Islam in the heart and mind
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According to Diouf African Muslims, especially ones who were slaves were people who would not easily renounce their religion of Islam and its practices. One of his argument is that they would use being Muslim to get a sense of belonging or to define their existence in the world through their own lens of personal beliefs, rather than one that was being enforced by Christian missionaries. Sticking to their faith meant using it in giving their life a purpose, especially in difficult times which most slaves at that time were constantly facing. They identified themselves with Islam which gave them a framework on how to be in the world, in addition to providing some level of connection to their heritage such as their literacy in Arabic and solidarity with other African Muslims.
Staying connected to Islam also was a form of resistance to assimilation and achieving freedom. This is a concept also seen by the poet Amir Sulaiman in his video where he says justice "is between prayer and fasting, and burning and blasting, freedom is between the mind and the soul" (1:07-1:12).Keeping Islam alive in their hearts and minds also served as a possible bridge to a lost family and a lost country as it created similarities of religious and cultural practices between the community of slaves.
Through Diouf, we also learn that many Muslims were what he calls "pseudo-converts" to Christianity. Meaning, that many people may have expressed or displayed conversion to the Christian public, or their entourage in general but have kept the religion alive in their hearts, spirits, and actions. For example, people were using Christianity to accommodate Mohammedanism (p.83), and some reached old age and turned back to their original faith (p.84). This old man's case, by the name of Angelo Solimann, exemplifies what it can mean to close a melancholic gap. Though from our previous readings, we learned that melancholy is felt for experiences or subjects that possibly do not exist, or are felt without knowing what exactly the cause is, in a contrasting case like this we see that melancholy for something or someone can also be felt temporarily. It was maybe brief because they probably looked for answers and reflected upon their melancholy rather than letting it eat them up emotionally. In this case, the answer was practicing Islam again.
When a religion like Islam involves physical acts of devotion, I can imagine bodies feeling out of sync with what is familiar when the body stops moving the same. So perhaps another reason African Muslims stayed connected to their faith despite negative consequences, went back to it, and practiced it despite them not being able to practice it as others is because it brought them comfort with the familiarity and what is known in their hearts and their bodies.
Islamic holy days and obligations are felt and experienced according to Diouf by the slaves. Their giving of sadaqah was an opportunity to maintain their religious identity, practice piety, and uphold their connection to the broader Muslims community even while working under very difficult and inhumane conditions. So, though they cannot participate like people who were not slaves at that time, they were capable of fulfilling their personal spiritual and moral needs based on their circumstances. In a way, this showed they kept their faith in tact by devotional practices in secret and in public, which is mostly accessible compared to materialistic ones.