Episode 3: Muṣṭafā' Okon-Briggs

02/14/20 • 64 min

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.

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Episode 2: Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse's 1966 ʿĪd & Mawlid Address

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.