Dr. Amin Abdullah Best...إنا لله وإنا إليه راجعون، أولئك عليهم صلوات من ربهم ورحمة وأولئك هم المهتدون

[Bilal Mahmud المكافح المخلص]

   
                                        

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

الحمد لله رب العالمين و الصلاة و السلام على أشرف الأنبياء و المرسلين نبينا محمد و على آله و صحبه أجمعين , و من تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين
أما بعد :

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته

 قال عليه السلام : " كلكم راع وكلكم مسئول عن رعيته

 

قُلۡ إِنَّ صَلَاتِى وَنُسُكِى وَمَحۡيَاىَ وَمَمَاتِى لِلَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلۡعَـٰلَمِينَ (١٦٢) لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ ۥۖ وَبِذَٲلِكَ أُمِرۡتُ وَأَنَا۟ أَوَّلُ ٱلۡمُسۡلِمِينَ (١٦٣

 

لله ما أخذ ولله ما أعطى

الحمد لله رب العالمين القائل في كتابه المبين «ولنبلونكم بشيء من الخوف والجوع ونقص من الأموال والأنفس والثمرات، وبشر الصابرين الذين إذا أصابتهم مصيبة قالوا إنا لله وإنا إليه راجعون، أولئك عليهم صلوات من ربهم ورحمة وأولئك هم المهتدون»، والقائل سبحانه «إنك ميت وإنهم ميتون».

  For Allah what is taken and for Allah what he has given
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds,  He says in His book, the most clear «

And surely We shall try you with something of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth and lives and crops; but give glad tidings to the steadfast, (155) Who say, when a misfortune striketh them: Lo! we are Allah's and lo! unto Him we are returning. (156) Such are they on whom are blessings from their Lord, and mercy. Such are the rightly guided. (157)

», and Allah Says, Glory to Him «Lo! thou wilt die, and lo! they will die;».   To the family of Dr. Amin Best   It is with heavy hearts, yet faithful spirits that we share with you that our Beloved Brother and Comrade , has  returned to Allah t'Ala.

Brother Amin Abdullah Best was and will always be loved by all of us whose life he touched during this journey.  Every time we think of him we will have to think of the special care he gave those of us who had the opportunity to study under him... He will be sorely missed by all the Believers of Atlanta, Ga. and all those he touched around the country, and world  over the years.   A Few Kind Words From Sheikh Khalil Abdur Rashid

 

The Best Death

            I was 19 years old and having just come from the Jumua Prayer, I had intended to go back to the streets and hang out with my friends doing nothing but wasting my life away, as was my norm at the time, when as if out of nowhere, there appeared this very tall figure whom I had not seen in years but whom I had known since I was a child – Amin Best. All of 6 feet 7 inches, he towered over me and greeted me with a warm handshake and big hug. He asked me what I was doing with myself these days. I replied that I was in school studying film and theatre, hoping to become a film director and move to Hollywood. He praised me for my being in college but followed it up with a short lecture on the fact that he believed that I was wasting my talent, and that Hollywood was no place for someone with a future like mine. He explained that we had work to do for the ummah and that I should help him do it. I did not understand what he meant and he knew that I didn’t. He invited me to a class he taught on Sunday afternoons and made me promise that I would come. I did and that would be the first watershed in my former life, which would mark a significant change not only in my life in general, but also in the lives of countless others in the city of Atlanta, Georgia. This was the summer of 1994 and for the next 10 years, he would provide me with the introduction, substance, and framework of my understanding of Islam. He was none other than my first teacher of Arabic and the Islamic tradition, and a mentor to me like no other.

            Amin Best would teach Arabic from several books including the Medina books and Abdul-Rauf’s Arabic for English Speaking Students. He taught me Islamic law from the Reliance of the Traveler, Islamic Methodology (usul al-fiqh), legal maxims (qawaid), Islamic theology, and duahs. His favorite chapter of the Quran was the second chapter, entitled The Cow (al-Baqarah). He was ever devoted to education and physical training. He swam, practiced Aikido and Tai Chi, ran, and played basketball. He was a former police officer and it was also from him that I learned how to use and clean a handgun, for he would pick me up and we would make our way to the shooting range monthly. He would take me into every major mosque in Atlanta to teach, and when certain leaders in our community were concerned about the awakening in the Muslims that Amin engendered through his speaking and teaching, they reacted, often shunning him and expelling him from the masjid, much like the Prophet was expelled from Taif. Amin, despite the persecution he received from many so-called Imams of mosques, never harbored grudges against them and always forgave them, over-looked their transgressions, often times explaining to me that what we had experienced was ignorance and had they been men of knowledge, they would never have acted in that way.

He would teach me how to speak in public and how to teach. He would introduce me to my Quran teacher, the distinguished Dr. Dia al-Deen, from whom I would learn Quranic recitation. He taught me about Arabic books and how to purchase books, which authors were reliable, and how to understand the content. He survived an attempted murder when a deviant group of Muslims felt threatened by his presence, his speaking, and his learning, they offered Amin a beverage to drink and upon dizziness and abdominal pain, Amin fled from the home in which he was and caught a taxi to the hospital. It was a physician who later informed him that his near death experience was due to poisoning. I remember being at his house for a lesson when a technician from the local phone company came to Amin and said, ‘Hey brother, do you know your phone is tapped’, to which Amin responded, ‘Oh really! Well leave it alone, maybe they will learn something!”

He was a living witness to the rise and fall of the Dar al-Islam movement, and took his shahadah at the Dar al-Islam headquarters in New York at 52 Herkimer Street; he would be present when H. Rap Brown would embrace Islam and become Imam Jamil al-Amin. Amin’s stories of the racism he experienced from some Muslims from Arab and South Asian countries would move him to found an organization called Muslims for a Better America (MBA). The goal of this organization was to develop affordable housing for Muslims all across the United States, regardless of nationality, where everyday average Americans could see what Islam was and who Muslims were without having to attend a lecture or read a book. He envisioned entire subdivisions across Atlanta and in major cities in America, whose inhabitants were 100% Muslim, where the cross streets connecting the homes were named, Hanafi Drive, Maliki Street, Shafi Avenue, and Hanbali Place! Within each subdivision, in the center, would be a community masjid, and Muslims would participate in the local politics, schools, and businesses of the area. He advocated the position that 3-piece suits were of the sunna and that the getting a PhD was just as necessary as pursuing a license in Islamic jurisprudence (ijaaza).

He was ahead of his time, and he paid the ultimate price of ostracism and community outcast for someone who was only concerned with going against the grain, shattering old habits, and changing the face of Islam in America. He was my inspiration. As I grew older, he would pass his mantle on to me and he would pursue his PhD in education, becoming a school principle and becoming devoted to the science of purifying the heart. It was because of this that I too would study education in college and seek to become a teacher. His lifelong dream was to memorize all of the Quran and he would say, “If I can’t do that, I at least have got to get al-Baqara down”. He forever changed the landscape of Islam in Atlanta, and by that, changed my life forever, for it was through his classes that I would develop a love for Islamic learning. He always was fearful of his sins when meeting Allah and never wanted a horrible death. He adored the fajr prayer and was the second most intelligent person I have known, besides my own father. Indeed he was one of my father’s best friends and would later become mine. Today Allah has called him back and his death was recorded on his medical chart as being of ‘natural causes’. What was natural to him was so unnatural to others for Amin did what many others could not do and affected others in ways most cannot articulate.

He never could understand why Muslims could not unite and live together, why Muslims developed structures and not people, and why Imams think that by leading the prayer they are actually leading the people. His passing is a great lost for those who sat in his class for even a minute. I owe what I am to his sacrifice, his seeing in me what I didn’t see in my own self! We all owe Amin Best a debt of gratitude. He would say to me in our final conversation over the phone, “I only hope that Allah (swt) accepts my good deeds”. I shall end this with the greatest line I took from him during one of my first classes with him. He was notorious for beginning his classes with at least 10 hadith on the virtues of learning, and for a year, he would repeat those same hadith such that one memorized the hadith. As a legacy to him, I leave others with what he left me – a few hadiths of inspiration and one line encompassing the passion and seriousness about which he took scholarship:

-          “One learned person in fiqh is harder on Shaytan than one thousand ignorant worshippers”. - Hadith

-          “Whoever leaves his home in search of sacred knowledge, they are in the path of Allah until they return”. - Hadith

-          “Seeking knowledge is an obligation upon every Muslim, male and female”. – Hadith

-          “If you don’t know fiqh, you can’t make your wudu correctly; if you can’t make wudu correctly, your prayer won’t be accepted; if your prayer isn’t be accepted by Allah (swt), your sins won’t be forgiven; and if your sins are not forgiven, just go ahead and put on your Hell-Fire clothes!” – Dr. Amin Best!

 

• May Allah clothe Amin in the Best clothing of Paradise – Ameen!!!

 

-          Khalil Abdur-Rashid (student, mentee, friend)

Special Appeal From Sheikh Khalil Abdur Rashid

As Salamu Alaikum dear brothers and sisters,

The passing of Dr. Amin Best is a tragedy which brings sadness to all of us. We ask Allah to make his grave a garden from amongst the gardens of Paradise and to forgive his sins and shortcomings. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. In this regard I would like to take this opportunity to ask each and every person who benefited from Amin Best to make a donation to his widow so that she may cover Dr. Amin Best’s funeral expenses and support herself throughout the 4 months and 10 days mourning period.

During Islamic history, particularly in the Mamluk period in Egypt, Muslim women and men established endowments (waqfs) solely dedicated towards supporting widows during the mourning period after the death of a husband. This practice was a part of the legacy of the Prophet’s wife, Saudah (ra), who used to take a portion of her own money and provide wedding gifts to young brides of poor families who could not afford to gift their daughter a wedding present. Saudah (ra) used to provide the poor women in Medina and the widows with financial gifts or embroidered art on sheep’s skin. Her legacy was to ensure the support of women who could not support themselves and to this effect, the Prophet (saaws) stated that she would be the first meet him in Paradise. Those who seek to be among the first to meet the Prophet (saaws) should follow the sunna of Saudah and support widows and poor brides. I sincerely call upon all of us that have benefitted from him, either directly or indirectly, to show our love and appreciation for Amin’s selfless dedication to improving the Islam of us all. We must support his wife Munira financially during this painful period and offer our emotional support and duah for her.

To accomplish this we are establishing the Dr. Amin Best Fund to cover the financial needs of his wife. Please send all donations to either myself in New York City or to Bilal Mahmud in Atlanta, GA., and may Allah reward all of you for your sacrifice in this regard....Our target is $3500.00 to ensure that our sister is taken care of for the next 4 months and 10 days...as prescribed by Allah. 

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Was Salam

Khalil Abdur-Rashid

اللهم إني أسألك خشيتك في الغيب والشهادة

أخوكم في الإسلام : بلال  محمود

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