#ahmad ahmadi

[embracemuscle]

Legs. V-taper. Power.

[straightmenobsession]

Total Stud Bodybuilder Ahmad Ahmadi.

“✌️😈🦍”

[ani4detal]

Ahmad Ahmadi. Newby to me. Then again, had to cut out his calves due to a stupid tattoo. Loving the 70s porn facial hair look...

[tracthousing]

Ahmad Ahmadi…

[justmuscle4u]

Ahmad Ahmadi - احمد احمدی 🇮🇷

[professionalnooneatall]

Everyone Keeps Saying Make Something New, but When I make Something Aggressively New, I Get "not like that,"

I was talking with an Imam once and I asked him how a Muslim would go about doing the Hajj if they lived on Mars. With zero hesitation he said "Get on a rocket and go back to Earth, there's only one Mecca." The quote stayed with me and for over a decade I've been developing a television show around that sentence:

It's the far future. Humanity and our allies live throughout the Milky Way and there are Muslims on every planet where there are humans, which is to say all of them. Let me introduce you to the characters.

Master Fleet Adm. Achmed Abdul Qadir

Regal, bird like, rather tall with a well-trimmed mustache, salt and pepper hair, Qadir is a devout Muslim with a calm “been there done that” attitude from being Nearly 100 years old. Shrewd but compassionate, Qadir applies Islamic jurisprudence as often as possible, resulting in a high degree of compassion. Because of this Qadir was among the first wave of volunteers to fight under the banner of the Alliance first on Mars under NATO/METO and later as Alliance Forces Earth, and finally just the Alliance. Qadir is unflappable in nearly every respect. If he ever uses foul language, it’s not a good sign.

Command Sergeant Major Maya Abdel-Fattah

Lean, lethal and shorter than most people. Always wearing hijab in public. Cybernetic right arm starting at the shoulder. Maya is the strong, silent type. A full Alliance Marine, qualified planet and space she wears the Galaxy Globe and Anchor. Maya was widowed and lost her whole family in a space transport accident and so she transferred to the recently codified Alliance Marine Corps from Alliance Forces Earth Quartermaster Corps. Maya served with the Black Sword Brigade, a particularly tough unit specializing in deep strikes and decapitation attacks. She serves as the senior enlisted on the ship and if there's fighting to be done she can get it done from 1,000 meters to 1 centimeter.

Command Sergeant Major (ret) Robert W. Leary

Hearty, tough, Irish and Black American. Very American military, Qadir’s best friend, so much so Qadir’s actual wife, Jamila, referred to Leary as “My husband’s work wife” when they worked together under NATO and METO military operations before the Alliance conflict. Father died in Corpo Wars, mother retired from the 1st New York Brigade after the North American Protectorate was codified. Leary met probably his closest friend Achmed Qadir while on R&R leave in Iraq, specifically when he attended the completion ceremony for Al-Rahman Mosque is Baghdad. Leary is deeply atheist but very respectful and knowledgeable of many religions; he’s both street-smart and socially intelligent. Leary is also the Alliance Cultural Preservation, Restoration, and Development (CPRD) Officer, ensuring cultural needs and practices are cataloged and practiced, respected, and continued for and by Alliance personnel.

Lt. Cmdr. Dikembe Emenike

Eminke is the executive officer of the Grand Falcon. All four limbs are cybernetic, an aerospace engineer, a race car driver, and Chief Engineer in the construction of the Grand Falcon, the ship that takes Muslims back to Earth for Hajj. Emenike is an accomplished pilot and like most veteran pilots of the war has an absurd amount of flight hours. He was onboard a ship that had to use its jump drive system without calculation and it jumped into a planet’s atmosphere, subsequently crashed and plunged into that planet's ocean. Emenike was among the survivors and due to his actions - using the ship's propulsion to beach the craft on the nearest landmass - the casualties were low.

Master Chief (ret) Paulina Stevens “Boston” Abdur Razzaq

Boston is an Iranian American, punk rocker, with lots of tattoos,  lower jaw is cybernetic, it’s a subtle piece, though, and mostly matches her skin tone. She has close-cropped curly hair and a nose ring. Experienced medic and explosives technician, Boston formed her own contracting company - Iron Pineapple - after the war for “post-war and peacetime operations,” which has an extremely broad definition meaning her team didn't want for work. Boston has been divorced twice, from a man and a woman. She doesn’t do anything by half measures and this extends to her personal relationships. She connects intensely with people and intimate partners are no exception so her command style with her team is often very blunt but compassionate.

Maj. (Dr.) Mohammed Al-Aziz Billah

Dr. Billah, or "just Dr. B," as he would introduce himself, is stocky, bearded, intense, and driven but is kind and has an impeccable bedside manner. Billah is often in a doctor’s coat over his Alliance uniform. He is Qadir’s nephew on Jamila’s side. A devout Ahmadiyya Muslim, Billah saw becoming a doctor as a holy mission. He is a certified physician for both people and earth animals, having studied both sciences concurrently at Penn State. Billah served in Iraqi military as a combat doctor and in between tours he worked with members of the Jain Dharma as a veterinarian. His incredibly wide skill set made him ideal for treating non-human beings and many foundations for combat medical procedures were established by him and other members of The First Medical Fleet which would become Alliance Medical Command. His refrain, "Death Is my Only Enemy," became the official motto of First Medical Fleet, "Death Our Only Enemy"

Special Warrant 2 (ret) Shen She Zhan

Shen underwent sixteen very painful surgical procedures to increase her height and skin grafts to make her skin look like that of the Hiraska aliens whose empire threatened the whole galaxy with facial reconstruction including reshaping her jaws and her eyes were fully replaced. Her cover was blown but she was able to escape however he pod was intercepted by Alliance Forces Earth personnel who didn’t believe she was actually human. Qadir’s ship received the signal and he intervened but not soon enough. Qadir, Leary and Billah were there for her recovery so they are on the very short list of people she trusts, those three serve as kind of her “sounding board” for certain topics and issues. Qadir was furious with the task forces’ treatment of Shen and he disbanded the task force and several senior leaders were relieved of duty. After the war she joined Iron Pineapple and Boston became the fourth person in the galaxy she trusts. This history informs much of Shen's responses and actions. Among strangers, she is very controlled but given the presence of one of the four, she will speak her mind clearly.

Major (ret) Maria Shahid Rodriguez-ChavezMajor (ret) Maria Shahid Rodriguez-Chavez

Latino and Arab Christian. A real technical wiz Chavez can fix anything; hardware or software even if she's unfamiliar with it because she has an intuition about technology overall. Chavez is a trans-woman but presents as masculine in the war flashbacks. She is gradually becoming more and more comfortable with herself but will often retreat into her technological expertise and focus on solving tech problems rather than personal development. She often seeks guidance from Boston, Leary, and Billah. She is estranged from her father but is in touch with her mother and kid brother, who live the Leo City, the domed human settlement on Mars. Her plan settle with them somewhere and open a small business, probably an automotive repair shop and salon.

Senior Command Chief Jamila Qadir

Jamila is a highly experienced nurse with time in ERs, plague zones, and combat zones, and her compassion for humans is matched only by the sheer “lack of fucks,” she gives. Her compassion for people is matched by her husband Achmed, but she will not suffer fools gladly, will not make time for bullshit, and definitely won't stand for your nonsense. She has tried to play matchmaker for Leary on several occasions. It didn’t go well each time. She is often the smartest person in the room as she knows how to apply her knowledge of people learned through being a medical professional in any given situation.

Petty Officer 2nd Class (ret) Akira Shima 

Akira was a quantum navigation systems programmer and he is exceptional at that, having served on many task forces and has a mind for science and tactics but he is largely untested due to getting relegated to "IT bullshit" when he was in uniform. He is motivated to prove himself at every opportunity and is often unorthodox in his thoughts and actions but he is effective and when he combines his abilities with Chavez they are unstoppable. He is very intuitive and empathetic. He understands software interacting with organics as he often had to fix cybernetic limbs in the war when no formal technician was present. Shima is “always on,” and will often wake up in the middle of the night having dreamed of a solution to a problem he may have only heard about in passing.

Valerria Vall

Assigned a special advisor to the Grand Falcon, Vall is a member of the Omega, a race of beings who once fought a Terminator-style war between organics and machines. After about seventy years they realized it was pretty stupid and over time they became a “joint race,” the Hiraska saw them as the greatest threat to their empire and released a plague that destroyed all organic life in their home system. They barely survived and are now fully artificial. They founded the Alliance as an anti-colonial and defensive force against the Hiraska to prevent what happened to them from happening to any other beings. As they connect with new extraterrestrial species they send a representative to study and learn from their cultures, altering their whole physical and mental self to mirror that race to create a deep cultural understanding.

Kimi Running Rabbit

Running Rabbit is part of the new generation of humans that grew up off-world and is the youngest member of the crew. She is part of the Alliance Tribal Nations, a recognized part of the Alliance government’s judicial, social and educational systems. Running Rabbit began as an alliance cadet but the war ended and she spent two more years just training with little engagement against real threats. When she saw the Hajj ship needing volunteers she signed on with an individual contract. Like many other personnel who were born off-world, she’s only heard stories about how vicious earthbound humans were to each other but especially horrible to the indigenous peoples and she hates Earth and doesn't want to ever go there. This mission is the first time she has been around a significant population of earth-born humans. Kimi is well educated in languages, histories, and cultures through the Alliance Primary Education system but she has limits as they are "textbook,"

Lt. Cmdr. Jordan Nusholtz 

Nusholtz is the youngest pilot of the main ensemble and uses direct interphase to pilot vessels. While Qadir uses zero augmentation and Enemike uses maximum augmentation to pilot starfighters, Nusholtz is the middle ground between those two schools of thought/action and will come up with unique solutions within that content. In fact, he has skills and experience on par with Qadir and Enemike despite being at least a decade younger.. He initially joined under a task force assembled by the Israeli Defense Force but they withdrew from the Alliance after Mars was secured and Nusholtz joined the alliance as a pilot - and accepted a three-step demotion due to the nature of the alliance rank structure at the time - to bring the war to a conclusion and in solidarity with his adopted brother Anthony who is Palestinian.

Master Sergeant (Ret) Anthony Sydnor 

A former infantryman turned technical repairman, Sydnor is the Rosencrantz to Cmdr. Jordan Nusholtz’s Guildenstern, with a more absurdist sense of humor and a more practical view of the world. Sydnor is a widower but has three sons who are all in the Majiid initiative. He has a rather dim view of being in space, however, like many humans, he seeks the leave Earth behind and settle on one of the Alliance's home planets or even one of the terraformed planets which could include Venus would be preferable. He is Palestinian American and that informs his cynicism. He runs general supply on the Grand Falcon and if something needs to be acquired, he’s the one to acquire it.

Col. Rashad Ibn-Arai Al-Wali

Col. Al-Wali is the “by the book” type of person who doesn’t care much for individuality. He is an alliance sentience code enforcement officer, meaning he ensures the rights, history and dignity statutes for all living beings are, in fact, assured. Rather like a police officer but personal property isn't the goal. This also makes him the de-facto first contact officer. His personal feelings actually run counter to the sentience codes so in a way the codes are his “check,” to do the right things. The codes were NOT written exclusively by humans so in a way, he seeks guidance from them in much the same way Qadir does with Islam. However, Qadir seeks to justify compassion, kindness and justice whilst Al-Wali tries to justify his personal feelings and gets consistently thwarted.

[qalbofnight]

urdu poet's obsession with the smell of their lovers has made their poetry fragrantive which every person who read it can smell., and Jaun Saheb never stepped back from mentioning it though.,

As Jaun Elia says -

tere jaane ke ba.ad bhii mai.n ne terii KHushbuu se guftuguu kii hai'

us din pahlii baar hu.aa thaa mujh ko rifaaqat kaa ehsaas jab us ke malbuus kii KHushbuu ghar pahu.nchaane aa.ii hai

JAUN ELIYA

ghar me.n hai aaj tak vahii KHushbuu basii hu.ii lagtaa hai yuu.n ki jaise vo aa kar nahii.n gayaa

SHAHZAD AHMAD

tuu hai pahluu me.n phir tirii KHushbuu ho ke baasii kahaa.n se aatii hai

JAUN ELIYA

aaj bahut din ba.ad mai.n apne kamre tak aa niklaa thaa juu.n hii darvaaza kholaa hai us kii KHushbuu aa.ii hai

JAUN ELIYA

ye tere KHat tirii KHushbuu ye tere KHvaab-o-KHayaal mataa-e-jaa.n hai.n tire qaul aur qasam kii tarah

JAUN ELIYA

ye na sochā thā zer-e-sāya-e-zulf

Ki bichhaḌ jā.egī ye ḳhush-bū bhī

JAUN ELIA

aaj ki shab to kisi taur guzar jaegi

terii aavaaz kaa jaaduu hai abhii mere liye tere malbuus kii KHushbuu hai abhii mere liye

PARVEEN SHAKIR

ik aur safhe pe phir usī raat kā bayāñ hai:

''tum ek takiye meñ giile bāloñ kī bhar ke ḳhushbū,

jo aaj bhejo

to niiñd aa jaa.e, so hī jā.ūñ''

GULZAR

terī chāhat ke zā.iqoñ kī tamām ḳhushbū

mirī ragoñ meñ uñDel dī hai

MOHSIN NAQVI

[embracemuscle]

Legs. Veins. Pump.

[straightmenobsession]

Total Stud Bodybuilder Ahmad Ahmadi.

“I take the route…”

[dateinmarsh]

And where should one shelter

From hope's eternal absence?

[beenasarwar]

Re-visiting Eqbal Ahmad's book launch at Harvard with Noam Chomsky

A message from the journalist Amitabh Pal about a mutual friend, David Barsamian of Alternative Radio in Colorado reminded me of this piece published in 2006, about an event with Noam Chomsky where I first met David. Sharing as it's still relevant.

A message from the journalist Amitabh Pal about a mutual friend, David Barsamian of Alternative Radio in Colorado reminded me of this piece originally published in The News on Sunday, 8 Oct. 2006, about an event with Noam Chomsky where I first met David. The article is still all-too relevant, but the link no longer works so I’m sharing the piece here without any changes; just added some…

[nakibistan]

🌈☪️ List of LGBTQI+ friendly Mosques and Muslim Congregations:

This is a list of mosques,muslim/islamic congregations that welcomes queer,trans,non-binary,intersex,BIPOC Muslims. The list is curated by Bangladeshi Bisexual Muslim @nakibistan. In this list some of the mosques/islamic congregations are radically “inclusive” to all folks. Please note that, some of the mosques & muslim congregations in this list only welcome to queer folks.

USA 🇺🇸

MPV-NY Unity Mosque, New York – Started by MPV-NY Chapter

MPV-LA Unity Mosque – Started by MPV-LA chapter

Unity Mosque of San Francisco – Started by MPV-SF Chapter

Atlanta Unity Mosque – Started by el-Tawhid Juma Circle & MPV

Unity Mosque, Chicago – Started by MPV Chicago

Unity Mosque, Boston – Started by MPV-Boston Chapter.

Unity Mosque, Columbus – Started by MPV-Columbus

Masjid an-Nur al-Issalah – Started by MPV-DC.

Masjid al-Rabia, South Loop downtown of Chicago – An intersectional, women-led, queer-affirming mosque.

Qalbu Maryam Mosque – A woman led, queer-friendly mosque

Masjid al-Inshirah – Started by Pioneer Valley Progressive Muslims group. The mosque also welcomes LGBTQI+ muslims

Masjed Fatimah – A shia-centric, inclusive mosque

Rainbow Crescent Mosque – A virtual queer-friendly mosque

Masjid Daar ul-Gharib – A virtual intersectional, queer-friendly mosque.

Masjid-ul-Hub – An online mosque for LGBTQI+ Muslims

Masjid al-Musawa – An online mosque for queer muslims

Haven, Philadelphia – An inclusive muslim congregation also includes LGBTQ+ muslims

Jummah 4 All collective

Mercy Community Center

Dergah al-Farah, Manhattan Downtown of NY – Radical inclusive sufi lodge of Nur Ashki Jerrahi order

The Circle of Ishq of Minneapolis – An inclusive Sufi lodge Jerrahi community

The Atlanta Circle – An inclusive sufi lodge of Nur Ashki Jerrahi

Nur Ashki Jerrahi Michigan Dervish

Nur Ashki Jerrahi Pittsburg Drevish

La Order Sufi Yerraji/Nur Ashki al-Jerrahi Sufi Order of New Mexico - Progressive, liberal Mexican sufi dervish of US

Muslim Space, TX – A texas-based BIPOC, queer-friendly, gender-inclusive community

Redwood Unity Mosque Initiative (RUMI),CA – A small congregation of progressive muslims in Redwood. It was affiliated with eTJC (don't know it's still active or not)

New England Unity Mosque (NEUM) – A Unity mosque of New England. This mosque was affiliated with el-Tawhid Juma Circle.

UK 🇬🇧

Inclusive Mosque Initiative (IMI) – An inclusive congregation that opened first LGBTQI+ friendly, women-led mosque in Britain

Nur Ashki Jerrahi Order of UK – Sufi lodge of Leeds/London

Imaan LGBTQ+ Muslim Charity

France 🇫🇷

Mosquée Inclusive de l’unicité , Goutte d'Or neighborhood of Paris – France's first unity mosque started by Imam Ludovic Ahmad Zahed

Frederico Joko Procopio's Buddhist Dojo, Paris – egalitarian congregation where french queer muslims prayed

Progressive Islamic Center, Marseille

Fatima Mosque – A progressive, women-led, mixed-gender mosque

Musulmans Inclusifs de France – A progressive muslim congregations of France

Voice of an Enlightened Islam (VOIX) – A progressive, spiritual & radically inclusive congregation for all. VOIX also runs Simorgh Mosque, which welcomes LGBTQ+ muslims

Canada 🇨🇦

Masjid el-Tawhid/Toronto Unity Mosque - It is the first unity mosque of el-Tawhid Juma Circle (eTJC) & Canada

Ottawa Valley Unity Mosque (OVUM)

Vancouver Unity Mosque, British Columbia

Halifax Unity Mosque, Nova Scotia (don't know it's still active or not. please contact eTJC for details)

Kitchener Waterloo Unity Mosque

Calgary Alberta Unity Mosque

Madison Unity Mosque

Queer Muslim Network

Germany 🇩🇪

Ibn Rushd Goethe Moschee,Berlin – A liberal, feminist mosque for sunni, shia, sufi, ahmadi, non-religious, BIPOC, queer, man & woman folks

Liberal-Islamischer Bund e.V. – A largest feminist, liberal muslim congregation of German

Australia 🇦🇺

Australia's first Unity Mosque

MPV-Australia

Norway 🇳🇴

Masjid Al-Nisa – A women-led, LGBTQ+ friendly mosque in Oslo

Italy ��🇹

Moschea al-Kawthar/Al-kawthar Mosque – A virtual intersectional mosque started by Sveva Basirah Balzini

Mexico 🇲🇽

Tasním Nur Ashki Al Yerrahi, Cuernavaca – Radically inclusive sufi dervish for all genders & sexualities

South Africa 🇿🇦

Masjid ul-Umam ( People's Mosque), Cape town – First egalitarian mosque of Africa

Masjid ul-Ghurbaah – An inclusive mosque for marginalised muslims, runs by al-Ghurbaah Foundation

The Open Mosque – An egalitarian, mixed gender mosque for all

Claremont Main Road Mosque, Cape town – A mixed-gender mosque in South Africa. The mosque also welcome HIV+ & LGBTQI+ folks

Pakistan 🇵🇰

Khusrain Wale Shahi Masjid/ Khusray wale masjid, Jalalpur of Punjab – Punjab's oldest mosque of transgender eunuchs (also known as Khusra/Khusray)

Shrine of Shah Hussain/Madhoo Lal Hussain – An important site for queer & trans muslims where they can explore the divinity of love & find solace

Bari Imam Shrine

Imambargah of Mirpur Khas

Dargah of Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar

Rehmatul Alameen Masjid,Islamabad

India 🇮🇳

Hijron Ka Khanqah, Delhi – A historical sufi khanqah with a small mosque. The mosque is only for muslim Hijras (an umbrella term for transgender,eunuch, transvestite,gender non-binary & intersex folks)

Khawaja Gharib Nawaz Dargah

Ajmer Sharif Dargah

Nizamuddin Dargah

Masjid Syed Gauhar Ali Shah Qadeem, Delhi (this mosque doesn't allow women to pray besides men)

Masjid-e-Mukhannisan/Hijron Wali Shahi Masjid, Lohamandi of Agra – A historical mosque was built by Emperor Akbar to honour his favourite Mukhannas Itibar Khan

Indonesia 🇮🇩

Pondok Pesantren Waria Al-Fatah, Yogyakarta – Indonesia's first Islamic centre for Warias (Indonesian local term for trans woman)

Bangladesh 🇧🇩

Dakshin Char Kalibari Masjid, Mymensingh – Bangladesh's first hijra mosque

Turkey 🇹🇷

Alevi Muslims are providing safe spaces for LGBTQI+ to pray

Ağalar Mosque in Topkapı Palace – A historical mosque for gender non-confirming eunuchs

[ausetkmt]

Allah supreme: how Pharoah Sanders found freedom and rebellion in Islam | Pharoah Sanders | The Guardian

The day the music died was 24 September 2022. On that Saturday, the legendary tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, a man who blew his horn “as if he was a dragon breathing fire”, passed on, at age 81. With his death came the end of a majestic era, a time of saxophone spirituality and musical mysticism that will probably never be surpassed or even replicated. Sanders, like so many of his generation, channeled spirit into song, drawing inspiration from a panoply of sacred sources.

For a while, younger hip-hop generations also found words and meaning in a similar kind of search, and the music –along with the quest – continued.

But jazz has changed and hip-hop has changed.

Never mind that only some of these artists adopted the faith itself. It was their notes and their tones that counted. Plaintive, modal, quarter-toned and chromatic, these aural landscapes of east and west and everything in between stretched the imaginations of both players and audiences. Inside the music, new alliances were forged between people and with all that was holy.

To some people, though, the music just seemed cacophonous and angry. White critics often didn’t understand. Even as astute a thinker as the English Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm wrote, in 1959, that jazz’s “flight into Mohammedanism or some other non-white culture” was a way to “sidestep” a rising avant-garde jazz that was seeking white acceptance. Describing the era, Hobsbawm explained that “the marvelous political awakening of all the oppressed and underprivileged in Roosevelt’s America put a new tone into the jazz musician’s instrument: open resentment”.

If all you heard during the long civil rights era was an endless blow of rage, you were missing out since you weren’t listening. The love was everywhere and all over the music. The piano player Ahmad Jamal told an interviewer: “I get my approach to life from the Holy Qur’an. I belong to the Ahmadiyya movement in Islam. Our motto is, ‘Love for all; hatred for none.’” (Many of the jazz musicians of that era came to Islam through the Ahmadiyya movement, a religious revivalist movement that began in late 19th-century India. It was led by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, a charismatic reformer who believed he had received divine revelations that required him to promote the unity of all religions as manifest through Islam. Ahmadis came to the USA in the 1920s and found receptive audiences in African American communities.)

And it was a love supreme. I’ve argued elsewhere that Coltrane’s most famous song, A Love Supreme, has its own Islamic echoes (the chant “a love supreme” starts to sound a bit like “Allah supreme” after a while). Pharoah Sanders, who played with ’Trane starting in 1965, extended Coltrane’s legacy after his death in 1967.

Meanwhile, Sanders continued to build his own spiritually inflected, religious ecumenical style. His 1969 hypnotic track Hum-Allah-Hum-Allah-Hum-Allah meditates on the words “Prince of peace / Won’t you hear our pleas / And ring your bells of peace / Let loving never cease” for an enveloping and achingly beautiful 15 minutes. His classic The Creator Has a Master Plan had its own second coming when it was re-released in a trip-hop remix in the mid-90s. The Trance of Seven Colors, Pharoah’s work with the master Gnawa musician of Morocco Mahmoud Guinia is simply transcendent on an interstellar plane.

And it was a way of connecting to Africa. “The Christianity of the slave represented a movement away from Africa,” Amiri Baraka wrote in this classic text Blues People. “It was the beginning of Africa as ‘a foreign place’.” For the jazz musicians of this long and spiritual era, to reconnect with Africa was more than idle curiosity. It was a way of suturing back an essential part of you that had been forcibly torn from your collective body generations ago. By the mid-1950s and 1960s, African-themed events at nightclubs and restaurants in Brooklyn and Harlem abounded, with UN diplomats from newly independent African countries frequently dropping in. The jazz pianist and composer Randy Weston described the era: “Many of the African countries were just getting their independence. And the wonderful thing about being in New York, the United Nations is there. So I had an opportunity to meet many African diplomats. Many people from Kenya, from Nigeria, from Ghana, from Egypt, many parts of Africa. And I would always talk to them to try to understand a little more about the continent.”

Weston eventually relocated to Morocco for about five years and traveled throughout the African continent before returning to the USA in 1972. “I went on a spiritual trip back home,” he told DownBeat magazine in 1998, referring to Africa. “I wanted to hear where I came from, why I play like I play, why we play music like we do. We went to about 18 countries, and wherever we went we asked to experience the traditional music of the people. Hearing the traditional music was like hearing jazz and blues and the Black church all at the same time.”

Weston also joined forces with master Gnawa musicians in Morocco. (He was playing with them and learning from them before Sanders did the same.) Others, such as Alice Coltrane, were moving in more eastern directions while still others, like Sun Ra, lived in intergalactic space and called us all to move in with him.

The spiritual jazz movement continued, but it didn’t take long for it to be eclipsed by other trends, everything from commercially accessible fusion, launched by the likes of Miles Davis, to the less accessible avant-garde innovations of Cecil Taylor or Albert Ayler. By the 1990s, jazz was also firmly ensconced in the ivory tower, featuring at prestigious arts institutions such as Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center.

Still, the Islamic influence in American popular music never went away, though it did change addresses. Shifting from sound to word, Muslim references could now be found more in the new hip-hop than in the new jazz, even if hip-hop Islam was a yet more heterodox creed than the one found within the Ahmadiyya community. Foundational hip-hop artists including Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, and the Wu-Tang Clan were invoking the words and numbers of the Nation of Gods and Earths, an offshoot of the Nation of Islam.

Five Percenter language has permeated the pop cultural lexicon. For example, the “G” in “wassup, G?”is not “gangsta”, as many might think, but “God”. In this creed, Five Percenter men are considered Gods, and Five Percenter women are known as Earths. “Dropping science” is a term from the Five Percenters, as is the emphatic term “word”, a short form of “word is my bond”.

Scholars have written on the important influence of Five Percenters on early hip-hop. But there are also other, more mainline Muslim influences on the American scene. Five Percenter doctrine was foundational in hip-hop, but it operated as an esoteric language among the educated and enlightened. The way the language and numerology (with an emphasis on the number 7) operated was to signify kinship and belonging, which was particularly important in the early hip-hop years. But other Muslim rappers, often associated with Sunni Islam, performed their deen, their faith, more in line with the jazz tradition that preceded it, as a search for self.

Mos Def is hardly the only one who invokes this devotional search. A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip (Kamaal Fareed) is another. “Praise the Lord of the worlds that’s unseen / Respect me for that and let me do my thing,” we hear in the song Get a Hold. More recently, the Five Percenters, the Nation of Islam, and Sunni Islam (and more) tentatively unite to find a home in the lyrical power of Jay Electronica. “All I have in this world is my flag and my sword / I’m on the battlefield with the flag of my Lord,” rhymes Electronica in Fruit of the Spirit. “My shahada is my cantada / My heart chakra light up when I make sajda at fajr.”

While spiritual quests such as Jay Electronica’s aren’t as common in today’s hip-hop, the search hasn’t disappeared entirely. After all, the history of Black music shows us time and again how the journey seeking the divine produces such a profound musical experience.

And that’s what Pharoah Sanders leaves behind. His was an unyielding search for a way to transcend the secular ugliness of this world, and with his passing Sanders may have finally achieved that goal. Yet music – like all that is holy – never dies. And Pharoah’s saxophone will honk and shriek and envelop all our senses, reverberating to heaven and back, and maybe even beyond.

[aymanmatnews]

#Kuwait The MOH has launched the bivalent vaccination campaign against Covid19, the ministry urged Citizens & Expatriates who are 18 years old and above, to visit one of the 16 designated vaccination centers from 3:00 pm to 8.00 pm Sunday to Thursday. Capital Health District: Shaikha Fetouh Salman Al-Sabah Medical Center in Shamiya; Jassem Al-Wazzan Medical Center in Mansouriya; Jaber Al- Ahmad Medical Center. Farwaniya Health District: Omariya Medical Center; Abdullah Al- Mubarak Medical Center; Andalus Medical Center; Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh Medical Center Hawally Health District: Salwa Specialized Medical Center; Mahmoud Hajji Haidar Medical Center; Rumaithiya Medical Center. Ahmadi Health District: Fintas Specialized Medical Center; Fahaheel Specialized Medical Center. Mubarak Al-Kabeer Medical District: Adan Specialized Medical Center. Jahra Health District: Al-Naaeem Medical Center; Al-Oyoun Medical Center; Saad Al-Abdullah Medical Center (Block 10). The ministry also affirmed the availability of primary and booster shots for young people 12 years old to 17 years old at Abdulrahman Al-Zaid Medical Center in west Mishref. #الكويت https://www.instagram.com/p/CoNseGvqy4x/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[bahaspolitikm1toto]

Tujuh tokoh bantu KPU Kalsel rumuskan soal debat cagub

Banjarmasin (ANTARA) - Sebanyak tujuh orang tokoh membantu Komisi Pemilihan Umum Kalimantan Selatan (KPU Kalsel) untuk merumuskan soal-soal yang nantinya ditanyakan ketika debat pasangan calon (paslon) gubernur dan wakil gubernur daerah itu pada Pilkada 2024.

"Tujuh tokoh ini ada yang berlatar profesional, akademisi dan tokoh masyarakat," kata Ketua KPU Kalsel Andi Tenri Sompa di Banjarmasin, Selasa.

Mereka adalah Ketua MW KAHMI Kalsel Prof Ahmadi Hasan, empat akademisi Universitas Lambung Mangkurat (ULM) yakni Ahmad Yunani, Muhammad Fauzi Makki, Ahmad Syaufi dan Yuanita Setyastuti.

Kemudian, akademisi Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Antasari Banjarmasin Ani Cahyadi dan M Anshari selaku Ketua Dewan Penyandang Disabilitas Kalsel yang juga dosen STIT Darul Hijrah.

Tenri memastikan para tokoh tersebut tak terafiliasi kepada paslon atau partai politik manapun alias netral.

Bahkan, katanya, penentuan tim perumus soal juga telah disepakati bersama antara KPU dan tim masing-masing paslon.

Pada debat pertama Rabu (23/10) malam, KPU Kalsel mengangkat tema "Pelayanan Inovatif dan Akselerasi Pembangunan untuk Kesejahteraan Masyarakat Kalimantan Selatan".

Nantinya, apa yang disampaikan paslon diharapkan dapat merujuk pada visi, misi, dan program kerja mereka jika memimpin Kalsel lima tahun ke depan dikaitkan dengan tema debat yang diangkat.

Pilkada Kalsel tahun ini diramaikan dua pasangan calon untuk menuju kursi gubernur dan wakil gubernur.

Mereka adalah pasangan Muhidin dan Hasnuryadi nomor urut 1 dan pasangan Raudatul Jannah dan Akhmad Rozanie nomor urut 2.

[humaspolressintang]

Kejutan Kue Menyusul oleh Kecamatan Dalam HUT Bhayangkarake-78

Pada hari yang Bersejarah ini Polri mendapati kejutan dari rekan-rekan Kecamatan Sungai Tebelian yang dipimpin Oleh Ahmadi S.Pd.,M.A.P Mewakili camat, dalam kesempatan Siang tadi. Ahmad merupakan Kasi Kesra yang hadir bersama 2 anggota Kecamatan mengunjungi Polsek Sungai Tebelian dengan membawa kue ulang tahun Polri ke -78. Rabu,03/07/2024. Dalam kesempatan ini disambut baik oleh Polri Sungai…