Centering Black Narrative: Black Muslim Nobles Among the Early Pious Muslims

About the author

Dawud Walid: Dawud Walid is an American imam, writer, and civil-rights activist based in Michigan. Born in Detroit in 1971, he serves as Executive Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI) and is a member of the Imams Council of Michigan. Earlier he led congregations as imam at Masjid Wali Muhammad in Detroit and the Bosnian American Islamic Center in Hamtramck. Under qualified scholars he studied Arabic grammar and morphology, the foundations of Islamic jurisprudence, Prophetic narrations, and the sciences of Qurʾanic exegesis. Much of Walid's work centers on race, anti-Blackness, and the place of Black Muslims within Islamic history and the American community. His books include "Blackness and Islam," "Towards Sacred Activism," and "Futuwwah and Raising Males into Sacred Manhood," along with the co-authored "Centering Black Narrative" series, which examines how Blackness was understood in the early generations of Islam and traces the legacy of Black nobles among the pious predecessors. He has also contributed essays to collections such as "All-American: 45 American Men on Being Muslim" and "Qurʾan in Conversation," and his commentary has appeared across major outlets including the New York Times, NPR, CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera. He has been a fellow at Auburn Seminary and a regular writer on Islam and social justice.