May Allah be pleased with our beloved Brother Hakim (Nelson) Muhammad!

May Allah be pleased with our beloved Brother Hakim (Nelson) Muhammad!

He is a distinguished, humbled, learnt, serious and genuine Brother that was hard, yet supple and could kill you with his look if you were corrupt or light up a room with his hug, smile and laugh, if you were striving to be upright!

He embody the phrase “Islam is Mathematics”!

Listening to him teach FOI class in the mid 90s was a treat! He pulled no punches with the teachings. We were taught to be men, humble, saints, soldiers, scholars, healers and killers! I literally threw out half of my refrigerator contents, in the little walk-in apartment I was living in at Rego Park, after listening to him teach “How To Eat To Live” and I thought I knew what to eat already. I shrunk in my chair at the next class after he stated “don’t throw away your unhealthy food…give it to the hungry”. I wondered how he could have known that. Lol. Sometimes we referred to him as Mr. How To Eat To Live! He was well trained in martial arts and outdid many younger Brothers in psychical fitness contest…yes he did! He didn’t train no punks and didn’t respect punks. He would tell you to adjust your punk panties if you got ruffled by him. Lol. If you believed in a spook God, he would put that superstition to rest. He was one of my main teachers in Processing Class that taught me to be Allah’s boy and not a momma’s boy.

He spoke of his early days in Hempstead before becoming a Muslim, doing conks and one day he was processing a Brother’s hair and he went to turn on the water to rinse it out and straight out of a scene from the movie “Malcolm X” the water was off and he said “What the hell” as he frantically turned the water valve. He said that Brother ran from the Hills to the Heights with his head inflamed. Lol.

I reviewed his audio tapes of the Student Enrollment and Actual Facts Lessons that I had to recite by memory as a part of my Student Enrollment into the NOI, so many times, his voice is still in my head when reciting my Lessons, that I had finally memorized and got “on cap”—as Brother Hakim would say. I was pacing back-n-forth on the 135th Street Subway platform late in the evening, when the moment occurred, a Brother on the opposite facing platform was looking at me wondering what I was doing. The most vibrant way I recite those Lessons are in Brother Hakim’s cadence.

He could teach elders in F.O.I. Class and our babies at Muhammad University in Harlem. In the late 90s, I use to do overnight security, most of the time alone in Muhammad Mosque #7, one morning my shift overlapped and I stayed to secure the University and he was teaching the Junior’s. He took the babies on an intriguing journey teaching about our great conquering ancestors in the East, it captured their imagination and unwavering attention. Living truth and loving yourself make everything else easier.

He is a New York treasure.

To the Believers, his wife Sister Maria De Lourdes Muhammad, my good Sister Patricia—his cousin on Long Island, that had always asked my how “Nelson” was doing, to Brother Hakim’s family and friends, you have my condolences and prayers of comfort!