Marvin X at Laney College Theatre
photo Alicia Mason
Surah Fatiha
Arabic, English Transliteration & Translations
Overview of Surah al-Fatiha
Surah al-Fatiha, “The Opening”, is the first chapter of the Holy Quran. Its seven verses are a prayer for God’s guidance, and stress Its lordship and mercy of God. This chapter has an essential role in daily prayers; being recited at least seventeen times a day, at the start of each unit of prayer (rakah).
The surah is described in various Hadith as “the mother of the Book” (Umm al-Kitab), and said to be the seven verses alluded to in Surah Al-Hijr (15:87); “We have given thee seven of the opt-repeated (verses) and the great Quran.”
Bismillāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm
1:1 In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy!
Al ḥamdu lillāhi rabbi l-’ālamīn
1:2 Praise belongs to God, Lord of the Worlds,
Ar raḥmāni r-raḥīm
1:3 the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy,
Māliki yawmi d-dīn
1:4 Master of the Day of Judgement.
Iyyāka na’budu wa iyyāka nasta’īn
1:5 It is You we worship; it is You we ask for help.
Ihdinā ṣ-ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm
1:6 Guide us to the straight path:
Ṣirāṭ al-laḏīna an’amta ‘alayhim ġayril maġḍūbi ‘alayhim walāḍ ḍāllīn
1:7 the path of those You have blessed, those who incur no anger and who have not gone astray.
Then, again, perhaps we should delete Surah Al Fatihah, since I am not trying to convert children to Islam, although I know the power of Islamic consciousness in our history, not to mention in West Africa, but the Moorish pre-Columbian presence in the Americas is profound and undeniable. America's first treaty was with the Moors, and the US Marines were established to subdue the Moorish presence in the Barbary coast, Northwest Africa. Except for the music of Muslim Africans, would Blues have originated in the Mississippi Delta?
The Malian kora master Ali Farka said his people have played what is known as the Blues for ten thousand years, and he didn't have any problem playing with the Rolling Stones and BB King. Their music was not Blues to him, rather, it was the sacred music of his people.
I never forced Islam on any of my children but I taught it to them. Of course they may have shied away from it after seeing the contradictions in my behavior, my Negrocities ( Amiri Baraka term he told me not to steal from him, RIP).
My son's, Darrell/Abdul, Islamic consciousness and linguistics took him around the world, Brazil, Japan, Egypt, Jerusalem, Damascus, Europe. As we know, he graduated from UC Berkeley in Arabic and Near Eastern Studies, won a Fulbright Fellowship to University of Damascus, Syria, also studied at the American University, Cairo, Egypt, with graduate study at Harvard. So Islamic consciousness took a little boy from Fresno, CA around the world, and for the most part, without money, as it did his father who traveled throughout the Americas and Caribbean with hardly a dime, especially while in flight from US imperialism. I bear witness a good name is better than gold and as the Qur'an teaches, "If we flee in the name of Allah, we shall find in the earth many places of escape and abundant resources."
From the Sufi perspective, after a study of such masters as Ghazali, Hazra Inayat Khan, Rumi, Guru Bawa, Ahamadu Bamba and other Sufi Masters, including Saadi and Hafiz, (with whom I have been compared (Bob Holman) and when I briefly perused them, I saw myself in them, and most of all Duse Muhammad, Marcus Garvey, Noble Drew Ali, Master Fard Muhammad, Elijah Muhammad;for sure, I am in harmony with them all as per the religion of the heart, thus I am rarely, if ever, a visitor to mosques, temples, churches, and other establishments for the worship and fellowship of the Supreme One by whatever name, please don't get me in the name game! I am a writer who enjoys solitude, a recluse, hermit, thinker 24/7, thus people are overwhelmed with my anti-social behavior.
Guru Bawa would say we must transcend the one billion ten million illusions of the monkey mind! Hazrat Inayat Khan taught, what does it matter if it is not in the heart? Would the heart allow one to kill anyone, whether believers or non-believers? My heart will not allow me to do such an abomination to believers and/or non-believers! James Baldwin said, "The murder of my child will not make your child safe!" You mean the Crack epidemic would not lead to the opioid pandemic?
So much trouble in the world, ancestor Bob Marley said, so much trouble in the world. When my comrade in the Black Arts Movement, Askia Toure', apologized to young students at University of California, Merced, for leaving their generation in a mess, I initially objected to his comments and followed him to the mike to express my feelings that our generation was simply not able to defeat the US Army, Navy, Air Force, CIA, FBI, local police, National Guard, et al. We challenged an overwhelming force of state power and suffered a military defeat--let's be clear, a military defeat!
But as per those valiant warriors who fought the good fight for freedom, justice and equality, I have long called for a day of recognition for their valor and patriotism, just as we honor veterans of American's imperialist wars. Ironically, when I have befriended such American veterans, they are amazed that we are able to not only converse but seek to redress all the injustices they and we know exist, and they are surprised to discover we are warriors as much as they are. We are patriots as much as they are. Just as they did, when MLK, Jr was assassinated, we and they felt the same level of pain. For example, one US Air Force officer said when he was piloting a plane over Vietnam and he was informed MLK, Jr was just assassinated, he said he sent a message to his crew that nobody should move, if they do, he was blowing up the motherfucking plane!
So let us walk together children, yes, to the promised land. And look at this beautiful land, look out the window as you fly coast to coast, and look again after you land, look at the land, the beauty of it all and tell yourself we can and must all get along, that there is enough for all, so why should we be greedy, selfish and narrow minded. Why can't we share the wealth? Wasn't this the meaning of the first Thanksgiving?
Obviously, many of us didn't get the concept, didn't believe and/or know we could share the wealth, that there was enough for everyone. As a result of our sub-consciousness, we are ignorant of the fact that what goes around comes around in the simple mystical order of things. We conquer land but never pray to those ancestors buried in mounds underneath the land. We don't ask their permission to be on the land. We presume it is sufficient to "buy" the land yet don't understand there are souls on the land beyond payment, beyond any amount of money, gold, diamonds. This is why we cut down sacred trees of ancestors as if no spirits live in them, and then when fires erupt on the land that destroy all we have accumulated, we are in shock, traumatized to no end that all we accumulated is no more.
--Marvin X/El Muhajir
11/1/17
See the November/December issue of The Movement, journal of BAM writer Marvin X, artistic freedom fighter. The issue is dedicated to Children, especially two of his grandchildren, Naeemah and Jahmeel. Now we know Gibran taught us our children come through us but they are not us, we are the bow, they are the arrow. And as much as we love our grandchildren, they belong to their mothers and fathers who have their visions for them, so we must ultimately step back and let their parents raise them, no matter how much we love them and want to give them our vision.
And so I say of grandparents, let the parents raise them no matter how much you want to instill your vision, you had your chance with your children, now it is your children's turn to raise their children as they see fit. If and when they call upon you, just be ready to serve and don't overwhelm your chldren with your dogmatic ideas of child raising notions infused with ideological and spiritual dogmatism.
Your children are your children and their children are their children. If your children never desire you to see their children, so it is. You had your chance with your children, your grandchildren are just a last chance to scoop your poop and join the ancestors with a clean slate or ma'at, the balance of right and wrong, good and evil. Don't push the issue, after all, you shall be gone soon and so shall your children, then it will your grandchildren's turn to see if they can walk the straight path!