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pct-zindabad · 1 year

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Cricket & Qawwali

𝘖𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘚𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘗𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘪 𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘘𝘢𝘸𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘪:

“Briefly – and dryly – Qawwali is a form of devotional music, originating centuries ago but in the form that we now know it in around the 13th century by one order of the Sufis. (Sufism is a practice of Islam but, with its modern puritanism belt much loosened, it asks for a more personalised relationship with God.) Generally but not exclusively, the lyrics will be the work of great Sufi poets, rendered in soaring, shrieking voices but to bare music: a tabla or dhol for a beat, a wheezing harmonium for rhythm, and the clapping of an entourage. The voice, the clapping, the chanting: these are the structural planks. But the spiritual base is the most important because Qawwali is not just music. To those versed, it is a call to prayer, to ritual, to contemplation, to faith, to hope, to despair, to love, to mourning, to celebration. Other music, especially modern music, asks you primarily to listen. Qawwali asks that you submit, that you immerse yourself. Otherwise it asks – and gives – you nothing.

Taken casually, it can be a mood thing. Sometimes it’s left me flat, a mish-mash of voice and noise that, to an ear attuned to Western music, is too disparate and incoherent. But sometimes – live especially and, thus, raw – it catches. Maybe it’s the right lyric or the force of repetition but then – forget mind, body and soul – it can set fire to eternity.

The more I thought about it, the more apparent Qawwali became as a revelatory point of reference for Pakistan’s cricket in those spells. Is it too crazy? I spoke to Abu Mohammad, one of the country’s leading Qawwals (better known alongside his brother Fareed Ayaz) about it. I’m not sure that the argument struck him immediately but, by the end of our conversation, as he promised to send me articles from 2005 (when former President Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistan cricket team and Mohammad and his troupe were all in Delhi together) linking Qawwali and cricket, I thought he might have warmed to it.

There were two questions I really wanted to put to him. Could it be said, I asked, that to the uninitiated, a Qawwali can sometimes feel like a living, breathing but random collection of voice and sound until, suddenly at one moment, it surges together. And then transformed, it becomes momentarily a single, powerful force. (Take also, I thought but didn’t ask, the alaap, that sudden vocal burst in a Qawwali. Is that not exactly like a riff of wickets by one bowler from out of nowhere, at odds with everything that has gone before?)

But it was the next question, about haal, that had really gnawed away in my head. The literal meaning of haal is state, as in a state of being, and it can refer to a number of different states. But it has come to be interpreted, more often than not, as one ultimate state of ecstasy, much sought after but rarely achieved, in man’s journey to get closer to God. “In the ecstatic state,” explains Idries Shah in his book Oriental Magic, “Sufis are believed to be able to overcome all barriers of time, space and thought. They are able to cause apparently impossible things to happen merely because they are no longer confined by the barriers which exist for more ordinary people.”

One of the primary objectives of Qawwali is to attempt to bring the performer as well as the listener to haal. Mohammad recites a Sufi poem and then says: “The state of haal is such that if you, God willing, get there in a gathering, after coming back from haal, you will not be able to describe or explain the feeling. This is just that state that only he knows who has experienced it. Haal or wajd [the literal translation for ecstasy] is such a state that comes to that man and takes him to the goal that he has been in search of all his life. Then he is not with himself, he has reached somewhere else.”

Is there a moment in live performances when you can identify that haal has been achieved? “No, no, no. You cannot identify this moment [haal ultimately can only be granted to you, you have no control over its arrival]. Sometimes it is the traditional chant Allah hu and it happens, sometimes a verse like Dam a dam mast qalandar and it’s there. This is dependent on the individual and their state of existence, the mood of the moment, where their point of thinking is taken from.”

“The entire tournament was, for Pakistan, like a Qawwali itself: disparate, floating aimlessly initially before suddenly coming together with such force that they became the best in the world”

This isn’t so radical a connection because, from the off, the concept of haal struck me as a familiar one. In a way it’s what all athletes strive towards. Only in sports they call it “the zone”, that state of supreme focus which sees athletes perform for periods at the very peak of their potential. How similar is it? Well. Dr Roberta Antonini Phillipe, a sports psychologist at the Institute of Movement Sciences and Sports Medicine, University of Geneva, says that when a player is in the zone, it is like being in a trance.

“The zone is when your mind fully connects with achieving a goal,” she explains. “When you’re in the zone your mind only processes the thoughts and images that help you execute your task successfully. In that state of mind the athlete explains that he has positive thoughts, positive images and sometimes also music in his head.”

The trope that the zone has spiritual components and implications is not unexplored. The psychologist Andrew Cooper did so in his 1998 book Playing in the Zone: Exploring the Spiritual Dimensions of Sports. Cooper is a devout student of Zen. “The zone is the essence and pinnacle of the athletic experience, for it reveals that, at their root, sports are a theatre for enacting the drama of self-transcendence,” he writes. “Athletes and fans alike, focused as we so often are on the game of winning and losing, miss the deeper significance that is right before our eyes. But in the zone, the extraordinary capacities that lie within each individual are made manifest. To grasp this hidden dimension is to transform the very meaning of athletic play.”

“Net practice and training – the rehearsed recordings of sport – are generally imprisonment for Pakistani players”

Where haal deviates from the zone is in the idea that the latter can be sought, that through a series of steps or rigorous preparation and practice it can be achieved. Many sports psychologists – but not all – believe that using different techniques of visualisation, goal-setting and self-motivation can help athletes to achieve and stay in the zone. Pakistan employs no such techniques and never has done. Just as Abu Mohammad says that Qawwali rehearsed and recorded in a studio is the imprisonment of the form, so it is with Pakistan. Net practice and training – the rehearsed recordings of sport – are generally imprisonment for Pakistani players. That is not where they shine. For them, as with Qawwali, it happens live and it happens unprepared. Enlightenment, goes one saying of Zen, is an accident, as it could be in haal and as it is in Pakistan cricket.

There are other points to consider in Pakistan’s deviation. How often, for example, do you hear of a group of athletes going into the zone collectively? It can and does happen. According to Ed Smith, Mike Brearley recently described a team in a zone: “Each player breathes in the others at their best, is strengthened by that identification, and gives off similar vibes to the rest of the team.” Choking, almost an opposite of the zone, does spread through teams. But the most striking aspect of Pakistan’s haal is the effect it has on the spectator. When Pakistan achieve haal, to be there live is to almost achieve haal yourself, in unison, as is the hope of every performance of Qawwali.

The Abu Dhabi Test win over England in January 2012, to pull out just one instance, managed this. I wrote a piece in which briefly I wondered about haal and Sufism. One spectator, part of the English travelling support, read it and wrote in. “As part of the visiting England fan base we sat yesterday in awe of what unfolded. Seldom do you see a side in any form of cricket dismantled in two hours of play. What struck many of us – and we have all played the game throughout our lives – was the seeming inevitability of what was about to unfold. From the very start of the England second innings one could sense a quiet but definite shift in ownership of the moment, something beyond the playing conditions and the participants solely. It was like karma, strange as that may sound. Your article summed up the sense of ‘other worldliness’ some of us felt.”

In other words, submission. Because, finally, what Pakistan are doing in these moments is asking you to submit. They are asking you, opponent and spectator, to submit to their reality, their chaos, their unplanning, their spur of the moment, their pox, their talent, their wretchedness, their beauty, their spirit. They are inviting you to dance with them. Except that it isn’t just a dance. It is the dance of that great Sufi poet, Jalaluddin Rumi:

“Dance, when you’re broken open.

Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off.

Dance in the middle of the fighting.

Dance in your blood.

Dance when you’re perfectly free.”

#📰🗞️

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almaqead · 6 months

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"Salat al Haram." From Surah 2, Al Baqarah, "the Heifer."

2:149-152- Trust in Whom You Pray

So from wherever you go out [for prayer, O Muhammad] turn your face toward al- Masjid al-Haram, and indeed, it is the truth from your Lord. And Allah is not unaware of what you do.

And from wherever you go out [for prayer], turn your face toward al-Masjid al-Haram. And wherever you [believers] may be, turn your faces toward it in order that the people will not have any argument against you, except for those of them who commit wrong; so fear them not but fear Me. And [it is] so I may complete My favor upon you and that you may be guided.

Just as We have sent among you a messenger from yourselves reciting to you Our verses and purifying you and teaching you the Book and wisdom and teaching you that which you did not know.

So remember Me; I will remember you. And be grateful to Me and do not deny Me.

Commentary:

Al Haram is the Holiest of Holies, the secret room within the soul which cannot be touched by corruption. Through Salat, "inquiry into Allah" and Qiblah, one finds the way to Haram and engages in Tawaf, "circling the sacred."

The verses above say to remember Allah, which is easily done through the Fatihah, "the benediction door" and every day success with Tawaf will be very likely.

One presumes in order to practice Islam and become a Muslim, a saint, one must go to Medina, hop a camel and starve for weeks while riding on its back on the way to Mecca and ultimately to Mosque al Haram. And this too is correct!

All doubt is removed what is called Ramadan, "the scorching", a period of intense pilgrimage. During a Ramadan, one is able to thin out all the impurities that prevent the soul from understanding the details of the Quran. After Ramadan comes Salat al Haram, "insight into the sacred precinct."

All of these together - Iiman, Fatihah, Salat, Qiblah, Tawaf, Kaaba, Ramadan, and Haram create one integrated experience of Allah called a Sunnah.

Sunnah are practices associated with the final enlightenment and ongoing pilgrimages of the Prophet Muhammad. Sunnah lead to another stage of Muslim attainment called harar in Hebrew. Harar which precedes Haram:

"The root חרר (hrr II) is not used in the Bible but in cognate languages it consistently means to be or become free.

In extant Hebrew it yields the one derivation: the masculine noun חר (hor), meaning noble or nobleman."

Only one who has undergone harar can enter Haram.

"It describes assigning an object or a person to the second stage, with the result that this object or person plays no longer a part in the natural economy, but is either in God's eternal care and for his sole purpose, or else a permanent citizen of the garbage heap. To illustrate this concept: the familiar Arabic word "harem," which comes from the Arabic cognate of our verb חרם (haram), describes a group of women who are no longer part of everyday life, but are kept separate in the care of the king and for his purpose.

It may seem a touch irreverent, but strictly in this verbal sense, it's not indefensible to state that the Church is God's harem (or rather, that a harem is a king's temple). In its treatment of the name Hermon, BDB Theological Dictionary notes that a closely related Sabean noun means temple, and in Arabic exists a noun that's closely related to the word for harem, which describes the inside of a mosque."

All the contents of the Quran explain Muhammad's Sunnah that resulted in his harar and entrance to Haram as a man of God instead of the whores of men who populate the world today. By the means of the Sunnah of Muhammad this will change.

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tasmiq · 1 year

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Post-Ramadan Jumu'ah Khuthbah: 28 April 2023

Our Tariqa showed its fervour as a spiritual school that flourished through its messages interpreted in my life, one of its mureeds (followers) without its usual programmes. Bismillah...

#1. Shaykh Taner said we must show love and tolerance toward each other. Moreover, we must stop making assumptions and coming to conclusions before we know all the facts. I have realised the power of just that, after even making dua'a of goodwill for two individuals that left a questionable mark in my life!

Firstly, a Caregiver that is pregnant after much difficulty conceiving with her partner. After hearing my tale about my prayer for her being answered, she said that she wished she had the ability to perceive when her prayers are answered. I told her that as humans, we get lost in the details and we're forgetful! That because I am arrested in my body as I am, I am forced to focus.

Secondly, a face-to-face encounter with someone who faced much hormonal issues but with her was her bespectacled, shy daughter, Subhana'Allah! In the latter case, just watching the affection between mother and daughter from afar, filled my heart with gratitude and knowing love that I feel for you two kiddies, Alhamdulillah!

#2. My new Physiotherapist discovered an ideal therapeutic intervention for my rehabilitation sojourn, mystically in the enth hour:

Subhana'Allah

Alhamdulillah

Allahu Akber

It echoes my only success story at Entabeni Rehab Centre with Jerome! Beautifully justified on the spot, into my future by Michelle's Physio, who unwittingly emanates Allah's nur ✨ With her quirky persona, I have realised another wisdom of Shaykh Taner, Alhamdulillah:

People do not live apart from Allah; everyone belongs to Allah. It is our job to see beyond the person, to see through the form and recognize Allah.

#3. Was your Rehbir Abbu's social media newsfeed echoing his wisdom which he credits the Tariqa for and that invariably shuts my nafs down, which is actually from Allah, Ya Shakur!

#4. Shaykh Taner soulfully echoed that Allah created us for a purpose. There is a purpose here, but we want to do something else. When our purpose and the purpose of Allah match, then we are in Unity.

I think that I was always too much of a busy body that invariably served her nafs, which is why Allah brought me back to life this way, to focus on developing my imaan and purpose! In retrospect, I failed in so many of my worldly pursuits, as well-intended as some were...such that my ultimate purpose is now simply a reunion with my Maker and His beloved, Muhammad SAW so that I can convey that his life inspired me unknowingly and knowingly! Even though I am unworthy of his sheer depth of personhood and soul, I am truly grateful for his magnanimous spirit which shaped mine!

#5. This Ramadan Qur'an study led me to a mighty interesting article, answering my question about why the Qur'an repeatedly mentions certain historical happenings:

The Quran mentions the past stories of Messengers not for delineating the events chronologically as it is mentioned in history books. But the real reason for mentioning their stories is to learn lessons from them. The Quran mentions that their stories provide universal evidence of the rise and fall of nations; that their stories provide evidence of battle between THE TRUTH (Al-Haq - الحق) and FALSEHOOD (Baatil - باطل).

...How ironic that we believe we are practicing Islam by performing mechanical rituals under the guise of sharia law developed by our religionists in cahoots with the ruling and business elites. The evil trio – the new Pharaohs, the new Hamans, the new Qaroons – has divided the Ummah into different religious sects, into rich and poor, into different ethnicities, etc. which are clearly against the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH). In fact, the Prophet (PBUH) demolished these differences which were deeply entrenched at his time and transformed them into one holistic Ummah based on the Quranic command: ...

...Allah has granted equal dignity to all humankind. But later Muslims destroyed this and got themselves divided into different nationalities....

Insha'Allah, we will be reunited with your Abbu after his work trip home-away-from-home in Mauritius by Shaykh Sadek and family.

Your Abbu who has created this family purpose in us, Shukran Ya Allah, with my researching ability! Baba, you asked to know more about my former research profession, well this is how it is coming to use, in our current reality

😊🤲

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storiesofthesahabah · 3 years

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You're tired.

You feel like life is throwing too much on you, you delay your salah and at times to a point that you miss it. You feel stressed out as if there's no more way out from all the problems you are facing. You feel unhappy that even through listening to Islamic lectures or the Qur'an - your heart still feels empty.

Indeed, you are positive that you have drifted away - that you are truly lost.

Yet, here you are - reading this post because you saw "hold on" on the poster. Doesn't that tell you something? Yes, you want to read this because you are holding on - you are looking for a way out. You have not totally drifted away from Allah rather Allah is still calling you back to Him.

Wandering soul, you have to understand that a believer's heart will always become uneasy when it has swayed away from its Creator. Whatever you are feeling now - this emptiness, this depression, this sadness and all those negative emotions - its a result of your abandonment of Allah and the Qur'an - nothing else.

You"think" you may have many "reasons" to justify why you are in such situations such as:

[1] you find it hard to marry someone.

Have you not thought that maybe you are in a haraam relationship or that you are having idle talks with the opposite sex or just ultimately you are not doing the means of asking Allah for it?

[2] you are in so much debt.

Have you not thought that maybe you are in this mess because you are earning from a thing that is haraam or has riba (interest) in it? Give sadaqah even a smile or a good word is sadaqah. Do not be greedy on it.

[3] your marriage is on the rocks.

Have you not thought that maybe your relationship has gone downhill because you have made your spouse greater in position in your life than Allah? Recollect your thoughts. The more a couple is closer to Allah, so will their relationship will be.

[4] you are failing in everything you seem to do.

Have you not thought that maybe you are having so much screen time that you get so lazy in studying or revising. Remember, Allah is the one who brings ease, he told you this in the Qur'an not only once - but twice. Inna ma'al usri yusra.

These are just maybe the couple of challenges that us, nowadays, face yet let me give you some samples that would make you realize how minute these challenges we face compared to the people who came before us.

_____

Julaybib Radiyallahu Anhu - I know a lot of you may have heard about his story but let me just tell you a glimpse of it - he found it very hard to get married due to his appearance yet his adaab and akhlaaq were such high that our beloved Prophet Muhammad took him as his own.

Due to his diligence upon Allah and his perfection of his faith, Allah showered him with the blessings of raising his status both here in the dunya and akhirah. Allah blessed him with a great woman to be his wife as well - all of this because he held on (to Allah). So, hold on. [1]

_____

Mus'ab Ibn Umair Radiyallahu Anhu - if you have been reading my posts, then I am sure you would have come across his story in one of them. He was known as the flower of the Qurash - due to his appearance and status. He was so handsome and came from a high status and prominent family. He was known for his lavish clothes, as well.

When Islam came, he was one of the few people who accepted it and due to this his family threw him out from their lives and along with it all of the luxuries. He was the person that when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wassalaam see, he would tear up because of the sacrifices he has done for Islam and being with him.

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, you may be in debt which is a thing that you can repay here and there but imagine Mus'ab - he was left with nothing and know that he was brought up with all the luxuries in life so his life turned 360 in just one day.

With his tolerance and great sacrifice, Allah raised his status by making him the first envoy of Islam. He was the first messenger that was sent to Madinah to do dawah before our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wassalaam made hijrah - all of this because he hold

on (to Allah), So hold on. [2]

_____

Umm Hakeem Bint Harith Radiyallahu Anha - I wrote about this beautiful woman in one of my posts. She is the wife of Ikrimah - the son of Abu Jahl. Her love story is very fascinating. She is an epitome of patience and true love, indeed.

When she entered the fold of Islam, her husband Ikrimah fled to Yemen out of the fear that he may be put on the sword as Muslims have finally conquered Makkah. So, instead of just living her new life as a Muslim - she made a plea to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wassalaam instead that to give her the chance to convince her husband to come into the fold of Islam as she believes her husband will be of a useful man for Islam.

So she went on to search for her husband - the story is quite long but as soon as she found her husband - she did her best to convince him and indeed Ikrimah joined her back to Makkah and ultimately entered the fold of Islam.

If your marriage are on the rocks - then imagine Umm Hakeem's situation that time - just because she entered the fold of Islam - she was left all alone and fragile but she never gave up on her husband and indeed if our love is true for our spouse - we won't just give up on him/her - we will do whatever it takes to save them, so even with the amplest faith left - she held on (to Allah). So, hold on. [3]

_____

The Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wassalam - there is no introduction needed for this great man. Rather, I want to remind you of his encounter with the people of Taif when he was thrown rocks at to the point that only his sandals were not covered with blood.

And before this incident happened, he tried to talk to the people and the leaders of the tribe of Ta'if and failure upon failure did he get to the extend that he was shattered with blood with their rocks. Yet, when he was pale and in pain and Jibrail Alaihi Salaam came and asked him if he wanted to take revenge on the people of Taif - our beloved Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wassalaam said no because he held on (to Allah) that someone amongst in the progeny of these people might become a follower of Islam.

Imagine the physical abuse he had gone through, and we are here just feeling depressed as if the work has turned its back on us - he was covered with blood while here we are reading this post in the comfort of our homes - yet we still feel everything is going downhill.

He Sallallahu Alaihi Wassalaam held on (to Allah), So hold on. [4]

______

My dear brothers and sisters, true and ultimate failure is the abandonment of Allah and the Qur'an. We reap what we sow. If we walk into this life deluded with the tricks of Shaitaan and giving into each of them - then we have indeed, failed our test here and ultimately we will face that on the day we meet Allah.

Yet, if we walk into this life with the light of Islam and abiding to what has been given to us in accordance of this beautiful way of life, then be ready to harvest the rewards of it on the day we finally all enter Jannah.

A simple thought that you can also go by, if all of the above has not affected your heart - Jannah. Imagine, just imagine the day you enter the gates of Jannah. So hold on, hold tight to Allah.

Allah isn't the one who has let you go, you are the one who let go - yet His Mercy is still there - so Hold on to it.

Hold on. Jannah - in there is the true success.

_____

May Allah make it easy for all of us.

Amin

Zohayma

_____

Most of the stories were paraphrased. You can find more of the stories here:

[1] Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Surah Al-Ahzab

[2] Men Around the Messenger

[3] Commanders of the Muslim Army, Ghadanfar, p. 161-165

[4] Muslim, Kitab ul Jihad

#holdon #goldenstories #sahabah #muslims

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tawakkull · 3 years

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ISLAM 101: Spirituality in Islam: Part 52

Wasil (One Who Has Attained or Reached)

Literally meaning one who has reached the final point in a journey or who has met with the one or the thing that one intends to reach, wasil, in Sufi terminology, denotes one who, having been saved from all the veils of corporeality and carnality one after the other, and who has covered all the distances that originate from themselves, has reached the final point of their journey, where they feel and experience the company of God Almighty, Who is the nearest of all to everyone and every thing.

Surmounting all the veils of corporeality that surround a human being, one within the other, and reaching the horizon of experiencing God’s company is possible sometimes by God’s special help and attention, sometimes by special knowledge of God, sometimes by the serious endeavors and efforts made during a spiritual journey, sometimes by following a path in which we admit our innate impotence and poverty, as well as our enthusiasm and thankfulness, and sometimes by extraordinary Divine attraction. All of these means of reaching the final point of the spiritual journey are the manifestations of God’s grace on different wavelengths. Without His grace and special attention, a traveler can neither be saved from the veils of corporeality and carnality nor cover the distances that originate from themselves to reach the intended horizon. God is the One Who is the nearest of all to everyone and every thing, and it is He Who also brings those who strive to reach Him for His sake closer to Himself. Unless God brings us near, no one can feel the delight, which is called meeting, nor can they experience His company.

When God manifests His grace, He makes everything easy; He creates the means of doing it and bestows it instantly. Anonymous Common people can experience such a meeting or its shadow when they go to the other world with belief. However, there may be among them those who are drawn to the realms beyond through an extraordinary grace and who are favored with special compliments.

As for the elect who are God’s noble, greatly favored servants, they traverse the distances that originate in themselves while they are still in the world, feeling as if they are experiencing the truth of We are nearer to him than his jugular vein (50:16) from the horizon of the observation of the heart and spirit, each according to the degree of their conviction and knowledge of God and their place in God’s sight. They breathe God’s company in their inner world.

There are others who are more advanced than the elect. They are the heroes of special favor and attention. They observe such things from the horizon of the spiritual intellect and through the mysterious windows of “secret,” beyond all modalities of quality and quantity and beyond the limits of time and space, that they have neither been seen by other eyes nor heard by other ears nor conceived of by other minds. We can describe these as the heroes who state: “If the veils between were removed, my certainty would not increase.”

If these heroes have reached that highest rank by following a spiritual path, then they are journeying “in God.” They rotate like satellites around the lights and mysteries of the Ultimate Truth, increasing more and more in profundity with every attempt they make, and even though they have realized the meeting with the One of all eternity, their journey toward Him is never-ending. They constantly pursue observations beyond “ certainty of knowledge,” continuously seek visions that lie beyond “ certainty of observation,” and experience intoxicating pleasures through the manifestations reflected in their world of spirit that emanate from the door that has been partially opened on “ certainty of experience.”

This peak of spirituality is where every hero of truth comes to see, know, hear, and experience the mysteries that belong to the realms beyond, and clearly discovers and witnesses the original essence and nature of everything animate or inanimate and their relationship with the Creator; in addition they are aware of the fact that everything belongs to Him, subsists with Him, and is bound to return and on the way of returning to Him. Those who are able to observe existence from this peak clearly see what is light and what is of light, what is separation and what is union, what is the pang of separation and what is the delight of reunion, what is transient and who is eternal, what is bound to decay and what is permanent. They confirm the truth of their theoretical knowledge on the basis of witnessing, observation, and experience.

Since this peak is also the horizon from which the Prophets, pure, saintly scholars, and saints observe and monitor the realms beyond, it is such an awe-inspiring and delightful area of special study for the heroes of meeting with God that it is impossibly difficult for there to be another Divine favor in the world equal to it. Reaching this point is a supreme attainment and rank; the favors that emanate from there are many and multifarious, and the point itself is where the world and the Hereafter are observed together. However, the hero of meeting who is distinguished with such degree of Divine attention and favors is and should be extremely reticent about the favors with which they have been honored, and is absolutely modest. They try to conceal their relationship with God even from their own eyes. Just as Divine Grandeur and Dignity require that there to be veils before the acts of God’s Power in the corporeal world, so too, the one who has reached the final point of journeying toward God and has been established there should not reveal the gifts that emanate at the peak of meeting with God. Even while they continue their relationships with the realms beyond the peak, they should frequently look down at the first step of the stairway which they have used to rise to that level and sigh in the consideration of: “We have not been able to know You as knowing You requires, O the All-Known!”, thus admitting their inability to worship God as the duty of worshipping God requires. As a result of this realization, they say: “We have not been able to worship You as worshipping You requires, O the All-Worshipped!” Thinking: “Why am I blessed with these Divine compliments and consideration even though I have never done anything to deserve them?”, the traveler should consider that whatever favor they have been honored with is purely a Divine gift.

If one with true knowledge of God, whose eyes are fixed only on the lights and mysteries beyond the Names and Attributes, attempts to reveal the Divine mysteries that they have perceived, they will not only be stunted, but will also cause shock and astonishment in the spirits of others. For this reason, such a person keeps their love and yearning buried in their bosom as something secret that has been entrusted to them, and they never reveal, nor are they permitted to reveal, the mysteries that belong to the realms beyond to those who have not yet been able to surpass themselves.

In fact, there are many who talk about these mysteries, but I think what they relate as mysteries must be their dreams or daydreams. All of those who talk about meeting with God are not ones who have reached the final point of spiritual journeying to meet with Him, just as everyone who follows a spiritual path is not one with true knowledge of God. One who has true knowledge of God is a hero confirmed by Divine grace, and is one who clearly observes the realms of Divine Names and Attributes and reads and comments what they observe correctly and without throwing others into confusion. This hero’s perception and awareness of the meanings that radiate from the corporeal or physical realm is called “ knowledge which is true,” while their observation of the lights and mysteries that belong to the realms beyond and further than beyond is termed as “ knowledge of the truth.” The Absolute Pourer of blessings causes this hero of spiritual knowledge to be aware of the mystery of His Glory beyond description, perception, and comparison, making this person happy and rejoiced with His special attention and consideration. Even though the mind cannot comprehend the true nature and occurrence of this mysterious favor, the conscious nature or conscience feels this trust with its particular capacity in waves of awe and amazement. The tongue prefers silence and the spirit falls silent in contemplation.

“ Knowledge of God’s Acts” is a Divine gift that may be sent to every initiate; “ knowledge of Divine Attributes and Essential Qualities or Characteristics” is a heavenly offering to the elect with a special capacity. “Knowledge of the truth” is a Divine favor and award for the most elect who have attained the level of developing their angelic aspect. Let those who are incapable of understanding continue not to understand, and those who are reluctant to accept insist on non-acceptance, those who are distinguished with knowledge of God constantly observe these mysteries and lights with the eyes of their souls and live in ecstasy.

In the eyes of the soul of those with knowledge of God there exists the light of spiritual knowledge; God’s help comes to them with the attainment of the mystery of this knowledge. Muhammed Lutfi As was summarized before (in the 2nd volume of Emerald Hills of the Heart) under the title of Ma‘rifa ( Knowledge of God), the attainments on the path toward knowledge of God are a mount, while those who have attained this knowledge are the rider, and their knowledge is their capital. For this reason, those who are devoid of this knowledge cannot traverse the distance from Him nor reach the point of meeting with Him, while a hero of this knowledge and meeting never thinks of turning back or being the lover of others. Why and how can such a person think such a thing when, in the words of Yunus,[1]they have found the choicest honey or the true source of all honey and have been nearly saved from the love of even their own soul. They have attained “the manifest conquest” or even “the absolute conquest,” which means being on the horizon of the manifestation of Divine Essence. Some of those who have been honored with this attainment at times live in such absorption and intoxication, like a happy one in whom the Lights of God are reflected, that they are aware of no one other than God, including themselves.

It should also be pointed out that there are so many degrees and levels of feeling and experience in this extraordinary attainment called “meeting with God” that none of the beloved servants of God who travel along the same route or axis can completely perceive the nature of another’s meeting with Him. Just as saints can know the ranks of each other only if God allows them to, the heroes of meeting being able to perceive the nature of others’ meeting with Him is also dependent on Divine inspiration. Unless God makes it known, no one can know what or where somebody is; students or initiates cannot know the mysteries of the guide’s or master’s meeting with God, and the master or guide cannot discover how a perfect student or an initiate with knowledge of God travels toward and realizes meeting with Him. It is the Creator Who knows everything, and others can know only to the extent that God allows them to know.

For this reason, as it was also the case with some of the Companions of the Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings, since many perfect human beings, at least many travelers toward God who are candidates for perfection—even though they are favored with knowledge of God and meeting with God—cannot or are not allowed to know the horizon of those who have close relationships with God or the peak where they stand, they may not accept others of the same degree of nearness to God as them, even though the latter are pure, saintly scholars who are heirs to the mission of the Prophets; they may even go so far as to disparage them. This standpoint may sometimes be a risky trial for the travelers on the path toward God. Although, provided they keep silent about others and purify their hearts of bad moral qualities, they are candidates to be the doves of the heaven of sainthood, they suffer losses on the way to earning, either due to their biased love of their own ways or their hostility toward others or envy of God’s favors on others, and cause the people of heresy and unbelief to rejoice by taking up a stance against God’s close friends. Another cause of loss is that one sees oneself and their group as being great and qualified to guide others, while perceiving of others as insignificant and in need of guidance. There are as many paths toward God as the breaths of creatures and it is possible for everyone who travels toward Him sincerely to attain a certain degree of nearness to God and to realize some sort of meeting with Him. It is not vanity, self-esteem, self-assertion, or pretension, but modesty, self-denial, and mortification that are fundamentally important in traveling toward God. No one knows how many people who have been paid no importance by others have reached the Ultimate Truth, while many others who are self-esteemed and hold a position in people’s eyes have remained at the half-way point.

I think it is fitting to put an end to this parenthetical discussion with the following stanza by Ibrahim Haqqi of Erzurum:[2]

Haqqi, come and do not reveal your secret, If you intend to become matured on this path. Do not look down on the people who are ruined in appearance, There are ruins that hold secret treasures. It is primarily dependent on God’s grace and help – may God never leave us deprived of His grace and help – and secondarily on the endeavor (himma) of the servant that the one who wills or the willing one can desire God, and that an initiate can travel toward Him in accordance with the rules of travel, and that one who has reached the end of the path to reach Him can traverse the distances originating in themselves, and that all these Divine favors and blessings continue. Endeavor is an important provision for one who has reached the end of the path and God’s intimacy or special nearness and treatment is a special favor of Divine companionship for such a hero.

When used concerning the servants of God, the term himma ( endeavor) means trying, self-exertion, making an effort, resolution, starting an approvable task with sincere intention and feeling the excitement of responsibility with all the strength of the heart; when this term is used to refer to God, it denotes His response to all these activities (with special succor and reward).

Endeavor is an important dynamic for the traveler to the Ultimate Truth. The peaks that seem to be insurmountable are usually surmounted through endeavor, and it is also through endeavor that the steps along the stairway toward God and the pleasures and states of meeting with Him are determined. However, the travelers, the heroes of endeavor, are different from one another. A traveler who is always alert, in continuous pursuit of the realization of a goal with all their outer and inner senses, and always dreams of meeting with God with their eyes fixed on the door—such a traveler adopts a posture in the location where they are particular to themselves. While the posture of those who are trying to fulfill the Divine purpose of their creation in all their acts by carrying out what is necessary with their free will, is one of standing in perfect respect at the door of God. The worshipful attitude of another, of the hero of meeting with God, the one who has assigned all their endeavors, every day, hour, minute, and second of their life to earning God’s approval and good pleasure, and who is distant from all considerations of state and station, who always thinks of and mentions God alone, and turns to God on the way of knowing Him with perfect certainty, and who is forgetful of their own desires, seeking God alone, preferring a single instant spent in His sacred company to any other achievement – this worshipful attitude of such a hero of meeting is completely different.

In fact, being freed from all other physical and spiritual relationships, our turning to the Ultimate Truth with a feeling of great need and melting away in Him is God’s right on us and our duty toward Him. A human being has a single heart that can bear the love of a single beloved. For this reason, we should assign this Divine intellect of ours to His love alone, closing all doors on everything but Him, and fixing our eyes on Him in utter oblivion of even ourselves, with a yearning to meet the All-Loved and Besought One. A person is valuable to the extent of their endeavors. Thus, one who has reached God after a faultless journey is also a hero of endeavor.

The author of al-Lujja[3] expresses this heroism as follows:

If you want to fly upwards, unfold your wings of endeavor, For what is primarily required for flying are wings. Those who have kept their wings of endeavor stretched out have, by God’s leave, neither remained half-way nor fallen prey to wild beasts.

Some have interpreted endeavor as purifying one’s bodily life from attachment to anything worldly, one’s spiritual life from the pursuit of spiritual pleasures, and one’s heart from consideration of Paradise and its pleasures, thus being turned to the Truly Worshipped, Deservedly Besought One with all of one’s senses and faculties. I think they refer to the whole-hearted devotion which is mentioned in the verse, And keep in remembrance the Name of your Lord (and mention It in your Prayer), and devote yourself to Him whole-heartedly (73:8), which expresses a special attitude of nearness to God for those who have a special relationship with Him, and is a call to a different, special meeting with Him. Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, was the unequalled hero of such whole-hearted devotion and the foremost addressee of such a call. He covered his distance from God and was the nearest of all to Him. Despite this, Prophet Muhammad never slackened in his endeavors and used to make extraordinary efforts to be able to remain turned to Him and to meet with Him. He was in continuous pursuit of “what is more and further,” for he was the guide of all initiates, and the leader of all who reached and would reach Him. For this reason, he guided everybody to the path of becoming close to God and instructed them in the manners that were to be assumed for His company and His special nearness. This path requires endeavor, and that horizon wants freedom from any inclination to anything else but Him. How beautifully the author of al- Minhaj speaks:

You will never be able to have special nearness to Him in His private “lodge,” Until you are completely freed from inclination to any other but Him. It is a requirement of courtesy to take off one’s worn-out clothes so that one can don the garment of satin offered by the Sultan. Being a most important aspect of human nature, the heart is a house of God in the sense that it is where His special attention and favors are manifested. Unless it is purified of any trace that belongs to others than Him, the Sultan will not turn to it with favor, and without this, meeting with Him is not possible. Everyone who has arrived at the end of the path and whom the Ultimate Truth has honored by making them aware of His nearness experiences some degree of meeting, according to their capacity and the breadth and brightness of their mirror of spirit. The meeting of some is crowned with God’s special nearness and relationship and the one who has attained this degree of meeting is regarded as an “intimate one.” Literally meaning a close, bosom friend, this term in the terminology of some Sufi masters denotes one who feels togetherness with God at heart and in spirit to the extent that they only think of Him, with everybody else having completely disappeared from sight and being removed from the heart. This is companionship with God that is experienced beyond time and space and beyond all modalities of quality and quantity.

Some heroes of meeting voice this honor of special nearness by continuously mentioning God with His Acts, Names, and Attributes. This favor is called “ intimacy with mentioning of God.” There is another, deeper state which they call “ intimacy with God.” In this state one is completely freed from any concern for anything but Him, remaining continuously turned to Him with the sensations of all one’s spiritual faculties, and constantly breathing His presence without ever thinking of anything or anyone other than Him. In a blessed, figurative saying which is related as a hadith qudsi—the Prophetic saying whose meaning was inspired in the Prophet’s heart directly by God—God says: “I am together with one who mentions Me and I am an intimate friend of one who has acquired intimacy with Me.” In another narration in which Prophet David, upon him be peace, is addressed, it is said: “O David! Yearn for Me and acquire intimacy with Me. Part company with all else other than Me.” We should understand that by the phrase “parting company with” or “keeping apart from all else than God Almighty,” the travelers of the path to God should not feel any concern for anything or anyone but God on account of that thing or person itself. Nothing has an existence independent of Him and everything depends on His Names and Attributes. For this reason, those who have true knowledge of God always perceive the Names in whatever there is in the universe and feel a form of relationship with the creation on account of the Names Which are the source of their existence; thus they are gradually freed from other connections and are able to turn to the All-Sacred Being called by the Names, beginning to breathe “intimacy with mention of God” and “ intimacy with God.”

Imam al-Ghazzali[4] reminds us that intimacy with God is an exalted position which every traveler toward God cannot attain; he tells us the following:

Every hero who attempts to reach God cannot grasp intimacy with God; Even those who resort to every means they can find cannot perceive it. Those of intimacy with God are all noble, generous, purified heroes; They always work and act purely for the sake of God.[5] Those who have intimacy with God are the favorites of the realms beyond heavens and the most fortunate among those with nearness to God. They have traversed the distance that originates from their own selves, felt His nearness to everything, enjoyed special compliments as the ones who have reached Him, and have been firmly established in His intimacy.

In the state of intimacy that is beyond any measure, Divine manifestations are always felt on different wavelengths. It sometimes happens that certain manifestations of Divine Majesty touch and stroke the faculties of those who have reached Him, during which they feel enveloped with feelings of fear and awe. After a time, there is a period in which the manifestations of His Grace surround them, and at this time they find themselves with more profound sensations of intimacy. In the former state, those who have reached Him tremble and shake like trees and turn pale like the leaves turning in the fall. When faced by the showers of the latter sort of manifestation, they breathe: “I have found the honey of all honey, the source of all honey; let whatever I have be plundered.” In an atmosphere in which they continuously feel and experience new instances of attention and favors, they regard everything, including their own selves, as being among that which is other than Him, and thus try to keep distant even from themselves. Even if they live among people, they never get entangled in any veil, and hear, see, and speak about Him alone. They even avoid imagining anything that is transient or bound to decay, their eyes are closed to anything other than His Light, they regard any speeches that are not about Him as empty words, and react against any manners, speeches, or acts that do not remind of Him or cause to be aware of Him or increase the relationship with Him. Whenever they hear a speech or see an action that is not related to Him, they feel as if their heart was bleeding.

Those distinguished with true knowledge of God always preserve their respectful attitude both in the state of meeting with Him and intimacy with Him. They are always in a state of fear, due reverence, and awe. Whatever state they are in, they manifest good manners and modesty. Even though they sometimes feel a tendency toward affectation and utterances that do not comply with the essentials of the Religion in the face of the compassionate and complimentary manifestations of Divine Grace, they immediately tremble and pull themselves together due to their continuous awareness and self-possession, bowing in utter respect and assuming the manners that are required by their positions.

All that we have been trying so far to explain concerning “the one who has attained or reached” are certain features of the states of those who have reached the end of their spiritual journey and met with God. Those who do not experience or taste these cannot perceive or know them, and it is not known to what extent those who know reveal what they know. The sweetness of the honey can only be perceived when the honey is tasted, the smell of a rose is only sensed when the rose is smelt, and the spiritual states can only be known when they are experienced. A friend of the Ultimate Truth expresses his experiences to those who have not had these experiences as follows:

If you are a weeping nightingale, come to the rose-garden; Attain fresh fragrance from the fresh roses. O God! I ask you for belief which has penetrated my heart and certainty which does not mislead, so that I may know certainly that nothing but what You have preordained will not happen to me; and bestow blessing and peace on Prophet Muhammad and His family and Companions.

* Meeting with God and Wasil (the one who has attained or reached) have been described in the third volume of Emerald Hills of the Heart – Key Concepts in the Practice of Sufism, pp. 16–24. Here it is described together with “the one who wills” and “the initiate” on account of the final gifts that come in return for meeting with God or reaching the end of the journey, and the self-possession that is required in return for these gifts. [1] Yunus Emre (1240–1320). One of the most famous Sufi folk poets who have made a great impact on the Muslim-Turkish culture. His philosophy, metaphysics and humanism have been examined in various symposiums and conferences on a regular basis both in Turkey and abroad. [2] Ibrahim Haqqi of Erzurum (1703–1780) was one of the most outstanding figures in the Ottoman Turkey of the 18th century. He lived in Erzurum and Siirt in the Eastern Turkey. He was a prolific, encyclopedic Sufi guide and writer, who wrote in many subjects such as Theology, Morality, Mathematics, Astronomy, and Medicine. His Ma‘rifatname (“The Book of Knowledge”) is very famous and still being widely read. [3] The author of al-Lujja is Mawlana Nuru’d-Din ‘Abdu’r-Rahman ibn Ahmad al-Jami‘ (1414–1492). He is commonly called the last great classical poet of Persia, and was a saint. He composed numerous lyrics and idylls, as well as many works in prose. His Salaman wu Absal is an allegory of profane and sacred love. Some of his other works include Haft Awrang, Tuhfatu’l-Ahrar, Layla wu Majnun, Fatihatu’sh-Shabab, Lawa’ih, ad-Durrah. [4] Imam Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazzali (1058–1111): A major theologian, jurist, and sage who was considered a reviver (of Islam’s purity and vitality) during his time. Known in Europe as Algazel, he was the architect of Islam’s later development. He wrote many books, the most famous being Ihyau ‘Ulumi’d-Din (“Reviving the Religious Sciences”). [5] Ihyau Ulumi’d-Din 4:340.

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thebrokenblackman · 3 years

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KRS-One - “Ah Yeah!” Critical Analysis by Hakeem Ture

“If hip hop has the power to corrupt young minds, it also has the ability to uplift them.” - KRS-One

The musician is a natural master of vibration and emotion. Many musicians have been able to make us dance. Many have been able to draw on relatability because nobody is the only person like them in the world. Perhaps some have even made us cry or provided soundtracks for intimate moments. Only few musicians have taken on the task of socially and historically educating their listeners through their music.

Even fewer have been able to combine the mastery of teaching with mastery of rhythm. Those who do this become legends like; Nate King Cole, B.B. King, Nina Simone, Bob Marley, Chaka Khan and Fela Kuti’ and their influence lives throughout generations. In 1995 Krs-One released a self-titled album that came in the sunset of his reign. His career would mirror the sepia filter of the album cover.

This album had dominant auras of militancy and rebellion that Krs-One fans had not heard since Boogie Down Productions - Criminal Minded. Krs-One was able to both appease his day one fans and gain the younger generation of Hip Hoppers who were listening to artists such as: Nas, Redman,Das Efx, Tupac, and A Tribe Called Quest. The message and timing of this album may have been divine. Let us look at the historical events of the year(s) Krs-One was creating this album in. In 1994, the United States congress had successfully completed the first step of becoming fascist by Voting to Censure Dr. Khalid Muhammad, National Advisor of the Nation of Islam. Bill Clinton and Joe Biden led Democrats to pass the The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and effectively fueled the prison industrial complex. South Africa held it first election since intergrating with the apartheid government and Invisble Man author Ralph Ellison had passed. Hip Hop was the soul vehicle of expression to protest the genocide that had been going on and KRS One was one of its leaders. The youth looked toward this leader to deliver an album reflective of their mindstate and he delivered.

Imperative of a classic work of musical art, this album is composed of multiple great songs, but in my opinion the cornerstone song of the album is undeniably “Ah Yeah”. In this song he masterfully uses three 16 bar verses to empower and mobilize his listener much in the same way Dr. Khalid Muhammad did. This track starts with the establishment of an a capella warcry. He writes in response to western power’s having done such an incredible job destroying the rebel instinct that Afrikan people possess by publicly shaming our leaders and traditions. These lyrics are him trying to raise the psyche of a fallen warrior class and put revolt back in its holy place as opposed to the negative connotation that has been applied by the white power structure. He essentially made a chant-like hook with an underlying message of “This is your enemy, This is how to handle him, and THIS is okay”. The aim focuses on redirecting the accumulated anger of a traduced peoples that is often mistargeted toward self so that we may be collectively progresssive.

He bellows:

“Ah yeah, that's whatcha say when you see a devil down

Ah yeah, that's whatcha say when you take the devil's crown

Ah yeah, stay alive all things will change around

Ah yeah, what? Ah yeah!”

Then comes the establishment of an eerie bass line. This song structure is familiar to fans of his earlier work. It was what they were longing for. For a few albums he took the perspective of being in the classroom or office as opposed to in the battlefield with his men. He had returned to fight with us like Haile Selassie. Immediately he establishes a dual level of respect. One with his men and one with his deterrent.

“So here I go kickin' science in ninety-five

I be illin', parental discretion is advised still

Don't call me nigga, this MC goes for his

Call me God, cause that's what the black man is

Roamin' through the forest as the hardest lyrical artist

Black women you are not a bitch you're a Goddess

Let it be known, you can lean on KRS-One

Like a wall cause I'm hard, I represent God”

In the first 2 bars of the preceding excerption he lets us know he intends to drop some knowledge, but it will not be filtered for political correctness or comfortability. The following 2 bars he establishes both a tone of encounterment and identity. Then he goes on to explain from which direction he came much like Saint Maurice's appearance upon the plagued people of Europe to let them know he has navigated and he is no spook. He goes on to talk to his listener and the most important of them, the women.

In 1994, fresh off a press tour on which she gained popularity from criticizing Bill Clinton, Sister Souljah published her first book that was heralded by black scholars and youth alike entitled No Disrespect. Her Influence was cemented in the minds of black youth and played a huge role in raising generational consciousness by dealing with topics like “how the black woman is viewed by black men” and “the black woman’s role in repairing the black family structure”. She had solely been awarded leadership duties by a disregarded demographic in a scapegoated culture and was handling it with the grace of Misty Copeland. Her and the women she raised to consciousness needed the camaraderie of Krs One. He goes on to sell to himself:

“Wack MC's have one style: gun buck

But when you say, "Let's buck for revolution"

They shut the fuck up, can't get with it

Down to start a riot in a minute

You'll hear so many Bowe-Bowe-Bowe, you think I'm Riddick

While other MC's are talkin' bout up with hope down with dope

I'll have a devil in my infrared scope,”

In the first five bars he addresses the enemies of the oppressed people within the oppressed people. These “Wack MC’s” are the Uncle Toms’ and Judas of the rebellious, afro-centric movement that is Hip-Hop. He says they lack discipline and do not have the self awareness to rescue themselves. In comparison with himself who uses that energy toward an ultimate goal, Independence through revolution. In the succeeding excerption KRS briefly displays the cognitive processing and coping mechanism of a warrior:

“WOY

That's for calling my father a boy and, klak, klak, klak

That's for putting scars on my mother's back, BO

That's for calling my sister a ho, and for you

Buck, buck, buck cause I don't give a motherfuck

Remember the whip, remember the chant

Remember the rope and

You black people still thinkin' about voting?

Every President we ever had lied!

You know, I'm kinda glad Nixon died.”

Throughout the preceding excerption KRS skillfully uses onomatopoeias to create a setting for his listener. There is a battle going on. Shells casings are falling to the ground and bullets are flying from high caliber weapons. He is in the thick of it and then an enemy approaches him. He musters the courage to engage with his assailant by remembering the suffrage the morals of his enemies’ elected nation-state has caused his ancestors. Then he rejoices in the death of one of their leaders, Richard Nixon.

In the second verse Krs-One addresses an age-old topic of discussion for spiritual people that was brought forth to the Afrikans of today by Noble Drew Ali, “The Prophetic Soul”. This belief dates back to ancient Buddhism in the caves of Asia taught to us by Dr. Ivan Van Sertima in his book “African Presence in Early Asia”. This belief entails that all the prophets of the world including but not limted to; Adam, Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, and himself were the same soul being reborn until its mission is completed.” Krs-One puts himself and a couple others in this divine line of being.

“This is not the first time I came to the planet

concern every time I come, only a few could understand it

I came as Isis, my words they tried to ban it

I came as Moses, they couldn't follow my Commandments

I came as Solomon, to a people that was lost

I came as Jesus, but they nailed me to a cross

I came as Harriet Tubman, I put the truth to Sojourner

Other times, I had to come as Nat Turner

They tried to burn me, lynch me and starve me

So I had to come back as Marcus Garvey, Bob Marley

They tried to harm me, I used to be Malcolm X

Now I'm on the planet as the one called KRS

Kickin' the metaphysical, spiritual, tryin' to like

Get with you, showin' you, you are invincible

The Black Panther is the black answer for real

In my spiritual form, I turn into Bobby Seale

On the wheels of steel, my spirit flies away

And enters into Kwame Ture”

In the beginning of the third verse he briefly continues the theme of possessing The Prophetic Soul but now, he does not speak from a perspective of being the people who had the soul. He speaks from the perspective of the soul. This soul is traveling and looking for a host. In the first two bars he speaks of how he was able to travel without detection from the government’s surveillance. Then, he goes on to finally choose a host that is relevant to the demographic of people it intends to reach. This host is stylish and his image is relatable, so the people will be receptive of his message through familiarity.

“In the streets there is no EQ, no di-do-di-do-di-do

So I grab the air and speak through the code

The devil cannot see through as I unload

Into another cerebellum

Then I can tell em, because my vibes go through denim

And leather whatever, however, I'm still rockin”

After the prophetic soul latches on to the host, KRS-One, it manifests purpose with grassroot organization and motivational speaking. Being KRS-One founded the Stop the Violence Movement in 1988 and was solely responsible for mobilizing many of the most influential Hip Hoppers against Gang Violence and Culture he had plenty of knowledge to give on the topic.

“We used to pick cotton, now we pick up cotton when we shoppin'

Have you forgotten why we buildin' in a cypher

Yo hear me kid, government is building in a pyramid

The son of God is brighter than the son of man

The spirit is, check your dollar bill G, here it is

We got no time for fancy mathematics

Your mental frequency frequently pickin' up static

Makin' you a naked body, addict and it's democratic

They press auto, and you kill it with an automatic”

Too often credit for the creation and establishment of a culture or society is given to one person as opposed to being evenly distributed amongst the support structure. How many times have you been taught the legacy of all the men that signed the declaration of independence? It is likely that you’ve only been taught about Thomos Jefferson. Just like there would be no Fidel Castro without the parallel influences of Che Guevara and Camilo Ceinfuegos there would be no Hip-Hop without KRS ONE. Perhaps without his tenacity, passion, and will it would have been infiltrated and exploited before it reached its full maturity. If that would have happened America would not have its current number one export. In his prime most consumers who listened to his message and gazed upon his image said “OH NO!” from fear of what they could not understand. Today, we look at his legacy of art and effort and cant help ,but smile and yell “AH YEAH!”.

“If hip hop has the power to corrupt young minds, it also has the ability to uplift them.” - KRS-One

He bellows:

“Ah yeah, that's whatcha say when you see a devil down

Ah yeah, that's whatcha say when you take the devil's crown

Ah yeah, stay alive all things will change around

Ah yeah, what? Ah yeah!”

“So here I go kickin' science in ninety-five

I be illin', parental discretion is advised still

Don't call me nigga, this MC goes for his

Call me God, cause that's what the black man is

Roamin' through the forest as the hardest lyrical artist

Black women you are not a bitch you're a Goddess

Let it be known, you can lean on KRS-One

Like a wall cause I'm hard, I represent God”

“Wack MC's have one style: gun buck

But when you say, "Let's buck for revolution"

They shut the fuck up, can't get with it

Down to start a riot in a minute

You'll hear so many Bowe-Bowe-Bowe, you think I'm Riddick

While other MC's are talkin' bout up with hope down with dope

I'll have a devil in my infrared scope,”

“WOY

That's for calling my father a boy and, klak, klak, klak

That's for putting scars on my mother's back, BO

That's for calling my sister a ho, and for you

Buck, buck, buck cause I don't give a motherfuck

Remember the whip, remember the chant

Remember the rope and

You black people still thinkin' about voting?

Every President we ever had lied!

You know, I'm kinda glad Nixon died.”

“This is not the first time I came to the planet

concern every time I come, only a few could understand it

I came as Isis, my words they tried to ban it

I came as Moses, they couldn't follow my Commandments

I came as Solomon, to a people that was lost

I came as Jesus, but they nailed me to a cross

I came as Harriet Tubman, I put the truth to Sojourner

Other times, I had to come as Nat Turner

They tried to burn me, lynch me and starve me

So I had to come back as Marcus Garvey, Bob Marley

They tried to harm me, I used to be Malcolm X

Now I'm on the planet as the one called KRS

Kickin' the metaphysical, spiritual, tryin' to like

Get with you, showin' you, you are invincible

The Black Panther is the black answer for real

In my spiritual form, I turn into Bobby Seale

On the wheels of steel, my spirit flies away

And enters into Kwame Ture”

“In the streets there is no EQ, no di-do-di-do-di-do

So I grab the air and speak through the code

The devil cannot see through as I unload

Into another cerebellum

Then I can tell em, because my vibes go through denim

And leather whatever, however, I'm still rockin”

“We used to pick cotton, now we pick up cotton when we shoppin'

Have you forgotten why we buildin' in a cypher

Yo hear me kid, government is building in a pyramid

The son of God is brighter than the son of man

The spirit is, check your dollar bill G, here it is

We got no time for fancy mathematics

Your mental frequency frequently pickin' up static

Makin' you a naked body, addict and it's democratic

They press auto, and you kill it with an automatic”

#krs one #krs1 #hip hop #90shiphop #boombap #african art #African American Art #african history

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ayearinfaith · 4 years

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𝗔 𝗬𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝗙𝗮𝗶𝘁𝗵, 𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝟰𝟴: 𝗛𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝗶𝘀𝗺

“When we think of the Hindu religion, we find it difficult, if not impossible, to define Hindu religion or even adequately describe it. Unlike other religions in the world, the Hindu religion does not claim any one prophet; it does not worship any one God; it does not subscribe to any one dogma; it does not believe in any one philosophic concept; it does not follow any one set of religious rites or performances; in fact, it does not appear to satisfy the narrow traditional features of any religion of creed. It may broadly be described as a way of life and nothing more.”

-Supreme Court of India, from 1995 ruling on the minority religion status of Ramakrishnaism

Hinduism is an indigenous faith of the Indian subcontinent, currently practiced by over 15% of the global population and the world’s third largest religion. It is one of two surviving modern traditions to evolve directly from the historical Indo-European faith, the other being Zoroastrianism. The internal diversity of Hinduism is very high and has been likened by some to the use of “Abrahamic” as a single term for diverse traditions such as Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. The word “Hinduism” was coined in the early 19th century and comes from the ethnic term “Hindu”, itself derived from the name of the Indus River, located in modern day Pakistan.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗩𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

Like with Shinto or Old Norse religion, indigenous faiths of Japan and Scandinavia, pre-modern Hindus were unlikely to have perceived themselves as being members of a religion. What would become Hinduism was simply their culture. Developments in self-identification have largely developed alongside the development of and need to distinguish from other traditions in India, most notably Buddhism and Islam. One of the earliest possible identifiers would have been “Vaidika” or “Vaidika Dharma”: the “way of the Vedas”. The Vedas, whose name literally means “knowledge”, are a collection of ancient scripture, some dating back as far as 1500 BCE. Though the beliefs of the Vedas have significant differences with modern Hindu denominations, perception of the Vedas as a source of truth is generally considered to be the defining feature of Hinduism, distinguishing it from other indigenous Indian faiths such as Buddhism or Jainism. Because of this direct and still active connection to 2-3000+ year old texts, Hinduism has often been called the world’s “oldest religion”. That said, the faith of the ancient Vedic people was quite different from the modern traditions. Many of modern Hinduism’s most venerated deities, such as Shiva, Vishnu, or Ganesha, are either absent from the Vedas, exist as alternate names for other gods, or are quite minor deities. Most prominent are gods like the king of the gods, Indra, and the fire god Agni, all of whom are generally easy to relate to the deities of European pagans. Aside from the Vedas the most important and universal Hindu scripture are the Upanishads and the Puranas. The Upanishads are actually a part of the Vedas, albeit the final layer of them, written in the second half of the first millennium BCE, by which time more familiar versions of figures like Vishnu and Shiva had emerged. From these come many core Hindu concepts such as Ātman (eternal soul) and Brahman (universal consciousness). The Puranas are a hug and diverse body of literature from which most of the legends and genealogies of the gods and the universe are derived.

𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝘀

A significant difference between Hinduism and Buddhism is the belief in an eternal soul or Ātman. All living things have an Ātman, and when we die the Ātman is reincarnated in a new body. Escaping the cycle of reincarnation is seen as a type of salvation called Moksha. Though generally considered the ultimate “goal” of Hinduism, Moksha is only one of four concepts knows as Puruṣārtha, literally a “spiritual/human pursuit”. The other three are Dharma (righteous and ethical behavior, literally “path/way”), Artha (wealth, or means, also conceived of as purpose), and Kama (physical pleasures). Artha and Kama are seen as necessary for a fulfilling life, though they should never go against Dharma, and all is done in pursuit of Moksha. Karma, literally “deed” or “act”, is a concept of causality between reincarnations. Doing good deeds will cause someone to be reincarnated into a better life, while bad deeds have the opposite effect. One of the greater Hindu virtues is Ahimsa or non-violence and is applicable not just to humans, but animals and plants. This is the reason behind widespread vegetarianism in India, and also a source of conflict between Hindus and Muslims: the Islamic method of animal slaughter, Dhabīḥah, is seen as a slow and painful death in direct opposition to the Hindu method, Jhatka, which literally means “instantly”. In addition to the cycle of reincarnation, the concepts of illusion and truth are core to Hinduism. Truth in this context is Brahman, the universal consciousness and/or ultimate reality. Brahman is the supreme force in Hinduism, generally seen all pervasive and singular. The reality we perceive is ultimately an illusion, a concept called Maya. Enlightenment in Hinduism is the ability to perceive through Maya and into the true Brahman. The role of the gods in Hinduism is complex; sometimes they are supreme forces and sometimes they are just powerful superhuman entities. Often both is true, with the gods being emanations of each other and ultimately of Brahman itself. The Om, written in Devanagari as “ॐ” is one of Hinduism’s most recognizable symbols, and represents the primordial cosmic sound of the universe.

𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗗𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀

As has already been stated in this post, Hinduism is incredibly diverse. Academics and philosophers, from within India and without, have made many valiant efforts to categorize the various threads. The most widely used currently differentiate by which god, or gods, have been elevated to supreme status. Though functional, use of these terms should not be thought of in the same vein as Christian denominations, like Methodist or Catholic, which have relatively clear and exclusionary division. A Hindu person may or may not identify with one, or multiple of these divisions, or may consider themselves of an altogether different traditions or prefer a different system of division altogether. The four major denominations are as follows:

𝗩𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗻𝗮𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗺

Vaishnavism is the largest Hindu denomination, and is estimated to cover 2/3rds of the Hindu population, though an exact number is impossible to gather. Vaishnavism is named for and elevates Vishnu, the preserver god, to the status of supreme consciousness. The doctrine of ten avatars is a core belief, and the epics 𝘔𝘢𝘩𝘢𝘣𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘢 and 𝘙𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘢𝘯𝘢 are important texts.

𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗺

Shaivism is the second most popular denomination and probably originated in Dravidian South India. Shaivism elevates the destroyer god Shiva. Shaivism is best known for its asceticism and Yoga. The aniconic Lingam is one of its most recognizable artifacts.

𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗸𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗺

Shaktism is the worship of the supreme feminine energy, Shakti. The varied Hindu goddesses, or Devi, are collectively worshiped as emanations of this supreme force, especially Parvati, Kali, and Durga. The Hindu esoteric and mystic tradition, Tantra, is most common in this denomination.

𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗺

Smartism is named for the Smriti texts, basically any scripture that is not the Vedas (or Upanishads). Smartism holds all gods in equivalents status, though generally portrays a council of five: Ganesha, Shiva, Vishnu, Shakti, and Surya. Smartism distinguishes the supreme consciousness, Brahman, into a Saguna Brahman, “Brahman with attributes”, and a Nirguna Brahman, “Brahman without attributes”. Put simply, the chosen deity is a face given to the universal consciousness as a means to understand it. Any deity can serve this function, and the more enlightened the practitioner becomes, the less they need this tutelary Saguna Brahman and can realize the true Nirguna Brahman. Smartism is seen as a syncretic tradition, developed as a means to bring disparate traditions together.

𝗔 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗳 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱

This has been one of the most difficult posts I have yet to write. Deciding what to include and what to omit was incredibly difficult. I wrote, deleted, and rewrote this several times. Doing research was difficult and as it turns out the internet is full of Hindu voices with a lot to say. Just to give an example, Wikipedia itself is full with meta-pages with editors striving against each other for what I would describe as the “least incorrect” version. In the end my aim was simply to give what I felt was as brief and general a post as I could write and still give an effective overview of the basic ideas and terminology one can expect to encounter when speaking about Hinduism. Even after all this, I feel like I have failed at that. However, at some point I have to stop writing this and move on for the sake of this series, and that point is now.

Image Credit: I could not determine the source, though I believe this is an Om encircled by the Om Nama Shivaya mantra. If you are able to find or know the source, please let me know.

#A Year in Faith #Hinduism #Religion #Mythology #Day 48

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questionsonislam · 3 years

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What are the fundamental or human rights in Islam that had been granted by God?

It should be first looked at the pre-Islamic era to fully understand the human rights that Islam had granted on humans.

1. All of the cultures, nations, and countries during the pre-Islamic era were monarchies. They were ruled by kings, crowns, or emperors. They held absolute authority over their people; hanged, exiled whomever they wanted, and they were responsible to no one.

2. People were divided into various castes. Close relatives of the ruler were considered nobles. They were privileged. The vast majority of people were excluded from the rights of those nobles, they were treated contemptuously. There were great gaps between the classes.

3. Slavery was in use with the utmost savagery. Human dignity was trampled.

4. People were subject to discriminative treatments according to their race, and the color of their skin. Line of descent implied a certain excellence of origin. People were divided up and separated on the basis of their families; abilities, knowledge, morality, virtues did not mean anything.

5. There were no fundamental rights and freedoms. Fundamental rights and freedoms such as freedom of religion and conscience, right of property, latitude of thought were no in use. People had unprecedented tortures because of their beliefs and thoughts.

6. The essential principle of law was trampled. Equality before the law was the last thing that could come to the minds. There was no such a thing as fair and impartial trial. Rights in law were not absolute, personal wishes and interests did for law. Different castes members who committed the same crime were imposed different penalties.

While the world was in such a situation, the religion Islam came and implemented the greatest development of the history of the human kind. If it is examined fairly, long before the declaration of the human rights in Western Cultures, it will be seen that the ultimate humane objectives were ascertained both in the holy Quran and in the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). In fact, the Prophet Muhammads farewell sermon during the farewell pilgrimage has distinctive principles on the basis of Human rights.

This sermon, in the year 632, was given to more than a hundred thousand Muslims. That is to say, one thousand one hundred and seven years before the declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen in 1789 in France, which is considered the first written text about human rights. Islams new principles about human rights has great impact on the development of Wests human rights struggle.

Humans have distinctive value from other creations. This value increases with believing in God and obeying His rules. By this way, human becomes the most dignified guest of the universe.

Valuableness, because of being a human encircles everyone. Woman or man, young or old, white or black, weak or strong, poor or rich, whichever the religion or race he or she belongs to, this shadow of clemency encircles them all.

Islam, by this way, prevented people from shedding blood unlawfully, protected peoples chastities, properties, and protected them from being exposed to such assaults like breaking into their houses, and moral pressure. Human dignity and honor and the right to have their dignity and honor respected and protected by Islam in the literal sense than ever before.

The principle rights and freedoms that Islam brought are:

1- Any discrimination based on any ground such as race and color has abated by Islam. All men are descendants of Hazrath Adam. No one can choose his race or the color of his skin. It all happens with Gods decision. Discriminating people based on race, skin color and seeing some superior to others is wrong and harmful according to both Islam and Humane reasons. God, in the Quran states, O humankind! Surely We have created you from a single (pair of) male and female, and made you into tribes and families so that you may know one another (and so build mutuality and co-operative relationships, not so that you may take pride in your differences of race or social rank, and breed enmities). (Al-Hujurat Surah, 49:13) as it is clearly seen from the verse, being different should not be simulated as a means of superiority but for building mutuality and co-operative relationships. The following hadith sheds light on the matter. Abu Zarr Ghifari, when, once in a rage called Bilal O son of a Negress, the Prophet did not tolerate this much of intemperance on his part, admonished him and said, "You still smack of the evil traits of Jahiliyah, (that you tried to disgrace him by lowering the dignity of his mother on the basis of color)". Abu Zarr regretted and asked forgiveness from Bilal.

2- Islam has abated the claims of superiority based on descent

3- Islam has given the right to control the administrators to the public. It aimed at abating arbitrary managements, and unjust, unlawful acts of the administrators. Abu Bakr, when he was elected as the first Caliph, did not claim any privileges. In fact, clearly refuted any special status in the opening words (after the pre-amble) of his inauguration sermon, I was assigned to rule you, and I am not the best amongst you. He also went on asking that people would obey him as long as he does his duty properly and that if he does not then he commands not obedience from the people. One day, Omar was giving a sermon in the Mosque and he told the crowd that he was elected as their leader but he was not the best among them. He said that he would try to rule according to the teachings of God and His prophet, but that if he made a mistake, they should correct him. One person rose from the crowd and told Omar that if he deviated from the book, they would correct him with the edge of the sword. He became delighted with the answer.

4- Freedom of thoughts and conscience are the second most important rights of humans after having right to live. Not avowing this right of individuals means decreasing his rank to that of animals. It advocates both freedom of thought and freedom of conscience. With the principle of there is no compulsion in Religion, it does not allow coercing anybody into the Islam.

5- Islam has given great importance to the institution of slavery. And, thus, has given legal status to it. Before Islam, slavery was in use with the utmost savagery. There was no reason to anticipate that slavery would be abated completely, which was widespread in every corner of the world. For this reason, Islam did not abrogated slavery completely but improved it in the most civilized and humane way. On the other hand, made possible the transition from slavery to freedom. Thus, developed such efficient systems to abate slavery completely.

6- Freedom of having property: As well as all the other feelings, God gave us the feeling of ownership and it is a part of our human nature. The Holy Quran states its meaning clear. Islam let individuals to have possessions and laid the groundwork for having possessions lawfully. The right of individual property that Islam acknowledges cannot be intervened without the permission of the owner.

7- Equality before the law: All people are equal before the law (regardless of their ethnicity, belief etc.) as equal as the teeth of a comb. The rule of law is an essential principle in Islam. A state leader or a commoner are both equal before the law. Even if the felon is a state leader he receives punishment. Sultan Mehmed II the conqueror with a Greek architect, Hazrath Ali with a Jew, Salaaddin Ayyubi with an Armenian, all came before the judge. A woman from Banu Makhzum Clan committed theft during Prophet Muhammad's conquest of Mecca, and she was brought to him. the clan of Banu Mahkzum attempted to intercede for her. They sent Usama to God's Messenger (pbuh). Usama, was the son Zayd, and , like Zayd, very dear to him. Unable to resist the insistent pressure from the Banu Makhzum, Usama pleaded with the Prophet for the woman to be excused. Prophet's face turned red with anger and he rebuked the intercessor. And he gave this historic sermon: 'O people! Know of a certainty that the Almighty ruined many of the peoples before you because they did not observe justice. When an influential person among them who had powerful backing committed a crime, they ignored it, but if the same crime was committed by a weak one, they applied the necessary punishment. I swear by God, that if my daughter Fatima steals, I will not hesitate to cut off her hand.' (Bukhari 8:6800; Muslim 3:4187 and 4188) Abu Bakr

8- In Islam, there is no unlawful punishment. No one is responsible for another persons crime. This principle is stated in the Quran as follows, Say: "Am I, then, to seek after someone other than God as Lord when He is the Lord of everything?" Every soul earns only to its own account; and no soul, as bearer of burden, bears and is made to bear the burden of another. Then, to your Lord is the return of all of you, and He will then make you understand (the truth) concerning all that on which you have differed. (Al-Anam Surah, 6:164)

9- Impartiality and independence of the courts principle: Judicial authority in Islam is impartial and independent. Courts are the judicial authority in Islamic countries. Like commoners, the ruler of the states came before the court and punished if seen guilty of a crime.

10- Domiciliar inviolability and privacy of the individual: In Islam, no one or no authority has right to intervene the privacy of the individual. No one has right to enter any ones private property. Inquiring private lives of individuals are strictly impermissible.

11- Freedom of Travel: In Islam, it is stated that traveling is an act both exemplary and healthful, so always prompted.

12- Right to live; protection of the life, property, and chastity: This matter has put forward in the farewell sermon of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in the most perfect sense. O people: your lives and your property, until the very day you meet your Lord, are as inviolable to each other as the inviolability of this day you are now in, and the month you are now in. Have I given the message? -- O God, be my witness. So let whoever has been given something for safekeeping give it back to him who gave him it.

13- Social Insurance: The Religion Islam provided for the needy in view of the facts such as elderness, sickness, calamities, disasters, and accidents; secured their futures by institutions like Zakat (Almsgiving), and social foundations.

14- Freedom to Work, Wage Equality and Justice: In Islam, working and making an effort for livelihood are valued and encouraged; begging, not working are always seen as In fact, working for the livelihood of ones family is regarded as a prayer with the condition of fulfilling the obligatory prayers. The verse, depicts the importance of working that Islam gives. In addition, Prophet Muhammad has instructed people to pay the wages of their workers before their sweat dry out .Workers, on the other hand, should be honest and sincere in their work for the best of the income.

15- Protecting the Children: In Islam, from the very moment of birth, it is given help to the parents for raising the child, and is granted an allowance from the treasury. Today, in most of the wealthy countries, child support enforcement services help the needy families.

16- Basic Education is free and obligatory. The hadith, To seek knowledge is obligatory unto every Muslim both man and woman, makes Basic Education necessary. Besides, religious, moral, and literary education, professional education should be given, too.

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basicsofislam · 4 years

Text

ISLAM 101: Muslim Culture and Character: Embracing The World:

Crying of those with sad hearts

Question: It is stated that sometimes God grants mercy to an entire world upon the crying of one sad heart. Today, it seems that we do not feel deeply troubled and sympathize enough for humanity’s suffering, so as to weigh heavily on our consciences and prey on our minds. What can be the possible reasons?

Answer: The human factor lies at the basis of all individual, familial, and social problems, which people have faced ever since the time of the Prophet Adam, peace be upon him. The same is true for the basis of all the cases of anarchy, oppression, strife, and crises. Given that all problems can be traced back to the human factor, the solution of these problems is possible through approaching it anew, with a system of moral training oriented to Divine truths and appealing to the conscience. Otherwise, people cannot be saved from misguidance, misery, debauchery, and poverty.

Realizing one’s being at the bottom of the well The greatest problem of humanity today is the neglect of the human factor. But how many of us feel deeply troubled by this grave problem and feel due suffering within? Unfortunately, since most of us live within the same sort of environment, the vast majority of people are unable to grasp even the scale and size of the debauchery and poverty, the deviation and fall. Let me clarify my point with an example: after having stayed in the city for a while, I visited my uncle who lived in the village. The moment I poked my head in through the door, I said how bad the smell was. On hearing this, my uncle’s grandchildren started laughing at me, because I had stayed in the same house for about a month in my childhood and did not feel disturbed at all. Rumi tells the story of a man who gets accustomed to the stench of a leather tannery workshop. When that man passes near perfumery shops and smells the beautiful fragrances, he cannot tolerate them and faints. This story depicts to us the situation of corrupted human nature. As people of the contemporary age, we take for granted everything to such a degree that we feel no shame or suffering, even before the most shameful sights. We see nearly all wrongs as normal. As a poet stated, “Somebody who is full thinks everybody in the world is full; a hungry one thinks there is no bread in the world.” Similarly, since we do not feel suffering and have not come to grips with reality, we do not feel a need to say, “Enough!” as a spontaneous reaction of our conscience and then try to fix it. The reason is that we are inevitably influenced by the atmosphere and conditions in which we live. It diffuses into all of our senses and, in a way, influences the cortex. Thus, individuals perceive and evaluate their surroundings accordingly and cannot overcome this framework.

People fail to realize that there is a very distinguished position that they are supposed to take vis-à-vis their Creator and that they stand far below this position in reality. They think themselves to be in an enjoyable clime in spite of staying at the bottom of a well. For this reason, they make no effort to climb out of the well. Human beings possess the gift of adapting to the conditions in which they live. For example, the ears of a person in a noisy environment adapt themselves to the noise, and they become senseless to sounds of a certain frequency that they normally would hear. Similarly, we have always seen people who are content to lead a world-oriented life, seeking only to have good time. And, therefore, we fail to realize our own heart-rending spiritual wretchedness.

However, suffering is a very important invitation for Divine inspirations. It whispers to people very different ways first to realize and then be saved from the troubled state that they are really in. For instance, if a man at the bottom of a well or dungeon is aware of his situation and feels due suffering, he will try to get out in many different ways and will achieve his goal in the end by God’s grace. Even if he does not possess any tools, he will try to climb out by using his hands like claws. He strives on and makes two small holes where he can insert his feet. After managing to stand on them, he does the same above the first ones. Continuing like this, he makes his way out of the well after a certain period of time. But a man living contently down there, even unaware of his situation, will never make such an effort.

The state of misery that invokes divine compassion

If people suffer deeply over the fall and deviation that they have undergone and turn to God wholeheartedly, as Bediüzzaman puts it in The Gleams, at such a moment when all the apparent causes show no sign of hope, one can witness the secret of Ahadiyya being manifest through the light of Divine Oneness and Unity.[1] As it is well-known, when Prophet Jonah, peace be upon him, was swallowed by a whale, the animal’s body, waves of the sea, and the dark night enveloped him with no sign of hope. But that great Prophet prayed in that manifold darkness saying, “There is no deity but You, All-Glorified are You (in that You are absolutely above having any defect). Surely I have been one of the wrongdoers (who have wronged themselves)” (al-Anbiya 21:87). By praying thus, he appealed to Divine Mercy and Compassion and was delivered in a miraculous fashion. At this point, the words of Ibrahim Haqqi are also meaningful:

When you are in dire need,

Divine Providence opens a door;

For every trouble, He sends a cure.

Whatever the Almighty will do

He will do the best for you.

Now, consider our spiritual life: aren’t we in a worse condition than Prophet Jonah in the belly of the whale? Bediüzzaman states in The Gleams that our carnal soul is like such a whale to us. That is, we are in a way swallowed by our (evil-commanding) carnal souls. We have been taken by worldly considerations and fancies of the carnal soul. But the worst is that we are not even aware of our wretched condition. We act as if we are heartless creatures in the face of severe oppression, misery, and subjection in different lands. Therefore, we first must ask ourselves, “Who were we and who are we now?” The next thing to do is to establish a connection between the age we are currently living in and the Age of Bliss (i.e., the Age of the Prophet), and then make a sound comparison. We should even include the following decades when Islamic civilization flourished and try to find out how competent statesmen dealt with the troubles of their time and how they exerted themselves to find solutions for the problems that confronted them. By comparing those lustrous days with ours, we should try to understand how disastrous our condition is. I think such racking of our brains will lead us to knocking on the door of the Merciful God, and He will show us alternative ways out. To the extent we see our state as normal, we will neither find alternative ways, nor discover new methods in the name of deliverance.

The seeds of suffering sown into hearts

Consciousness of the (Age of Bliss and the following) golden ages where true Islamic spirituality was practiced and realizing our present miserable state is the key to feeling the suffering that we are supposed to feel. Bediüzzaman voiced his suffering about the grim picture before him by saying, “I even have no time to think about the troubles I am subjected to. I gladly welcome going through a thousand fold greater difficulties if only I saw the faith of people in safety.” Similarly, he stated that he would even gladly welcome burning in Hell, given that the faith of his people is secured. These sublime thoughts are an expression of having attained the level of true humanity. Given that humanity is heedlessly heading for Hell before our eyes, and that we consider ourselves as conscientious believers, we cannot help but to be appalled by this picture.

It is a reality that not everybody can sense and feel matters with such magnanimity in their consciences.

In addition, it may not be proper for everybody to know about every trouble and problem, since some people cannot resist even the pettiest viruses. However, when those with strong immune systems face a virus attack, this does not cause them anything more than a temporary stagger. In the same way, even the persons who try to serve for the sake of faith may not have the same strength of immunity. For this reason, telling them all of the grim realities might push them to hopelessness.

I would like to express how I feel: if my parents and grandparents were alive today, and if all of them passed away in one moment, I swear by God that this grief would not equal the suffering I go through for the fate of Islam in half a day. Sometimes, I leave my room in the middle of the night bent in two with this suffering and wander in the corridor as if I were crazy. In spite of this, I am trying not to tell everybody about the monstrous souls lying in wait at every corner, each one of them running after a different conspiracy and plot. This can make some people lose courage and give in to hopelessness. Therefore, I prefer not to reveal my concerns about it. But if I knew that they could bear the truth, I would wish to sow the seeds of suffering and pour embers into people’s hearts, so that they too would become concerned for humanity’s troubles, so that they too would lose sleep and walk around restlessly as if they were insane, exerting themselves to find solutions.

Nevertheless, if one is not called insane for suffering for his religion, it is difficult to say that he has attained perfect faith. That is, others will look at such a person and say, “Instead of enjoying this world with its natural beauties and resorts, why does he busy himself with such concerns?” This is an indication of being seen as insane, as the great Sufi Yunus Emre stated, not caring about losing what you possess after having found the ultimately absolute value. What about those who do not feel so? Are they destined to be losers? Never, I cannot dare say that. Since the Pride of Humanity related that a person who passes away with the smallest amount of faith will, finally, enter Paradise. We cannot blame anyone on this issue, nor try to block anybody’s way to Paradise. This is a different issue. However, feeling agonized over humanity’s suffering and it preying on your mind, and embracing all of humanity with an attitude that befits the Prophets, is a completely different issue.

[1] Ahadiyya expresses God Almighty’s being one, single, and unique. He also has manifestations or blessings (of Ahadiyya) particular to each thing and being. When one realizes his absolute helplessness, he or she can unfold this secret of Ahadiyya manifestly through the light of his conviction of the Oneness of God, Who has absolute control over everything. This is because apparent means and causes have no part of their own in the creation of results. Since Prophet Jonah saw with the eye of certainty that there was no refuge other than the Causer of Causes, and as he, through his utmost conviction of God’s absolute Oneness and His dominion over the universe, fully perceived that in addition to His overall manifestations that reign supreme over all of creation, God also has manifestations particular to each thing and being as the All-Compassionate.

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taikanyohou · 4 years

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hey faiza!!! i hope you've been having a good day so far 💕 i was scrolling through your replies tag (which i do every other week when i have free time bc you have a beautiful way with words and it helps put my mind at ease for a while) and i thought it was already past the time where i come here and express my gratitude to you (which i tried doing once before but i felt awkward and didn't want to be a nuisance (haha get it?)). ever since i began following, i've learned so so SO much. not only +

+ about the islam and all desi matters (that i had so little knowledge about, shame on me! it's a beautiful culture and i'm so glad i'm able to see a slice of and learn about it through your blog!!), but also about so many other things, whether it be lgbtqia+ topics, just perks of life and even how to be more conscious and educated about the things and pieces of media i consume. i'm just a teenager u kno, whereas you are already a grown woman, so i couldn't possibly compare us as equal, as you certainly have more life experiences and knowledge than i do, and we come from drastically different places; my view of the world is still so limited to my surroundings and where i come from, but it's within the internet that i find a place to learn more about others and make that view of the world be wider, richer and more mindful. god i feel like im derailing, sorry shdhajd, but my point is: i didn't expect to be able to learn so much when i began watching bls again this year, i thought i would watch the shows, follow some blogs for pretty gifs, and that's all. but i was wrong, because tumblr gave me the opportunity to meet and befriend so many incredible people and i was so lucky that you were one of them. i've said this before but, my tumblr experience is so much better whenever i see you on my dash talking about whatever it is, and i look up to you so so so much. i'm not a religious person but the way you talk about the islam, the Qur'an or Allah makes me feel so emotional and it's beautiful to see this deep and passionate connection you have with this religion. and just how incredibly articulated you are when talking about any topic, it always makes me stop scrolling and read all the things you write. i adore reading your thoughts, your opinions and your take on things because they always come from a place of reflection, appreciation and respect, and i admire that a lot. you have such a wonderful and kind soul, it's so inspiring to me to see how you always try to be positive, optimistic and respectful no matter what is in front of you. of course, we don't //really// know each other that well, but the little of you that you pour out and show us is already so beautiful and welcoming 💓 i'm gonna stop now i'm sorry that this is so long goddd i just.... i wanted to thank you for all that you do for those who follow you and how impactful your presence on my tumblr experience has been. (i swear to you, when you followed me back on this blog before i made the sideblog, i legit freaked out lmao my mind was "WHAT??? SHE, WHO'S SO CLEVER AND AMAZING AND TALENTED, JUST FOLLOWED ME? WHEN I HAVE NOTHING TO OFFER?? SJDHSJSJ WHAT" and tbh i still don't know What made you want to be mutuals but i'm glad for whatever it was 💞) i hope all the parts go and im so sorry it's so long shdnksjdj

dawn!!! hello my sunshine!!!!!!!!! i hope you've had a lovely week, and i hope this weekend you take some time off and relax! i hope you're doing well!!!

oh my goodness me i- what have i done to deserve this I DO NOT DESERVE this. thank you so so much for just. being so loving and you are so so wise, i READ your tags, i READ your posts. and i think, despite however old or young people are, there's something to learn from everyone. there's something to appreciate and pick up on and implement and become more aware of and about from everyone's story of life. so don't ever think you may not have much to offer!

this year's been hard. a lot has happened. and i think everything has been a lesson to learn from, and for us to really truly understand what it is that really matters the most to us, and to show gratitude for what we have, all the blessings we have. and its hard to stay positive all the time, and thats okay. sometimes, our sadness needs room and space also where its telling us to just ... take a moment and reflect on why the sadness is there. but i've become so .... adamant that i choose to go back and think positively again. bc although it feels like we've been stripped away from being physically social, i've seen how much goodness and humanity there is still left within people on here, within all my mutuals - and i realised that, as long as there is goodness in this world, there's no reason to give up on hope. people together can make so many things happen.

and part of, i feel, what people should be proud of, is being proud of who they are. not in the arrogant sense, but in terms of WHO you are. what makes you, you. and now more than ever we need to know about one another. about different backgrounds and cultures and religions and beliefs etc. we can become ambassadors of those things, and being an authentic source of knowledge for people. of course, not everyone may like that, but thats okay. knowledge is power and there's so much knowledge out there for us to dip into. by learning from another, we can truly enrich ourselves, find out about commonalities and similarities and differences and contrasts. and ultimately realise that every single one of us has the right to life and the right to live. we can share our sorrow and pain, and also share our moments of joy and happiness too. we may not all agree on the same thing, but that should not sway us from wanting to befriend someone and missing out on an opportunity to get to know someone, just because you may not agree on one thing. there could be 10 things you do agree on vs that 1 that you dont. and that doesnt stop you from being any less you, nor them being any less them. we all deserve respect and kindness, despite our similarities and despite our differences from one place, culture, religion or belief, to the next.

there is just. there is so much good in this world, in nature, in people. we need to celebrate that. we need to appreciate goodness and just. be thankful for everything we have, and anything we get on top of what we have, is a blessing.

thank you so so so much!!! i love youuuuu!!!! 🧡🧡🧡

#faiza answers #DAWN THIS MESSAGE EYE- 🧡🧡🧡😚😚😚😚😚😚😚😚😚

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thethingsihavelearned · 4 years

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The Truth of the Christ

Last time, we defined truth. We determined that truth, that which corresponds to reality, is a worthy pursuit, especially in matters of religion. Today, I want to apply that concept to Jesus Christ. I want to answer the following question: does it matter whether the Jesus Christ of the Bible was an actual historical figure? Is that so significant a question, or can Christianity continue whether Jesus is real or a myth?

The reason I pose this question is because I have spoken to people over the years about what I have learned about the historicity of Jesus, and some people, even Christians, do not find the topic nearly as interesting as I do. Learning that there is substantial evidence that Jesus lived and died exactly as the Gospel writers say that He did had a tremendous effect on my life. In my formative years, I vacillated between Christianity and agnosticism precisely because I did not think the stories of the Bible were compatible with the historical account. I actually wanted to believe the Bible and to believe in God because I had been conditioned to do so by my culture in the Bible Belt, USA, but I could not believe something in my heart that I understood in my brain to be false. As a result of my admittedly insubstantial studies at the time, I thought that the Bible was a book of mostly fictional stories that some adults wanted me to believe but that enlightened people should scorn as outdated. When I learned that the Bible is actually a better account of the history it records than my high school and undergraduate textbooks, I began to give its teachings the respect its factuality earned for it. My thoughts on the Bible changed from, “It has some interesting philosophical and moral ideas that I can incorporate into my life if I feel like it,” to “It is true, and I need to do what it says.” Since then, as I read and reread the Bible every day, I have fallen in love with it, and I now use it as a sort of litmus test by which I judge all other theories and ideas. I give it the same credit I would give to an acclaimed historian’s book and actually more so because the historian’s book, however well researched and documented, could be wrong; the Bible is the inherent Word of God. I did not give the Bible its credit on face value (as some people do whose faith is stronger than mine). I needed convincing, which came by way of striding such classics as Evidence That Demands a Verdict and The Case for Christ, among others.

Circling back to my original point, because of my ‘literal’ nature, I needed to know that the Bible was true before I could believe its message, but upon discussing what I learned about the Bible with others, I have found, to my surprise, that not all people have that nature. Some people can take the teachings of the Bible whether they understand that they are anchored in fact or not. These people have that childlike faith, which Jesus praises in the Gospels, and which I did lack. That is good in the sense that those people possess that kind of faith; however, I think some of them are living in a bubble that could be burst if they listened to the wrong kind of teaching. I think, perhaps, if you are one of those people, you may be susceptible to believing a lie. Jesus also says that we should love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. If we never consider why we believe what we believe, we are violating that command. Furthermore, He commanded us to make disciples of the nations. If we do not know why we believe the Bible, how can we evangelize? If I do not know that the Bible is true, how can I answer the man’s question who asks me why he should believe it? I could explain to the man how he should believe it because it works for me, but then he might respond that I should come with him to the bar and get drunk because it works for him. If I cannot tell my friend that he should believe the Bible because it is exclusively true, then I am merely a salesman trying to convince him to buy an iPhone instead of a Samsung. For now, I want to take this broad concept of the importance of the truth of the Bible and narrow it to the life of Jesus. I want to discuss six reasons why it is important to know if the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life are true.

First, Jesus’ life represents the distinction between Christianity and Judaism; in fact, it defines the words. Before Jesus, Christianity and Judaism were one and the same. Actually, there was no Christianity, and there was no Judaism. There were Hebrews who believed in the one true God and were expectantly awaiting the Messiah to whom their scriptures pointed. When Jesus came onto the scene, those Hebrews who understood that He was the Messiah became Christians, along with Samaritans and gentiles the world over who reached the same conclusion. Those who believed in God, but did not understand that Jesus is the Messiah, we now call believers in Judaism. Before Christ, Jew was an ethnicity; after Christ, the term attained the potential to denote a religion as well. If Jesus was not, Christianity and Judaism are not.

Secondly, the majority of the Christian Bible focuses on Jesus. The Old Testament predicts this coming and the New Testament discusses His life and its ramifications, how He fulfilled and will fulfill Old Testament prophecy. All these depictions describe a real man who lived, died, resurrected, and will return again one day. The prophecies are incredibly specific and numerous, but consider this mathematical exercise as it pertains to forty-eight of the major, obvious prophecies fulfilled in Jesus Christ; the odds of one man fulfilling all forty-eight of the prophecies is one in 1 in 10157. That means that the fulfillment of the prophecies in Jesus proves that God inspired the prophecies to a definiteness, which lacks only one chance in 10157 of being absolute. Put another way, say one hundred billion people have lived on Earth throughout all of history – obviously the actual number is much smaller, but bear with me. Then, the odds of any random man who lived being the man of prophecy is 100,000,000,000: 10157 or 1:10157, which any gambler can tell you are pretty long odds, indeed. If Jesus did not actually exist, then no man has fulfilled the prophecy and the New Testament writers merely invented this elaborate story, and most of them were killed for their trouble.

Third, it is important for Christians and prospective Christians to know how Jesus lived this life, if in fact He did live. Christians claim that Jesus is God’s physical manifestation on Earth, that the Jesus who lived in the early years of the Annus Dominis was God in the flesh. That is an incredibly important doctrine of Christianity, one of the main points, which separates it from Islam and Judaism. We would expect that if God did walk the Earth in a fleshly body, He would live a certain kind of way. If I found some information that led me to believe that Jesus lived just like I live, that he succumbed to temptations and made mistakes, no one would be able to convince me that He is God. IT is hard enough to believe that God was a carpenter; it is impossible that God was a sinner. Jesus’ sinless, purposeful, self-controlled, miraculous life substantiates his claim to godship, which is the substance of Christianity. For Him not to have lived would make this central idea nonsensical.

Similarly, if Jesus’ sinlessness confirms His godship, then His resurrection confirms His teachings. In Deuteronomy 18, God explains to the Hebrews about the ultimate Prophet who is to come and also about God’s prophets in general. The ultimate Prophet Moses mentions is Jesus, and after this discussion of Jesus, he gives a practical method for determining whether or not a man or woman who claims to be a prophet is indeed a prophet: if what the person predicts comes true, the Lord is speaking through that person, and he or she is a prophet; if not, the self-proclaimed prophet is speaking presumptuously and is a liar. The Gospel writers record several prophecies that Jesus makes. Jesus prophecies the destruction of Jerusalem, which occurred in 70 AD almost forty years after Jesus’ death. Jesus prophecies about the end of this world, which has not yet occurred as of this writing but which is surely bound to come! But he most important and most provocative of Jesus’ prophecies is about His death and subsequent resurrection: “When they came together in Galilee, [Jesus] said to them, ‘the son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life,” (Matthew 1722-23 NIV). All four Gospel writers record this prophecy multiple times in their Gospels, and its importance cannot be overstated. If this prophecy was false, then Jesus’ words can perish just as He did, but it is true, if Jesus Christ rose from the grave, it is merely our moral imperative to believe Jesus in every sense of the word. Woe is the man who rejects the words of Jesus Christ.

While these first four points are logical in nature, forming natural, philosophical syllogisms for how a person should receive them, these last two are more theological in nature. They are the basis for the theology to which the Christian church subscribes. If my distinction between logical and theological seems murky, bear with me, and our discussion will illuminate my meaning.

First, Jesus’ death served as the true sacrifice for human sin. The Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi makes one point if it makes no others, and that point is as follows: man’s sin deserves God’s wrath. You hear people say from time to time, “I just want what’s to me,” or, “I just want to be treated fairly.” My friend, you do not want to be treated fairly by God. God is perfect, absolutely moral and sinless. In fact, God is morality, just as He is truth, love, knowledge, and many other things. With that said, He created us, and He is duty-bound to punish us for our sin. Otherwise, He would be condoning our sin, acting immorally, which is something God cannot do, (for more on this, refer to my post, “Dealing with Moral Law.”) However, God built in a loophole whereby He takes upon Himself the punishment our sins deserve, namely death by crucifixion. Our sin earns for us eternal separation from God, the result of which is death. The Bible teaches that even the very best human is guilty of sin and deserving of death, and if we merely look inwardly, we see this truth in ourselves. I want to do right, and I want to be good, but I still find myself cursing sometimes and lusting sometimes. I think ill of my neighbors more than I care to admit. I do not want to do these things. I want to be like Jesus, but I find that I just cannot always carry it out. That is the main reason why Jesus had to come. On the cross, Jesus took the punishment that our sins deserve. He was our scapegoat, our whipping boy, and if we accept His sacrifice for us, God forgives our sin. Jesus’ death implies our forgiveness, the negation of which implies we are still deserving of God’s wrath – no Jesus, no sacrifice.

Then, after Jesus died, He resurrected on the third day. Many Christians celebrate Easter as the day that Jesus rose, although historians cannot tell us with certainty on what day of the year Jesus actually rose. The Gospels do make clear the point that Jesus rose on the first day of the week, which is the reason you cannot purchase a Chick-Fil-A biscuit on Sundays. Some Christian thinkers still debate on these days of the week, but on one point regarding the resurrection, there is no debate because the Bible is crystal clear: Jesus’ resurrection was the beginning of a new trend. God raised Jesus, or you could say Jesus resurrected Himself, as a model and foreshadowing a “first fruits” of what is in store for His followers. All who accept Jesus as Lord and Savior will be raised after their bodily death to live forever in Paradise with Jesus. If Jesus was not literally raised from the grave, then neither will His followers be. If you are one of His followers, you would be foolish not to know for certain that Jesus resurrected. Otherwise, you are giving up the pleasures of this world and setting your hope on Heaven in vain. But take heart, Jesus did rise. Not only does the Bible explain the resurrection, but every bit of historical evidence points to the same conclusion. Christianity is historical, and it is factual. Christianity is the truth, and I take my oath on it. Next time, I will discuss why.

“And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless, and so is your faith.” – I Corinthians 15:14

#personal #personal thoughts #Jesus Christ #Christianity #God #truth #spilled ink #spilled truth #spilled thoughts #reading #writing #writers #apologetics

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strictlyfortheculture · 4 years

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MY TAKE: 1,300 WORDS ON JAY ELECTRONICA’s ‘A WRITTEN TESTIMONY’

After 11 years of anticipation, Jay Electronica finally released an official study album, A Written Testimony featuring Jay-Z who was playing the role Ghostface Killah did for Raekwon on Only Built 4 Cuban Linx.

Jay-Z was the co-star; the Scottie Pippen to Michael Jordan; the one who complimented the headliner, assisting him in a win, and this album most certainly was a win.

Now I make the point of listing Jay-Z as a co-pilot in this audio journey because many in the Internet realm want to say Jay-Z "lyrically murdered" Electronica on his own shit. Ironically, something Nas claimed happened to Jay Z on the Renegade song years ago.

That didn't happen. Jay-Z did what he was supposed to do, he collaborated with an emcee who captured his ear and mind back in 2010.

This was not Watch The Throne, Part II. To say such a thing is to disrespect what Jay-Z and Kanye West created in 2011. A Written Testimony was the overdue, formal introduction to the rap world Hip-hop's resident Willy Wonka - Jay Elect - the man who creates endless wonders while staying aloof. Jay Electronica is a real-life James Bond, a man who shook the Hip Hop world when he released the game-changing "Exhibit C", dated and fathered a child with Erykah Badu, sparked a bidding war between Puff Daddy and Sean Carter based on the strength of a couple singles, the man who disappeared for years, and was romantically linked to an heiress from the Rothschild family.

YEAH, this man is a legend.

But those exploits coupled with several loose singles and two mixtapes were not enough to satisfy the appetite of hungry Hip Hop listeners, eager to devour the sounds of a man from New Orleans, Louisiana who is, lyrically, more like Rakim Allah than Soulja Slim ... and still, Jay Elect pay homage to his NO influences throughout the album (see "Ghost of Soulja Slim", in particular). How can a Southern emcee come on the scene without having a stereotypical sound of a New Orleans rapper? He doesn't sound like Master P nor does he follow the path of Lil Wayne. No. Jay Elect made his trail unique; distancing himself from the pack.

After 10 years of waiting, Jay Electronica announced his album WOULD be released in Match 2020. Now a lot has changed since 2010 when the original album was meant to come, and during that time tastes change and even the most loyal fans lost faith that it would happen.

Was this real? Was Jay Electronica gonna drop or was this another instance where an artist over-promised and under-delivered?

Finally, Friday the 13th, March 2020 A Written Testimony was released and the internet was flooded with the full gamut of emotions ranging from exhilaration to disappointed (can't please the internet critics or Joe Budden) to a renewed faith in the man of legendary reputation.

Yes, people were pleased to hear that Jay-Z is still one of the best in the game, today, but for me, I was delighted to hear Jay Electronica slay the sound-waves. This 10 track album not only reinforced my appreciation for Jay Electronica; it made me want to study his lyrics; dissect these testaments to its very root.

The introductions to (1) The Overwhelming Event and (2) Ghost oF Soulja Slim featuring sound bytes of Louis Farrakhan speaking to the masses about the Black people in America being real children of Israel; the recipients of God's promise to bless the descendants of Abraham caused dissent from Hip Hop critics and listeners alike who felt the Nation of Islam leader's alleged anti-Semitic comments have no place in a rap album. Those people forget that Jay Electronica is a member of the Nation of Islam.

WRITER'S NOTE: All of those critics are silent when rappers say of Nigga or calling Black women "bitch" and "ho". Where are they during those moments of controversy? Hmmm. This is a conversation for another time.

Controversy aside, the lyrical wordplay on display should have silenced any nonbeliever.

(2) Ghost of Souljah Slim starts off the album right with both men trading verses, and more importantly Electronica showing that he can hold his own with Sean Carter.

(3)The Blinding has Jay Electronica talking about the hesitancy to release his music to an audience that will undoubtedly pick apart his work rather than enjoy it for what it is. (4) Neverending Story is where Jay Elect laces an Alchemist beat with the tale of his come-up from humble beginnings and hostile surrounding to still being chosen by God; bestowed with divine greatness.

(5) Shiny Suit Theory showcases Elect rhymes over a self-produced song proclaiming his forthcoming rise in the world of rap.

(6) Universal Soldier has both men share tales of their rise from hardship and criminal lifestyle to gaining knowledge of self and ultimately overcoming the hurdles placed before them

(7) Flux Capacitor has Jay Elect speaking on a preordained calling upon him to bring superior lyricism and teachings to the world while representing New Orleans.

(8) Fruits Of The Spirits is a song detailing the long wait for this debut album, Electronica lets the listener know that it was all part of his master plan for just like Thanos (from the Marvel Comics), he can defeat any competition with the snap of his fingers.

(9) Ezekiel's Wheel ties into the Biblical story of Ezekiel, the warrior who was placed by God to be the prophet over Israel, Jay Electronica declares himself to be a prophet to the children of Israel, whom Farrakhan, in the album intro stated were the Black people in America.

(10) A.P.I.D.T.A. (All Praise Is Due To Allah) is my personal favourite is a song dealing with the loss of loved ones. According to reports, this song was written on the same night Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna Bryant died in a tragic helicopter crash in February 2020. Wow.

On this sombre track, Jay Electronica offers lamentations over the loss of his beloved Mother, speaking of how her departure from this physical form has cut him to his soul, rendering his spirit wounded.

Eyes fiery, cry tears to my diary Sometimes a Xanny bar can't help you fight back the anxiety I go to my Lord quietly, teardrops on our faces Teardrops on my face, it's like teardrops become waterfalls by the time they reach my laces My eyelids is like levees but my tear ducts is like glaciers As I contemplate creation, the salt that heals my wounds pour out my eyes just like libations I can't stop my mind from racing, I got numbers on my phone Pictures on my phone The day my mama died, I scrolled her texts all day long The physical returns but the connection still stay strong

Jay Elect later rhymes,

Sleep well The last time that I kissed you, you felt cold but you looked peaceful I read our message thread when I get low and need a refill

All controversy and delay aside, Jay Electronica delivered a debut album that rivals that of your favourite MCs. FUCK Joe Budden and anybody who disagrees. I'm still waiting on Joe to release one record as meaningful as Elect's worst. Anyway, I digress.

In an era where the word Classic has lost its meaning thanks to the overuse of fans and critics alike, I won't give it that distinction, at this time. I do, however, feel this album will go down as one of the more significant releases of the last 10 years. This is evidence of substance over style. No commercials tracks. No filler. Just two talented men delivering lyrical food to a hungry audience in need of manna from heaven rather than the pursuit of bread ($$$).

And man cannot live on bread alone. Peace God. Holler at me

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sparksinthenight · 4 years

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Hi followers just so y’all know I worship Loki and if anyone has a problem with that you are cordially invited to leave. As someone who worships Loki I am required to respect, love, and uplift everything that other people feel called to worship, and support them in their own religions. Every person has equal rights to find divinity in the way they specifically need to as long as they don’t deny others any human rights.

The point of life is love, equality, true freedom, peace, harmony, and helping each other as much as we can. Pretty much every religion says this, including a lot of religions people call fake. Everyone needs and deserves to be the religion that they feel like they belong in. Everyone has somewhat different spiritual needs because we have different life situations and personalities and whatnot. People need to be where they feel free, feel loved, feel at home. I haven’t denied you or anyone else your spiritual home so please do me a favour and don’t deny me mine. I’m not saying that I feel oppressed as a Loki worshipper. I actually don’t. Besides other Heathens, nobody even knows we exist so they don’t even come after us.

A guy did leave a weird-ass Halloween decoration of a skeleton with its mouth ripped off near the entrance to my house like the day after I got back from a protest for Indigenous rights which got stalked by nazis so that whole thing is a bit scary but that has NOTHING to do with what spirituality I am.

But anyways I don’t even feel oppressed.

I do however know that most people don’t trust any “weird new-age shit.” And some of that mistrust is deserved, a lot of us are fucking dicks and we culturally appropriate. But painting an entire fucking group in a certain light because of the actions of some people is not something you should do. If you prefer older things that’s fine. If you’re new-wave but RESPECTFUL of what came before you that’s fine, at least it really should be.

We are trying to be better, kinder, more humble, braver, less hurtful, less decadent people. We are trying to live lives based on respecting people and nature. And we rely on different ways of doing that. I don’t know why there has to be so much drama surrounding the whole thing of spirituality.

Like yeah, sure everyone gets it wrong sometimes we’re all human. Yeah, sure, non-traditional people interpret their religions wrong and stupidly sometimes. But so do Christians. Like, remember the Spanish Inquisition? That was some absolutely bullshit that came from human misinterpretation but it’s not like we cancelled Christianity itself after that and it’s not like we should. And what about ISIS? Those people exist and are terrible and they misinterpreted Islam horribly but it’s not like we should cancel Islam.

A lot of the bullshit happening against the Rohingya people have been excused by people in Myanmar using a horrible interpretation of Buddhism but it’s not like Buddhism itself is bad. Every society ever has misinterpreted religion to support patriarchy and that does not mean any of those many religions are bad.

Every religion has it’s bad people who use the religion for bad things.

Us Heathens have a Nazi problem. One which many of us are actively trying to solve, by the way.

“New” (or rediscovered) religions have their own bullshit people in them like every other religion does.

But please don’t blame our gods for the actions of humans. Don’t blame our religion itself, which is a lifeline for so many of us. A literal lifeline.

Loki helped me see how I did not deserve to be treated how I’m being treated by my parents. And he’s helping me break free of them.

Loki helped me embrace my responsibility as a citizen on Earth to take care of the planet that loves and provides for us in so many ways.

Loki helped me realize that I must join the struggle to end discrimination.

Loki is helping me transition into adulthood and be the person I know in my soul I should be. Loki helped me realize just how important it was to fight against the injustices of economic inequality.

After a particularly bad day at work or school or at home Loki helps me remember that I am a person with rights. Loki has helped many people hold onto their self-respect and hope through abusive situations and helped them find a way out of those situations I literally have met a fellow Loki worshipper who stopped self-harming because of Loki’s help. A good friend of mine who follows a new-age religion, her religion got her through the worst parts of depression and helped her hold onto her will to live. And I know her religion is different from mine but it’s still right and wise and good.

Loki helps me feel responsible. I know that every religion calls for its followers to make the world a better place. But when Loki specifically says to me that I am responsible for how my actions or words or thoughts or inaction affects other people, I am able to understand and internalize it. My doubts, my selfish desires, it all stops being able to hold me back. He makes me feel empowered in an incredibly humble yet incredibly strong way. When he tells me I’m responsible for fixing the world’s problems, for living better, I absorb and am sable to understand and internalize it in a way that cuts through the layers of apathy I build up sometimes. Loki makes me a better person. He helps me fight to end inequality and suffering. Loki has succeeded in doing that where many others have failed.

And I’m not saying that other religions failed in general. They succeeded wonderfully and spectacularly for other people. Everyone has a different spiritual home.

And everyone deserves to be in their spiritual home.

And my home is Loki.

And he makes me feel so much more connected to humanity than other religions have. He’s helped improve the interpersonal relationships between me and my loved ones. He’s helped me realize how all of humanity is a family and how we are called to live as such. He hasn’t isolated me from anyone except people who are toxic. Sure, since fellow Loki worshippers are few and far between the numbers make it difficult for me to have a religious community. But I have a community of found family. I have a community of social justice people from the groups I’m part of. I have the community of humanity which is the community we all should ultimately aspire to serve. Loki gave me a community that transcends religious lines. One I feel at home in.

And in this world full of injustice I’m bound to not feel at home sometimes, and I do. But in the times when I don’t feel at home Loki helps me feel more at home.

It’s not about what we c a l l the forces that bring us to love and help each other and nature. It’s about how these forces help us become more responsible, more respectful, more kind, more selfless, more self-respecting, better. It’s all love in the end.

And love is really just the connection we feel with the people and how we feel called to make the world a better place.

Loki helps me make the world a better place.

And if that offends you because you turn your nose up at non-traditional spirituality, then this blog is not for you. No judgement, it’s just not for you.

#Religion #Loki #I’m putting this out in the open #this is me #who I am #no apoligies #don’t like don’t read #don’t like don’t follow

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wisdomrays · 5 years

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Crying of Those with Sad Hearts

QUESTION: It is stated that sometimes God grants mercy to an entire world upon the crying of one sad heart. Today, it seems that we do not feel deeply troubled and sympathize enough for humanity’s suffering, so as to weigh heavily on our consciences and prey on our minds. What can be the possible reasons?

ANSWER: The human factor lies at the basis of all individual, familial, and social problems, which people have faced ever since the time of the Prophet Adam, peace be upon him. The same is true for the basis of all the cases of anarchy, oppression, strife, and crises. Given that all problems can be traced back to the human factor, the solution of these problems is possible through approaching it anew, with a system of moral training oriented to Divine truths and appealing to the conscience. Otherwise, people cannot be saved from misguidance, misery, debauchery, and poverty.

Realizing one’s being at the bottom of the well

The greatest problem of humanity today is the neglect of the human factor. But how many of us feel deeply troubled by this grave problem and feel due suffering within? Unfortunately, since most of us live within the same sort of environment, the vast majority of people are unable to grasp even the scale and size of the debauchery and poverty, the deviation and fall. Let me clarify my point with an example: after having stayed in the city for a while, I visited my uncle who lived in the village. The moment I poked my head in through the door, I said how bad the smell was. On hearing this, my uncle’s grandchildren started laughing at me, because I had stayed in the same house for about a month in my childhood and did not feel disturbed at all. Rumi tells the story of a man who gets accustomed to the stench of a leather tannery workshop. When that man passes near perfumery shops and smells the beautiful fragrances, he cannot tolerate them and faints. This story depicts to us the situation of corrupted human nature. As people of the contemporary age, we take for granted everything to such a degree that we feel no shame or suffering, even before the most shameful sights. We see nearly all wrongs as normal. As a poet stated, “Somebody who is full thinks everybody in the world is full; a hungry one thinks there is no bread in the world.” Similarly, since we do not feel suffering and have not come to grips with reality, we do not feel a need to say, “Enough!” as a spontaneous reaction of our conscience and then try to fix it. The reason is that we are inevitably influenced by the atmosphere and conditions in which we live. It diffuses into all of our senses and, in a way, influences the cortex. Thus, individuals perceive and evaluate their surroundings accordingly and cannot overcome this framework.

The state of misery that invokes divine compassion

If people suffer deeply over the fall and deviation that they have undergone and turn to God wholeheartedly at such a moment when all the apparent causes show no sign of hope, one can witness the secret of Ahadiyya being manifest through the light of Divine Oneness and Unity. As it is well-known, when Prophet Jonah, peace be upon him, was swallowed by a whale, the animal’s body, waves of the sea, and the dark night enveloped him with no sign of hope. But that great Prophet prayed in that manifold darkness saying, “There is no deity but You, All-Glorified are You (in that You are absolutely above having any defect). Surely I have been one of the wrongdoers (who have wronged themselves)” (al-Anbiya 21:87). By praying thus, he appealed to Divine Mercy and Compassion and was delivered in a miraculous fashion.

Now, consider our spiritual life: aren’t we in a worse condition than Prophet Jonah in the belly of the whale? Our carnal soul is like such a whale to us. That is, we are in a way swallowed by our (evil-commanding) carnal souls. We have been taken by worldly considerations and fancies of the carnal soul. But the worst is that we are not even aware of our wretched condition. We act as if we are heartless creatures in the face of severe oppression, misery, and subjection in different lands. Therefore, we first must ask ourselves, “Who were we and who are we now?” The next thing to do is to establish a connection between the age we are currently living in and the Age of Bliss (i.e., the Age of the Prophet), and then make a sound comparison. We should even include the following decades when Islamic civilization flourished and try to find out how competent statesmen dealt with the troubles of their time and how they exerted themselves to find solutions for the problems that confronted them. By comparing those lustrous days with ours, we should try to understand how disastrous our condition is. I think such racking of our brains will lead us to knocking on the door of the Merciful God, and He will show us alternative ways out. To the extent we see our state as normal, we will neither find alternative ways, nor discover new methods in the name of deliverance.

The seeds of suffering sown into hearts

It is a reality that not everybody can sense and feel matters with such magnanimity in their consciences.

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tawakkull · 3 years

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ISLAM 101: Spirituality in Islam: Part 96

Halwat and Jalwat (Privacy and Company)

Literally meaning retreating to a place that is quiet and preferring solitude, halwat is used by the Sufis to mean initiates removing themselves from people to dedicate all of their time to worshipping God, and feeling God’s constant company in whatever they experience and in whatever state they find themselves in. It also denotes restricting one’s powers of sight and hearing to “seeing” and “hearing” only God, confiding in only Him, and devoting oneself exclusively to Him.

What is fundamental for halwat (privacy) is that one should purify one’s spirit, cleanse one’s soul, and turn one’s heart and conscience to God exclusively to attain His constant company. As a result of this degree of turning to God and the attainment of His company, a traveler to the Ultimate Truth is supported with certain Divine gifts and favored with breezes of inspiration. It may even occur that they converse with God beyond all terms of quality and quantity—which is called “mutual whispering” by the Sufis. These are all Divine rewards that come in return for one’s sincerity and exertion; therefore, expecting and demanding these is a show of bad manners. Thus, worshipping God and exerting oneself on His way in order to be able to receive such rewards represents deviation from the basic aim of servanthood to God and amounts to losing while on the way to winning. The perfected souls feel alarmed even over the coming of such rewards without expectations or demands, trembling with the fear that they have come to lead themselves to perdition, and they themselves are consuming the everlasting fruits of the afterlife in this fleeting world. Therefore, they supplicate to God, saying:

O God, grant those gifts to those who ask for them; Please show me only the way to Your vision (in the Hereafter). In this way they emphasize their utmost devotion to God without expecting anything in return except for His approval of them as His servants and His good pleasure.

All that we have tried to express so far to describe privacy is what the true travelers on the Sufi way have meant by it. However, some Sufi leaders have narrowed its frame and deal with it as being related to retreating to lodges where initiates undergo willful suffering; during this time, an initiate tries to become accustomed to speaking little, eating little, sleeping little, and remaining alone. This point has already been explained under the headings ofHalwat and ‘Uzlat (Privacy and Seclusion) and Chila (Suffering) in the first and second volumes of this book respectively. The Sufi scholars who approach the matter from this narrow perspective have stressed its universality, mentioning that every religion and every spiritual system gives place to privacy, even if they differ in some secondary matters. They have considered as privacy the Prophet Moses’ ten years of residence in Midian and his forty days of stay on Mount Sinai, as well as the Children of Israel’s wandering in the Sinai desert for forty years, and the Virgin Mary’s retreat which is mentioned in the Qur’anic verse, We made the Son of Mary and his mother a miraculous sign (of Our Lordship and Power), and We provided for them refuge on a lofty ground of comfort and security with a (water) spring (23:50), and, finally, God’s Messenger’s seclusion in the cave of Hira for the purpose of worship. They attach great importance to privacy in the name of spiritual purification. Even if it could be said that all of the events mentioned above do not provide some substantial religious ground for privacy, the importance of privacy serving the heart cannot be denied. The heart is regarded as the “House of God” and in this way can be purified of various attachments to things other than God, being refined and brightened so that it can receive Divine manifestations.

Privacy is important—not in remaining away from people, but as being a means for a “conversation with the All-Beloved” in the house of the heart. From this perspective, we can consider privacy to be a dimension of the spiritual journeying on the way to God and a step toward attaining His company.

Privacy, which initiates try to accomplish through cycles of forty days of suffering, in fact, serves to enable them to achieve refinement toward the purification of the heart, spirit, consciousness, and feelings so that they can turn back among people (jalwat) in order to guide them.

Privacy is a way essential to Sufism through which initiates can be refined of the carnal dimension of their nature and discover themselves in the depths of their humanity. Through privacy initiates can also clearly perceive the final purpose of their existence and experience God’s particular manifestations of His favors on them through the lens of the helplessness, poverty, and the neediness essential to their very nature. Thus, they turn to God with all of their faculties, in the full conviction of His being the sole source of real power, wealth, knowledge, and all accomplishments.

Privacy does not only consist of constant seclusion from people, as one who went to extremes in solitude said:

Brothers, my comfort lies in privacy— For to whomever I have become a friend, They publicized my faults and spread my humiliations around. During my entire life, I have not been able to find one— One who has been truly faithful. For this reason, I have found comfort in privacy. Although privacy is in appearance a retreat from people, in truth it is a process of being equipped with the necessities of guidance in order to live in people’s company.

At the beginning of journeying, those who intend such privacy withdraw to a secluded place, for example, remaining in a mosque for the purpose of worship. They eat little, drink little, sleep little, speak little, and are occupied with the remembrance of God. They never abandon reflection or self-supervision. When they have reached the final point of perfection they return among people and set out to serve them as one from among them. They attain non- existence in regards to their carnal existence and egotism and acquire an ever-active existence through the lights of the Divine existence. In the concepts, thoughts, and speeches of one who has reached this point, the self no longer exists; rather the truth and the Ultimate Truth exist. For this reason, such a person may say, “I no longer exist within me; I am no longer conscious of my existence.” In his Diwan Kabir, Jalalu’d-Din ar-Rumi describes this feeling of non-existence as follows:

We have been favored with a mystery, a journeying on the way to the Ultimate Truth. We rejoice in our non- existence. So, come and let us remain in our non- existence. The doors were closed to us before, but when we were saved from ourselves, All the doors were opened. Our hearts have been filled with peace and satisfaction Because we have remained freed from ourselves on this way. The All-Beautiful Beloved, Who kept Himself concealed from us, Has stroked our face in our non- existence. We have died for His sake and, in turn, He has saved us from ourselves. Jalwat (company) denotes that initiates are freed from self-centeredness or anything that feeds their egos and—having been equipped with God’s qualities or way of acting and being polished mirrors to His Names—dedicate themselves to service in God’s cause with whatever they have, caring about the eternal happiness of others during their whole life. Another approach to company is that after initiates are freed from relative values that are peculiar to themselves, they then devote their intellect, logic, reasoning, and tongue to the service of humanity in the light of the lamp of Prophethood.

A person who attained company illuminates some of the features of those who have attained it as follows:

Those who have attained company polish spirits; They are those followed by people. They have three distinguishing marks: Purity of the soul, refinement of the heart, and a polished spirit. They are mirrors to the manifestations of the Divine Names. Whether one prefers privacy or company, the true attainment is servanthood to God, perfectly fulfilling whatever this servanthood requires, and sincere self-exertion to make others know and love Him.

O God! Show us the truth as the truth and enable us to observe it, and show us falsehood as falsehood and enable us to avoid it. And bestow Your blessings and peace upon our master, Muhammad, and on his Family and Companions.

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