THE SIGNIFYING MUSLIM
The Monkey (Black Muslim) is in the tree
The Lion (White power) on the ground
Monkey kept on signifying (verbal insults)
But he didn’t come down from the safety of tree
The Muslim & the Lion
Got to talking one day
Monkey looked down and said, Lion,
I hear you king/master in every way
But I know somebody who could whip you and doesn’t play
Lion said who could whip me
Monkey said Farad Muhammad or Allah, all praise be to thee
Signifying refers to verbal war games involving ritual insult, parody, innuendo and other forms of loaded verbal expressions like roasting, playing the dozens.
The Black Muslims and the Nation of Islam is seen the metaphor sense of signifying against the white power structure without taking action like marching in the streets to end discrimination in public accommodations. The NOI response was to create your own public accommodations and circulate the money within the black community. The Black Muslims went on the criticize Civil Rights organizations for putting teenagers, women and children on the front lines of police brutality. Civil Right people shoot back at Prophet Muhammad having age limit of 15 or older for women on front lines as nurses. Also they say that many of the adults down south had to pay car notes, insurance, mortgage, purchase food. Students didn’t have that economic worry and could flood the jails and put the economic burden on the Lion and the White Citizens Councils who wanted to keep the status quota of Jim Crow.
I do not take Signifying lightly. On a higher level Signifying is translated in Islam as a form of Jihad (fight/Strive for justice). A manual of the hadith (sayings of Prophet Muhammad) Jihad is defined in part:
“The messenger of Allah said:
The most excellent jihad is the uttering of
Truth in the presence of an unjust ruler” (Tr-Msh. 17)
We call this Jihad telling truth to power. Which acts as a warning before any violent Jihad would come.
However, back in the 1960’s the black community was primed to understand the black Muslims as advocating self-defense and not turning the other cheek. So when the police made an illegal raid on their mosque in 1962 and killed one of their members (Ronald Stokes) outside observers were expecting some type of retaliation like “Life for life” (Koran 5:48) except for atonement against the pigs otherwise known as the LAPD.
The shuttle diplomacy of Malcolm X flew down to LA and told an angry crowd that he wanted to unite the fingers on his hands to make a fist and put the white man (Lion) in his place. That reminded me of a line in the Koran:
Two glorious things
(Martyrdom or victory)
Either that God will send
His punishment from himself,
Or by our hands” ( Koran 9:52)
The NOI leader Elijah Muhammad, sent orders from headquarters in Chicago that X was to stay high atop the tree and keep talking and allow Allah to initiate his retaliation a couple of months later by dropping down a airplane in Europe killing almost 200 white folks who had nothing to do with the police striping Muslim men naked and shooting them through the penis.
Malcolm X said he would have done something if they would have touched any of their women. However, the police indirectly touched the women by making them widows and unable to procreate through the damage goods they inflicted upon the men. Besides the Koran says “The Believers, men and women, are protectors one of another (Koran 9:71) and Farrakhan has used females to protect his life during public speeches in parody of the late former president of Libya.
When speaking to black militants back in the 1970’s Farrakhan told them:
“Any fool can die, but it takes a wise man to live. A true revolutionary is not a man who seeks to die, he’s a man who seeks to live and outmaneuver his enemy, so that the revolution will live…
Wise men don’t say what they are-they act. And their actions will tell you what they are”-7 Speeches by Louis Farrakhan pp105-106
And what do we see the actions of thee?
The Signifying Muslim high atop the tree
The Monkey (Black Muslim) is in the tree
The Lion (White power) on the ground
Monkey kept on signifying (verbal insults)
But he didn’t come down from the safety of tree
The Muslim & the Lion
Got to talking one day
Monkey looked down and said, Lion,
I hear you king/master in every way
But I know somebody who could whip you and doesn’t play
Lion said who could whip me
Monkey said Farad Muhammad or Allah, all praise be to thee
Signifying refers to verbal war games involving ritual insult, parody, innuendo and other forms of loaded verbal expressions like roasting, playing the dozens.
The Black Muslims and the Nation of Islam is seen the metaphor sense of signifying against the white power structure without taking action like marching in the streets to end discrimination in public accommodations. The NOI response was to create your own public accommodations and circulate the money within the black community. The Black Muslims went on the criticize Civil Rights organizations for putting teenagers, women and children on the front lines of police brutality. Civil Right people shoot back at Prophet Muhammad having age limit of 15 or older for women on front lines as nurses. Also they say that many of the adults down south had to pay car notes, insurance, mortgage, purchase food. Students didn’t have that economic worry and could flood the jails and put the economic burden on the Lion and the White Citizens Councils who wanted to keep the status quota of Jim Crow.
I do not take Signifying lightly. On a higher level Signifying is translated in Islam as a form of Jihad (fight/Strive for justice). A manual of the hadith (sayings of Prophet Muhammad) Jihad is defined in part:
“The messenger of Allah said:
The most excellent jihad is the uttering of
Truth in the presence of an unjust ruler” (Tr-Msh. 17)
We call this Jihad telling truth to power. Which acts as a warning before any violent Jihad would come.
However, back in the 1960’s the black community was primed to understand the black Muslims as advocating self-defense and not turning the other cheek. So when the police made an illegal raid on their mosque in 1962 and killed one of their members (Ronald Stokes) outside observers were expecting some type of retaliation like “Life for life” (Koran 5:48) except for atonement against the pigs otherwise known as the LAPD.
The shuttle diplomacy of Malcolm X flew down to LA and told an angry crowd that he wanted to unite the fingers on his hands to make a fist and put the white man (Lion) in his place. That reminded me of a line in the Koran:
Two glorious things
(Martyrdom or victory)
Either that God will send
His punishment from himself,
Or by our hands” ( Koran 9:52)
The NOI leader Elijah Muhammad, sent orders from headquarters in Chicago that X was to stay high atop the tree and keep talking and allow Allah to initiate his retaliation a couple of months later by dropping down a airplane in Europe killing almost 200 white folks who had nothing to do with the police striping Muslim men naked and shooting them through the penis.
Malcolm X said he would have done something if they would have touched any of their women. However, the police indirectly touched the women by making them widows and unable to procreate through the damage goods they inflicted upon the men. Besides the Koran says “The Believers, men and women, are protectors one of another (Koran 9:71) and Farrakhan has used females to protect his life during public speeches in parody of the late former president of Libya.
When speaking to black militants back in the 1970’s Farrakhan told them:
“Any fool can die, but it takes a wise man to live. A true revolutionary is not a man who seeks to die, he’s a man who seeks to live and outmaneuver his enemy, so that the revolution will live…
Wise men don’t say what they are-they act. And their actions will tell you what they are”-7 Speeches by Louis Farrakhan pp105-106
And what do we see the actions of thee?
The Signifying Muslim high atop the tree
