[PDF] Why I Am A Five Percenter eBook

Author : Michael Muhammad Knight
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 286 pages
File Size : 24,34 MB
Release : 2011-10-13
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1101547588

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A thoughtful, insider view of The Five Percenters-a deeply complex and misunderstood community whose ideas and symbols influenced the rise of hip-hop. Misrepresented in the media as a black parallel to the Hell's Angels, portrayed as everything from a vicious street gang to quasi- Islamic revolutionaries, The Five Percenters are a movement that began as a breakaway sect from the Nation of Islam (NOI) in 1960s Harlem and went on to impact the formation of hip-hop. References to Five Percent language and ideas are found in the lyrics of wide-ranging artists, such as Nas, Rakim, the Wu-Tang Clan, and even Jay-Z. The Five Percenters are denounced by white America as racists, and orthodox Islam as heretics, for teaching that the black man is Allah. Michael Muhammad Knight ("the Hunter S. Thompson of Islamic literature" -The Guardian) has engaged this culture as both white and Muslim; and over the course of his relationship with The Five Percenters, his personal position changed from that of an outsider to an accepted participant with his own initiatory name (Azreal Wisdom). This has given him an intimate perch from which to understand and examine the controversial doctrines of this influential movement. In Why I Am a Five Percenter, Knight strips away years of sensationalism to offer a serious encounter with Five Percenter thought. Encoded within Five Percent culture is a profound critique of organized religion, from which the movement derives its name: Only Five Percent can act as "poor righteous teachers" against the evil Ten Percent, the power structure which uses religion to deceive the Eighty- Five Percent, the "deaf, dumb, and blind" masses. Questioning his own relationship to the Five Percent, Knight directly confronts the community's most difficult teachings. In Why I Am a Five Percenter, Knight not only illuminates a thought system that must appear bizarre to outsiders, but he also brilliantly dissects the very issues of"insiders" and "outsiders," territory and ownership, as they relate to religion and privilege, and to our conditioned ideas about race.

Author : Michael Muhammad Knight
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 286 pages
File Size : 30,87 MB
Release : 2011-10-13
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1101547588

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A thoughtful, insider view of The Five Percenters-a deeply complex and misunderstood community whose ideas and symbols influenced the rise of hip-hop. Misrepresented in the media as a black parallel to the Hell's Angels, portrayed as everything from a vicious street gang to quasi- Islamic revolutionaries, The Five Percenters are a movement that began as a breakaway sect from the Nation of Islam (NOI) in 1960s Harlem and went on to impact the formation of hip-hop. References to Five Percent language and ideas are found in the lyrics of wide-ranging artists, such as Nas, Rakim, the Wu-Tang Clan, and even Jay-Z. The Five Percenters are denounced by white America as racists, and orthodox Islam as heretics, for teaching that the black man is Allah. Michael Muhammad Knight ("the Hunter S. Thompson of Islamic literature" -The Guardian) has engaged this culture as both white and Muslim; and over the course of his relationship with The Five Percenters, his personal position changed from that of an outsider to an accepted participant with his own initiatory name (Azreal Wisdom). This has given him an intimate perch from which to understand and examine the controversial doctrines of this influential movement. In Why I Am a Five Percenter, Knight strips away years of sensationalism to offer a serious encounter with Five Percenter thought. Encoded within Five Percent culture is a profound critique of organized religion, from which the movement derives its name: Only Five Percent can act as "poor righteous teachers" against the evil Ten Percent, the power structure which uses religion to deceive the Eighty- Five Percent, the "deaf, dumb, and blind" masses. Questioning his own relationship to the Five Percent, Knight directly confronts the community's most difficult teachings. In Why I Am a Five Percenter, Knight not only illuminates a thought system that must appear bizarre to outsiders, but he also brilliantly dissects the very issues of"insiders" and "outsiders," territory and ownership, as they relate to religion and privilege, and to our conditioned ideas about race.

Author : Michael Muhammad Knight
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 328 pages
File Size : 36,87 MB
Release : 2013-10-01
Category : Music
ISBN : 1780744498

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From Malcom X to the Wu Tang Clan, the first in-depth account of this fascinating black power movement With a cast of characters ranging from Malcolm X to 50 Cent, Knight’s compelling work is the first detailed account of the movement inextricably linked with black empowerment, Islam, New York, and hip-hop. Whether discussing the stars of Five Percenter rap or 1980s crack empires, this fast-paced investigation uncovers the community’s icons and heritage, and examines its growing influence in urban American youth culture.

Author : Jay-Z
Publisher : Random House Group
Page : 337 pages
File Size : 27,83 MB
Release : 2010-12-07
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0679605215

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This enhanced eBook includes: • Over 30 minutes of never-before-seen video* interviews with Jay-Z discussing the back-story and inspiration for his songs • Two bonus videos*: “Rap is Poetry” and “The Evolution of My Style” • The full text of the book with illustrations and photographs *Video may not play on all readers. Check your user manual for details. Expanded edition of the acclaimed New York Times bestseller features 16 pages of new material, including 3 new songs decoded. Decoded is a book like no other: a collection of lyrics and their meanings that together tell the story of a culture, an art form, a moment in history, and one of the most provocative and successful artists of our time.

Author :
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 428 pages
File Size : 42,24 MB
Release : 2014-11-06
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9004283420

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In Esotericism in African American Religious Experience: “There is a Mystery” ..., Stephen C. Finley, Margarita Simon Guillory, and Hugh R. Page, Jr. assemble twenty groundbreaking essays that provide a rationale and parameters for Africana Esoteric Studies (AES): a new trans-disciplinary enterprise focused on the investigation of esoteric lore and practices in Africa and the African Diaspora. The goals of this new field — while akin to those of Religious Studies, Africana Studies, and Western Esoteric Studies — are focused on the impulses that give rise to Africana Esoteric Traditions (AETs) and the ways in which they can be understood as loci where issues such as race, ethnicity, and identity are engaged; and in which identity, embodiment, resistance, and meaning are negotiated.

Author : Michael Muhammad Knight
Publisher : Catapult
Page : 157 pages
File Size : 26,8 MB
Release : 2015-08-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1619026317

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The Salafi movement invests supreme Islamic authority in the precedents of the Salaf, the first three generations of Muslims, who represent a “Golden Age” from which all subsequent eras can only decline. In Why I Am a Salafi, Michael Muhammad Knight confronts the problem of origins, questioning the possibility of accessing pure Islam through its canonical texts. Why I Am a Salafi is also a confrontation of Knight’s own origins as a Muslim. Reconsidering Salafism, Knight explores the historical processes that informed Islam as he once knew it, having converted to a Salafi vision of Islam in 1994. In the decades since, he has drifted away from Salafism in favor of an alternative Islam that celebrates the freaks, misfits, and heretical innovators. What happens to Islam when everything’s up for grabs, and can an anything-goes Islam allow space for reputedly intolerant Salafism? In Why I Am a Salafi, Knight explores not only Salafism’s valorization of the origins, but takes the Salafi project further than its advocates are willing to go, and reflects upon the consequences of surrendering the origins forever.

Author : The Gods & Earths Who Were There!
Publisher : Xlibris Corporation
Page : 380 pages
File Size : 43,26 MB
Release : 2019-03-16
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1493189972

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This book is based on the true history of Allah "the Father" and His great Nation of Gods and Earths known as the Five Percenters. This is the greatest story that was never told by the Gods and the Earths during their younger years with Allah "the Father" from the early 1960s up until the time of his assassination on June 13, 1969. This was a time of struggle for the Black Man, Woman, and Child (the Universal Family). This was the time of "the Big Five", who were: Allah "the Father", who brought about the Nation of Gods and Earths known as the Five Percenters; the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, who was the last and greatest messenger of Allah, also the leader and teacher of the Black Muslims; Malcolm X of the new arrival; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the civil rights leader; and the Black Panther Party on the East and West coasts. These five groups were called the Big Five, because they had the attention of every Black Man, Woman, and Child in the wilderness of North America and other parts of our planet. There was a host of other Black groups as well. This was a time when the Five Percenter's teachings were being taught/spoken so plain and simple that even a child could understand. Black people were on the rise, and it was a time for a change—for Black Man, Woman, and Child to take their place on earth. Peace!

Author : Michael Muhammad Knight
Publisher : Catapult
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 45,80 MB
Release : 2012-03-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1593764766

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When Michael Muhammad Knight sets out to write the definitive biography of his “Anarcho-Sufi” hero and mentor, writer Peter Lamborn Wilson (aka Hakim Bey), he makes a startling discovery that changes everything. At the same time that he grows disillusioned with his idol, Knight finds that his own books have led to American Muslim youths making a countercultural idol of him, placing him on the same pedestal that he had given Wilson. In an attempt to forge his own path, Knight pledges himself to an Iranian Sufi order that Wilson had almost joined, attempts to write the Great American Queer Islamo-Futurist Novel, and even creates his own mosque in the wilderness of West Virginia. He also employs the “cut-up” writing method of Bey’s friend, the late William S. Burroughs, to the Qur’an, subjecting Islam’s holiest scripture to literary experimentation. William S. Burroughs vs. the Qur’an is the struggle of a hero-worshiper without heroes and the meeting of religious and artistic paths, the quest of a writer as spiritual seeker.

Author : Michael Muhammad Knight
Publisher : ReadHowYouWant.com
Page : 230 pages
File Size : 47,63 MB
Release : 2010-08
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1458795292

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Amazing Ayyub, an Iranian Shi'ite skinhead, and Rabeya, a burqa-wearing punk, have kidnapped Matt Damon and are holding him hostage. They demand that Hollywood depict Muslims in a positive light just one movie where we're not these two-dimensional al Qaeda stereotypes. But Damon's concerned they're playing into that same terrorist paradigm, thereby furthering the neoconservative perception of Islam. Meanwhile, Ayyub embarks on a mission to rid the taqwacore scene of a Muslim pop-punk band called Shah 79. Along the way, he makes himself invisible, escapes punk-eating zombies in a mosque off the desert highway, and runs into some psychobilly jinns. Things turn existential when Ayyub finds himself face-to-face with his creator no, not Allah, but the author. This riotous journey of enlightenment reads like a religious service for teenagers on Halloween. But it isn't all raucous fun; written into his own novel, the author finds he is at the mercy of his creation.

Author : Michael Muhammad Knight
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 259 pages
File Size : 22,16 MB
Release : 2016-05-24
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 1101983493

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The progenitor of "Muslim punk rock" and one of today's freshest spiritual voices pushes back against the common assumption that the historic faiths have no occult or magical tradition in this richly learned historical and personal journey through the practice of magic in Islam. Magic in Islam offers a look at magical and occult technologies throughout Muslim history, starting with Islam's earliest and most canonical sources. In addition to providing a highly accessible introduction to magic as it is defined, practiced, condemned, and defended within Muslim traditions, Magic in Islam challenges common assumptions about organized religion. Michael Muhammad Knight's deeply original book fills a gap within existing literature on the place of magic in Islamic traditions and opens a new window on Islam for general readers and students of religion alike. In doing so, the book counters and complicates widespread perceptions of Islam, as well as of magic as it is practiced outside of European contexts. Magic in Islam also challenges our view of "organized religions" as clearly defined systems that can be reduced to checklists of key doctrines, texts, and rules. As a result, Magic in Islam throws a monkey wrench into the conventions of the "intro to Islam" genre, threatening to flip popular notions of a religion's "center" and "margins."