Masjid al-Taqwa: A Jewel in Our Midst

Most Altadenans routinely drive by a modest storefront building on Lake Avenue, and may occasionally ponder the green sign stating Masjid al-Taqwa. Founding members of the mosque were mostly African-Americans attracted to the Nation of Islam, which was led by The Honorable Elijah Mohammad from its beginnings in the early 1930s, blossoming over the decades as a source of Black pride and self-determination. Members first met in living rooms, then rented space in various locations on Lincoln Avenue and in Hen’s Teeth Square;  Masjid al-Taqwa has been at its current location for decades. Warith Dean Mohammad, son of Elijah Muhammad, became the leader of the Nation of Islam after his father’s death in 1975, and led a unification with mainstream Sunni Islam. In the decades that followed, Masjid al-Taqwa broadened its membership to include Muslims from many different backgrounds and countries of origin.

At recent Friday prayer services (known as Jummah), Masjid al-Taqwa welcomed dozens of worshippers.  Local religious leaders and scholars rotate attendance to provide the Friday sermon, usually based on a theme from the Quran, or sometimes from the news of the day. Some congregants try to fulfill the obligation of praying five times a day at the mosque. 

During the holy month of Ramadan, which began March 10 this year, congregants fasted during daylight hours, and over the course of the month recited the entire Quran. The fast was broken at the end of Ramadan when the crescent moon first appeared to announce the new Islamic month of Shawwal, ushering in the holiday of Eid al-Fitr. The Islamic calendar is based on the phases of the moon, so holiday dates fall differently on the secular calendar each year; this year the Eid holiday fell during the second week of April. After the concluding prayer services, congregants gathered for parties and festive meals, locally and also with members of the greater Muslim community in the Los Angeles area. Children especially look forward to Eid, not only for the celebratory foods but because of the custom of receiving gifts from the adults in the community.

Thinking about the mosque’s origins in the Nation of Islam, member Aaron Abdus-Shakoor recounts, “African-Americans had just about had enough of it. We had enough of oppression, we had enough of discrimination. But we kind of evolved, and we have become more involved in the human family.” He has fond memories of his early years as a Muslim in Altadena and Pasadena, where the custom was for the young men to attend “Fruit of Islam” (a men’s religious organization) on Saturday, and then head out to go door to door selling the newspaper of the Nation of Islam, Muhammad Speaks.”That experience of selling papers, knocking on people’s doors, really for me was so educational and so fulfilling because you put your foot in people’s homes,” he said. “The African-American experience was really warm, they would call me Brother Aaron, and they still use that term. You got to know people and the neighborhood, and they were regular customers. They were so inviting.”  He described how they also sold food products, and their customers would watch for them every week to buy bean pies and whiting fish.

Founding member Joan Maryam Abu-Bakir also recalls discouraging experiences of racism from her childhood and youth in Michigan and in California. The daughter of a medical doctor, she grew up in a largely white community but was never fully accepted. Teachers and even college professors discouraged her academic ambitions, and she ended up abandoning her dream of medical school and instead became a public school teacher. Her first introduction to the Nation of Islam was a youthful encounter with the boxer Muhammad Ali, who visited her childhood home in Michigan. Her family later moved to California, and she converted while a student at UCSD. In 1975, because of her father’s professional connections, she had the opportunity to meet Elijah Muhammad right before he died. “My goal was to see this man that made a big transformation in my life. And I sort of subconsciously wanted him to know that I would carry on this Islam,” she said. She had joined because of her experience with racism, but it ended up giving her a lifetime of spirituality.

Kameelah Waheed Wilkerson is a second generation member who remembers when the congregation was called the Altadena Pasadena Dawah (“preaching of Islam”) Center, and remembers the day when all the members gathered to decide on a new name. A number of families had volunteered to research different names and what they signified, and then each family pitched their idea to the whole community. The final choice was Masjid al-Taqwa; Masjid is Arabic for mosque (literally, “place of prostration”), and Taqwa has a number of meanings, including “God-consciousness.” Kameelah is proud that her mosque is a welcoming place for traveling Muslims, and for people who have come to town on temporary work assignments. “It’s a part of the history of the city, and it would be good to be known, to be represented, to be counted,” she said.

Neighbors are welcome to visit weekly Jummah services, which happen on Fridays at 1:00 p.m. and last about an hour. The address is 2183 North Lake Avenue, just south of Calaveras Street. It is best to email ahead to masjidaltaqwa@ymail.com, so they can be prepared to welcome you. Visitors are asked to dress respectfully and to be prepared to remove their shoes inside the mosque. Men enter through the north door, and women through the south door; women should also be prepared to cover their heads inside. Congregants pray while kneeling on the floor, but visiting observers will be ushered to seating on chairs.

Current members want their Altadena neighbors to know about Masjid al-Taqwa. “There is a vibrant, thriving Muslim community in Altadena, California. We’re here, and it’s a beautiful community.”