Imam Warith Deen Muhammad: A Muslim for Our Times By Imam Zaid Shakir
Imam Warith Deen Muhammad, who passed away September 9th, in Chicago, Illinois, was not the best known American Muslim of his generation. Unlike his friend Malcolm X (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz), he did not become a symbol of black rage with excerpts of his speeches innovatively spliced into the songs of contemporary artists who define the evolving hip hop movement.
Unlike Minister Louis Farrakhan, he was not a charismatic orator capable of mesmerizing crowds for hours on end. His recordings are not circulated widely among Muslim students on college campuses across this country like those of Imam Siraj Wahhaj and Shaykh Hamza Yusuf. Perhaps, fittingly, this is not the case, for Imam Muhammad will always be best remembered for what he did, not for what he said.
