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Marvin X: A Critical Look at the Father
of Muslim American Literature
Edited
by El Muhajir (Marvin X)
Introduction
Bismillah-r-Rahman-r-Rahim
If it is true that I am the father of modern Islamic literature
in America, as Dr. Mohja Kahf proclaims, I would like to
delineate my lineage. As a spiritual descendant of West African
Muslims, I begin my literary biography in the Mali Empire, among
those scholar/poet/social activists of Timbuktu: Ahmed Baba,
Muhammad El-Mrili, Ahmed Ibn Said, Muhammad Al Wangari, and the
later Sufi poet/warriors of Senegal and Hausaland, Ahmedu Bamba
and Uthman dan Fodio.
In America, this literary tradition continued under the wretched
conditions of slavery with the English/Arabic narratives of Ayub
Suleimon Diallo, Ibrahima Abdulrahman Jallo, Bilali Mohammad,
Salih Bilali, Umar Ibn Said and others who told how they got
ovah, how they survived the worst terrorist regime in the
history of mankind. Their narratives are thus the origin
of Muslim literature in America, an integral part of the
beginning of American and African American literature in
general. There is some suspicion that David Walker, Frederick
Douglas, Booker T. Washington and Benjamin Baneker may have also
been descendants of Muslims.
Certainly they share the Islamic
spirit of creative resistance (any means necessary), and we must
acknowledge this spirit in the Islamic and Pan African writings
of Edward Wilmot Blyden, the greatest African intellectual of
the late 19th century. See his
Islam, Christianity and the Negro
Race, 1887. While Marcus Garvey was in London,1912, being taught
One God, One Aim, One Destiny, African For the Africans, Those
At Home and Those Abroad, by his Egyptian Muslim mentor Duse
Muhammad Ali, Noble Drew Ali,1913, established his Moorish
Science Temple in Newark, New Jersey, later Chicago, and
created his Seven Circle Koran, a synthesis of Qur'anic,
Masonic, mystical and esoteric writings.
And most importantly,
Master Fard Muhammad arrived in Detroit, 1930, to deliver his
Supreme Wisdom, mythological Sufi teachings, to the Honorable
Elijah Muhammad, later summarized in Elijah's primers of
mystical Islamic theology and black nationalism, Message To The
Black Man and The Theology of Time.
The next major work is Malcolm X's
Autobiography
, with the
assistance of Alex Haley. This neo-slave narrative bridged
ancient and modern Islamic literature in America. Let us also
include Louis Farakhan's off Broadway drama Organa and his
classic song A White Man's Heaven is The Black Man's Hell,
anthem of the Black revolution of the 60s. Amiri Baraka utilized
the Muslim myth of Yacub in his play A Black Mass, one of his
most powerful works, an examination of the cloning of the white
man, not such a fantastic idea today since the white man has
begun cloning himself.
Askia Muhammad Toure must be credited for
his Islamic writings, along with poetess Sonia Sanchez (Laila
Mannan) who served a brief tenure in the Nation of Islam. Yusef
Rahman and Yusef Iman created powerful Islamic poetry as well.
Now we may safely proceed into an examination of "Marvin's
World." Enter at your own risk.
The following articles, essays, reviews and interviews give a
good summary of opinion about the writer known as Marvin X, aka
El Muhajir, Nazzam Al Fitnah, Nazzam Al Sudan, Maalik El Muhajir,
Marvin Ellis Jackmon.
Kalamu ya Salaam called me the sledgehammer. Sister poet MC
Melody said I am the human earthquake. Suzzette Celeste said I
am a tsunami, but I am that I am, so let the critics have their
say, after all, they may know more about me than I do. What do I
know about myself? I'm just now figuring out who I am. Editing
this collection is a birthday (May 29) present to myself. I hope
you enjoy it as well.
As-Salaam-Alaikum
El Muhajir (Marvin X)
5/19/05
Preface of
father o f Muslim American Literature Introduction
Dedication
Contents The
Contributors
Bibliography of Marvin X
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update 30 July 2008 |
