A Message from Medina Baye

Bismillah

Some reflections on our last day in Medina Baye, the city of marifa and dhikr founded by shaykh Al Islam Ibrahim Niasse.

Medina Baye is an essential city for western Muslims to visit especially white converts as it will radically change your experience and understanding of Islam while reorienting impressions of race and class that many subconsciously carry.

You will see shocking poverty there, that in the states would often be associated with crime. Yet it is one of the safest places you can be. To the extent that a sister dropped her phone and a brother dropped his wallet and in both cases somebody from the street came running after them before they had noticed it was gone. It’s important for people to see a nearly 100% black community as a community of sainthood, knowledge, generosity, manners, and safety.

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said: “you have no virtue over one with white skin or black skin, except by favor of Fear of God (taqwa).”

All the ideals of true fruitful spirituality and self discovery, mutual aid, respect, tolerance, giving people space to grow despite their past, societies wealthy using their resources at a mind boggling scale to serve, educate, and empower their communities are all found here.

These virtues aren’t exclusive to Medina Baye and are shared by the saints of the Muslims world in every land, but I have never seen it with such concentration, brilliance, and potency like in Medina Baye.

There is no “youth crisis” for Muslims here. Young people love and serve their teachers and spend long hours everyday in prayer and remembrance.

Can the western liberal accept that what they are looking for is found in a traditional religion under a black shaykh?

Can the western conservative comprehend that traditional values are well preserved and understood. That minorities and poverty do not correlate to crime in a society that can implement religious values in the way that God intends?

A veiled form of white supermacy that many, especially on the left have succumbed to is abandoning religion. In short the whole wests crash out about “organized religion” and the authenticity of religious texts were crises of western university study of Christianity. The element of supremacy comes in with the assumption that if white peoples religion was so shakey who could possibly have it better? Certainly not the Arabs or the Africans or the Asians…

Coming here is also a reminder that life is remarkably harder for the rest of the world materially than it is in the west. Yet we are the biggest wusses. When it gets too hot, or the water isn’t running, or the food isn’t familiar, unless we are doing some extremists ego challenge to climb mt whatever, we fold.

Yet despite our comfort we are a people constantly in an existential and identity crisis, but to proud to look at the people whose system are working?

How can you be too stressed to make it through your work day, or sleep at night, yet when

you see Muslims holding their dead children in real time saying Alhamduillah and that Allah suffices them acknowledge that they seem to have something that you desperately need.

Why not submit? Because a bunch of white philosophers spun different ideas of identity, and freedom, and society, and spirituality before they went crazy and/or offed themselves?

Anyway, Alhamduillah what you’re looking for is still here. It still exists and it still works. It’s Islam. It’s Sayyiduna Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم and his inheritors.

Peace