I’m slightly younger than you, but I remember Black or White being the biggest thing in my school for months with both boys and girls. Bad is probably the first song I remember though. History was also a big deal. He also did a track (off Dangerous) for the Free Willy movie, which was very popular for some reason at my school.

I agree there has been a lot of fake adoration from certain parts, but significant parts of the Black music industry still held him in high regard. The Thriller 25th Anniversary re-release saw him working with a lot of the current artists like Akon, Kanye West, will.i.am etc. Most of the plaudits and fake love are really coming from tabloid press (but is this flip-flopping from the media really a surprise, Jade Goodie was maybe the millionth example of how fast the media can change it’s tune).

I never realised that people assumed he was “divorced from Black culture”. Sure he heavily used guitar in some songs, but one of those songs was “Black or White”. “They Don’t Really Care About Us” also caused controversy from white & Jewish media. If we’re going to mention him collaborating with Slash, it’s equally valid to mention collaborations with people like Notorious BIG.

It’s probably unfair to link R. Kelly’s overly sexual lyrics to his collaborations with Jackson, because even by Jackson’s standards their songs were rather tame; You Are Not Alone, One More Chance, Cry (we can change the world). I think it was probably just a case of him trying to work with the latest popular producers in his post-Jones career, like you mentioned.

As with all your blog posts, I found it very interesting. Just felt like debating a few points I disagreed with (no point in mentioning the bits I did disagree with). Keep up the good work.

I second that.

Best people make the best of whatever they have, and boy did that guy use his talent. One would be lying if they refuse to admit to have been influenecd by him somehow or another.

“Time and tide wait for no man”

Who said that a Michael Jackson post was obligatory? WHO? Just because Sheikh Hamza and Iman Zaid did one? Arrggghhh…

furrowed brow

I’ll still read your blog though, don’t worry.

Poetry of people’s lives is hard to explain when its not understood. The point is really not just about MJ becoming Muslim, but one more about the world we live in. We don’t live in a bubble, or the 8th Century. We are impacted by the world around us, and what happens in it the good and the bad.

MJ certainly had a career that Islam doesn’t consider as ideal; to say the least but what he did off stage was something that was commendable as human being, and consider within Islam high ideals. So if people are honouring him for the countless lives across the world he has helped, through building schools, hospitals etc is that really such a bad thing? And as a black African American he managed to break every record that the very white racist Amercian’s in the early days had set for him. There is more to the MJ story than the media headlines would want us to know about him.

As Muslims, we know how bad the press portrays us; most are lies, or twisted truth. MJ suffered severely under the western media that still found it hard to swallow a “black iconic figure” had become untouchable in his art.

They did the same with Muhammad Ali, it is really more recently that they have started to count him as someone who played a significant role in modern history.

The world is a troubled place, with voices of injustices and bitterness, we need to bring back some form of harmony if we are to begin to heal the many differences we keep forcing upon each other. The thread on Deenport was correctly dealt with. Its time for Human beings to reconcile their difference and start to truly work together before the world really does ignites into an explosion of intolerance.

We as Muslims are supposed to be the hope inspirers, yet we complain profusely on our poor condition as an Ummah, yet on an individual level we are not even willing to respect someone’s death, irrespective of his faith. It should be a simple reminder of our own mortality and end journey.

Seriously if we have nothing good to add, we should simply remain silent and increase the remembrance of Allah, I give that advice to myself before anyone else.

Our Shayukh are not target practice for riff-raffs who think that because they have access to a message board they have a right to say what they like. This is an age of a lot bad adab, which needs to be curbed. May Allah protect our Shayukh always. Amin.

Allah truly knows best.

May Allah guide us to His Mercy and His Pleasure always.

Wa salaam

Rifat sheikh