- [Khalil] Nearly 90 years ago, a dream was planted by my great-grandmother, Sister Clara Muhammad.

- Assalamu alaikum.

- Wa alaikum assalam.

- [Instructor] So let's continue the lesson on Sister Clara Muhammad.

[somber music] - Assalamu alaikum.

Good morning, staff and students.

As the number one Islamic School in America, Muhammad Schools of Atlanta, today is February 16, 2024.

Please hold your hands in place for Dua.

[speaking Arabic] [continues speaking in Arabic] [continues speaking in Arabic] [somber music] ♪ ♪ My name is Khalil Ali.

Before anything, I'm a believer, a husband, and a father.

But as this school year wraps up, I'm really thinking about one of the most important jobs I've taken on.

Being the principal of a private Islamic school, I mean, definitely has its challenges, but they're nothing compared to how the school system started.

Nearly 90 years ago, a dream was planted by my great-grandmother, Sister Clara Muhammad.

[somber music] [school bell rings] ♪ - Assalamu alaikum.

- Wa alaikum assalam.

- So let's continue the lesson on Sister Clara Muhammad.

Last week, we left off at a point in 1932 when she and other members of the Nation of Islam began removing their children from discriminatory public schools in Detroit, Michigan.

Now, who can tell me what came next?

Aisha, go ahead.

- Well, the Nation of Islam community was slowly growing.

And Sister Clara and other women decided to begin homeschooling their children.

- We have visiting with us today Imam Qasim Ahmed who is a religious leader in our community.

Imam Ahmed, we would like to welcome you to the show.

- [Imam Ahmed] Thank you very much.

- Okay, let us begin today's conversation by getting some insight into just why do you feel that there is a need for Sister Clara Muhammad Schools?

- Well, first of all, the need for Sister Clara Muhammad Schools expresses a general need that we find in American society really becoming more popular now, and that is alternative education from the public school system.

The history of Sister Clara Muhammad School speaks to that particular need because it was birthed out of a challenge to teach your own, to teach your own, to teach your own.

- [Khalil] Most people know my great grandparents as the original leaders of the Nation of Islam.

But they really just started out as a family from Georgia struggling to find a new way to survive during the Jim Crow era.

[peaceful music] - She was very strong physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

She had grand integrity.

She taught me to remember a lot and remember him much.

- [Instructor] And the next part as well.

- In the early '30s, Black children suffered emotional and psychological damage in the public schools.

- Several concerned persons started private schools to save the children.

One of the most successful of them began with members of an extraordinary group of people called the Nation of Islam.

My name is Halima Muhammad Ali.

I am the granddaughter of the Honorable Elijah and Clara Muhammad.

When my grandparents eloped, they actually left the South.

And then they moved to the Midwest near Detroit.

They had their first two children, Emmanuel and Ethel, and then they moved again.

And times just got harder because, you know, that's when The Depression.

So they suffered a lot and they moved around a lot.

And my grandfather would just get odd jobs to take care of his family and it made it almost impossible to make ends meet.

- [voice-over]: - [Khalil] The Nation of Islam came about as a way to fight the terror, poverty, and poor education that Black people were up against in America at that time.

A key part of this movement was the doctrine of Do for Self.

It wasn't just a slogan.

It was essential to every way of life, particularly how they focused on their children's education.

- Sister Clara Muhammad was threatened at that time in Detroit by truant officers and other officials to put her children back in the public school.

And at that time, there were many, many negative concepts that were being taught: that the Black man or the Negro, what have you, hadn't contributed anything to education, hadn't contributed anything to world growth and development, that they were brought over here as slaves, that they were brought out of the jungles as a favor by the white man.

- Because the public school was not teaching you about yourself.

It was teaching you to be less than, to follow somebody else's...

Even the curriculum, all those kinds of things had been structured through somebody else's ideas, somebody else's dream, somebody else's concepts of you, that you were not equal.

And so, she determined that she was not gonna allow her children to attend public schools.

- When the school started out, of course, it was homeschools.

And there were parents that were being arrested.

The fathers were being put in prison for not going to the draft and also for not enrolling their children in the public schools anymore.

- Her strength in terms of refusing to put her children in school "over her dead body," these are the statements that she made, really earned the name of Sister Clara Muhammad School.

Because mothers have a strong tendency for wanting to teach their children anyway.

And Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said, "Paradise lies at the feet of the mother."

- Our next act is going to be done by Crystal Shahid singing "Mother".

Let's give Crystal a nice round of applause, especially you mothers.

[audience applauding] ♪ Mother, mother ♪ ♪ So gentle and so sweet ♪ ♪ God has placed all good life at your feet ♪ - Mother leadership is necessary.

Imam Muhammad said that, "Man means mine "and woman means the womb of mine.

"And it is from the women that all life comes," all life.

That means that the life of the community comes from the woman.

- That's a beautiful song.

[audience applauding] That's Sister Crystal singing "Mother".

Very good.

- When we put things in perspective, we were only... At the time that Sister Clara Muhammad decided that she was gonna teach her children at home, we were what, maybe 60, 70 years up from emancipation.

So now, here is a generation of people who still don't know how to read and write.

When Sister Clara Muhammad decided that she was gonna teach her children at home, she did more than teach her children.

She taught adults how to read and write.

So when we think about the University of Islam, that was the name that she gave it so that we could think on a higher level.

We didn't think it was elementary school or primary school.

We thought we were in a university to be those of higher level thinking.

♪ Young, gifted and Black ♪ ♪ Oh what a lovely precious dream ♪ ♪ To be young, gifted and Black ♪ ♪ Open your heart to what I mean ♪ ♪ In the whole world, you know, ♪ ♪ There's a million boys and girls ♪ - It grew from Sister Clara Muhammad's living room into the homes of others and then into actual buildings and schools.

So it grew from that to maybe 40, 50 schools that we had all over the country.

- Okay, what are some of the principles that Sister Clara Muhammad Schools espoused or upheld?

- Well, first of all, Sister Clara Muhammad School is an alternative school.

It's an Islamic school.

And it's philosophy, or it's base, is based on the Holy Quran, which is the book of the Muslim, as well as the Sunnah, or life, of Prophet Muhammad.

And this is the two basic fundamentals that we find Sister Clara Muhammad established on.

[lyrics in Arabic] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - If we establish our goals for Arabic and Islamic studies, then I think we'll be able to come together and create our methodologies of teaching Arabic and Islamic studies to our students.

- Assalamu alaikum.

[audience responds in Arabic] [speaking in Arabic] [speaking in Arabic] [speaking in Arabic] [speaking in Arabic] [speaking in Arabic] [speaking in Arabic] [audience applauding and cheering] - [speaking in Arabic] Good job!

Good job!

- Sister Clara Muhammad passed in 1972.

That was a very tough time for us to lose such a wonderful woman that we loved.

And Honorable Elijah Muhammad passed in 1975.

And when he passed in 1975, Imam Muhammad became the leader of the community.

And that was a wonderful time, because now we're embracing true Islam.

- And I was born to Clara Muhammad who never received more than a seventh grade education.

She said, "Son, the highest I was able to go in school "was seventh grade."

And my father told us the highest he was able to go in school was the third grade.

- Imam Muhammad said the curriculum that we're using at this University of Islam is not sufficient enough.

It wasn't that we didn't have good teachers, but the orientation was based on these beliefs that we had.

And so when Imam Muhammad came in, he closed many of the schools so that we could reorganize and get a more classical curriculum.

And in doing that, he renamed the schools after his mother, Sister Clara Muhammad Schools.

So here, Imam Muhammad was taking a step of establishing that this school is gonna be named after a woman and women can be leaders in a Muslim community.

Yeah.

- You have to make an investment.

You have to make an investment in the future, so along with us to invest in the future of our children.

If we don't invest materially, if we don't invest in education, strong schools, then really we don't have much.

We don't have much at all.

- [Khalil] Unfortunately, I never got a chance to meet my great-grandmother.

But if I could talk to her today, I'd asked her to pray for this little boy that grew into the man that desires to hold up her legacy alongside this community.

- The mission of Muhammad Schools of Atlanta is to provide an education based on Quranic principles and their universal applications.

Our goal is to teach all students to accept their God-given responsibilities and full potential as we promote a nurturing environment that engages students in discovery and critical thinking.

[peaceful music] - [Female student] We are the seeds that have been first planted into an exceptional environment; secondly, watered with the best of morals; third, given light and been enlightened; fourth, cultivated and groomed by the excellent examples.

And on this fifth day, we are being harvested to share our bounties and wealth with a waiting world.

- [Male Student] We must step up as human beings.

We must step up as Khalifahs to do our job.

We must fulfill our commitment to Allah to become leaders.

- [Female student] I believe every child deserves to sing the song of happiness and success.

[somber music] [ambient music]