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Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering
The problem confronting theology in the black community is not simply proving that God exists but, rather, that God cares. For the Muslim, it is essential that such a theology be grounded in the Quran and Islam's theological tradition. The Blackamerican Muslim, meanwhile, must also vindicate the protest-oriented agenda of black religion.
234 pages, Paperback
First published July 9, 2009
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About the author
Sherman A. Jackson
12 books67 followersSherman A. Jackson (also known as Abdul Hakim Jackson) is an American scholar. He is the King Faisal Chair of Islamic Thought and Culture and Professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. He was formerly the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Visiting Professor of Law and Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Michigan.
He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and has taught at the University of Texas at Austin, Indiana University, Wayne State University and the University of Michigan. From 1987 to 1989, he served as Executive Director of the Center of Arabic Study Abroad in Cairo, Egypt. He is author of several books, including Islamic Law and the State: The Constitutional Jurisprudence of Shihâb al-Dîn al-Qarâfî (E.J. Brill, 1996), On the Boundaries of Theological Tolerance in Islam: Abû Hâmid al-Ghazâlî's Faysal al-Tafriqa (Oxford, 2002), Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking Towards the Third Resurrection (Oxford, 2005) and Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering (Oxford, 2009).
He has been featured on the Washington Post-Newsweek blog, "On Faith," as well as the Huffington Post. In 2009 he was named among the 500 most influential Muslims in the world by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in Amman, Jordan, and the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. He has also been recognized by Religion Newswriters Association ReligionLink as among the top ten experts on Islam in America.
He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and has taught at the University of Texas at Austin, Indiana University, Wayne State University and the University of Michigan. From 1987 to 1989, he served as Executive Director of the Center of Arabic Study Abroad in Cairo, Egypt. He is author of several books, including Islamic Law and the State: The Constitutional Jurisprudence of Shihâb al-Dîn al-Qarâfî (E.J. Brill, 1996), On the Boundaries of Theological Tolerance in Islam: Abû Hâmid al-Ghazâlî's Faysal al-Tafriqa (Oxford, 2002), Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking Towards the Third Resurrection (Oxford, 2005) and Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering (Oxford, 2009).
He has been featured on the Washington Post-Newsweek blog, "On Faith," as well as the Huffington Post. In 2009 he was named among the 500 most influential Muslims in the world by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in Amman, Jordan, and the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. He has also been recognized by Religion Newswriters Association ReligionLink as among the top ten experts on Islam in America.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 24, 2020
The fundamental question of theodicy as a branch of religious studies is one most people have considered at some point in their lives: if God is omnipotent and good, why is the world rife with so much suffering? For those who have seemingly suffered the most in history this question is particularly acute. So it is with African-Americans, a people whose ethnogenesis was itself the result of terrifying oppression and whose ethnicity has persisted to this day as one of subjugation and resistance against a predatory mainstream society. How could an all-knowing and benevolent God allow such a thing?
Sherman Jackson is one of the most learned scholars of American Islam and an African-American Muslim. This book is not however a straightforward analysis of theodicy intended for a mainstream audience: it is a highly academic text for those already conversant in the four predominant schools of Islamic theology. Jackson has explicitly written an Islamic response to a seminal text of African-American theology entitled "Is God a White Racist?" by the late theologian William R. Jones. He outlines the views of the main Islamic theological schools on the issues of predetermination, free will, benevolence and all-knowing. He is clearly interested in saving African-Americans of what he sees as the trap of being driven to atheism out of despair and anger over the wounds of history and the apparent mute acquiescence, a few have even argued connivance, of God in their historical suffering.
As Jackson outlines in great detail, views differ from school to school on the questions of free will and omnipotence, with the Mutazalite school standing as an outlier in granting the greatest ambit to human agency. But all the schools essentially treat creation as an efficient cause: to varying degrees it is up to humans to commit evil or not and it is people's later dispensation to be judged according to their acts. The basic admission of moral standards that deem oppression wrong ipso facto do not even predate what we now call religion and in their absence, as Friedrich Nietzsche has demonstrated, there would be nothing to say that what counts as morally "good" would not simply be whatever the strong say is in their interest.
We do have other standards however, even if some choose to ignore them. That people do and suffer evil during their time on earth ultimately amounts to a few moments of ephemerality before they return to the eternal, where those who have done wrong will be consumed with regret and woe over their actions. Of course it is one thing to simply state this and quite another to truly accept it as a rational proposition. As Jackson closes the book by noting, such an acceptance requires a direct experiential component of religion which theological study alone can never provide.
I'm going to go back and read Jackson's first book about African-American Islam for a more general analysis of the subject. While this book was highly academic and not particularly accessible to lay readers, it succeeds on its own terms by explaining the issue of theodicy from an Islamic perspective. Jackson is one of the signal intellectuals of an authentically American Islam.
Sherman Jackson is one of the most learned scholars of American Islam and an African-American Muslim. This book is not however a straightforward analysis of theodicy intended for a mainstream audience: it is a highly academic text for those already conversant in the four predominant schools of Islamic theology. Jackson has explicitly written an Islamic response to a seminal text of African-American theology entitled "Is God a White Racist?" by the late theologian William R. Jones. He outlines the views of the main Islamic theological schools on the issues of predetermination, free will, benevolence and all-knowing. He is clearly interested in saving African-Americans of what he sees as the trap of being driven to atheism out of despair and anger over the wounds of history and the apparent mute acquiescence, a few have even argued connivance, of God in their historical suffering.
As Jackson outlines in great detail, views differ from school to school on the questions of free will and omnipotence, with the Mutazalite school standing as an outlier in granting the greatest ambit to human agency. But all the schools essentially treat creation as an efficient cause: to varying degrees it is up to humans to commit evil or not and it is people's later dispensation to be judged according to their acts. The basic admission of moral standards that deem oppression wrong ipso facto do not even predate what we now call religion and in their absence, as Friedrich Nietzsche has demonstrated, there would be nothing to say that what counts as morally "good" would not simply be whatever the strong say is in their interest.
We do have other standards however, even if some choose to ignore them. That people do and suffer evil during their time on earth ultimately amounts to a few moments of ephemerality before they return to the eternal, where those who have done wrong will be consumed with regret and woe over their actions. Of course it is one thing to simply state this and quite another to truly accept it as a rational proposition. As Jackson closes the book by noting, such an acceptance requires a direct experiential component of religion which theological study alone can never provide.
I'm going to go back and read Jackson's first book about African-American Islam for a more general analysis of the subject. While this book was highly academic and not particularly accessible to lay readers, it succeeds on its own terms by explaining the issue of theodicy from an Islamic perspective. Jackson is one of the signal intellectuals of an authentically American Islam.
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March 7, 2021Dr Jackson has worked really hard for this book. I don't understand why he doesn't write more on theology!
August 11, 2011
Dr Jackson draws on the book "Is God A White Racist?" by William Jones to tackle the issue of suffering; God's culpability; human culpability. Jones book was written from a Christian theological perspective, Jackson writes from an Islamic theological perspective looking at 4 major schools within Islam: Mutazilite, Traditionalist, Maturidi and Ashari to tackle the questions of theodicy: why does God allow what he allows? It is written and structured clearly and introduced very well. Some background in Islamic theology would be helpful as this book is very academic and targeted at those who are somewhat conversant in the questions of theology and theodicy. You can really have a discussion with the text. Happy reading!
July 11, 2009
Prof. Jackson does a masterful job of describing the problem of suffering in the four major Islamic theological schools and then working within the idea of the suffering of Blackamericans.
The majority of this work could be used to study the idea of God and His omnibenevolence and omnipotence in Islam. Anyone interested in a careful but clear presentation of the idea of God in Islam will find this new work well worth the time put into it.
The majority of this work could be used to study the idea of God and His omnibenevolence and omnipotence in Islam. Anyone interested in a careful but clear presentation of the idea of God in Islam will find this new work well worth the time put into it.
October 1, 2025
This is an excellent work, although the title does not really match the content.
This is a brilliant introduction to the four schools of Aqidah (Mutazilism, Ash'arism, Maturidism, and Traditionalism), their origins, brief history, primary differences, and most notably their position on theodicy (the problem of evil).
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand theological differences between Muslim groups better.
This is a brilliant introduction to the four schools of Aqidah (Mutazilism, Ash'arism, Maturidism, and Traditionalism), their origins, brief history, primary differences, and most notably their position on theodicy (the problem of evil).
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand theological differences between Muslim groups better.
December 31, 2024
Perhaps a perfect book.
January 1, 2026
This book can be thought of in two ways. The first is a theological reading of the problem of suffering and the relevant theological analyses to discuss this. The secondary point is to contextualise the problem of suffering within the Black American context. This is addressed as a response to Jones' critiques of the religious response to the idea of Black Suffering, and more specifically to his critique of God as a 'White Racist.'
It is possible to read this book purely as theological exercise, without engaging directly with the subject of Jones' critiques. I personally am not hugely familiar with Jones and the content of his writings, and so the lens through which I read was purely theological.
Jackson explores key theological concepts which are key to the exploring the God and the problem of suffering. He, in turn, provides the historical context of 4 schools of Islamic theology - namely Mu'tazilite, Ash'ari, Maturidi and Traditionalism - and talks through their views on topics such as Omnibenevolence, Omnipotence, free will, suffering, and the cause of actions. He does this to demonstrate the diversity of thought, but also to challenge Jones' assertions from multiple angles. I found these discussions to be extremely useful.
This book allowed me to appreciate the theological roots of these movements and to appreciate the thought-culture within theology more broadly. It gave me a good grounding in some core beliefs. Jackson explained these extremely well - it was clear how these ideas were constructed, how they fit together, and the challenges they addressed. In particular, I found the responses of the Ash'aris to the Mu'tazilites to be extremely well constructed and demonstrated. Such topics are not easy convey, and I appreciate the clarity, insight and knowledge that Jackson presented these in.
In the conclusion, Jackson makes the point that theology is not the only lens through which we experience and understand religion. He briefly touched on the value of experiential knowledge and its relation to the Black American experience. I think this was a really interesting note to end on, and definitely gave the reader a point to continue their journey on.
Overall, I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who is keen to broaden their knowledge on theological concepts. I would consider myself to be a beginner in this subject, so it's certainly suitable for someone who has only a little knowledge in this area. It personally took me a long time to read this book, and I would say that it is a heavy read. Some ideas really need to be thought through and understood if you want to appreciate it.
It is possible to read this book purely as theological exercise, without engaging directly with the subject of Jones' critiques. I personally am not hugely familiar with Jones and the content of his writings, and so the lens through which I read was purely theological.
Jackson explores key theological concepts which are key to the exploring the God and the problem of suffering. He, in turn, provides the historical context of 4 schools of Islamic theology - namely Mu'tazilite, Ash'ari, Maturidi and Traditionalism - and talks through their views on topics such as Omnibenevolence, Omnipotence, free will, suffering, and the cause of actions. He does this to demonstrate the diversity of thought, but also to challenge Jones' assertions from multiple angles. I found these discussions to be extremely useful.
This book allowed me to appreciate the theological roots of these movements and to appreciate the thought-culture within theology more broadly. It gave me a good grounding in some core beliefs. Jackson explained these extremely well - it was clear how these ideas were constructed, how they fit together, and the challenges they addressed. In particular, I found the responses of the Ash'aris to the Mu'tazilites to be extremely well constructed and demonstrated. Such topics are not easy convey, and I appreciate the clarity, insight and knowledge that Jackson presented these in.
In the conclusion, Jackson makes the point that theology is not the only lens through which we experience and understand religion. He briefly touched on the value of experiential knowledge and its relation to the Black American experience. I think this was a really interesting note to end on, and definitely gave the reader a point to continue their journey on.
Overall, I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who is keen to broaden their knowledge on theological concepts. I would consider myself to be a beginner in this subject, so it's certainly suitable for someone who has only a little knowledge in this area. It personally took me a long time to read this book, and I would say that it is a heavy read. Some ideas really need to be thought through and understood if you want to appreciate it.
May 29, 2018
An important book on theodicy that I will most likely want to read again to better understand. I really appreciated the way that the book is cleanly organized by following different schools of thought and elucidating a coherent summary of their perspective on why God allows suffering and how free will is consistent with a just, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent nature. The grounding in the reality of oppression of BlackAmericans is an important and a useful lens to view the implications that these high level theological ideas have for how to live our lives and organize our society.
June 24, 2012
Excellent book, highly recommended
September 28, 2019
A fascinating work that demonstrates the depth of our Islamic scholars as thinkers
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews