The Panacea

For a Myriad of Black People's Problems

     Having recently celebrated 50 years of being proud and aware of my Blackness, I have been reassessing.  'Does militantly asserting my right to be defined as Black benefit me?'

     I do believe I was less assertive in integrated company before I was Black.  I  was often intimidated and had an inferiority complex around Whites. Indeed, my Blackness cured that, Fa sho'. But, is there any negative price for forcing the world to call me Black? Isn't there some baggage, also.

     What if I could tell you how to get everybody who is not Black to drop every negative connotation bein' Black has? What if I could tell you how to get any job you are qualified for and want, badly.  What if I could make everyone you encountered but did not know have high expectations of you?

     Naw, but you would not do it.  Even though you know what I say is true, you won't even attempt it, even though it's not illegal, immoral, or physically taxing.

     Think deeply about what I am suggesting.  The next time you fill out an application or questionnaire that asks your race, put "Negro". If the boxes are "African American" or "Black", cross them out and write "Negro".

      If questioned, say you are proud to be a "Negro" because everyone knows Negroes are dependable, agreeable, and will work twice as hard as everybody on the job or team for that matter.

     Jackie Robinson, W.E.B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King, Duke Ellington, and a plethora of renown others were Negroes and proud of it.  If you proudly represent yourself as a Negro, the positive traditions - the struggles, the achievements connoted in that no longer despised name, qualify you for special treatment that you don't even have to demand.

      To be delineated from N*gg*s is worth it in itself.  There are no Negro Crips, Bloods, terrorists, drug dealers, pimps, or prostitutes, and it's unusual for a Negro to go to jail or abandon his/her family. Almost all Negroes are devoted to The Almighty and love to read.  They are industrious and assets to any organization.

      Yes, in fact, I'm going to insist on being addressed as a Muslim Negro rather than African American or Black which, generally, imply (whether we like it or not) racist tendencies and an angry history.  And, most definitely, the terms do not concoct positive imagery to Whites or Blacks, or even other Muslims.  Bilal ibn Rabah (S.A.W.) was a Muslim Negro and a spiritual icon in Islamic history, nevertheless, we, still, disdain the term "Negro". 

      Whereas, African American, Black, and certainly, N*gg*  are no longer positive descriptive appellations for us, it is time for a change. And, I believe "Negro" would be a most effective and easily adapted to alternative.

My Dream

My Dream

I want to die riba  free -

Free of interest bearing debt, completely.

And, I want to free my children

So, they can pass on

Mortgage free real estate

And a riba free tradition.

I believe years from now

We will view our new tradition

Much like we do freedom

From chattel slavery

After The Jubilee.

This is my primary economic goal.

I want to free my Soul, 

Eternally. 

Close Encounter

              Close Encounter

           "Whew! They almost caught my ass that time."

          

           "I told you about visiting pagan planets.  You know they are still killing and eating each other."

          

           "No, Father. They no longer are cannibals.  Although, I admit they are still killers.  Have you read their Internet reports? They are continually at war with each other.

           "That one called the U.S.A. is especially pugnacious with all their bombs and such. 

           I love to bait their jet planes, but I will never let them catch me, again.  Some of them would have killed me, and, no doubt, eaten me in those days. Fortunately, they have passed the cannibal stage. Their flying machines are so primitive, however, we have nothing to fear.  If they would only direct the development of the best of their technology toward something other than murder, their vehicles would be so much more efficient.

            Their society would be so efficient there would be no need for war.  Allah would Bless them with His Peace.

2000 A.D.

2000 A.D.

            The millennium was anticipated with bated breath.  I remember my wife, Anjail, my 7 year old daughter, Anjail Ahneda, and my daughter, Ihsan, and her fiance', Rasheed counting down the minutes to the epic event.  Once in a thousand years.  What could it possibly signify?

            A thousand years ago was a great age for Africans; a thousand years later, not so much.  I was apprehensive about the possibilities that the infamous Y2K foretold.  Dick Gregory, Shaherazade Ali, and numerous others were predicting doom and gloom - the computers (a recent phenomena) were going to stop because their digital mechanisms had not been set to go past 1999.  The ATM's (also, relatively new), and indeed, the whole worldwide banking system had been similarly shortsightedly constructed, and there would be an international collapse of monetary systems.

            Survival kits were selling fast and, I was smiling on the outside, but overwrought with second thoughts. 'Had I considered my disaster plans? Escape routes? Orders to congregate with my huge family, assiduously?' Although I had little respect for the conspiracy theorists, openly confronting them  every chance I got.  But, what if the nuts, for once, were actually right?

            5 minutes, 4 minutes... This was just like any other New Years Eve.  Times Square's big ball had dropped 3 hours before.  Would the end of the world start with the first arrival of the new year on any part of the planet, or would it wait until the last arrival on the planet? Had the utter destruction already begun?  Could we expect the Big Apple to crumble and the rest of the country to fall like dominoes?

            Then, I came to my senses and realized the enormity of what was happening.  Allah was blessing me to experience a monumental event.  What I said and did  were very likely to be around  a thousand years from now in some form.  My thoughts and deeds, seen from the proper perspective, could influence the thoughts and deeds of countless numbers of people, ad infinitum.  What an awesome responsibility!

            Two minutes to 2000 A.D. It didn't matter who the President was, the police chief, whoever, or what they did. Nothing could stop me, now.

            When I was born in 1944, my life expectancy was 55 years, meaning I was programmed to be dead in a couple of minutes, which did not seem likely, so I was celebrating, softly, my survival.  I grabbed hold of Anjail and hugged her hard, then, I hugged  her and little Anjail.  We raised our glasses and toasted the New Millennium with the traditional Martinelli's Apple Juice.  One minute... to realizing a million dreams of millions of Baker/Bakeers - ancestors who could not have even fantasized about the blessings, the good things I had been honored to have. 

            My Daddy and Momma got a glimpse, but they could barely dream of me making hajj.  Fortunately, they had seen and loved all of my kids, put their indelible marks on their morals and much else. They had shared the books, the movie, my houses, my careers, Al hamdullillah. Still I reflected upon my successes - more than any of our ancestors could possibly imagine.

            Anjail, Sharon, my kids and I had eaten better, dressed better,  been housed better, been educated more, travelled more, driven better  cars, spent more money, probably studied more Quran and Bible than any of our ancestors.  What more could possibly be waiting for us in the 3rd Millennium?  It could only be better.  No matter how grave the problems of the past.  It always got better.  So, let us greet 2000, the future, the next millennium with the triumphant chant that it was due.  Something fitting to be remembered for at least another 1000 years:

            "Allahu Akbar!  Allahu Akbar!  Allahu Akbar! Happy New Millennium!

            My wife, Anjail, and I kiss a truly historic kiss.

Charity Does Not Diminish Wealth

Charity Does Not Diminish Wealth;

It Purifies It

I make it rain for the waitress who smiles at me;

Then, I say something that makes her feel pretty.

I make it rain for my favorite sistuh behind the desk at the bowling alley;

Let her keep the change from the twenty.

I bowl, but I do not gamble, and I laugh at the people who play lotto.
I drive a new car, but it's not expensive; I save so that I can give.

I prefer not to spend my money in vain;

I love to help people; I love to make it rain!

I prefer to live simply, so I can give, amply;

I prefer to live my life, plain, so I can continue to make it rain.

I make it rain for the Brothers beating on congas in the park,

Especially when it gets close to dark.

I make it rain for the Brothers on the corner plotting crime

(Tired of doin' without all the time).

Before one of them can even think about bringing me game,

I make it rain!

I make it rain for the broken women

In front of the grocery store -

Hands outstretched, faces filled w/pain, begging and ashamed.

I love to see them light up when I make it rain!

Yes, I am addicted to putting hope back into hopeless eyes.

I stop my car for people pushing shopping carts overflowing w/pain,

Then, I  get out, and, "Surprise",

I make it rain!

When I go to the mosque, I make prayer, then, I make it rain.

And, it seems I can barely get out of the block

Before Allah (S.W.A.) has given the money back to me, again.

The Original Griot

Quiet as It's Kept

         (2016 zeitgeist)

Homosexual sex is  no longer considered illicit;

It's literally celebrated, no matter whether

The sexual partners are "legally mated".*

But, what's most cruel to me

Is that we (society) have blindly

Assuaged the way to homosexuality

For our youth

And created yet another slippery slope

For those who have, traditionally, chosen chastity.

*Jason Collins, professional basketball player who was celebrated by the White House for admitting he was having gay sex.

"Don't Be Surprised by My Death"

After my last breath,
Praise Allah, and
Pray for me.
For I was a Free Man
In a great land
Shrouded with the utmost dignity.

"There aren't very many of those ol' dudes left,"
Would be a triumphant funereal refrain
For my decomposing brain, now, bereft of trivia,
Zealously tallying up my Charity.

I'm Blessed to still be here because
I caught pneumonia not long after my birth.
It went into prolonged bronchitis at around 2 or 3
And, eventually, breath sapping asthma attacks
And, emergency room quick fix insulin shots at 6.

Asthma, my foul friend; I've become accustomed to
Your endless weight on my chest -
Whether after 10 mile runs or even at rest,

You are always handicapping my best.

I've never had a serious scuffle,
Yet, I've disarmed crowds of angry people
With no lethal force.
Some of the worst killers
Put their pistols away, so they could hear what I had to say.

'Cause on the flip side I was teaching them to Pray,
So, Allah (S.W.A.), as promised,
Keeps sending angels my way
Like when I was nose to nose with an East Coas' Crip
About something trivial. Gave him a  precautionary put down
Shamed him in front of his own convict crowd
In the same week when he committed a robbery and mass murder of 4.

Then, 2 days later killed 2 more in another robbery
But, between the 2 mass murders, that Sunday morning, my hot water tank
Caught some laundry afire, and Spud risks his life to put out the fire.
Close call for me and all of my family.

The crazy 90 mph car wreck at 19 was the closest I have been to death.
But, Allah saved me, against all odds. At least a month of coma,
Fleeting consciousness, and drugged sleep.
Then, oral surgeries, facial and body scars
Before going back to drunken driving and near death wrecks.

Then, being drafted -Basic Training, Advanced Individual Training,
and Officer's Candidate School before Vietnam.
What sustained me was Allah (S.W.A.) - I was calling Him Christ back then.
And, I was reading The Gospel which strengthened my resolve
To avoid killing or being killed; do not drop my guard.
Avoid all opportunities to die in the air assaults, ambushes, driving jeep on recon,
Any good chances to be a common statistic.

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