ታሪካችን
From the Najashi’s Abyssinia to a funeral in 1986, a room in Arlington, a storefront on Georgia Avenue and five acres of woods in Adelphi.
c. 615
Aksum, Abyssinia
Before Madinah, the Prophet ﷺ sent a small group of his companions across the Red Sea to the Najashi, the Christian king of Abyssinia. The king heard Surah Maryam recited, refused to hand them back to Quraysh, and kept them safe for years. Ethiopia was the first land to shelter Muslims, and this foundation carries the name of that journey.
إِنَّ بِأَرْضِ الْحَبَشَةِ مَلِكًا لَا يُظْلَمُ عِنْدَهُ أَحَدٌ
“In the land of Abyssinia is a king in whose presence no one is wronged.”
The Prophet ﷺ to his companions, Sirah of Ibn Hisham
1986
Washington, DC
A brother from the community died and was buried in a non-Muslim cemetery. The Ethiopian Muslims of Washington met, formed the Foundation of Ethiopian Muslims in North America (FEMNA), and made a fund their first act, so that it would never happen again. Br. Jabal Abamecha was its first president. For years there was no office: the work happened in members’ homes, and Br. Najib Mohammed wrote and sent out its first newsletter, READ, by himself.
1995
A new name
To keep alive Ethiopia’s place in the story of Islam, the foundation took the name of the first migration: the First Hijrah Foundation.
1998 to 1999
Arlington, Virginia
The first office opened on Walter Reed Drive in Arlington. Under the Imam, Sheikh Muhammad Siraj Saleh, a scholar from Wollo, four or five regulars became ten, then thirty, until the room could not hold them. In April 1999 a center up the road opened for two hundred. In 1999 the community also buried two of its own in its own plots, with the proper rites.
2006
Washington, DC
From Georgia Avenue, First Hijrah hosted the 6th Annual Badr Convention: four days of lectures, workshops, youth drama and sport for Ethiopian Muslims from across North America.
2010
Georgia Ave NW
The brick building at 4324 Georgia Avenue, built in 1965 and rented for years, was bought by the community. It is still a masjid today, with Jumu’ah first in Amharic and then in English.
Today
Powder Mill Rd, Adelphi
The community bought the five wooded acres of the Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church, its home for sixty years: a 1963 school and a 1990 meeting house whose timber ceiling rises to a skylight. The pledge drive has passed $910,000, and the weekend school already fills every room.
Mission
To promote understanding, compassion and peace between Muslims and the wider community; to share knowledge about Islam; and to serve everyone with respect and dignity, whatever their faith or background.
Vision
Programs and services that benefit everyone. FHF serves the Muslim community first, but its doors are open to all. It is fully supported by its community and independent of political groups, foreign entities and special interests, governed by bylaws and by boards its members elect.
وَتَعَاوَنُوا عَلَى الْبِرِّ وَالتَّقْوَىٰ
الْمُؤْمِنُ لِلْمُؤْمِنِ كَالْبُنْيَانِ يَشُدُّ بَعْضُهُ بَعْضًا
FHF is governed by its bylaws, a Board of Trustees and a Board of Directors, all elected by the membership, with an annual general meeting and town halls through the year.
Oversee the foundation’s assets and finances, approve budgets and guide long-term plans.
Run the day to day: programs, facilities and the annual meeting, reporting to the community.
