…He wrote that . . ….

Dear fake Damina Khaira. You really ought to get some help. Also identity theft is a serios offence, you could get into so big trouble. Actually I hope you do.

To those who know me, I do not share such views and I do not express myself in such awful English.

what i am talking about is misunderstanding of modernity and barbarism, in the time that we are collecting non west cultural artifacts in the museum the world we are displacing it with western consumisem.
for sure, it is free where to go, but the islam, if understand it has a spiritual sense,
did you ever enjoy silence as music?
I think going forward can be easier to go a ready made road, but it can be an dead end street.
pop culture in general is an out coming from western culture, which was rejecting uncomfortable elements and use part of them to make their own way. so why we not?

I was born Muslim and raised Muslim. I had a tough time being forced to learn Islam by Old Imams preaching that if you did not do this or that that you will burn in the fires of hell. I lost my way from the age of 14 and rediscovered my roots and a thirst for knowledge through Hip Hop. I am referring to hip from late 80′s to early 90′s. My favourite artists at that time were public enemy, poor righteous teachers, Krs 1, but to name a few. Seems people have forgotten the whole point of why hip hop at that time had problems with airplay on the radio. IT HAD A POSITIVE MESSAGE TO PEOPLE FROM THE GHETTOES.

It started to gain popularity and was not something the corporations can afford to accept. If you don’t realize this that the corporations like people to sound stupid and curse a lot, to party and drink which leads to fornication, to be materialistic, and so forth… But you forget what Hip hop meant to the people in the first place. Poetry of Hope within the struggle.

In this time year 2009… you forget the struggles african american people went through and led to poetry thus changing to hip hop. The same struggles we as Muslims are going through right now: labelled terrorists, the disunity of our community, fighting amongst ourselves for selfish gain, egos, one being more right than the other… I amfrom South Africa and I see a lot of fallen Muslim brothers to drugs and AIDS, etc… yet their ears open to hip hop…

I believe that it can once again be the vehicle for knowledge and positive messages. as in everything evil is something good and in everything good is something evil. the vehicle is only deemed what its owner uses it for… Think about this: Why would a pure Muslim brother be rapping about fornication or death or about materialism…

Now going out of America to the rest of the world… Hip hop has gone underground with their positive message and check algeria, morrocco, etc and check their hop hop scene… they are mostly about upliftment and about the struggles.

At the end of the day we should inform and uplift the youth and not cast them out or label them as kufr. Instead lead them and teach them “By any means necessary”, as permitted as halaal and decent. instead of telling people what not to do, show them the way as Suheib Webb discovered in Hop Hop… As surely when a spark of wisdom is lit in the minds of the young they can start their journey and quest for knowledge.

Always remember this.

So Muslim Brothers stop bickering on how evil Hip Hop is and use the vehicle for something positive. Or are you incapable of doing this except by showing evil all the time, this is evil, that is evil, blah blah blah… make a suggestion instead… That is the way forward to a solution.

Blessings to all and may Allah guide us on our quest to teach the young and show them the Light as was shown to us.

alghamdulillah

That’s good news. I hope the best for him, and i hope that he (Mos) learns and he guides people to the Truth.

Hip hop has become both a culture and a commodity. A study of of our Usuli tradition would demonstrate that the purpose of Revealed Law is to purify our cultures and commodities of kufr, shirk, bid’a and what is CLEARLY haram, not to blot them out entirely. My question is : Can Muslim hip hop not be purified from within without completely abandoning the art form and its positive elements?

I know scores of brothers and sisters who embraced Islam because of the lyrics of 5%-ers in the 90s. What would happen if you had a cadre of Muslim hip hop artists who were striving to please Allah ta’ala and educate people about Islam with their craft and/or character?

There are a number of underground Muslim rappers that live clean decent public lives who write inspiring and enlightening lyrics that reflect the spirit and letter of the Revealed Law.

If you really are sincerely concerned about this issue and the affect this music has on the artists and those who listen to them your time would be better spent using your intellects, contacts, and financial resources to identify, produce, and promote these marginalized artists. Subhanalllah.

was-salam

“Any good is from Allah and any bad is of my own my faults, I ask forgivness” -Mos Def

اللهم اهدني فيمن هديت, وعافني فيمن عافيت, وتولني فيمن توليت, و بارك لي فيما أعطيت

When i said about the one who would portray the role of Malcolm X in his earlier life–i did not mean acting in a role commiting sins and saying and doing acts of kufr is a good thing. Committing kufr in serious or in jest is kufr. I meant that it is good that the person RENOUNCES the sinful behavior.

May Allah enable us to be careful with our words.

@ Kareem,

I don’t want to further expand this issue–i want to discuss more about Muslim culture in America. But there are a couple of points here. Qaradawi is a problematic person. For one, he sanctions suicide bombing–so by his logic killing oneself is kufr (which is not the case). Suicide is haraam but not kufr.

Two, Qardawi is heavily influenced by Wahhabi ideology that he has blended with the ideology of Sayyid Qutb. The kufr of the Wahhabis, from their anthropomorphism, to their deeming it LEGITIMATE to slaughter Muslims is well known. Sayyid Qutb’s kufr includes slandering the Nabi Musa (as Al-Qaradawi with Nabi Muhammad), calling Allah the “Creative Quill,” claiming Allah is literally everywhere (Allah created the places and is not in a dimension), claiming that everyone on earth, including the people who call the adhaan, are all kaafir, except those who follow him (Sayyid Qutb). These statements can be found in the books exposing him.

When the Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) said that “killing is kufr,” it means that the one who does it (i.e., murder–not just killing) has commited an enormity of tremendous proportions. It does not render a person a kaafir, as in non-Muslim. For example, the murderer is not told to say the Shahadah to return to Islam. The Muslim murderer is shrouded and prayed for and buried in the Muslim cemetery. He is clearly a Muslim according to the Shar`.

We have to make a critical distinction between doing a sin and DEEMING THE SIN HALAAL. The former (doing the sin) is sinful. Claiming a sin is permissible is kufr (even if the person does not commit the sin himself). The latter is kufr because it entails rejecting what Allah revealed and the Prophet conveyed. The former may commit a sin either because he has succumbed to temptation or for a worldly gain. He knows and must admit he has done wrong. The latter is, in essence, saying: “Although Allah has made this forbidden, I am going to overturn the Law of Allah and deem it halaal.” This is clearly kufr. This kufr of belying (takdheeb) is especially common nowadays among the apologists/modernists and some of these quasi-traditionalist, so called “scholars” for dollars, that you mentioned.

With Allah is the success.

La Howla Wala Quwwatta Ilah Bilah, La Ilaha Il Allah, Muhammadur Rasululah

May Allah reveal to us what we need to succeed. Amin.