in Chicago, Illinois. The main campus is located in the community area of North Park with three additional campuses in the metropolitan area. Tracing its founding to 1867, it was first established as a separate branch of a...
in 1996, and has studied Islam at Chicago's near-defunct American Islamic College for over three years where he took coursework in Sirah, Hadith, Islamic History, Arabic, and Fiqh. He is currently in the last year of a Doctorate in Education Leadership at the University of Phoenix. His planned dissertation topic is on the curriculum methods of Imam Kamil Avdih. These are compared with the methods with his contemporaries such as Baba Rexheb
Baba Rexheb
Rexheb Beqiri , better known by the religious name Baba Rexheb, was an Albanian Islamic scholar and mystic. He was the founder and the head of the Bektashi Sufi lodge located in Taylor, Michigan, United States....
, Sufi Sam (Samuel L. Lewis
Samuel L. Lewis
Samuel Lewis was an American mystic and dance teacher who founded the Dances of Universal Peace movement. He was also known under his Sufi name Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti and was addressed by his mureeds and others as Murshid...
), and other communities in the United States. It will cover Avdić's sources, influences, and teachers.
Muhammed al-Ahari has been working as a teacher in the Chicago public school system since 1995. In 1994, he married a Muslim woman from the Bosnian region of Bihac
Bihac
Bihać is a city and municipality on the river Una in the north-western part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the Bosanska Krajina region. Bihać is located in the Una-Sana Canton in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.-History:...
and currently lives in the city of Chicago.
External links
References to writings by Muhammed al-Ahari:Muhammed al-Ahari (1993). Bilali Muhammad: Muslim Juriprudist in Antebellum Georgia, translated by Muhammad Abdullah al-Ahari, Magribine Press. ISBN 0-415-91270-9. This was reprinted by Magribine Press by January 2010 and an expanded illustrated edition with Arabic text will be published in 2011. https://www.createspace.com/3431038
Muhammed al-Ahari (1992). African Muslim in Antebellum America and Their Education Theories. Magribine Press.
Muhammed al-Ahari (2006). Five Classic Muslim Slave Narratives. Magribine Press, Chicago.