A Muslim’s Elegy for (Here. Now. Everywhere.)
A spoken word poem written in mourning for the many tragedies that struck the globe, targeting Muslims and non-Muslims alike, during Ramadan 2016.
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Wake up and smell the headlines
Turn on the news
Freeze like a deer in headlights
Weary and confused
Wrack your brain for clues
Try to explain the rules of a game you can only play to lose
Forced to participate through an elaborate ruse
Charting a course for civilization that we’ve got to refuse
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Start by connecting the dots
Stop missing all of the cues
Peruse the truth to finally refute the obtuse
This tireless loop of déjà vu’s obstructed our view
From Orlando to Paris, 9/11 to Istanbul
These massacres scare us, that’s all they ever want to do
You can’t think straight when you’re afraid
That’s how they’re counting on you
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But who’re they? Who’s to blame? Here’s the reality
Islam’s to them what Christianity is to the KKK
On that fateful day, they didn’t hijack just the planes
Now all Muslims are supposed to be a part of their gang
Painted by the same brush, spoiled by the same taint
Recoiling at once in secondhand shame
Blamed for complacency amid all the disarray
“Where are the moderate Muslims?” goes the dismayed refrain
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Well, as a “moderate Muslim”, here’s the order of the day
Whenever these things happen you resume a state of panic
Every newsflash has you standing
Planning for the worst to handle
Mind shuts down
Shuts off
Every thought:
“Don’t let it be a Muslim
Please.”
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Then the truth comes out
Prepare to bear it out
Brace for the fallout
Post a Facebook status and hope that counts
Announce aloud, you won’t allow the crowd to drown out the sound
Of your protestations rejecting guilt by association
So who are the perpetrators of these great devastations?
What is their motivation? Can it really be their faith?
-3-
We hear about these people, it seems, every other day
A crazy parade of faces with alien aims
Call them haters — well, that’s an understatement
Hatred looms oversized amid their grandiose claims
Look at the guys they pledged allegiance to and handed the reins
Brutal marauders with grievances and a hunger for fame
Quoting chapter and verse to slaughter and maim
Attacks that disperse every truce proclaimed
Bloodthirsty, isolated in their rage
Crying out “Allahu Akbar”, going up in flames
Gauging piousness in this basest of ways
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In hindsight it’s no surprise that people inquire
“Why does it seem that one religion so uniquely inspires such violence?
We don’t see choirboys lining up to fight.”
And some go on to say,
“Since a thoughtful inquiry into doctrinal subtleties would be far too tiring
Let’s just go online!
At first sight, their holy book’s got some strident lines
Cited by the killers to remind us why they visualize
Homicide as required in acquiring paradise
In civilized society, that can’t be reconciled
Let’s put their entire lifestyle on trial!”
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But let’s rewind
Remind ourselves of the facts
In fact, the opposite is true when it comes to Islam
The ruthless ignore those verses’ original intent
To inaugurate rules for just war in self-defense
Safeguarding all souls against oppression
Never a war of aggression
“Holy war” is of foreign conception
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Muslim scholars are in harmony on this question
Announcing in solidarity conscientious objections
Denouncing and renouncing this problematic rejection
Of normative tradition for a vision of sedition
Thirsty for discord through a distorted rendition
Twisting scripture to commission killing innocents
Malicious revisionists in vicious ignorance
Deficient of any penitence or contrition
Proficiently using religion for conscription
As always — take the Crusades and the Inquisition
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And though it may seem sometimes an apt conception
Monotheism’s not the prime source of such dissension
Let’s do some revision using a well-worn specimen
The Middle East’s been “a hotbed of simmering tension
“Since time immemorial” — with plenty of exceptions
Upon closer inspection, there’s one common intention
These conflicts are a problem of political contentions
External intervention’s been constant, truthfully told
Since the days of Sykes-Picot, striking at black gold
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From colonialism to invasion and occupation
Enabling dictators to constrain their populations
Sectarian tactics traded for ‘security’
And so fanatics waded in from obscurity
Power vacuums’ instability brewing zealotry
Peddling malevolent dogmas of exclusivity
Wrapped in an warped mock-up of masculinity
Rigid literalist extremists not thinking critically
Serving their own lust for power, hardly divinity
Self-righteous to a fault with a disturbing proclivity
To condemn others in contempt, with impunity
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Looking outward, not within is a bequest of modernity
New to Islam, a production of the 18th century
Focused on an obsession with externalities
Robotic movements, throats rasping niceties
Hearts untouched, souls hollow in true expiry
Reflected in the emptiness of their claims to piety
Occupied by an exercise in conspiring
To disguise a way of life unrecognizably
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This mentality is what’s fueling the insanity
We see on the news, excusing barbarity
Unleashing atrocities at increasing velocities
Unceasing in their carnage even in the month of fasting
Fellow Muslims the biggest targets for their treachery
Bombings and shootings, slaying arbitrarily
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Baghdad. Dhaka. Madinah.
Just a few of so many
Nothing is sacred to them
Not even the Prophet’s own sanctuary
How dare they.
How dare they.
How dare they.
So many dying in heartbreaking futility
It seems we’re separated from peace by infinity
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This has been a loquacious explication
In the interests of time, here’s a summarization
Toxic theology’s a consequence, not a foundation
Ideology’s just one part of an equation
Involving history, politics, socialization
But nuances tend to get lost in translation
Simplified clarifications
Preferred to complicated explanations
And with all this, no answer to those asking
“How can we stop all this from happening?”
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Oh, how I wish I knew.
But for now, until we know how to win
This is the world we all have to live in
Conditions ripe for such evil sin
Cheapening human life with lethal doctrines
Feeding on human strife, the seething cauldron
Where humans are enticed by the lure of propaganda
That they wouldn’t fall for, if only they could understand
That their stance is uncalled for, rejected and banned
By the Prophet himself, whom they claim to follow
His legacy is of mercy, never pain and sorrow
From the day his message started and through every tomorrow
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How dare they borrow what is not theirs and sully it?
Outsider deviants, we won’t be lenient
We’ll oppose you even when it’s not convenient
Easy, stress-free or politically expedient
Alongside the righteous of all stripes fighting back
Not in the way you fight, but in our own jihad
Reclaiming the narrative from the hate you’ve amplified
Aligned to take back all you’ve tried to swipe
And failed — because you will fail, always
God is greater than you, and it’s to Him we pray
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I say “Allahu Akbar” every day
Not as a battle cry but as a reminder
That beyond everything, there’s One who’s always higher
That though I may die in anonymity
The implications of my actions echo through eternity
That nothing’s more important than the pursuit of purity
That the ethical value of what I do is priceless
One smile, one good word, resonates timeless
To step back from petty distractions
Meaninglessness in thoughts and words and actions
Worthless obsessions we while away our lives in
To refocus away from such contrivance
To cast away and instead, to seek guidance
From a God who’s not an angry old man in the sky
Looking for an alibi to smite us
Rather a Truth we will not relinquish
The true north within every heart’s compass
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So here’s some advice for the radicalized
On the day justice is served, you’re at the head of the line
You’ll have to answer for the lives you failed to sanctify
You may not be willing to compromise, but neither am I
I refuse to let you define me
Against you I will never stop striving
Every stride a step closer to the paradigm
Of the man sent as a mercy to all mankind
It is he, not you, whom I choose to emulate
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You claim to be his heirs but that’s such a mistake
His legacy was validated in a man who shared his name
A model for the Prophet’s way in this day and age
Leaving only peace and justice in his wake
Muhammad Ali, they called him the greatest
His jihad is what I want to imitate
A life lived to make the world a better place
Instead of dying for nothing more than worthless hate
Inspired by the Quran to react with restraint
Repelling evil with good; you don’t have to be a saint
This is the message our world needs, before it’s too late
To come together as one, and embrace our shared fate.
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- Thanks to Kate, David, and Muslema for enabling me to post the best version of this piece that I could, through your helpful input prior to posting.
الله يوفقنا
