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Notes

Imam Khalil Abdur-Rahman

By Imam Zaid Shakir · February 23, 2023

So many blessed people have been passing away. May Allah have mercy on Imam Khalil. He attended a seminar I taught a few months ago and I was blown away by his humility and encouragement even as he was an intimate part of the history I was teaching. He has been working for the Deen for longer than I have been alive. May Allah accept him amongst the shuhadaa and reward him for his service.
إِنَّا لِلّهِ وَإِنَّـا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعونَ
To Allah we belong and unto Allah we all return.
Imam Khalil Abdur-Rahman has passed on as a result of cardiac arrest. Imam Khalil was the epitome of the activist Muslim. He came into Islam in his twenties and was an active member of the Darul Islam movement and Al Ummah. He also was the national spokesman for Imam Jamil Al-Amin, and a former manager of groundbreaking spoken words artists, The Last Poets.
Imam Khalil was a quiet warrior who never allowed his angst towards the oppressive forces in this country lead him to oppress anyone. He worked tirelessly on the case of his imprisoned Imam, Jamil al-Amin. When Imam Jamil was being held in a hi-tech cave in Florence, Colorado, Imam Khalil would travel monthly from his home in Greensboro, NC to aid and support him.
It wasn’t just the well-known and influential who were the beneficiaries of Imam Khalil’s attention. He was also a champion of the little guy. When a close relative of mine moved to North Carolina, Imam Khalil helped set him up with a job as a bus driver. That relative was unable to take the job because he could not pass the eye examination, but Imam Khalil spared no effort to assist him. This is just a small illustration of the efforts Imam Khalil would exert for anyone seeking his assistance.
Why do ninety-nine percent of those reading this not know his name? I would say for the same reason the noted scholar, American University professor Akbar Ahmad, could travel the length of this country doing an expose on Islam in America and not visit a single African American-led masjid. Many do not care to know. Now that you do know of the Imam, please remember him in your prayers."

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