The lawyer and student minister Dr. Ava Muhammad died on August 26th. She was the national spokeswoman for the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.
Ava was the first woman in the history of the Nation of Islam to be appointed Minister. She had worked all her life to spread the word of Allah and help the lost find their way.
Let’s learn more about the great leader’s death, obituary, age, race and some of the most important things she did and contributed in her life.
What caused Ava Muhammad’s death and who wrote her obituary?
Ava Muhammad was the first woman to serve as a minister in a mosque. Her death was a great loss to the Muslim community because she was so important to the Nation of Islam.
When told in 1983 that she had only five years to live because of cancer, the minister had a long struggle with her health. But because she worked hard and didn’t give up, she beat cancer and lived another 40 years.
Most of her followers and friends wrote an obituary for the minister, telling touching stories about Ava and wishing her soul would rest in peace.
Taking to Facebook, one of her fans wrote: “Sad to hear that Sis. Minimum. Ava Muhammad has died. May God be happy with her as she rests in peace forever.”
Everyone in the Islamic community was saddened by the loss of such a great person and everyone offered their condolences to the family of the deceased.
Though her family didn’t say what caused her death, she beat cancer years ago, so it probably wasn’t. But it could also have been the age.
How old was the deceased lawyer?
She was born in 1951, so she was 71 years old when she died. The minister was also an attorney and received her Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center in 1975.
Ava grew up in a middle-class home in Ohio. She made history by becoming the first woman to become a Muslim pastor, despite her parents being Christians.
In 2013, the attorney was disbarred, but joined the New York Bar Association. Muhammad married Darius Muhammad in 1988 and they had a happy life together.
But at the age of 28, when she was told she had cancer, the successful lawyer experienced a spiritual awakening. On July 28, 1998, Ava agreed to become the Southern Regional Minister for the Nation of Islam.
Growing up, she looked up to Stokely Carmichael and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and she began her life as a minister telling people about Allah.
What kind of person was Ava Muhammad?
Ava Muhammad was born to parents who were both teachers and were of the African American race. Her parents were both Christians and raised her to be a Christian, but when she nearly died her youth church could not help her.
She said she was a Christian but felt comfortable in Allah’s words about black people being able to take care of themselves.
The activist joined the Nation of Islam in 1981. She said joining the group helped her beat cancer and she has spent her whole life helping people like her.
“I hope with all my heart that I can do my job well and help the pastor get rid of the idea that women are inferior beings who cannot preach the Word of God or care for the flock.”
This is what Minister Ava Muhammad said on July 28, 1998 when she was sworn in as Regional Minister of the Nation of Islam. The words mattered because the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan had given her a job that had never been done before. She was the first woman in Islamic history to be a regional leader of the nation and minister of a mosque. That day, she stood before a full crowd at the Hillside Chapel Truth Center in Atlanta.
Growing up in a Methodist family, Muhammad took a long time to find his way into the Nation of Islam. Raised in a middle-class family in Columbus, Ohio, she claims to be a Christian to this day. Both of Muhammad’s parents were teachers, and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) and other civil rights activists who fought for equality and self-reliance had a big impact on her as a child. She attended Georgetown University’s Law Center and received her law degree in 1975. Muhammad was on a normal path for a law student: she studied criminal defense and was on the way to a successful career. But in 1979, when she was 28, her life changed. She was told she had cancer so she sought spiritual help to cope with her fear of dying.
Muhammad first went to the church she grew up in, but that didn’t give her the comfort she was looking for and she was still afraid of death. She went to New York City to hear Louis Farrakhan because she liked how the Nation of Islam was pushing for black people to be self-reliant. She finally felt where she belonged. She’d always loved the message of self-reliance Farrakhan preached, but in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, she discussed why this time was different. Muhammad said, “When I heard him talk about Allah, it went deep into my soul and I knew I was born to it.” She also said that her cancer disappeared after hearing Farrakhan’s message.
In 1981 Mohammed became a member of the Nation of Islam. As a member, she was of much help to Farrakhan and was his counsel in a number of important court cases. President Reagan blocked Americans from going to Libya.
In short.
Born in Columbus, Ohio in 1951, she married Darius Muhammad in 1988. In 1975 he received his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center.
In 1998, she became the first woman in charge of a mosque when she was put in charge of No. 15 Muhammad Mosque. In the same year she was also appointed representative of the Southern Region of the Nation of Islam and wrote the books Real Love and Queens of Planet Earth: The Birth and Ascension of the Original Woman.
1986. After Farrakhan’s trip to this country, attempts were made to arrest him. Muhammad was asked to defend him. In a case that garnered even more attention, she sued the New York Post for defamation of Farrakhan. After several years in court, Muhammad was able to prove that the Post had deliberately and maliciously taken Farrakhan’s words out of context to support a 1994 story that claimed he was implicated in the murder of Malcolm X.
During this time, Muhammad rose to prominence in the nation and was seen as one of the nation’s future leaders, although the nation had historically placed limits on women. In the late 1990s, one of the nation’s goals was to reduce the extremes of its way of life. Muhammad had grown into a leader who could hopefully help the often-threatened religion connect with the mainstream. She was one of the country’s most prominent women and spoke at the 1997 Million Women March. She spoke to the women at the march about “The Advancement of Black Women Who Are or Want to Become Professionals, Entrepreneurs, and/or Politicians.” message, she spoke about how important it is for women to have a strong relationship with God first if they want to get ahead in life.
As regional minister for the South, Muhammad Farrakhan still provided legal advice and led efforts to resolve issues the nation was facing both domestically and internationally. She was one of the most vocal and active members of the nation fighting the British government’s expulsion order against Farrakhan. The ban was introduced in 1986 and it was believed that Farrakhan’s presence in Britain would harm the public good. In 1999 she spoke at a rally in London organized by the London branch of the Nation of Islam to continue the fight against the ban. She was quoted as saying in the final call, “It is an insult to us as a people to say that you and I are not smart enough or skilled enough to understand its message.”
Despite being the first woman in Islam’s 1,400-year history to be put in charge of the clergy, Muhammad seemed more ordinary than many people thought. She was close to bestselling author Iyanla Vanzant and Susan Taylor, editor of Essence magazine. More importantly, she insisted that God welcomes people of all races, religions and walks of life. That suits her down-to-earth attitude. She told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “We are all one.”
When Muhammad was appointed the nation’s southern regional representative and minister of Muhammad Mosque No. 15 in 1998, it seemed as if the nation and Farrakhan were moving away from traditional Islamic beliefs. It was different because it showed that women can be leaders in the land and because Muhammad’s message was about including everyone, which was the opposite of what Farrakhan had said in the past. But Muhammad says it was actually a sign of the group’s growth. “We don’t like being seen as misanthropes,” she said in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It’s our ego that gives labels and names and separates us. We can never say that someone is wrong or will not go to heaven because they are Jewish, Christian or Muslim,” she said.
Muhammad thought that the philosophy of the nation did not change all at once, but changed over time. She told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “That’s how the message has changed over time.” “But it doesn’t change and moves differently. It’s closer to what God wanted.” Muhammad also told her that part of her job as the leader of the Nation of Islam is to do what God wants.