"SEASON OF GRATITUDE": The venerable publication’s Managing Editor Ayesha K. Mustafaa said its 20th annual conference, set for Dec. 19 – 22, always occurs between Thanksgiving and Christmas, two major American cultural observances that “for the believers in God is a corridor of great spiritual awakening … regardless of our faith titles.” PHOTOS COURTESY OF MUSLIM JOURNAL

Miami – Al Hajj Malik Shabazz, more popularly known as Malcolm X, popularized a unique publication, known by practically every African American of his day, and for years after, through its distributors in the then Nation of Islam of which countless African American families boasted at least one relative.

Today that weekly newspaper – which featured a “hands across the world” masthead that was ubiquitous in African American communities, and conveyed wisdom from the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, legendary leader of the original Nation of Islam and spiritual father of Shabazz, Muhammad Ali and countless others – endures as the Muslim Journal.

The publication’s ongoing legacy is set to be celebrated with the 20th Annual "A Time To Be Grateful" (ATTBG) conference, Dec. 19-22 at the Hilton Miami Downtown, hosted by Miami’s historic Masjid Al-Ansar and the Florida Conference of Muslim Americans.

The event “started as a celebration in gratitude and remains the central theme throughout the 20 years of presentations,” said Managing Editor Ayesha K. Mustafaa. An educator and prestigious journalist in the tradition of the newspaper’s first editor, she was appointed by “the Messenger of Allah’s” son and successor, the noted Imam W.D. Mohammed, Shabazz’s close friend, shown below.

“Muslim Journal newspaper is closing out its 48th year of the renowned weekly print newspaper,” said Mustafaa, “which is the successor to the Muhammad Speaks that started in 1961 by Al Hajj Malik Shabazz (Malcolm X).

“So we are coming up on now celebrating nearly 63 years of a Muslim African American-produced and owned newspaper addressing local, national and international issues/news from the perspective of the ‘indigenous African American Muslims’ origins and interests.’”

“A Time To Be Grateful,” Mustafaa said “celebrates this legacy newspaper and its supporters as well as extends into the broader communities of Muslims and non-Muslims with mutual respect and appreciation for the blessings that the Creator has granted. Based on Qur’an Surah 55, Ar Rahman, there is a recurring stanza that asks: ‘Which of the Favors of your Lord will you deny?’ That asked after numerous descriptions of Favors that Allah has bestowed onto humanity.”

The annual event began in 2004 in Chicago/Homewood, Illinois, the first Saturday of December, Mustafaa said.

“At the beginning, our Imam W. Deen Mohammed was holding monthly meetings in the Homewood Hotel, where believers were coming in for these special sessions from across the U.S.A. Muslim Journal found that Saturday nights were open and therefore began the annual ATTBG to coincide with Imam Mohammed’s December gathering.”

The Imam, who passed in 1980, was the first keynote speaker, and the following year the "Distinguished Citizen" honoree, she said.

“Upon the passing of Imam W. Deen Mohammed, we assessed our status at Muslim Journal and determined that for us to keep ATTBG relevant to the broader community, we must make every effort to move out from the Chicago area and be more accessible to our supporters nationwide.

“The first venture outside of Chicago was in 2009 to Newark, N.J., which was the largest area of distribution for Muslim Journal. In 2010, we celebrated in Louisville, Kentucky, with focus on the Muhammad Ali Center and Museum.

“From there we have been hosted by local Muslim communities in the cities of Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Memphis, Philadelphia, Kansas City/Mo., Houston, Los Angeles – some venues being chosen two to three times.

Another, Mustafaa said, was Southhampton, Bermuda, “where the community of Muslims of African descent credit their community establishment and growth on the circulation of the newspaper Muhammad Speaks.

“This year 2024, we are excited to come to Miami, Florida, which has a rich history of indigenous and pioneering Muslim African Americans like Imam Nasir Ahmad, leader of Masjid Al-Ansar.

Every year has been special, said Mustafaa. “For example in Chicago, our second keynote speaker was the

Hon. Keith Ellison who was campaigning to be the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress – and won his first and recurring elections.” Other guest speakers included the renowned (late) Dr. Sulayman Nyang, former chair of Howard University’s African Studies Department, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Clarence Paige, and members of the Muslim American Veterans Association.

“In Bermuda, we were elated to have with us as awardee the Hon. Diane Nash, renowned Fisk University student who led busloads of Freedom Riders into the dangerous South to test the desegregation laws. Ms. Nash, in the days of Muhammad Speaks, worked at the newspaper as a copy editor – hired by the Hon. Elijah Muhammad. In Atlanta, we celebrated the most viable Sis. Clara Muhammad Schools and their origin.”

DIFFERENT THIS YEAR?

“Having ATTBG move across the nation – and insha Allah (God willing) soon abroad – we have a new experience every year with a freshness as well as a connected-ness to the legacy of the establishment of this community born out of African American converts who trace their legacy to the diaspora of West Africa via the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade,” Mustafaa said.

“Now in Miami, we draw from the establishment of this same legacy.” For example Masjid Al-Ansar, then a Nation of Islam temple, “was a frequently attended mosque for Muhammad Ali which he handsomely supported financially.”

“Over the years, our devout attendees have made the weekend of ATTBG their ‘vacation time off work,’ for special gathering. Eventually, a tour of the host city has been added, where the attendees not only celebrate being with each other but come away with an education of the area they are in. Miami indeed will bring to the conference many new experiences that we will add to our profile.”

Since 1992, Mustafaa noted, the Muslim Journal has been a member of the National Newspapers Publishers Association (NNPA), the trade association of more than 200 African American affairs newspapers first established by John Sengstacke, renowned late publisher of the Chicago Defender.

“Muslim Journal is an institution,” said Mustafaa. “Muslim Journal was built on the legacy of outreach to the base of the African American communities, a beacon to ‘learn’ about Al Islam which led to advocacies for ‘literacy,’ do-for-self economics and as Imam W. Deen Mohammed left the charge – to create a ‘New Africa’ that reconnects our ‘Islamic genetic memory to our West African Muslim ancestry’ (a theory advanced by Dr. C. Eric Lincoln of Duke University and Imam W. Deen Mohammed).

“In the core of the Muslim Journal bylaws is the obligation to support Islamic education, promote literacy,” Mustafaa said. “As we are experiencing so much reliance on social/digital media and less reliance on literacy/reading, Muslim Journal is committed to advance reading, learning languages – as a language professor put it: "Keep adding more GROOVES into the GRAY MATTER of the BRAIN."

“As Imam W. Deen Mohammed stated, ‘Words make people.’” Visit MuslimJournal.net