As-salamu alaykum - how Islam saved and shaped "Black consciousness" in America
As-salamu alaykum. In the mid-18th century, even before Thomas Jefferson became the third president of the United States, he bought a translation of the Qur’an and put it in his personal library - not in theology, but in the law section. That was his way of showing he saw Islam as a serious intellectual and legal system worth studying. That book stayed with him until his death and later ended up in one of the major public libraries.
But Jefferson’s encounter with Islam wasn’t an isolated incident. The seeds of Islam were sown in America long before him - almost three centuries earlier. In the book “God’s Slaves: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas,” historian Sylviane Diouf notes that Islam became the second monotheistic religion to reach the New World after Catholicism.
Islam in America survived thanks to the resilience of African Muslims: they kept their faith and identity despite violence, coercion, and attempts at Christianization. The first Africans brought in the 16th century came from regions of West Africa where Islam had been rooted for centuries. In places like Mali, Niger, Guinea and the Senegal valley, Islamic law was already in use, and Muslim kingdoms had reinforced the religion as a cultural and social pillar.
The spread of Islam in West Africa was mostly peaceful - through scholars and traders, not conquest. European missions couldn’t deeply penetrate those communities, and colonial authorities sometimes used missionary work to undermine Islamic structures. When missionary efforts failed to achieve what they wanted, Europeans switched to economic exploitation - the transatlantic slave trade began.
Many of the Africans taken were Muslims - captured in wars, sold by traders, or enslaved over debts. West Africa became the main source of people forcibly sent to the Americas. Some European powers, like Spain, at first feared importing Muslims, worried about Islam spreading in the colonies, but the demand for labor made them look the other way.
Modern scholars think Islam had a deep impact on African American history - estimates vary, but up to a third of those taken could have been Muslims. Some even took part in early expeditions and the American War of Independence. Over generations Islam didn’t disappear: it became a way of spiritual and political survival.
Islam helped undermine symbols of oppression and offered a way to redefine identity through names, symbols and images. For many African Americans, names and religious signs were part of the struggle for self-determination after years of slavery and forced assimilation. Taking a new name became a form of resistance.
Diouf and other historians describe secret prayer practices, Arabic writings, and stories of people like Omar ibn Said and Bilali Muhammad. Omar, captured and sold to North Carolina in the early 19th century, began his autobiography with the basmala and wrote in Arabic - one of the earliest known Islamic testimonies produced by an enslaved person in America.
Sometimes Islam showed up in active struggle too: runaway communities, fortified settlements and organized resistance show that the faith was both an ideology of resistance and a framework for collective survival. Muslim slaves brought military experience, Arabic literacy and community-organizing skills, making them effective leaders and strategists in those situations.
Arabic manuscripts found among enslaved peoples’ belongings confirm that Islam in America was a living intellectual tradition, not just a hidden faith. For many, practices like prayer, fasting and ablution became a moral framework and a form of self-regulation opposed to the logic of slaveowners. Maliki fiqh and other texts served to preserve justice and internal autonomy.
Islam gave a sense of spiritual sovereignty: instead of imitating masters, many found dignity in faith in Allah. That helped prevent a sense of inferiority and became the ground for future resistance. Even when religious practices were lost, their spirit leaked into music, language and collective memory - some researchers believe the rhythms of blues and spirituals preserve intonations reminiscent of Qur’anic recitation and the adhan.
In the 20th century Islam became an open form of resistance and a reawakening of dignity. Movements like the Nation of Islam played a big role in awakening self-respect among African Americans, and figures like Malcolm X, after embracing orthodox Islam and making the pilgrimage, demonstrated its universality and the idea that all are equal before Allah. His words about seeing people of all colors performing the same ritual in Mecca stuck with many.
Islam gave African Americans a symbolic alternative to America’s racial order: a new space for self-definition where a person is measured not by skin color but by dignity and faith. Many adopted Islamic names, clothing and practices as acts of spiritual and cultural restoration.
Today African American Muslims see themselves as inheritors of those first people who secretly prayed in barracks and wrote aya on scraps of paper. It’s a return - to dignity, memory and meaning that helped their ancestors survive. The history of Islam in America is a story of faith and human resilience: from the first Muslim slaves to today’s imams - a path of reclaiming name and destiny.
May Allah reward those who kept the faith in hard times. The ummah remembers its children in distant places - their suffering and their steadfastness.
https://islamnews.ru/2025/10/2