Intro
He was a homeless man in 1946-1947 in Chicago, he lived in a park (see his book, “Perseverance”, just down the street from the famous Ahmadiyya mission house/temple on Wabash Ave.
Sheikh Ahmad Din was the first ever African-American to become an Ahmadi missionary (Sheikh)(however, without going to Jamia) in like 1922. There were many others who were grandfathered in and made Sheikh‘s by Mufti Muhammad Sadiq, they are Ashiq Ahmad, Ahmad Omar of Braddock, Abdullah Malik of Columbus, Ahmad Rasool of Dayton, and Shareef Ali of Cincinnati. Rev. BD Sutton, who became the enthusiastic Ahmadiyya preacher Sheikh Abdus Salam, had been one of at least 40 pan-Africanist Garveyites that joined the movement following Sadiq’s five lectures to the Universal Negro Improvement Association in Detroit.
In the early 1950’s, Rashid Ahmad (aka Rudolph Thomas) was also made a semi-sheikh by the Ahmadiyya Movement, he didn’t graduate from Jamia either. In fact, it was Azhar Haneef who became the first ever African-American Ahmadi who went through Jamia and in the 1980’s.
Maulvi Muhammad Yusuf Khan was expelled from the Ahmadiyya Movement in 1934 (see Bowen). In fact, in 1950, Rashid Ahmad (African-American pseudo-missionary) asked the 2nd Khalifa (while in Pakistan) if Ahmadi’s were allowed to pray behind Maulvi Muhammad Yusuf Khan. The 2nd Khalifa called him a fraud and said that if he considers himself an Ahmadi, he is free to do so, but don’t waste time with him, he is a fraud type of person. Rashid Ahmad and his editors seem to have written a footnote wherein they confirmed that Muhammad Yusuf Khan was selling “lucky numbers” and “sacred incense,” and charging money for teaching the Qur’an from roughly 1923-1934. Thus, it seems that Muhammad Yusuf Khan was kicked out of Ahmadiyya formally in 1934 and remained as a teacher of Arabic and seller of Muslims fragrances, garments and other Islamic things. However, he stayed in the purview and even attended prayers/and other events at the Ahmadiyya temple in Chicago on Wabash Ave as late as 1946-1948.
The Mirza family aka Ahmadiyya INC normally hire a local in any country once they wish to open up a business center (masjid, hospital or school). First, they send a murrabi in the hopes that he can convert at least one native person to Ahmadiyya. He then searches for a local, someone who is down and out on his luck and in some financial problems. Once this person converts, they begin to prepare him to be an Imam and thus establish validity in any said country. This is exactly what they did in Africa, but remember, the Pakistani’s will always remain in-charge. The second and final African-American Ahmadi imam is Azhar Haneef, he went on Hajj with Rashid Ahmad and many other African-American-Ahmadi’s. Nevertheless, in the story of Rashid Ahmad, you will find a criminal who found an easy job and thus took advantage. He lived a life of luxury after he became an Ahmadi. He was given women, and job security. It seems that he may not been a Murrabi, instead a trusted employee, since he is never mentioned in any jamaat publication as a Murrabi. He also sheds light on some other famous Ahmadi converts turned imams.

Continue reading “Who is Rashid Ahmad? The first African-American Ahmadi imam?”






















