THE DAR

Shahadah – To declare that there is no God but the one true God and Muhammad is His prophet and last messenger was all that was needed to declare one’s place as a Muslim in the Dar. Bai’ah – a pledge to the spiritual leader of the community, spoke to the commitment one made to contribute to the success of the community. In order to realize the potential greatness of the Dar, all members had a role to fulfill. As the sunnah was put into practice, each member, men and women and children assumed a role with responsibilities to fulfill, giving of themselves in order to create a safe place in which to build a common center.
Some of the earliest developments of the Dar were committees set up as liaisons between the leadership and the community members and between the Dar and the community-at-large. They took every opportunity available to spread their message of the one true God and became a regular presence at events like street bazaars and political hearings. Arguably, one of the most effective tools for establishing their presence in the community was a clear and distinct style of dress. Men in long robes and women in head and face veils regularly made their way through crowds of vendors and patrons from the train station on the corner of Nostrand Avenue to Herkimer Place just a couple of blocks away.