HISTORY OF OUR FOUNDER

Professor Muhammad Ezaldeen nee James Lomax (1886-1957) was born on October 14, 1886, in Abbeville, South Carolina. After attending school in Columbia, South Carolina, he traveled north to Chicago, where he was an early member of the Moorish Science Temple of America (MST) in 1926. He was appointed to lead the MST temple in Detroit. In this era, he was also known as Lomax Bey and Ali Mohammed Bey and became a regional governor of the group, but in 1929, after some doubt about the veracity of the MST teachings, he left to pursue authentic religious knowledge.

In 1930, he traveled to Turkey under the name Ali Mohammed Bey to deliver a petition to Turkish leader Kemal Ataturk on behalf of African Americans facing Jim Crow, lynchings and legal segregation in the United States. 1 The petition included a proposal to relocate a group of his followers to Turkey to settle on any underpopulated farming land. He had the idea that African Americans could be free only by owning and farming their own land. A concept with deep roots in American and African American history. For him, land was the key to the liberation. In the end, his hopes to relocate to Turkey did not materialize, but was advised that his efforts to gain higher religious knowledge would best be realized in Egypt where there many Islamic scholars and teachers. With some financial assistance from the Turks, he was able to travel to Egypt where he arrived In 1931.

He remained there as a student of Islamic orthodoxy and Egyptian culture until 1936. During his tenure there he gained broad knowledge of the Arabic language and Islamic religious traditions under the auspices of the General Centre World Young Men Muslim Association. It was there embraced al-Islām and stayed in the hospitality and good care of the General Centre for five years.” According to other reports, he also studied, although to a lesser extent, ancient Egyptian culture and history and was trained to be a tour guide of the historical sites. He also may have studied with learned scholars (‘ulemaa) of al-Azhar University, one of the oldest continuously operating universities in the world.

According to one of his most distinguished students, Emam Mubarak Hasson (1922-2011) he, like al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (aka Malcolm X) was advised by the Islamic scholars of Egypt to not return to the USA to teach the true al-Islam but he told them that he had a responsibility to bring the truth to his people.

Upon his return to the United States, the Professor put his training to use by establishing an organization devoted to community development and the teaching of the Qur’an and the sunnah (traditions) of Prophet Muhammad (sAa). Between 1936 to 1938, he lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where his attempts to establish the Addeynu Allahe Universal Arabic Association (AA-UAA) were unsuccessful.

He was invited to visit Buffalo, New York shortly after this by Muslims who were seeking to learn more about al-Islām and the Arabic language. According to Emam Hasson they had classes at 155 Madison street which is where he met the Professor and later a school was established at 269 Clinton Avenue in Buffalo.

Professor Ezaldeen, after being elected President and Emam, (leader) of the fledgling community of Muslims in Buffalo, is one of the original incorporators of the AA-UAA as a national organization with its headquarters located in Buffalo, New York. Names of the other original were Ali Mohammad Shakoor, Kasim Ahmad, Ali Kasim and Loutfy Hameed.

Over the next five years, he and his community located a parcel of land in Ashford, New York which after some time they were able to purchase the property which they called Jabul Arabiyya, or the “Mountain of Arabic-Speaking People,” as a rural, farming community. Jabul Arabiyya thus became an offshoot or extension of the first headquarters of the AA-UAA in New York State in Buffalo. Professor Ezaldeen was a very effective leader, instructed members to build homes, a masjid, stores, and a jail so that they could establish their community life and govern themselves according to shari’ah, or Islamic “law and ethics.” Financial and social challenges brought hardship, but a 1946 article in the Buffalo Courier-Express pictured a vibrant, if poor, farming community that tended to livestock and educated children in a small house on the farm. Another land-based community of the AA-UAA soon emerged in Hammonton, New Jersey, outside the city of Newark which was called Ezaldeen Village.”

According to most reports the Professor relocated to Newark, New Jersey in 1941, where he eventually moved the AA-UAA National headquarters located above a curtain shop at 95 Prince Street. It is unclear why he moved to Newark. One observer has speculated that the move may have had something to do with the wishes of his wife Kareema, who at one point may have also been a member of the Moorish Science Temple. She lived in the East Ward of Newark upon her death in 1995.

Professor Ezaldeen proceeded with the establishment of the new AA-UAA unit, which became a competitor to the program and teachings of the MST. The AA-UAA offered courses on the Qur’an, the Sunnah, the Hametic (Black) Arab heritage, and the Arabic language. Tensions between the MST and the AA-UAA were evident but kept to a minimum largely because of the diplomacy of Professor and his adherents Ezaldeen’s influence. Sheikh Wahab Arbubakar, a student of the Professor, recalled that when he met Ezaldeen, he spoke about the one true Allāh , the Prophets, the Holy books, and the Hereafter.

Sheikh Arbubakar and Emam Hasson both recalled that the most profound religious teachings that they heard from Professor Ezaldeen were the Arabic recitations of al-Fātiha (opening surah of the Glorious Qur’an) and the adhan, or “call to prayer.”

“Ezaldeen also taught his students that the term Arab was a linguistic term and not a racial one. Although he taught that the original Arabs were Black (Hametic), the emphasis in his teachings was placed on language and faith, not race, as the highest form of identification for a person. Malik Arbubakar, son of Wahab Arbubakar, stated that “Professor Ezaldeen was keen to point out that we were Hametic Arabs and he taught us that just because our foreign-born brothers and sisters came from Arabia and other Muslim countries, did not give them any greater claim on al-Islām than we had.” 2

“Professor Ezaldeen adopted two flags for the organization. One symbolized the belief in the Islamic way of life (al-Islām) and the other was the flag of the United States of America. The first was described as the Universal Al-Islamic flag. Green in color, it featured two crossed golden swords and Arabic writing containing the declaration of Islamic belief that ‘There is no god but Allāh and Muhammad is the messenger of Allāh’. This flag and the U.S. flag came to symbolize Ezaldeen’s desire for a marriage between what he described as the best of Eastern and Western values. Professor Ezaldeen believed that al-Islām is an integral part of the American identity of the descendants of ex-slaves in the USA.

1 Encyclopedia of Muslim-American History

2 Murakushsociety.org/tag/Ezaldeen/