Hip Hop and Islam summit Baby Muslims at Rich Mix, East London 15 October 2008

Hip Hop and Islam summit Baby Muslims at Rich Mix, East London 15 October 2008

Arts & Islam Hip Hop Debate official website

The official Arts & Islam Hip Hop Debate is launched. Articles, discussion and debate will take place on the topic of Hip Hop in Islam.

To kick off the debate we have two specially written articles from well known figures from the British Muslim hip hop scene. One from
Shaykh Michael Mumisa, and one from Rakin of Mecca2Medina.

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Friday 13 June 2008


The Link Between Islam and Hip Hop

By Shaykh Michael Mumisa
PhD Candidate & Special Livingstone Scholar, Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge.


For most people whose image and perception of Islam and Muslims is shaped by the media the terms “Arts and Islam” conjures up images of the Taliban in Afghanistan destroying precious works of art and locking up artists and other cultural agents.

And again for many people, including Muslims, the term Hip Hop is often associated with a materialist lifestyle and the ‘soft porn’ graphic music videos so common these days on a number of music channels.

Thus, the suggestion of any link between Islam and Hip Hop is bound to generate some confusion if not outright rejection and yet academics and writers in the US (Ted Swedenburg, Anaya McMurray, Suad Abdul Khabeer, and others), and me here in the UK have been writing about and exploring the “Islamic roots” of hip hop.

Islam has always been referred to as “the official religion of Hip Hop.” A large number of some of the best known Hip Hop artists today such as Everlast, Ghostface Killah, Mos Def, Lupe Fiasco, The Roots, Jurassic 5, Freeway, to mention just a few, are practising Muslims.

There has also been a rapid increase in the number of converts to Islam among young underground Hip Hop and Rap artists on the UK scene. There is no doubt that positive grassroots projects by artists and groups such as Mecca2Medina, Poetic Pilgrimage, Masikah, Mohammed Yahya, and others are contributing factors to the growing interest in Islam among UK’s young Hip Hop generation.

Unlike in the UK where Islam is still viewed by many as an “immigrant religion”, Islam is the US has always been considered “indigenous” to the religious and cultural landscape of America. There is an agreement among historians that most of the African slaves who were brought to the US and the Caribbean Islands were Muslims. According to Professor Thomas Tweed of the University of North Carolina, “American Muslim history is longer than most might think, extending back to the day that the first slave ship landed on Virginia’s coast in 1619.”

Thus, Islam has always been an integral part of African-American history and cultural expression (from Jazz to Hip-Hop). African-Americans continue to constitute a majority of the Muslim population in the US. It is not surprising that even those artists who may not appear to have any direct association with Islam employ Islamic terms or themes in their songs. For example, Foxy Brown’s Hot Spot (“MC’s wanna eat me but it’s Ramadan…”), 50 Cent’s Ghetto Quran, Jill Scott’s A Long Walk (“maybe we can talk about Surah 31:18”), to mention just these few.

Spoken word artists and poets (and today’s Rap artists) have always been important cultural agents in the history of Islam from the pre-Islamic to the classical and medieval periods. The poet functioned as the official ‘historian’ of the tribe (in the case of pre-Islamic society) or of the Muslim empire (in the case of the ‘Umayyad, ‘Abassid, and other Muslim societies).

According to the famous Afro-Arab scholar of the ‘Abbasid period al-Jahiz (776-869 CE), “every nation strives to preserve its history, culture, and stories in a number of ways. The Arabs of pre-Islamic society would employ poetry in an attempt to preserve their heritage [...]” (see his al-Hayawan, p.71-72). Another scholar Al-Marzuqi explains the status of poetry and poets in his commentary to one of the most famous works of classical Arabic poetry the Hamasa of Abu Tammam: “Such was the high status enjoyed by the poets in the pre-Islamic and Islamic eras including the early as well as final days of the two Islamic empires. God the almighty allowed it [poetry] to play the same role for Arabs that books played in other nations. It is the repository of their culture and the reservoir for their genealogies (see Sharh diwan al-hamasa, vol.1, p.3).”

Indeed it is not an exaggeration to say that Islamic theology and other related Islamic disciplines were shaped and directly influenced by poets and poetry.

The collection and compilation of poetry in Islam pre-dates some of the collections of hadith (the statements by and about the Prophet). In fact, almost all of the classical writers on the exegeses of the Qur’an made use of pre-Islamic and early Islamic poetry.

Today Hip Hop poets such as Amir Sulaiman, Muneera and Sakina of Poetic Pilgrimage, Warsan Shire, Mohammed Yahya, and others have been reviving the traditional role of poetry and poets in Islam. For many of the young British Muslims involved in hip-hop, the practice of sampling in the music can be seen as a metaphor for how to deal with the challenges they face with their own multiple identities, and how they can reconstruct a unique identity by sampling the various available cultures.

The use of Islamic themes in such sampled music from other, non-Islamic sources also suggests how Islam can and should co-exist with other cultures in a pluralist society.

4 comments:

Abu Abdillah said...

Forwarded as requested by Mutah Beale (Formerly Napoleon of the Outlawz)

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Bismaillah hir rahman nir raheem

Salam alaikum.

First of all brothers we have to be care full giving this form a music the title Islamic hip hop. Like one of the scholars has stated that islam is pure, its the religion from Allah so anything being attributed to islam has to be pure. Music is not 100 percent pure, we have positive music of course but we also have gangster music, satanic music, music to get high and drunk off of etc.

So how can we say islamic hip hop. That's like us saying islamic alcohol etc. The two words can never go together because islam is from allah and rap started from the homosexuals its a known fact that hip hop started from disco music and disco music was started by the homosexuals.

Secondly we follow the religion the way allah and his messenger legislated it for us. Imam malik said whoever introduces something in this religion that wasn't in the time of the prophet is basically saying in other words allah made a mistake sending the prophet we have a better way to spread islam we will use music. We are acting as if allah didn't know it will be 2008 and music will be wide spread but of course he does because he is the all knower the all wise.

Thirdly all four school of thoughts said music is haram, maliki,shafii,hanabi and hanafi let's not believe what the people tell us let's go and investigate on out own and we will see clearly that not only did the four imams say music is haram but also allah and his messenger. Allah says in the quran surah luqman. That the devil will use his voice to mislead the people. Ibn abbas who was a sahaba and cousing of the prophet was one of the most learned sahabas of the quran. He said in this verse allah was talking about musical instruments if we read the arabic or get someone who understands arabic we will see in that verse allah uses a word that means music in arabic.

We also have plenty of hadiths about this issue. One of the hadiths it was narrated that the prophet said it will come a time when people from my nation will try to make permissible musical instruments until the end of the hadith. Subhanallah we are living in a time where that hadith came into life. Many muslims and so called scholars are trying to make music halal with no proof from the quran and the sunnah rather they're just following their desires using excuses like music is the culture of the you and we can use it to spread islam etc. This is a bidah we have no legislation from the quran and the sunnah that says music is permissible except for the duff and if there is I challenge you guys to bring it forward and show the youth the truth if you are truthfull.

This movement is trying to misguide the youth and get them away from listening to the quran which is the word of allah and waist they time listening to the words of man. Most of the people of this opinion use the hadith when the prophet allowed aisha to watch the slave girls play music and abu bakr came and said what is this etc. The scholars say if we pay attention to the hadith we will see that when the prophet allowed aisha to watch and listen to the duff he himself turned his face way and didn't listen to it his self he only allowed aisha to watch. We know that the duff is allowed to be played by women in front of women only such events like weddings etc.

Ibn taymiyah said in the time of the sahabas if they saw a man playing the duff they would look at that individual as if he was feminine because in their time men didn't do these activities. I read a research of music from non muslims and they stated that music controls the body to the point that if people are having a conversation and people ride by playing music they will automatically start stomping their feet.

Also they said some musical sounds can make a person heart skip a beat which can lead to a heart attache, they also said some sound of music leads to depression, suicide etc just look at heavy metal music and see how many of their fans and artist their selves commits suicide.

Just recently on the news was a lady here in the states along with her doctor. They said that whenever she listen to a certain song she falls out and catches a seizure but when she listen to other songs she's ok its just one record the doctors are trying to figure this out but they said something from the music sound(instruments) is causing this. So we need to stop following our desires and remember what allah said in the quran that the shaytan made their bad deeds seem good to them. May allah save us from being like this.

Also remeber that allah says in the quran. Today we have perfected your religion and chose islam for you as a way of life. The people of knowledge says that the ayah means that our religion is perfect we can't add or delete any thing from it. May allah open our hearts and let us see the truth as the truth and falsehood as falsehood, and may allah guide us to the sunnah. Remember brothers and sisters that we all have to die and let's die being obedien to allah instead of on stage or in a car lsitening to music, may allah save us from this.

Your brother

Napoleon (mutah beale)

Aishah said...

Assalaamu Alaikum brothers Sheikh Mumisa and Mutah,

I am not going to get into a big debate. I have spent the last 15years hearing the arguments about Music being Haram, but likewise I have seen and heard plenty of evidence to the contrary.

As far as I am concerned Music is sound and sound is a naturally occurring part of Allah's creation. You can't ban it anymore than you can ban someone walking accross a bridge whose echos create a melody. If our Caribbean brothers in Trinidad can make a melody out of a steel pan when all their drums were banned and confiscated, and use it to encourage each other in the struggle against slavery, and if a bird can sing a tune which I could easily sample onto a 'Music' track, how can we deem Music to be Haram. It is one of Allah's great blessings to us and has lead the way in struggles for justice against oppression for thousands of years.

Far from misleading the youth, the Muslim hip hop scene is bringing young people back and to the Deen, reminding and encouraging them to lead good, pious lives.

We do appreciate your concern brother Mutah, and Alhamdulillah you have discharged what you feel is your duty. The responsibility is ours now and I for one am happy to take that on.

Allah (swt) is the Only True Judge and whatever our wrongs or our rights we are all in his hands, ultimately.

Incidently Muslims have been in America since long before 1600. Evidence suggests that Mandinka(African) Muslims were in America as early as the late 800s. (see 'Muslims in American History' - Jerald F.Dirks) Also Blues Music is thought to have its origins in Muslim slaves melodically lamenting through reciting Quran,(see 'Servants of Allah' - Sylviane Diouf)

May Allah guide and bless all our efforts and forgive us for any shortcomings we may have.

Wasalaamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu.

Aishahb

Ibrahim Hanif said...

the second comment states that sound is creation of GOD and so is music (and so is pork and so is alcohol)

But,
on the other side brother mutah what act prophet (SAWS) allows (eventhough not doing the act himself) is halal.

do you know that if one hadith is contradictory to the other one, it becomes disputed. So c'mon brother how can that be that Prophet (SAWS) allows daff (musical instrument) and then ban music?
as I usaually say "common sense ain't that common".


on the other side I also condemn the over acting of dear hip hoppers at live concerts (e.g. poetic pilgrims' dance and mix up of girls and boys in the crowd)
and what happens in the video of "who da cap fit" is also haram and is exploitation of female beauty (if they aren't singin' then Y do you bring them in video?)

instead of preaching Islam through hip hop (which IS a bida'a) why not do peace songs with clean lyrics

Muqeem ul Islam said...

Muslims Believe In JESUS
(Peace be upon him)

To know more please visit : http://islam100.wordpress.com

We are presenting this not to placate you out of policy or diplomacy. We are only articulating what our Creator had commanded us in the Noble Qur’an (Which is translated as follows);

“Say (O Muslim), “We believe in Allah and that which has been sent down to us and that which has been sent down to Abraham (Abraham), Isma’il (Ishmael), Ishaque (Isaac), Ya’qub (Jacob), and to Al-Asbat [the twelve sons of Ya’cub (Jacob)], and that which has been given to Musa (Moses) and ‘Iesa (Jesus), and that which has been given to the Prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and to Him we have submitted (in Islam)”. [Chapter 2: verse 136]

As Muslims we have no choice. We had said in many words:

” WE BELIEVE IN ONE CREATOR, WE BELIEVE IN ALL HIS PROPHETS, WE BELIEVE, THAT JESUS (peace be upon him) WAS ONE OF THE MIGHTIEST PROPHETS OF GOD, THAT HE WAS THE MESSIAH AS WELL AS THE WORD OF GOD, THAT HE WAS BORN MIRACULOUSLY- WITHOUT ANY MALE INTERVENTION (which many modern-day Christians do not believe today) , THAT HE GAVE LIFE TO THE DEAD BY GOD’S PERMISSION, AND THAT HE HEALED THOSE BORN BLIND AND THE LEPERS BY GOD’S PERMISSION.”

Islam respects all religions. Nevertheless, Muslims consider the view of Christendom to be a misguided one. The Noble Qur’an highlights the important aspects of Jesus (Peace Be Upon Him) mother, his birth, his mission and his ascension to heaven.
VIRGIN MARY:
Story of Jesus (Peace Be Upon Him) in the Noble Qur’an starts with the conception of his mother, Mary, when the wife of Imran, Mary’s mother, vowed to dedicate her child to the service of God in the temple. This is mentioned in the following verses (Which is translated as follows);

“(Remember) when the wife of ‘Imran said: “O my Lord! I have vowed to You what (the child that) is in my womb to be dedicated for Your services (free from all worldly work; to serve Your place of worship), so accept this, from me. Verily, You are the All-Hearer, the All-Knowing” “Then when she delivered her child [Maryam (Mary)], she said: “O my Lord! I have delivered a female child,” — and Allah knew better what she delivered, — “And the male is not like the female, and I have named her Maryam (Mary), and I seek refuge with You (Allah) for her and for her offspring from Shaitan (Satan), the outcast.” “So her Lord (Allah) accepted her with goodly acceptance, He made her grow in a good manner and put her under the care of Zakariya (Zachariya). Every time he entered Al-Mihrab (a praying place or private room) to (visit) her, he found her supplied with sustenance. He said: “O Maryam (Mary)! from where have you got this?” She said “This is from Allah” Verily, Allah provides sustenance to whom He wills, without limit” [Chapter 3: verses 35-37]