Al-Qalam 
By Cassiem Khan
A great tree has fallen in the passing of Achmad Cassiem. He was a grandfather, father, husband, teacher, revolutionary political prisoner. Boeta Achmad to some, Imam Achmad to those who recognized his Islamic political leadership, and a Muslim in the word’s true meaning. Trees provide shelter and shade, a place of learning and reflection to find our purpose, direction and strength. I benefitted from Achmad Cassiem’s example, generosity, humour, knowledge, unique use of words, conviction, courage and strength for four decades.
I visited Imam Achmad in the hospital on Sunday, 9th July 2023, days before his passing on 14th July 2023. Saddened by his weakened physical state, I shared that we benefitted from his strength for years. His response was that strength comes from Allah (swt). Then he recited (Quran 3:18), which I will always cherish as a parting gift.
Allah bears witness that there is no god but He:
And (so do) the angels
and those endued with knowledge
standing firm on justice.
There is no god but He
the Exalted in Power the Wise. (Quran 3:18),
This verse, he added, is the true meaning of the Kaliema Shahada. Reflecting on these last words of advice, I am drawn to the last line of the poem, When Great Trees Fall by Maya Angelou:
Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed; they existed. We can be. Be and be better.
For they existed.
To “be better”, to be the best version of ourselves, is what Achmad Cassiem wanted for all those he encountered. I had the opportunity to pray for him while making Tawaf during Hajj for the second time in my life. In 2023 for his health and in 1988, for his release from prison when he was held at Pretoria Central Prison and charged under the Terrorism Act. I visited him following Hajj, and he asked, “Did you sacrifice your Ismail?”
This question profoundly impacted my life, as I correctly understood it to mean sacrificing what is dearest to you in obeying the commands of the Almighty. For him, every moment was an opportunity to learn, and every moment was one in which you should be ready to die. He referred to death as graduation – the day you present to the Almighty what you have learned and how you struggled in His cause and the cause of the oppressed (Quran 4: 75).
Supporters and detractors use flattering and disparaging ways to describe Achmad Cassiem. Fight ideas with better ideas – he would remind us. The detractors were many, and their criticism was harsh, much of which was without seeking to understand and engage him meaningfully. Those who felt their ideas, actions and associations challenged by Achmad Cassiem depict and remember him as rigid, unreasonable, and dictatorial. Many detractors sought to isolate him, claiming he was a fringe element and did not speak for most Muslims. Their critique, perhaps inadvertently, mimicked the exact practice of the apartheid government, which sought to curtail and silence him through isolation by imprisonment and banning.
He was mocked and maligned by fellow Muslims for introducing a just social order based on Islam as a solution to advance the struggle for total liberation from apartheid. These practising Muslims were comfortable espousing and echoing “Marxist and socialist” ideas that made them sound progressive. Many of them never felt the wrath of the apartheid state and certainly not in the way Imam Achmad did.
The 1990s editions of this very newspaper bear testimony to the attacks and ridicule Imam Achmad experienced, especially by those who sought to ingratiate themselves with the populist leaders of the ruling party. The masses that voted for the ruling party feel betrayed by the party because of its widespread corruption and lack of delivery of essential services.
He had no qualms in legally challenging the editor of this paper at that time for publishing a letter that attacked the integrity of one of the members of the Qibla Movement, which he founded in 1979. This matter remains unresolved. He gave a detailed account of this matter to my wife (the daughter of the member in question) on our visit to him earlier this year. He joked, saying that he has a memory of two elephants.
Two great revolutionary moments in history stand out as having captured the imagination of Achmad Cassiem. In his early teens, he witnessed and saluted the protest march of 30 000 Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) members, led by Phillip Kgosana, into Cape Town’s central business district to protest the Sharpeville and Langa massacres of 21st March 1960. The second was the victory of the 1979 Islamic revolution that removed the Shah of Iran.
By 1964, whilst still at high school, Achmad was arrested for an act of armed resistance to bring down the Apartheid government. He was imprisoned for five years in the infamous Robben Island prison. Most political prisoners on the Island at the time were members of the PAC. Here he would complete high school and later attain an Honors degree in Philosophy. As a political prisoner, he worked in the quarry, and on their way to this back-breaking and humiliating form of punishment, prisoners would pass PAC President Robert Sobukwe, and Achmad too would greet with the open-handed salute, proclaiming Izwe Lethu – iAfrika.
Sobukwe was imprisoned and isolated in a separate building and barred from speaking to anyone. He would gesture by picking up soil and letting it blow in the wind. The political prisoners understood the Sobukwe gesture as meaning free the land. Sobukwe left an indelible mark on Achmad Cassiem.
Upon his release in December 1969, in the months after the killing of Imam Abdullah Haron by the apartheid security police, he found a Muslim community embroiled in petty squabbles and a religious leadership unwilling to continue the resistance to apartheid for which Imam Haron was martyred. He was served with a five-year banning order which prevented him from being in the company of more than two people. The apartheid state banning orders prevented Achmad and many former political prisoners from attending Jumu’ah. Through their agents, they would then suggest that anti-apartheid activists were “communists” who did not believe in God as a way to discredit them and reduce their influence.
The apartheid state’s use of this type of slander and isolation failed because Achmad was raised and nurtured by his father, Boeta Cassiem, one of the earliest members of the Tablighi Jamaat in South Africa. His father also hosted Imam Haron and meetings of the Cape and Claremont Muslim Youth Movements in his District Six home. His father also gifted Achmad a Quran as a companion upon his first arrest. He made his father proud by being a worthy recipient of this primary source of guidance, learning and teaching until the end of his life. The apartheid state imprisoned and charged him in 1988 for, amongst other charges, the use of “subversive” and inflammatory verses of the Holy Quran. The racists feared the Quran.
The Islamic Revolution in Iran under the leadership of Imam Khomeini consolidated and enhanced the Islamic, philosophical, political and revolutionary thought of Achmad Cassiem. In my first meeting with Boeta Achmad, he gave me a reading list: Revolutionary Islam and Islamic Revolution by Dr Ezzati and Islamic Government by Imam Khomeini. This scholar and revolutionary cleric were unlike anyone Achmad had ever come across. Using the terminology of the Quran, Imam Khomeini focused the attention of the Muslim world on the oppressors as the HizbuShaytan and identified them as racists, imperialists and Zionists. Their strategy was to divide the oppressed, the Mustadafin, and the Muslims along national, language, racial and sectarian lines. The antidote was the unity of the oppressed masses. Conservative ulema in Iran labelled Imam Khomeini as a “Sunni”, and Achmad Cassiem was branded a “Shia”, hoping this would deter their efforts to confront the oppressors. These divisive labels are why Israel still exists and why corruption, exploitation, abuse and suffering thrive in the Muslim community and beyond.
Achmad worked tirelessly for the unity of the Muslims in South Africa. He played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Islamic Unity Convention. Through the Qibla Movement, he taught and promoted revolutionary Islam as the principled position to always side with and advance the interest of the oppressed masses. Principles -he emphasized, is what you begin with and stand on. He played a leading role in organizations such as the Ex-Political Prisoners Organization and the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania without compromising his belief in Islam.
Achmad taught Humanology, which studies the evolution of man as a human being. He regarded this as a science with its validity and viability derived from Tawhid. Developing the critical consciousness of human beings was essential and paramount. The soul of human beings, he taught, are receptacles for Truth. He wrote several books, covering subjects such as education, Unity, Hunger, the Kaliema and Ramadhan as a Month of High Intensity Training. He wrote a regular article as social and political commentary for the Muslim News, entitled the Moving Finger under the pseudonym, Riter, whilst under banning order.
How can a man die better? Is the title of a book on the life of Robert Sobukwe. Achmad Cassiem’s life answers this question perfectly. By teaching the Truth from the Holy Quran, because the Truth is from your Lord (Quran 18:29). Boeta Achmad, you have sown the seeds of revolution; many revolutionaries will certainly blossom to establish the Just Social Order you wanted. Go well, our revolutionary teacher.
