We embrace Black History Month as a sacred moment of remembrance and return — a time to honour heritage, resistance, and identity, truths long buried or obscured in history books and classrooms — so that the light carried by our ancestors may be reclaimed, restored, and allowed to shine once more in its full brilliance.

Islam’s place in Black history, including here in Bermuda, deserves deeper recognition. Often framed as foreign or recent, Islam is in fact an ancient part of African and Black diasporic history, long predating colonialism and enslavement.

From the seventh century onwards, Islam spread across North and West Africa through trade, scholarship, and community life. Cities such as Timbuktu, Gao, and Djenné became centres of learning, housing libraries and universities where Africans studied law, science, medicine, poetry, and theology. Many of the Africans taken into the Transatlantic Slave Trade came from these regions, bringing Islam with them across the ocean.

Historians estimate that a significant proportion of enslaved Africans in the Americas were Muslim. Some could read and write Arabic; others memorised the Koran.

Although slavery brutally suppressed open Islamic practice, faith survived quietly — in whispered prayers, fasting, ethical discipline, and a deep sense of accountability to God. This spiritual resilience formed part of the unseen resistance to dehumanisation.

Bermuda, like the wider Caribbean, is part of this African diaspora story. While the island’s Muslim history is often overlooked, Bermudian Muslims today see themselves as inheritors of a much older legacy.

As one Bermudian Muslim elder reflects: “When I embraced Islam, it didn’t feel like adopting something new — it felt like remembering something very old.” Indeed, we are “reverts” to our religion that was cruelly banished from us.

Central to Islam’s message is absolute human equality. In Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) Farewell Sermon, he declared: “No Arab is superior to a non-Arab, and no non-Arab is superior to an Arab; no White person is superior to a Black person, and no Black person is superior to a White person — except by righteousness and piety.” This principle directly challenged the racial hierarchies that would later underpin slavery and colonialism.

That message was lived from Islam’s earliest days through figures such as Bilal ibn Rabah, a Black African man and former enslaved person who became Islam’s first mu’adhin, the caller to prayer.

Chosen personally by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), Bilal stood atop the mosque in Medina calling people to worship — a powerful public affirmation of Black dignity, leadership, and spiritual authority.

His story continues to inspire Black Muslims across the world. Bilal’s East African roots place Africa at the very heart of early Islam, not at its margins — a powerful ancestral truth that resonates deeply with Black Muslim history.

In the 20th century, Islam re-emerged prominently among Black communities, particularly in the United States and the Caribbean. For many, it offered a spiritual path free from the legacy of racial subjugation associated with colonial Christianity.

Movements such as the Nation of Islam, while theologically distinct from orthodox Islam, played a role in restoring discipline, self-respect, and political consciousness during eras of intense racial injustice.

My father, Leonard Abdullah Ming was among the first to bring this form of Islam to Bermuda. I was eight years old when I heard that Allah was God and have never looked back since. Indeed, I am pleased with Allah as my Lord, Muhammad as my Messenger and Islam as my religion.

Figures such as Malcolm X later highlighted Islam’s universalism. His pilgrimage to Mecca transformed his understanding of race and brotherhood, reinforcing Islam’s ability to unite people across colour while still standing firmly for justice.

In Bermuda today, Islam is practised by a small but diverse community of Bermudians, many of African descent. Their presence reflects continuity rather than novelty. A young Bermudian Muslim shares, “Being Muslim and Black in Bermuda connects me to Africa, to history, and to God — all at once.”

For Black History Month, acknowledging Islam’s place in Black history is not about replacing one narrative with another. It is about telling the fuller story — one that includes scholarship before slavery, faith during oppression, and spiritual return despite systemic odds.

We, the Bermudian Muslims, stand rooted in gratitude and unshaken pride as Black Muslims — living answers to the whispered prayers of our diasporic ancestors, returning to our faith across oceans of loss and centuries of struggle, defying every obstacle placed in our path.

Alhamdulillah, we rise on the wings of our ancestors’ prayers, their hopes carried in our hearts and their legacy shining through our reclaimed truth.

As Allah says in the Koran: “It is He who has sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth to prevail over all religions, even if the disbelievers dislike it.” (48:28)

Indeed, Islam endures and will always prevail. This is Allah’s promise and Allah’s promise is true.

Bermuda, let us continue to pray for justice, equality and humanity for all, both here at home and across the world. Wishing everyone a blessed week.

As salaam alaikum (peace be unto you).

• Linda Walia Ming is a member of the Bermuda Hijab Dawah Team, a group of Muslim women who reside in Bermuda and have a goal of educating the community about the religion of Islam