Music:
Very eclectic musical taste, from Reggae, to Jazz , To Rock, to Hip-Hop and a lot in between. (NO COUNTRY) HERE'S A RAMBLING LIST OF FAVORITES: BOB MARLEY, PETER TOSH, WYCLEF, DAMIEN MARLEY, JUNIOR RIED, SUPER CAT, MR. VEGAS, MAD LION, SEAN PAUL, JIMI HENDRIX, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, DEEP PURPLE, METALICA, CREAM, CHAS CHANDLER AND THE ANIMALS, SMASH MOUTH, THE CLASH, TALKING HEADS, DEPECHE MODE, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, WHITE STRIPES, SADE, JILL SCOTT, LAUREN HILL (L BOOGIE) AND THE FUGEES, ERYKAH BADU, DEAD PREZ, TALIB KWELI, MOS DEF, COMMON, THE ROOTS, DILATED PEOPLES, POOR RIGHTEOUS TEACHERS, JERU THA DAMAJA, TRIBE CALLED QUEST (Q-TIP, PHIFE DOG & ALI
RAKIMKRS ONESADEMiles DavisBob MarleyJIMI HENDRIX
Heroes:
MUHAMMAD(PBUH)Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was an illiterate but wise and well-respected man, a member of the ruling Quraysh tribe, who was born in Makkah in the year 570 C.E.*, at a time when Christianity was not yet fully established in Europe . He was orphaned at an early age and then raised by his uncle Abu Talib.As Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) grew up, he became known for his truthfulness, generosity and sincerity, so that he was sought after for his ability to arbitrate in disputes. His reputation and personal qualities also led to his marriage at the age of 25 to Khadijah, a widow whom he had assisted in business. From then on, he became an important and trusted citizen of Makkah. Historians describe him as calm and meditative.Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) never felt content to be part of his society whose values were devoid of true religious significance. He never worshiped idols and never drank alcohol, although drinking was widespread in Arabian society at that time. It became his habit to retreat from time to time to meditate in the cave of Hira ’ near the summit of Jabal An-Nur, the “ Mountain of Light â€, near Makkah.At the age of 40, while engaged in one such meditative retreat, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) received his first revelation from Allah (God) through the Angel Gabriel (Jibril). This revelation, which continued for twenty-three years, is known as the Qur’an. IMAM HUSSAINWho actually is Hussain? What is the background of this exceptionally unique and great personality? This prominent man of history, the legend of epics, the word of pride and honor was no less the Grandson of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) the son of his daughter Fatimah Zahra (pbuh) and her cousin and husband the Commander of the Faithful, Ali son of Abu Talib son of Abdul Mutalib son of Hashim.The object of this work is only to present with extreme brevity the great historic event of the matchless sacrifice of the King of Martyrs Imam Hussain (pbuh), in the seed of Abraham (pbuh) through the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), offered to save the Truth and humanity from getting lost to falsehood forever, for the apostleship had been concluded with the revelation of the Holy Quran, the Final Word of God. If anything had to be done or could be done, to save the Truth, it was only through the Imamate which was destined to do it, and Imam Hussain (pbuh) was the divinely chosen one for it.The events of Karbala reflect the collision of the good versus the evil, the virtuous versus the wicked, and the collision of Imam Hussain (the head of virtue) versus Yazid (the head of impiety). Imam Hussain (pbuh) was a revolutionary person, a righteous man, the religious authority, the Imam of Muslim Ummah (nation). As the representative of his grandfather Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), Imam Hussain's main concern was to safeguard and protect Islam and guide fellow Muslims. On the other hand, the staying power of the rulers (Muawiya and his son Yazid) depended solely on the might of the sword. They used brute force to rule over the Muslim empire even by all possible illicit means.The mission of Imam Hussain (pbuh) is distinctly unique, political and religious revolutionary movement in the history of World. His was a tremendous undertaking which still reverberates throughout the Muslim nation. He has been a propelling force and a seminal element in events throughout Islamic history, particularly in the sphere of Jihad (the holy struggle in the way of Almighty God). Imam Hussain's example has remained vividly alive for generations and centuries. His uprising, movement and ideals still have a deep impact on the conscience and awareness of the Muslim empire.The Holy Prophet (pbuh) is reported to have said: "The best of Jihad is that of a word of right spoken to an unjust ruler."Imam Hussain (pbuh) witnessed the deteriorating political and social situation and clearly recognized that the general policy of the authorities did not abide with Islamic principles. He was aware of the Ummah's numerous and painful afflictions, and was determined to exercise his religious duty, being the duly sanctioned leader & central figure capable of restoring Islamic values. Thus he rose. His revolt is rich in lessons and divinely inspired attitudes. Imam Hussain (pbuh) embodied the sacrifice of self, money, family, social status and the challenge to terror and cruelty. He patiently traversed hundreds of miles, moving both night and day. The epic protest he engendered came at the most critical political juncture. In fact, the Prophet's grandson had vowed to sacrifice himself.Thus, Karbala proved to be a clash involving Islamic truths versus falsehood, belief versus disbelief, and the oppressed versus the oppressor, faith against brute force. Karbala was about standing in the face of oppression, regardless no matter the cost. In Karbala, Imam Hussain the fifty seven (57) year old second grandson of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), sacrificed his totality and all he had, for one goal. This goal was to let the truth triumph over falsehood eventually, and he did that brilliantly. His goal was to foil the plan that Muawiya had expertly developed for his son, Yazid, which was to establish a permanent Umayyads (Banu Umayya) ruler ship over the Muslim Ummah (even by sacrificing the Islamic principles), but doing it in the name of Islam. Brilliantly, Imam Hussain (pbuh) succeeded in foiling this plan and he exposed the disreputable nature of Umayyads though this was at the expense of his life.Eventually he was martyred along with his sons, most of his household and all of his companions. The bodies were mutilated and their heads were carried from Karbala, to Kufa and finally Damascus. His womenfolk were taken prisoners and marched across the desert. He himself was expecting all that, but did not budge an inch.An uprising led by the noblest and best accepted personality in the entire Ummah, is certainly one which is uniquely distinguished as a movement abounding with spiritual, moral and religious ideals. Due to the importance of this personality, we are honored to present this.Such a sublime revolution has to be studied, dissected and fully understood. Lessons should be drawn from it. Here we note that the backward and downtrodden nations must one day follow in the footsteps of Imam Hussain (pbuh) if they are to challenge the despots.YESHUA/ISA AI-MARRIAMYeshua Ben Yosef Yeshua is the original Aramaic proper name for Jesus the Nazarene, who lived from about 6 B.C.E. to 27 C.E. (A.D.) The word "Jesus" is actually a mis-transliteration of a Greek mis-transliteration. The Emperor Constatine even mistook Jesus for Apollo, the son of the Greek god Zeus. In Hebrew Yeshua means Salvation while the name Jesus has no intrinsic meaning in English whatsoever.Mis-Translating the Mis-TranslationYeshua is a Hebrew name which has been transliterated into Greek as Iesous (IhsouV: pronounced "ee-ay-SUS"). The English "Jesus" comes from the Latin transliteration of the Greek name into the Latin Iesus. Now Greek has no "y" sound, but the Latin "i" is both an "i" and a "j" (i.e., it can have a consonantal force in front of other vowels), the latter of which is properly pronounced like the English "y" (which explains the German Jesu, "YAY-su")That is why we spell Jesus as we do, taking it straight from Latin, but we pronounce the name with a soft "j" sound because that is what we do in English with the consonantal "j".The first letter in the name Yeshua ("Jesus") is the yod. Yod represents the "Y" sound in Hebrew. Many names in the Bible that begin with yod are mispronounced by English speakers because the yod in these names was transliterated in English Bibles with the letter "J" rather than "Y". This came about because in early English the letter "J" was pronounced the way we pronounce "Y" today. All proper names in the Old Testament were transliterated into English according to their Hebrew pronunciation via the Latin, but when English pronunciation shifted to what we know today, these transliterations were not altered. Thus, such Hebrew place names as ye-ru-sha-LA-yim, ye-ri-HO, and yar-DEN have become known to us as Jerusalem, Jericho, and Jordan; and Hebrew personal names such as yo-NA, yi-SHAI, and ye-SHU-a have become known to us as Jonah, Jesse, and Jesus. To further complicate matters, there was no letter "J" in the old English alphabet and the letter "I" was often used in its place. Often in early texts of the time, Jesus or Jerusalem would be spelled Iesus or Ierusalem.The second sound in Yeshua's name is called tse-RE, and is pronounced almost like the letter "e" in the word "net". Just as the "Y" sound of the first letter is mispronounced in today's English, so too the first vowel sound in "Jesus". Before the Hebrew name "Yeshua" was transliterated into English, it was first transliterated into Greek. There was no difficulty in transliterating the tse-RE sound since the ancient Greek language had an equivalent letter which represented this sound. And there was no real difficulty in transcribing this same first vowel into English. The translators of the earliest versions of the English Bible transliterated the tse-RE in Yeshua with an "e". Unfortunately, later English speakers guessed wrongly that this "e" should be pronounced as in "me," and thus the first syllable of the English version of Yeshua came to be pronounced "Jee" instead of "Yeh". It is this pronunciation which produced such euphemistic profanities as "Gee" and "Geez".Since Yeshua is spelled "Jeshua" and not "Jesus" in most English versions of the Old Testament (for example in Ezra 2:2 and 2 Chronicles 31:15), one easily gets the impression that the name is never mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures. Yet 'Yeshua' appears there twenty-nine times, and is the name of at least five different persons and one village in the southern part of Yehudah ("Judah").In contrast to the early biblical period, there were relatively few different names in use among the Jewish population of the Land of Israel at the time of the Second Temple. The name Yeshua was one of the most common male names in that period, tied with Eleazer for fifth place behind Simon, Joseph, Judah, and John. Nearly one out of ten persons known from the period was named Yeshua.The first sound of the second syllable of Yeshua is the "sh" sound. It is represented by the Hebrew letter shin. However Greek, like many other languages, has no "sh" sound. Instead, the closest approximation, the Greek sigma, was used when transcribing "Yeshua" as "Iesus". Translators of English versions of the New Testament transliterated the Greek transcription of a Hebrew name, instead of returning to the original Hebrew. This was doubly unfortunate, first because the "sh" sound exists in English, and second because in English the "s" sound can shift to the "z" sound, which is what happened in the case of the pronunciation of "Jesus".The fourth sound one hears in the name Yeshua is the "u" sound, as in the word "true". Like the first three sounds, this also has come to be mispronounced but in this case it is not the fault of the translators. They transcribed this sound accurately, but English is not a phonetic language and "u" can be pronounced in more than one way. At some point the "u" in "Jesus" came to be pronounced as in "cut," and so we say "Jee-zuhs."The "a" sound, as in the word "father," is the fifth sound in Jesus' name. It is followed by a guttural produced by contracting the lower throat muscles and retracting the tongue root- an unfamiliar task for English speakers. In an exception to the rule, the vowel sound "a" associated with the last letter "ayin" (the guttural) is pronounced before it, not after. While there is no equivalent in English or any other Indo-European language, it is somewhat similar to the last sound in the name of the composer, "Bach." In this position it is almost inaudible to the western ear. Some Israelis pronounce this last sound and some don't, depending on what part of the dispersion their families returned from. The Hebrew Language Academy, guardian of the purity of the language, has ruled that it should be sounded, and Israeli radio and television announcers are required to pronounce it correctly. There was no letter to represent them, and so these fifth and sixth sounds were dropped from the Greek transcription of "Yeshua," -the transcription from which the English "Jesus" is derived.So where did the final "s" of "Jesus" come from? Masculine names in Greek ordinarily end with a consonant, usually with an "s" sound, and less frequently with an "n" or "r" sound. In the case of "Iesus," the Greeks added a sigma, the "s" sound, to close the word. The same is true for the names Nicodemus, Judas, Lazarus, and others.English speakers make one final change from the original pronunciation of Jesus' name. English places the accent on "Je," rather than on "sus." For this reason, the "u" has been shortened in its English pronunciation to "uh."In Jesus' NameToday's tradition of pronouncing His completely hellenized name as "Jesus" has indeed obscured His true name, "Yeshua," and has shifted its perceived meaning much like most of His original teachings.As with all things Essene however, there is always the exoteric and the esoteric philosophies and functions. That is, those ideas and teachings suitable to be imparted to the public, and those designed for or understood by the specially initiated alone.Even His name, it would seem, became a part of this understanding. The name Jesus or Jesus Christ is often used in everything from idle conversation, to bumper stickers and jewelry, to enforcing false teachings, to justifying wars and political agendas, and is even used as a profanity. The name Yeshua however, has remained pure and holy, known and used only by those who would uphold His name and teachings in the highest regard and thus reserving His holy name for use only in spiritual matters and the most humbled and sincere of prayer and obeisances. http://www.blackhistoryjohnmoore.bravehost.com/jesus.htmlTHE HONORABLE PROPHET NOBLE DREW ALIProphet Noble Drew Ali: Born Timothy Drew on January 8th, 1886 in the State of North Carolina, the son of Cherokee woman and a father who was of African descent. Noble Drew Ali was taken to the East at an early age by Eastern Adepts in order to study the science that would prepare him for the PROPHETHOOD and this is how he gained the tribal name Ali and was made an "Egyptian Adept". The Prophet Noble Drew Ali is the founder of the Moorish Science Temple of America (MSTA) 1913A.D. in Newark N.J. This he did at the age of 27 years and with the overall purpose of the organization being "For the Uplifting of Fallen Humanity"; the Holy Prophet Drew Ali came to these shores to teach the "Old Time Religion" and "Everlasting Gospel" to the Sons of Men. This He did by teaching the rightful NATIONALITY along with THE DIVINE CREED AND PRINCIPLES of our Ancient Forefathers (ISLAM) to the so-called negroe, black, and colored people of the US. The Prophet Ali also established the Moorish Divine National Movement in 1916 of which is a society of Adept members (Head Officials) of the said MSTA. These Adept members are also known as Sheiks as they are those that preserve the laws and lessons of the Prophet (ISLAM), and foster them amongst the membership. HE (the Prophet) worked along with The Honorable Marcus Garvey Bey; just as John The Baptist did with Jesus in those ancient days, and is the man who can be observed in one of the most infamous photos sitting next to the Honorable Marcus, as he rides in his carriage with feather in headdress during the U.N.I.A. parade of 1922 Harlem, N.Y. This is how Marcus Garvey got the tribal name of Bey, as the Prophet gave him this name in honor along with a nationality card that read Marcus Garvey Bey. The very slogan of the U.N.I.A. of which is “ONE GOD, ONE AIM, ONE DESTINY†was given to Marcus Garvey by the Prophet Drew Ali and another brother by the name of Duse Mohammed Ali during the inception of Garvey’s organization and explains why the slogan is Moslem in nature. The Prophet Drew Ali reorganized the Temple as THE MOORISH HOLY TEMPLE OF SCIENCE in the State of Illinois in the year of 1925 because He discovered that the laws were best suited for the overall scope and works of the organization. In the following year of 1926 the Prophet incorporated the Temple as a CIVIC ORGANIZATION in the State of Illinois, and the name of the organization was changed to "THE MOORISH HOLY TEMPLE OF SCIENCE OF THE WORLD". The name of the Temple was changed to the MOORISH SCIENCE TEMPLE OF AMERICA (MSTA) in the year 1928; as the organization was changed from a CIVIC to a RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION. In October of the same said year, the Prophet and the Moors held the First Annual National Convention of the MSTA, and during the sixth day of the convention, the Prophet told the Moors "Today I have made you a Nation". The said convention was held in the infamous building dedicated by the Prophet and the Moors as "Unity Hall". During the said convention the enactment and the first sitting of the Supreme Grand Council; also known as the Supreme Grand Body, that consists of seven Adept members selected by the Grand Body according to their works and deeds. The Grand Body of the MSTA are appointed Grand Governors and Grand Governess'; Governors and Governess'; Grand Sheiks and Grand Sheikess', of whom are heads of Temples, Jurisdictions and regions. Members of the Grand Body are those that make and enforce the laws of the temple and the Supreme Grand Council are those that interpret the laws and determine what constitutes as a violation of the laws made by the Grand Body. Together they are the Legislative, Juristic, and Administrative Bodies; while dually serving as the "Divine Ministers" with duties such as interpreting, and propagating "The Divine Instructions...", and the "Divine Laws" of THE HOLY PROPHET. Collectively these bodies of Sheiks/Adepts are known as "The Adept Chamber". In the same said year of 1928 the Prophet was invited to Habana Cuba to attend the 6th Annual Pan-American Conference; a meeting of delegates of American States [The Americas, North, South, and Central America]. During the said conference the Prophet took part in the ratification of the Bustamante Code of which is code of International Law. The Prophet Drew Ali endorsed Oscar Depreist as one of the earliest descendants of Africa as candidate for congress, and in fact, Depreist won the election and gained a congressional seat because of the support of the Prophet Noble Drew Ali; as there were over 5000 Moors in the general location of the South Chicago Temple (Unity Hall) at that time alone. The very office of Depreist was located in the infamous "Unity Hall", 3140 Indiana Ave., Chicago Ill. Oscar Depreist was also nationalized by the Prophet and therefore was a Moorish American Moslem. This makes him the first Moslem congressmen in this country. The Prophet Drew Ali taught the Moors to be industrious and this is so important as far as the Upliftment of our people are concerned, that He placed this principle within the very laws of the organization as it is stated that “all members must …be industrious…â€. Therefore the Prophet founded of the Moorish Manufacturing Corporation for the making and distribution of goods manufactured by the Temple in order to be sold to its members and the general public. The major products are the well known MOORISH MINERAL AND HEALING OIL, MOORISH BODY BUILDER AND BLOOD PURIFIER ("known by the Moors as The Prophet's Tea"), and Moorish Antiseptic Bath Compound. All three of these products were passed on to the Moors by the Prophet Drew Ali as He was an herbalist and would heal anyone that would come to him of the diseases of that day. About the tea the Prophet Drew Ali said that it will drive anything from your body that wasn't there when you were born. The oil, called "Healing Oil" is also an ancient remedy passed on to the Moors as a birthright, and is a concoction of chemicals yielded by the Earth and serves as a tonic. The compound of course comes in powder form and gets its name because it is a Bath Compound and Antiseptic. The Moorish Manufacturing Corp. is an entity of the Moorish Science Temple of America and its daily operation is in the control of a Moorish American Family with old roots in the said Temple. The Prophet Drew Ali passed his physical form on July 20th, 1929 in Chicago Illinois. These are just some facts about the life of the Illustrious Prophet Noble Drew Ali as there is much more to know and to realize concerning HIS works in the restoring of our Moorish Nation. There are many things to know concerning his works and how they effected governments including the U.S. in ways that are evident even unto this very day.Malik El-Hajj ShabazzAfter Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965, almost immediately young blacks, some of them still in their teens, began speaking up at community meetings, starting off with the words "Malcolm said," and going on to repeat his "by all means necessary" statement as if that was all Malcolm ever stood for. It was good that young black people were speaking up, but it was troubling that they reduced Malcolm to simplistic political slogans. They had no idea that in the last year of his life Malcolm was undergoing another transformation, a transformation much more difficult than the one he had undergone 15 years earlier from being a hustler to being a follower of Mr. Muhammad. Because this time, instead of accepting and being accepted into an existing organization with a complete philosophy and ideology, he was confronted with the necessity of creating his own. Faced with questions more profound than he had ever had to grapple with, aware that he was still a student of revolutionary politics, he was being asked by militant blacks and curious reporters to provide answers which he knew he didn't have. As he put it in an informal conversation with Jan Carew a couple of months before his death:I'm a Muslim and a revolutionary and I'm learning more and more about political theories as the months go by. The only Marxist group that offered me a platform was the Socialist Workers party. I respect them and they respect me. The Communists have nixed me, gone out of their way to attack me...that is, with the exception of the Cuban Communists. If a mixture of nationalism and Marxism makes the Cubans fight the way they do and makes the Vietnamese stand up so resolutely to the might of America and its European and other lapdogs, then there must be something to it. But my organization of African American Unity is based in Harlem, and we have got to creep before we walk and walk before we run.(1)Having been boxed into the rigid ideology of the Nation of Islam for so many years, Malcolm was feeling the need to expand himself both personally and politically. So he traveled to Africa and the Middle East. He also had to make a living for his family. So he ran all over the country making speeches. At the same time he was convinced that he didn't have much time to live - that the U.S. government was out to kill him because by linking the struggle of blacks in this country with the struggle of people all over the world, he had become a threat to their domination of the world. As he put it in this same conversation, "The chances are they will get me the way they got Lumumba before he reached the running stage.".. width="425" height="350" ....HIS MESSAGE IS STILL RELEVENT TO THE ISSUES AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE DAY AND WORLD WE LIVE IN.DR. MARTIN LUTHER KINGAlthough few people are aware of this, Martin Luther King's situation on the eve of his assassination in 1968 was remarkably similar to Malcolm's in 1965.(2) The passage of the 1964 and 1965 Civil Rights Acts, the Watts Rebellion in the summer of 1965, his incursion into Chicago in 1966 which had brought him face to face with the urban poor, the eruption of the Black Power slogan during Meredith's 1966 march into Mississippi, and the War in Vietnam had all made King painfully aware that the vision of integration of the "beloved community" which had inspired the struggle in the South did not meet the more complex needs of the new generation of blacks born and raised in "our dying cities" who were even then being referred to as the underclass. These developments had brought home to King the need to go beyond civil rights to create a new Movement that would bring about what he called "radical redistribution of economic and political power" and "a radical reconstruction of American society." Recognizing that we had entered into an era of rebellion but also recognizing that unceasing rebellions could only bring chaos, he was exploring a new kind of revolution that would combine a radical revolution of values with a radical transformation of structures and thus overturn what he called "the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism." He had no doubt that we had to go beyond middle class values. "It was only when Negro youth threw off their middle class values, only when they put careers and wealth in a secondary role that they made a historic contribution," he said in one of his last major sermons.(3) He had also recognized the limitations of the technological revolution. "We have guided missiles and misguided men," he said. "Instead of strengthening democracy at home," the technological revolution "has helped to eviscerate it. Gargantuan industry and government...leave the person outside. The sense of participation is lost, the feeling that ordinary individuals influence important decisions vanishes, and man becomes separated and diminished."SIDDHARTHA GAUTAMA (THE BUDDHA)MUHAMMAD ALIDr. John Henrik ClarkeLast but not least...My Father.
