BARAKA BASHMENT

What follows is one of many attempts made by Baraka Bashment to undermine preconceived notions of normative status-quo-ism. This is to say: through language, we normalize circumstances that are actually social constructs designed to maintain a stasis. At times this stasis is acceptable. At other times this stasis deserves a little unpacking. While one could easily say: “In order to keep my apartment I pay rent, and to pay this rent I have a job.” This language maintains that these terms are for the most part uncontested. This is an attempt to contest. The engaged-language below is an excercise in unpacking language in an effort to disempower social norms. If only: just a lil’ bit.

Introduction: My current life-system (a some what perpetual recontextualizing of human-to-human, human-to-mechanism, human-to-non-descript living species perceived as static though understood to be not as such) is rooted in a schedule:

1. In order to sleep, reconvene, and ultimately experience the feeling of “home” within an elevated structure of relatively small footage and within close proximity to mass-transit and outdoor mating (i.e. high levels of human-to-human activity) I am required to pay a monthly fee.

2. In order to be able to pay this monthly fee I am required to position myself within another elevated structure of relatively small footage and within close proximity to mass transit and outdoor mating on a daily basis. In this structure I have embraced the pattern of “work” whereby I position myself in front of a bright flat screen that allows me to manipulate forms and text in an effort to later reproduce these manipulations on paper that is ultimately bound into a magazine. This is a daily process that culminates in four three month cycles that constitute a years worth of digital manipulations that perpetuate a continuous yearly cycle.

3. As such, this is a common practice between many people that yields a feeling of content and purpose. A participant in this system orders one’s activities around this system and maintains a relatively organized existence. In many ways it is a ritual. In other ways it is simply what one does.

4. Like all systems or structures, this pattern of living has qualities of transportation, transapplication, transfusion, transposition, and organic and so-called non-organic outgrowth.

• trans-: pref. across, beyond; change; through
• transport: to bring from one place to another
• transapplicate: to apply something to something else beyond the scope of human perceivability
• transpose: to alter in form or nature;
• organic: of, relating to, or affecting organs or the body; of, relating to, or derived from living organisms
• so-called non-organic: understood or perceived to be “unnatural;” not of nature; machine-like; synthetic
• outgrowth: the process of growing out of something; an offshoot; a result or consequence

5. The previous mentioned qualities are not equal or “flat” in the relationship to one another. In fact, the structure outlined above is rather asymmetric whereby the qualities of movement (transportation, transapplication, and transposition) make up a single aspect of the system and the qualities of outgrowth make up an-other aspect of the system. Organized as such the qualities reveal themselves in this way:

1. Movement
   • transportation
   • transapplication
   • transposition
2. Outgrowth
   • organic
   • non-organic

Of course, fortunately due to the limitlessness of al-llah and the fact that our experience of the radical implications of Allahu a’lam (God knows better[not best]) precede our intellect, we experience this system more as a field:

In the table above, the cells containing “al-llah” are intentionally equalized. The cells containg no-thing are understood to be perceptions of no-thing-ness. All cells contain perceptions. All perceptions are pegged to human capablity, which as a perception itself is understood to be limited. Thus, the perception of al-llah is no more (un)limited than the perception of a fork. It will go only as deep as one’s desire/ability to disempower social conditioning. This can of course be much deeper than we are often willing to allow.

More to come…

1.
I do believe the shaitans coalesce.

I do not believe the shaitans coalesce.

2.
The tooth yields and the tongue to a voice in exodus.
The whisper by esophagus and that which whispers by limbs behind the eyes.
The hand of God in catapulting mission of breath.
A hand contained not in fumes nor function through inhale and there was an exhale there.
And there was a book lined in human wrapping erupting in brain matter taught to function.
A brain not contained in fumes or function might have been.
Maybe is exile is human is frozen is erupting in brain matter taught to function.
The human not contained in fumes or function though Mother I do not have breast cancer.
Son I do not not have breast cancer.
Lately it’s skin punctured said I can offer much more. I can take much more. I can take much more of this.
The tooth yields and the tongue to a voice in exodus.

3.
Which shaitan dare you speak of in the third person?
Which shaitan dare you concern with the third person?

4.
And I have given risen to marching.

What was this marching you might have been speaking of?

Mother does not not have breast cancer.

Which works when God as in you must have done what you recently did.

I don’t understand.

Who dares speak of the third person?

A month had passed since we were privy to your privacy.

I have always been not as private as such.

I am always private.

You were recently showcased in a talent search. The models did not not contest the results.

“American Islam.” That is: Islam as realized in the United States. That is: indigenous. That is: the Islam of trans-three-dimensional spiral-cubic eruptions of sunnah mathematics. It is gorgeous in its comfort and strength. It is confident when you thought it might not be. It emerged from a conscious revolution and developed within the (de/re)construction of race, class, (anti)capitalism, and black-femenism. It is African-American. I come to this Islam knowing that it comes to me from African-America. I try to respect it in ways: Observing. Participating. Reading. Engaging. Reserving. Part of this “American Islam” was shot in the face (plus) and in front of his family forty-one years ago.

At the Shabazz Mosque I prayed Maghrib. I was one of six. Six is a number that resolves only too well. It is oddly finite. It is not a couple. It is not a family. It is the first even group larger than your double-date. The first even collective worth its weight. Was I hearing a blues cadence in the Fatiha? As-salaamu alaykum and thank you. And would there be an event scheduled? Would there be a speaker? There was no “event” scheduled.

Malcolm X, like the Prophet Muhammad (saw), was a process. He was continually unfolding. He was continually refining his position—changing his position if necessary. And he made a statement in his “Ballot or the Bullet” speech that has always stuck with me:

If integration is for Black freedom, than it is a worthy cause.

Now I can appreciate both sides of the integration -vs- seperation discussion that was so much on the surface in Malcolm’s time. But even for Malcolm, when seperation was still on his mind, it’s wasn’t about sticking to a sinking ship just because it’s “yours” (this is not to say seperation was a sinking ship). It’s about finding what works and sticking to it as long as it does in fact work. And when it doesn’t, either fix it or move on. And I believe this goes as deep as you can handle.

This reminds me of something the Dalai Lama said that I actually paid attention to (sorry I just don’t follow him much): I won’t believe in reincarnation when something more suitable and proven comes along.

Open. Possible. Compassionate.

Thank you El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.

For the basics you can go here or especially here.

TAFSIR OR TWO: I am by no means an official muffasir, but I get a lot out of digging in the Qur’an. So every now and again I’ll be presenting a little tafsir or two. These are not too deep and not too thorough, but sometimes little gems appear. You can take from it what you like if anything.

“So incline your aim to religion as God-given nature, according to which God created humanity. There is no altering the creation of God. That is the true religion, but most people do not know.”

KEY TERMS & USAGE

restive evolutionary of NO NO HOOSEGOW has been kind enough to offer this link. Let’s talk about it!

1.
Every now and again we hear a tale about the differences between the intermingling of cultures today versus that of yesterday. The tale usually runs like this: Back in the day cultures were very separate from one another due to the length of time it took to travel between countries and no means of transcontinental communication. Today with the advent of the internet and any number of travel mediums we are able to speak and communicate with people as far away as CHINA (China always being the far away Other for the West) with the mere click of a mouse.

The implied meaning is that we know more today about the world than we knew “back in the day.” Yes and no.

I believe (for now) that we are in the About-Age (please allow the aural play on “outage” to run freely). The About-Age goes like this: We know a ton about cultures, but in actuality we still know very little from cultures. The difference can be explained in this spirited if short dialogue:

Hi. I am from China.
Oh, hi. I know a lot about China.

The problem arises when we refuse to differentiate between these two statements. It is true that I often feel like I know enough about a subject that it may appear to myself that I have been a part of that subject, nay arisen within/from that subject, from birth. The truth is, however, that in most instances I have simply been fooled by the speed at which I was able to aquire knowledge about the subject. Knowledge can be as much a commodity as the latest kicks, lest we forget.

(more…)

1.
For every anarchist there is a definition of anarchism so nuanced and well articulated that when the hour is up you forget what it was you were originally discussing. It’s a blessing and a curse. The definition for me that seems most basic and realistic comes from the website THE EMMA GOLDMAN PAPERS.

Anarchism: Anarchism is the political philosophy of those who believe that a society based on shared ownership and voluntary agreements among individuals and groups is possible and that without each person’s consent and involvement in the social order all established forms of government essentially rest upon the threat of force.

I really like this definition. Sharing, ownership, voluntary agreements, individuals, possibility, groups, consent, and involvement. For me, throw a Bismillahi ir-Rahman ir-Rahim in the front of it, and you’ve got some real Islam. And yet, rather than take the age-old route of anarchism is without rules or laws, this definition alludes to the practice of challenging human law as inherent and eternal, rather than just saying: NO LAW. Cause let’s face it, there really is no group, anarchist or not, that does not abide by some laws, whether they be not to harm one another or “if it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down” as the anarchist info shop in Philadelphia I once volunteered at used to have posted in the bathroom. It’s not lawlessness we’re after per se, but involvement and possibility. Lawlessness is merely a possible biproduct of a truly inclusive society. (more…)

This is a quick notice.

I was looking over the last post on TRADITION(S) and felt I should make a statement.

In the comments, you will notice there was a quick one-two combo between Yakoub and I regarding this posts possibly fitting within the SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST model. While I agree to some extent, I must say that never before had I felt that my writing and ideas were coming across more “theoretical” and “detached” as they seemed to be in that final moment when I pushed the REPLY button for commenting. While I am sure Yakoub meant no harm, and I am aware that social constructionism is a practice, it did give me pause.

Let the record show, that while many of the ideas and approaches to life expressed on/in this blog may seem unrelated to the everyday mudane world, that every one of them is understood to be applicable to our daily lives.

As some of you may have noticed, ProgressiveIslam.Org, of which BARAKA BASHMENT is a resident, sees itself as a sort of “old town commons.” As such, I am committed to acting like a resident of such a commons where people sit by the fountain talking, or stand “over there” looking at something pulled from a pocket. Oh, and here comes old man Hyder with a funny hadith. And of course there’s Sister Sa’diyya with her copies of Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Mystical Dimensions of Islam. It’s a sweet little town and we enjoy calling it home. (more…)