Desisting from Selfish Calculation

What Were You Before You Began?

from Kitab al-Tanwir fi Isqat al-Tadbir (The Book of Illumination) p.81

by Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah al-Iskanderi

 

You should realize that the real One has taken charge of caring for your every need through every stage of your development.  God has undertaken to bring you through each stage into your worldly existence, and began this careful oversight on the Day of Destinies.  This is the moment when God created all the souls that would ever exist and questioned them Am I not your Lord? All souls answered in unison, Indeed, we have testified.

It was from divine care for all your needs that, on that day, God allowed you to know the divine as your Lord – thus you first acknowledged God.  At that time, God manifested to your senses and you were able to witness the divine.  God urged you to speak for yourself and inspired you to pronounce your agreement with divine lordship – thus you pronounced God your single Lord.  Then God made of your soul a tiny spermazoid safeguarded in the loins of your ancestors and fulfilled all your needs with divine concern while you rested there.  God protected you, and protected all your ancestors who carried you as a spermazoid, dispatching divine nourishment and aid to support you by means of all those people who carried you within them, back to your very first forefather, Adam.  Then God cast you into the womb of your mother and took charge of all your needs while you were there, making her womb accept you like fertile ground accepts a sprouting seed.  God caused to join together two spermazoids [one from the father, and one from the mother] that became intimate and loved each other and melded into one.  You exist from this union, built upon the divine wisdom that all of existence is based on the secret principle of bringing forth unity from duality.  From a spermazoid, God transformed you into a mucus clot, soft and receptive to the qualities and destinies that God desired to transmit to you.  After you became a clot, God transformed you into a fleshy lump.  Then God divided and expanded the flesh, shaping shaping it into your likeness and establishing your physical form.  Then God breathed into you the spirit and nourished you with the blood of the uterus in the womb of your mother and made flow to you your sustenance before you ever emerged into independent existence.

God kept you in the womb of your mother until your bodily organs were adequate and your supports were firm, in order to prepare you for your coming out into the world, the world consisting of all apportioned for you and against you.  You emerged into a realm that you can come to know and experience through God’s bounteousness and even-handedness.  When you descended into the world, God knew that you were incapable of eating the raw and rough food of the world, for you had no teeth or digestive powers to make use of what you might eat.  So God caused breasts to flow with gentle and refined nourishment.  God empowered the compassion harbored in your mother’s heart to incite the breasts:  every time they stopped excreting milk, they were urged to begin anew by the compassion for you sparked in your mother’s heart.  In this way, the flow of milk is ever renewed, never slacking, with fullness imbued.

Then God set your mother and father to work, procuring for you all you might need and looking after you with the eye of intimate parental care.  What is this care except the care that God has poured out for you, as for all people, in the guise of mothers and fathers, in order that you come to know tender love?  In reality, nothing has cared for you except God’d lordship.  Nothing has raised you except God’s presence with you.  God obliged your father to provide for you until you reached a mature age, in order that you might be cared for through him.  Then the burden of of responsibility was suspended for you until the time when your powers of understanding are complete, at the time of puberty.

Syrian Taqwacore

DIY DAMASCUS: INTERVIEW WITH SYRIAN PUNK BAND, MAZHOTT.

Posted by falafelwarrior, (Marwan Kamel) December, 2009

Everything is more complicated in the Middle East, even playing punk rock.

It’s difficult for us, punks in the First World, to really understand true love for punk. We’re spoiled. With somewhat cheap equipment, tons of places to play, and no one determining what you can say,  starting a band in the US is relatively easy.

This is Damascus, though. If you want to play punk, you need to really want to. The hand of politics is everywhere. Both US foreign policy and domestic law can make or break your band:  trade embargoes determine whether or not you can get equipment and censors make it difficult to speak about any real issues.  While the suffocating restrictions and obstacles are annoying, the fact that the punks exist is a testament to their perseverance.

In this interview, Rashwan, from Syrian band, Mazhott (Diesel in Arabic), shares their story about playing their brand of Arabic-infused, old school, pop-punk.

So, how did Mazhott start? Why did you start the band? Tell me the story behind it

Me and Dani, the drummer, started around 2007. I had a couple of songs that I had written, and I was “bandless,” but then we called up a few friends to get a bassist. We called it, “mazhott,” because it’s a funny word in Arabic, so we thought it had a certain shock value. This kinda name had never been used for a band name before [here]…

It’s a funny word, but it also reminds me of the petrol sellers that come around in the morning for heating oil. Did this have any effect on it?

Well that was the idea, a catchy, unusual and everyday name. And its not a very loved thing–the heating oil or the sellers,
because of the noise they make…

[laughing] That shit can be annoying… So, instead of hitting metal gas tanks, you’re doing it with electric guitars. Are there a lot of kids in Syria that are into punk?

There are, but they are mostly after what’s on TV. And since Green Day’s American Idiot went big, punk has been spreading–although people don’t know what punk is, so we’re trying to let them know ..

Yeah, it’s difficult to face up to the pop music industry. It seems like anyone that is trying to do something new, has to find a way to spread their music underground. Are you guys handing out your demos for free? How did you guys record?

Well,  I recorded everything at home, using Fruity Loops for drums and a small, [chat] mic for the rest. We’re try to hand out CD’s
and promote them on the internet, but it’s still very underground.

Man, you guys are tech savvy.  The last time i was in Syria, there weren’t that many computers around at all.

[Laughing] .. Well, it has improved in this context, but not so much on the internet, though. I mean, I’ve been telling people for ages to check out our songs online, but they just look surprised. Yeah, I am telling you, man, people are crazy lazy over here.

That can be a problem in terms of DIY, but you are pulling it off. Did you guys have any problems starting the band, like in terms of equipment or even in terms of getting a space to play?

We still have [problems], man.  I only have a guitar, but no amp, and Akram and Kareem (guitar/bass) don’t either. We still don’t have a place to practice, so we have to rent a place each time, and it’s pretty fucking expensive. It’s like almost impossible to get a gig, unless you’re very lucky, so we play for free all the time, whenever we get the chance.

You mentioned to me before that you guys canceled your last show because people were “fucked up”? What did you mean by that?

Well, the audience would have thrown eggs and tomatoes at us and beat us up, man.  So, we decided not to do it, because they were not the kind of people who would appreciate out music or anything like it.

Yeah, I guess that’s always a problem with shows. It’s never good to not play to the right crowd. You guys need the crowd that comes with a bunch of beer. I usually like to wait until people are drunk to start playing. You guys need to get sponsored by Barada Beer (Syrian national beer brand).

[Laughing] We are thinking about it, actually.

You guys have played in some pretty cool places though, like in el Medine 2edime (Old City). How do you guys pull that stuff off?

We got lucky actually, but having Arabic lyrics helps. There aren’t many places to play here except the Old City, so whenever a band wants a gig, they go there first.

Have you played in other cities in Syria yet?

No, not yet. There’s no such thing as touring here, and the percentage of people that listen to rock, in general, is very limited too.

There’s a lot of metal in the Middle East these days, but punk is a different ballgame. Why do you think that there aren’t that many other punk bands forming?

Well, the thing is, people, here, don’t care much about either punk or metal. So, anyone that plays an electric guitar is a metal-head
in Syria, and [they] think punk is silly, or whatever. Metal fans say it’s too easy, so it’s not good enough. But, normal kids like it, somehow, because it’s more poppy in a way.  You know?

Yeah, and metal is sort of banned here, so it’s difficult for us (Syrian punks) too, since we’re connected to it.

I think that also might have to do with lyrics too. Metal lyrics can be really cheesy, sometimes. Maybe, your lyrics are more relevant to peoples’ lives. What do you guys sing about?

We sing about stuff that matters to young people, in general, and social [issues]. [For example], the high school diploma, here, is unbelievably difficult, so, we wrote about that. We wrote about fathers forcing their young daughters to marry older men, about our generation that is frustrated and lost and don’t know wot to do with their lives,  about less separating of boys and girls, and about how we need more attention and freedom.

So, why do you think that punk and metal are banned? Does anyone cause complications for you guys playing at all?

Well, metal fans, here, are considered Satanists, so they’re opposed by everybody. And, yes, we have had some problems of that kind, but not big ones, since we sing in Arabic, which is a very positive thing, actually. People can relate more to the songs and it’s something new, so they get more interested. I think, since we’re an Arabic-speaking country. it would be stupid to write songs in English.

Yeah, I know what you mean. A lot of bands, in the rest of the world, think that it’s better to write songs in English because it’s more international. But, punk is always local at heart, and it’s our way of talking about things that matter to us. I guess, it’s difficult to do that in syria, without getting too political, so that you don’t have any “friends” from the government come visit you.

Yeah, we try to stick to social stuff. We have a song about corruption, though, “Baba.” If you’re a son of someone, or know someone important, people treat you different–or they treat others, with no connection, in a bad way. You know? Those things ..

Do you think that the future of punk in Syria is different from the rest of the Middle East?

I don’t know, actually, but I sure hope so. Rock bands are realizing the importance of writing in Arabic, which could make a better future for rock, in general, including punk. But, punk is getting noticed anyway–much more than it used to.

So, what’s coming up for Mazhott? recording?

Yeah, hopefully,  and more gigs!

How can people get in contact with you or hear your music?

They can email us on Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/mazhott or http://www.reverbnation.com/mazhott or on our group on Facebook.

Hey, I’ve gotta go the place (internet cafe) I’m at is closing.  Salam.
Alright, Peace.
-Marwan

~Now, this was before all of the protests and the revolutionary spark.  We are waiting to hear back from Marwan about the state of Mazhott and how they are holding up during all of this upheaval.  Insha’allah they are all well and staying strong.  Insha’allah.

Police of Vice and Virtue

After a creature dies, there are a few electrical pulses that shoot through the body as the last exodus of the spirit.  Much the same is happening throughout the Arab World right now in the wake of the Arab Awakening.  The powers at large are doing their very best to hold on to their stranglehold and the people are saying NO!  The latest act on the stage of the world is  head of Iranian security forces, Brigadier General Ahamdi Moghaddam is deploying 70,000 basij or police of vice and virtue if you will, to eliminate the Western Cultural Invasion which no doubt effects attitude and susceptibility to autocratic rule.  Not that it took the Western way of life to bring people’s minds to the fact that they are being stifled by their governments and hard nosed extreme traditional clerics, but the dress and cultural emulation does signify a visible change in their despotism by outwardly proclaiming they will not be quiet nor quieted towards the ruling parties or sects.  In Iran the wearing of necklaces and “glamorous” hairstyles for men will be no longer tolerated along with shorts and for women, loose hijabs and tight overcoats, showing any skin will all be grounds for arrest and surprisingly, Ahmadinejad has been attacked for negating the hijab violations.  Showing signs of understanding to keep face with the people perhaps, what we are seeing is the polarization between the old and the new that will most certainly bring about the new age.  In the throes of protests and civil wars the idea of wearing shorts and having a “glamorous” haircut, wearing lipstick and having some shoulder exposed seems like a luxurious form of dissent rather than bullets and Molotov Cocktails, but these are all the faces of the changing Middle East.

Hair India

From the honest thought of honest offering, poor Indians give the only thing they likely own, their hair.  In the temples their sacrifice is pure and what is it to them what happens afterwards?  The act to them is the most important thing.  But on the other side of the temple, out the back door in boxes goes the hair to Western countries obsessed with looking more and more beautiful, no matter the cost, no matter where what they require came from.  It makes you wonder if both sides had knowledge of the other would they participate willingly like they are?  Or would they like to make some adjustments be it asking for a simple appreciative acknowledgement or giving back in aid of a better life to those who are making the beautification process possible.  The donors are said to not care for an offering to God is an offering to God and there is no payment or appreciation necessary aside from the blessing of God which no one else can give.  The receivers are no doubt less thankful than they likely should be which is the result of the rampant insatiability of the idealism of Western Beauty.  The most ironic part is the hair being sold back to wealthy Indian women who are emulating that very beauty ideal that has swept the world.  From temple to penthouse, slum to salon, Indian Hair is making a worldwide journey as offering of both religious and secular executor.

Virginity Testing from Al Jazeera

 

The story related to the article The Last Flails of a Dying Idea, from the young woman’s personal experience of being abused by personal greed and oppression of men/women.

Virginity Testing: Last Flails of a Dying Idea

In the past 6 months, Egypt has seen the rollback of a collective history of oppression.  From the Persians, to the exchange for Alexander the Great who installed his ruling desires which passed to Ptolemy I, head of the House of Ptolemy that oppressed verbally by only speaking Greek, to the Romans; from the Byzantines to the Arabs, Mamluks, Ottomans and the British (who wasn’t oppressed by the British at one point or another) on to a reign of only 3 presidents spanning six decades, in a mere 18 days, the Egyptian people reclaimed their freedom.  The declaration of unity amongst themselves, the very people that are needed for any one person or party to rule, that they would no longer stand for the outright abuse and usurpation of their god given rights to lead lives with the opportunities that are inalienable for all people.  Men, women, children, Christians, Muslims, all Egyptians were out in the streets singing, crying, screaming, demanding that Mubarak step down and let them choose for themselves a leader that might have the best interest of the people at heart.  A leader that might see and understand that in the 21st Century, you cannot keep people from their dreams.  You cannot keep them from seeing what they are being kept from because they hear through the connectivity of the world that there is a better way.  No doubt the best way has yet to be found, but there are people that don’t have to live under a state of emergency for all their lives.  There are youths that have opportunities to create happy and wealthy lives for themselves.  There are women that create businesses for themselves and are strong in their ability because they are given the occasion to see the height of their strength.  There was a disturbing back-peddle amongst the Supreme Council (aptly named for the power they took over) when they began issuing “virginity tests” among the female protesters saying these women “were not like your daughter or mine.  These were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters.”  An statement issued by a general attempting to justify a preemptive measure to qualm rape accusations against soldiers.  The idea is that if you prove these women are not virgins, you cannot prove that there was any sexual abuse from any army personnel or Mubarak supporters.  Again, for a council that is saying they do not wish to hold power and that they are pro-transparency, they are making moves that make them look awfully guilty of wrongdoing.

Virginity tests are not uncommon across the muslim world, from Iran to Afghanistan, the more fundamental the more intense and horrific the treatment of women and it is a show of what sexual oppression does to men in particular.  Men who are kept from understanding the beauty of women are absolutely prone to take advantage of them, ignore their human rights, they are often taught to hate women for what representing temptation though the temptation that they should hate is the lack of control of themselves, their nafs(lower self or ego), and their lust.  You see this displayed perfectly in The Stoning of Soraya M directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh an Iranian American who gave the true story to the world in his film, based on the book of the same name.  Set in Iran in 1986, the life of Soraya just barely made it out of the village with a reporter that by a gracious act of fate had his car break down and set him in front of a woman that was willing and able to tell him of the atrocity that had just occurred.  Soraya was a loving mother of four and a dutiful wife to an abusive husband valued her not and cared for her none.  In the film her husband looks like a mafioso that uses his prayer beads like a watch chain, flipping them about and catching them in his hands over and over like the plot he was casting in his head to get rid of his beautifully defiant wife that would not grant a divorce so he could marry a 14 year old.  A harrowing tale that ended with an honest woman being brutally stoned by the men of the town that all would like to be in Ali, her husband’s shoes: on the verge of fucking a 14 year old virgin.  Through hearsay and rumors, Ali and the Mullah (of whom only Ali knew his un-pious past, but was willing to share with the town) coerced public opinion to such extent that Soraya’s own father cast stones upon her.  The scene itself was powerfully shot and Mozhan Marno (Soraya M.) did an incredible job portraying the strength of truth in purpose and life.  This is the strength of women that men are taught to hate.  Her beauty, pure and honest, loving and tenuous, is what men are taught to fear for the potential that they might be overcome by a “harlot”, their masculinity absconded with by the very admission of these intrinsic female traits.   But quite the opposite is true.  Strong women beget strong men, and vice versa.  There are two sexes for the very reason that you must have one to compliment and balance the other.  When one is withheld and kept at an unreachable distance, be it physical, psychological or emotional, the other will sink to depths so low that these types of atrocities occur.  If you look at Catholic priests that are sworn to celibacy yet cannot overcome their human need for closeness and engagement in the divine act of creating life, they turn to innocent young boys that are only, in their minds, there to serve God.  And then what do they leave with: the idea that God is pain, hate and anger, all stemming from their reactions and feelings towards the “Men of God.”   Next you can take American popular culture where sex is implied everywhere; on television, in music, in advertising (clothing companies like Abercrombie & Fitch use naked models to sell their clothes) yet sex itself is not spoken of as an act of love.  As an act of love it is considered a rather shameful and something to be hidden.  Love is not to be attempted, and the female orgasm is the most horrendous of all things having to do surrounding sex yet pornography is the aspiration of most young girls, posting pictures of themselves online looking for fame or money or recognition all as the rouse for what they are really seeking: love.

From Eastern to Western Fundamentalism, to the secular overbearing of the Middle Ground, women are and have been oppressed, their truth and beauty kept from men making men do horrific things to satisfy their natural needs and in their confused psyche brought on by the selfish desires of greedy, power hungry men, they are lost and ultimately not at fault.  Products of their environments, no doubt, but the environment is changing.  Worldwide.  The virginity tests in Egypt by the military are the last flailing grasps of the dying idea that women are to blame for all of society’s problems.  If the Egyptian government was brought down in 18 days, how long will it take for women to reclaim their standing of wealth in the eyes of the world?  How long will they be looked down upon even in their roles in the revolutions?  The thread runs deeper here, but now is the fortunate time when all things are boiling and bubbling to the surface and we the people are ready for change and demanding it.  All wrongdoings are being exposed and we Taqwacores call for human rights, civil dignity and peaceful opportunity for all.  Stand strong women of Egypt and all over the world, your salvation is close at hand!

21st Century Slavery

The blue jumpsuits of the brown skinned workers file to the grounds of the 2022 Fifa World Cup site in Doha, Qatar.  The dress has changed, but slave labor is still the moving force of physical production, construction and manufacturing.  In Doha, migrant workers have paid four month’s wages for visas just to be able to get to a place where they can work.  Making $300 USD a month or less, conditions are just a hair better than they were in the times of sanctioned slavery.  The egyptian slaves did not have such luck as to have human rights groups attempting to champion their safety and health.  The west african slaves did not have a monthly paycheck promised, even though there are rancid reports that many workers now are going unpaid.  What has changed is the construction of the pyramid.  What has changed is the crop to be picked.  The skyscrapers and mega-complexes so beautiful and futuristic in their end result, the hands that build them are the same dark skinned hands that have built all the world.   The pharaoh now wears a suit and calls himself a businessman and developer.  A savior of humanity from the tyranny of the monotonous face of 20th Century architecture.  Flat slabs, bland walls and not but 90° angles conquering the limits of the mind encapsulating ideas in the status quo of factory lined mass production, they have fashioned themselves a god by funding the vision of an artist holding the glory as their own.  The Caesarian complex plaguing those holding money as power are stuck in the same conundrum Julius himself found himself in:  building for the betterment of the people, depreciating the value in the lives of those spent to lay brick to mortar, now glass to steel,putting some above others crusading not for humanity as a whole, but only the few thought to be worth delivering from the confluence of uniformity.

From the dawn of agricultural societies, some 10,000 years ago, slavery has been a necessary part for one party to accomplish more than they might on their own.  The “human appetite [being] essentially insatiable” ~Pir Oveyssi, Sufism The Reality of Religion p.68, those uncontrolled in their desires will always seek more than they need subjecting others to accomplish their aims with a blatant disregard for the fundamental requirements of those they enlist.  The same requisites as they themselves hold, if they were obliged to share even a fraction of them with the workforce would be left in an undesired place to say the least.

The 21st Century offers a way beyond this archaic system of a brute labor force where the technology is as such that most of the building process could be mechanized freeing the hands of men to work at bettering the mind thus bettering their mental libation to the world at large catapulting us forward exponentially.  Leaving us only with the challenge of creating an educational system that stands for the valor and dignity of the capability of mankind.   The beauty of mankind is that her gaze faces the stars.  We are not limited to seeing only the earth beneath our feet, and we must exercise this knowledge and appreciate this gift by allowing all minds to contribute the most they might to humanity, bringing us all closer to the heavens on earth.

The Qatar Foundation is “unlocking human potential” in their motto, but will not fully succeed until the capital city of the country moves beyond slave labor into fair wages and treatment of workers beginning the process of assimilating all peoples in their quest to “reign to meet the challenges of an ever-changing world.”  We are all one together in this world and we all deserve the same regard as latent in the promise of birthright.

-Mani De Osu