A WORTHY MUSLIM by Amir Makin

A Worthy Muslim
Amir Makin
Nonfiction
A.I.C. Publications
144 pages

This material provides an examination of the Islamic way of life and offers solutions to problems concerning situations of injustice which underprivileged minority communities in different parts of the world regularly experience. Socioeconomic issues such as racism, poverty and legal system imbalances are analyzed. The author compares these issues with the religious texts of Islam and identifies imperative tools needed to successfully overcome and conquer them. What does Islam say about tyrants? Why is Islam not a religion? The answers offered here address these questions and more.

This book explains how oppressed communities can handle and overcome oppression by seriously examining the practice of true Islam. The author analyzes the difference between what is incorrectly perceived as Islam and the way of life called Al Islam while also detailing how different prophets implemented Quranic teachings when standing against injustice. Information is then used to examine real world situations of oppression that occur in today’s climate with a particular emphasis on the disadvantaged and impoverished of American society from not only a socioeconomic standpoint, but a psychological and spiritual vantage as well.

As the knowledge of Allah cannot be exhausted, neither can the process of intellectual development. Allah wants such excellence for us as caliphs, as leaders of ourselves, our families and our communities. To prevent us from realizing that, unjust societies refuse to recognize the intelligent among the oppressed. They hope to make you live for their acclaim, their prestige and their rewards. They mean to define the standard you aspire to. A Muslim leader with proper insight of his mission lives for the rewards of Allah and defines excellence by the standard of Qur’an and Sunnah. A leader with an outlook like Uthman Dan Fodio’s will always overcome oppression and succeed: “Ye shall surely travel from stage to stage” (Qur’an 84:19). To prevent the masses from realizing their purpose for existence, the media intentionally distorts Al-Islam. To counter that, we must develop a constant state of awareness that leads to an equal state of consciousness. Awareness means using the senses of perception Allah has blessed us with to develop a complete understanding of the environment all around us. That requires intense study, commitment to learning and understanding, as well as an undying passion for adjusting personally to promote learning in your family. To do that, one must first understand how the environment affects him, for better for worse. Some key event in a person’s life often causes him to begin to examine matters. For some, it takes the loss of wealth, for others perhaps the loss of a loved one. Sadly, far too many must suffer the consequences of living a wrongful life to come to fruition. Regardless of the circumstances, a person must examine his life to grow, prosper and excel, else he cannot optimize his full potential. People who cannot realize their full potential can never help others with theirs.

Unplanned things happen perhaps to shock people stuck in a negative state into a more positive state. What if such a key event occurs early in life? If that happens, the person has a jumpstart on optimizing his entire life and improving the life of his family and community! Because the examination requires intense study, a person must study what is correct. Though a child may study for hours, if he believes two plus two equals five, he must learn anew. That is why when Muhammad (PBUH) was told he was the last Messenger of Allah he was also told to proclaim or recite, not in general but a set of specifics. Allah told him to proclaim in the name of His Lord, so what he understood about his environment would be seen the way Allah intended. That established both his environmental awareness and his direction. Al-Islam must be taken with both the Qur’an and the patterns and examples of the prophets and messengers. The Qur’an provides this awareness, while the life patterns and examples of the prophets and messengers show the method of execution, known as active consciousness.

For example, when someone inside his home hears drops falling on the window pane, he looks outside and sees rain. To know how intense the rain is, he sticks his hand through the window and understands that the environment is not only wet but also that prolonged exposure could produce anything from a cold to pneumonia. He then begins to consider options to protect himself from either likelihood. He says either “I’m going to stay inside until this passes” or “I’m going to put on a raincoat.” Awareness leads people to take proper actions or go to the next logical step, which is active consciousness. Active consciousness without awareness is impossible. Awareness without consciousness is a crime.When a person has awareness without consciousness, he either has a passive mindset or has been spiritually, psychologically and ideologically conditioned to accept a harmful environment as normal, thus impeding his developmental awareness.

Such a person will not fully understand his condition, but because he accepts it as normal may even attack others with environmental awareness and active consciousness because he views them as abnormal. Awareness without any consciousness is a state of oppression that advances addiction, genocide, fratricide and other social ills that manifest around the world. The status of the disenfranchised Black community results from a calculated effort to destroy active consciousness and minimize awareness. The origins of this tactic can also be explained in the Qur’an.

An important step in developing leadership is mastery of the self, setting and controlling one’s own agenda, which comes only when a person is fully aware of his own value and self worth. All forms of oppression seek to prevent that from occurring. Unfortunately, a conditioned lack of awareness to human victimization has led some non-Muslims and many Muslims to victimize others. As a result, many who wrongly turn to such people for validation are driven deeper and deeper into oppression.

I will focus primarily on areas that have known oppression at its worst because those areas need Al-Islam most and have been grossly underserved by those who profit from their oppression. I will identify qualities essential to overcoming oppression, qualities I feel have not been identified properly in people in geographical

areas hardest hit by oppression—ghettos, barrios, trailer parks and jails. Throughout this book, you will notice that I note PBUH which means Peace be upon him after the names of the prophets and messengers. That is because Allah says:

Say ye: “We believe in Allah, and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham, Is-ma’il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to (all) prophets from their Lord: We make no difference between one and another of them: And we bow to Allah (in Islam).”

Qur’an 2:136

No prophet is more important than another. They all served their Lord faithfully and with due diligence. Each built upon the mission of his predecessor. Since they all taught the same message and worshipped the same Creator, they deserve to be respected the same. A Worthy Muslim is about optimizing the full potential of mankind and achieving the true leadership which must be attained in stages for excellence.

To find out more about Amir Makin’s new book, A Worthy Muslim, visit his website here or follow his virtual book tour here. If you would like to pick up a copy of Amir’s book at Amazon, click on the book cover above.