Salaams all,
Belated Eid Mubarak to the CML community. This Eid was strange in so many ways for many of us. For some of us, we didn't get to celebrate with our families and communities. For others of us, we experienced praying Eid prayer in our cars for the first (and hopefully last?) time. It's also been difficult for many of us to fluctuate between the celebratory feelings of Eid with the grief of this devastating time in US history.
This past weekend, the US surpassed 100,000 deaths due to COVID-19. The murder of George Floyd on the third day of Eid marks the third police killing of an African American that has been made public in the last month. May Allah grant the families of
Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, and the families of all of those slain in the name of white supremacy and anti-black racism
peace, mercy, and justice in this world and the next. May Allah keep us close to Him and one another in these difficult times. May Allah keep us close to the divinity in ourselves and one another in these times and all times.
Tomorrow at Jum'ah, the CML invites you all to hear from Brother Joshua about "Islam, Muslims, and Black Lives Matter." We also
sincerely invite all of you to join us in continuing the work of building community in the face of oppression by tuning into our celebration of graduates in the class of 2020.
Cultivating joy is no small task
in the face of hardship; that we have this opportunity to celebrate something is a blessing from Allah. Please see below for how to join in.
Finally, I invite all those who are interested in learning more about state violence and Black power to join the Social Justice Book Club that begins meeting on Monday, June 1st, where we'll be reading and learning from Assata Shakur's autobiography. I'll end with a verse from one of her poems:
I believe in living.
I believe in birth.
I believe in the sweat of love
and in the fire of truth.
And i believe that a lost ship,
steered by tired, seasick sailors,
can still be guided home
to port.
In love and solidarity,
Maryam
