FloodPlains

In the Name of Allah; the Merciful, the Mercy-Giving:

In this episode of FloodPlains, host Ryan Yusuf Hilliard sits down with UK-based lecturer and budding scholar Mustafa Okon-Briggs to talk about his personal relationship with the Islamic heritage of West Africa, the people he calls role models and the archetype of manhood in the 21st century.

Mustafa Okon-Briggs, a graduate of Arabic & International Relations from the University of Westminster whose dissertation focused on Arabic Literature and Literacy in West Africa. He is currently pursuing an MA in Translation at SOAS with a specialization in Arabic and Islamic Texts, and simultaneously studying Islamic Studies & Arabic Language at al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. He rose to international acclaim for his Beyond Bilal: Black History in Islam lecture series which saw him explore & uncover the deep rooted relationship between Islam and Black History, and is now touring the US and Canada with his latest lecture series Before Malcolm X: The History of Islam in the Americas.

In the Name of Allah; the Merciful, the Mercy-Giving:

In this episode, we read a translation of a recorded speech of Shaykh Ibrāhīm Niasse (d. 1975) which was delivered in 1966 on the occasion of the ʿĪd celebration, coinciding with the commemoration of the birth of the Prophet Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him). In this seminal speech, he details the necessity of gaining an understanding of who Allah is and using that knowledge to inform our individual and collective identities as Muslims and to qualify the relationships we have with one another.

Many thanks to Ustadh Muḥammad Abdullahi for furnishing this translation.

To request a copy of translated letter, send an email to ryan(at)floodplains(dot)co.

In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Mercy-Giving; all praised belongs to Allah, and may the peace and prayers of Allah be upon our master Muhammad, the opener of what was closed, the seal of what preceded, the helper of the Truth with the Truth, and the guide to Your straight path, and upon his family a prayer that is commensurate with his grandeur in space and time.

Welcome to the FloodPlains, the first podcast of Its kind to continue the service of bringing the works of West African Islamic scholars to English-speaking audiences and exploring the ways in which these scholars and their writings speak to our lived realities, and inspire us to become the Muslims that Allah the Exalted created us to be, reminding the world of the amazing wonders of Islamic knowledge that He placed in the hearts of these saintly Black people, irrigating our communities with the blessed waters of the Divine, and engaging with special guests and the fruits they bear from this flood.