Islam is at the heart of an emerging global anti-hegemonic culture that combines diasporic and local cultural elements, and blends Arab, Islamic, black and Hispanic factors to generate "a revolutionary black, Asian and Hispanic globalization, with its own dynamic counter-modernity constructed in order to fight global imperialism. (say what!)
I've been in a studious mood lately. Mostly I've been going over some basic fiqh by trying to see how much of Molana Ashraf Ali Thanvi's Bahishti Zewar I can read through before Ramadan comes in. (tick, tock) But I've also been trying to go deeper into some topics in aquidah and in the process I picked up a CD of Nuh Ha Mim Keller discussing what it means to be an Ashari where he mentions wahdat al-wujud. It just moved me to try to see if I could find a clearer exposition of the topic online and I found: Wahdat al-Wujud, Wahdat al-Shuhud and the Safest Position by Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani.
In the wake of the last post on Jeremiah Wright and in anticipation of Good Friday, I thought it would be interesting to look at some of James Cone's ideas apart from their role as ammunition in the current political "horse race".
First is A Conversation with James Cone facilitated by the Trinity Institute's Bob Scott:
and secondly there is a conversation between James Cone and Bill Moyers entitled The Cross and the Lynching Tree. In both talks Cone connects the sufferings of Jesus with the sufferings of Black people in America.
James Cone obviously identifies himself as a Christian theologian but I think it is possible to connect some of his ideas to Islam in at least two ways.
Firstly, he is willing to cite Malcolm X as one of the basic sources and inspirations of his theology (suggesting that Islam, at least as articulated by Malcolm, provides some important elements lacking in conventional Christianity).
Secondly, although Islam has a different understanding of what happened at the cross (see Good Friday) I wonder if there is a similar value in connecting Black suffering with examples of martyrdom and persecution out of the Islamic tradition. The two examples which stand out for me are the "lynching" of Hussein (ra) and the multiple Quranic allusions to the prophets being murdered unjustly (although by my recollection, only the murder of Abel is mentioned specifically).
But finally, we can also ask the broader question of whether there is another figure or moment in Islam which provides a more suitable lens with which to view the Black experience in America? Yusef who was a slave and then freed? Bilal, one of several black companions of the Prophet (saaws) ? Luqman, who is sometimes identified with the Ethiopian Aesop?
I think our understanding of unfairness in the world is mostly relative and based on our imagination which is based on our experiences. Even if the world were objectively better we would just adjust our expectations for happiness and fulfillment upwards and still suffer accordingly. If the average lifespan could be increased to 1000 years, then when someone dies at 316 folks would still say: "What a shame, she was cut down so young. She had so much of her life ahead of her". If no one ever got diseases like cancer or multiple sclerosis or Huntington's then atheists would use paper cuts to question the mercy of God.
I also think it works in reverse. If one of those bug species, where the female eats the male after sex, evolved into intelligent and sensitive creatures with technology and civilization but the same basic means of reproduction, they wouldn't necessarily be more likely to doubt God's mercy. They would probably just accept that violence was a part of their life cycle and move on. (Consider how, even for us human beings, in certain parts of the world family life is marked by violent rituals and customs, often with religious sanction).
